Being familiar with Apple’s history of version 1.0 rollouts across their product line, I resisted the first iPhone for as long as I could. Now I can say without hesitation, however, that the iPhone is a life-changing device. It’s primary significance is its ability to perform so many diverse tasks in such a clean package through both native and third party apps, and to do so in a device that can easily slide into your pocket. A number of these apps help us run a design and technology firm. Here are the most useful.
I haven’t yet gotten to the enhancements I’d like to make to the Campaign Monitor Subscribers Pepper for Mint, but I have updated it to work with Campaign Monitor’s API.
If you view the original post for this add-on to the popular stats package, you’ll see what it’s all about. You’ll also see that as of December 2008, the CM Subscribers pepper has been broken, requiring an update to the code to match Campaign Monitor’s new API.
If you’ve generated your API key and accessed your List ID since December, this version will work for you. If you installed the pepper with an API Key and List ID from before December, just visit your Campaign Monitor account, regenerate or access your new keys, plug them in via Mint Preferences, and you’ll be back in business.
We have seen a significant amount of fresh business from startups and new businesses over the last few months, with this past month being the most dramatic. Mark has already written briefly about Your marketing budget and a slow economy, which talks about maximizing your return on investment, and I want to reflect a bit on the entrepreneurial spirit. I see two major factors contributing to our spike in business from this group.
Innovation is Recession Resistant
At a public bi-weekly coffee get-together of smallish business owners and entrepreneurs here in Providence, a grad student asked if any of us had seen a significant hit in our businesses during the downed economy. One business owner turned to him and said that good ideas and innovation will always succeed. He was right on. As we see large sections of our economy crumbling, the pieces that are in high demand are good ideas, refreshing new products and tools that increase efficiencies and add value. History concurs. Wired.com’s Daniel Roth writes that out of the turmoil of the Great Depression rose numerous inventions, including the now ubiquitous nylon and television. The 1969-70 and 2001 recessions saw the advent of the pocket calculator and the ipod, respectively. Innovation never sleeps.
Layoffs and Dead-End Jobs are Breeding Grounds for Entrepreneurship
Sometimes it takes a little shove from the nest for some entrepreneurs to focus back on the things that they were once passionate about, or to implement an idea that has been percolating for some time. There’s also nothing like layoffs of your colleagues and friends in your company to knock creativity and optimism out of you. I went through this with the first .com bubble back in 2001. Try motivating a creative team when they come to work every day packed to be fired and thinking every conversation with your boss is going to end with a pink slip. It just doesn’t inspire confidence. Recessions and layoffs release many undervalued employees to do what they have always wanted to do. They go back to their basement or garage and think up the next best thing.
Slim Kiwi is not in the mortgage business or in investments, and we’re not unionized American car makers. We partner with our clients to bring their idea, their product and their small business to market. From what we have seen, it seems that now is a great time for small businesses to get ahead of their competition. If you know us, you know that we just love working with people starting up businesses. We love their enthusiasm, their pragmatism, their creative thinking, the speed at which they move, and their collaborative spirit. These are the tools for success in a challenging economy.
We paid a visit to the exhibition hall at Greenbuild 2008 in Boston not only to check out the products and thinking on display, but also to make some connections in the architecture community. While there, we captured a few of our thoughts on architect web sites, portfolio design and site management tools on video to share.
1.2.2009 - Please note: In December 2008, CampaignMonitor upgraded their API. While this Pepper will continue to work for any API keys generated before then, it is incompatible with newly generated API keys until it is upgraded. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please watch this space for updates.
1.27.2009 Update: I've finally updated this to work with the new API. See the announcement.
If you use Campaign Monitor to send email blasts and use Mint for site stats, we just built a little plugin you might like.
The Campaign Monitor Subscribers Pepper will display new subscribers to your Campaign Monitor lists for the past 24 hours. All you need to do is plug in your Campaign Monitor List ID and API Key.
Your List ID can be found on your Subscriber List main page.
Your API Key can be found on your Account Settings main page.
Peppers are plugins for Shaun Inman's fantastic and popular Mint stats package. We use Mint on many of our own sites and highly recommend it as an affordable, easy to implement tool for monitoring your site's pulse and traffic.
The current posted version can be found on the CM Subscribers Peppermill page. We have ideas in queue for a future release, so be sure to check back often for new features.
