December 22, 2014

Don’t Spam Email Receipts

This is post 29 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

I'm not the biggest fan of shopping but sometimes I do open up my wallet when I find a WooCommerce store. I know they're most likely some small mom and pop shop that setup their own e-commerce store and I like to give something back to them.

Just after Thanksgiving I was doing a bit of shopping and stumbled onto one of those stores and bought a small gift for a friend. The weird thing was that I never received any sort of email receipt. I thought maybe something was broken and I wasn't going to get my order. 🙁

It wasn't until days later when I took a look through my spam folder that I found those receipts. It was unusual that they were in there. I've ordered from plenty of WooCommerce stores before and never had any of these problems. So what was doing it?

December 21, 2014

My Personal Value of Remote Work

This is post 28 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

When I tell people what I do and that I work from home they usually say, “that must be nice”. But they don't really get it. It's not nice. It's not cool. It's not easy. It's amazing. Let me tell you the things I can do from home and then how much (in thousands of dollars) working from my own home on my own time means to me.

December 19, 2014

Maximize Your Creative Energy

This is post 26 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

This post is the 26th post in the Blogging For Hippo series but this isn't the 26th post I've written. It's actually the 30th. And that's because over the past month I've had a few days where I had a lot of creative energy and when it hits I take advantage of it. I can't tell you what works for other people but I can tell you that all my best work gets done in spurts and you need to maximize those spurts to get your real work done.

December 18, 2014

Let Projects Die

This is post 25 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

I've been thinking a lot about business this week. I've actually published three posts on it already and I could probably write a dozen more. This week I wrote about how to grow your business, minding your own business when you work for someone else, and the numbers of my own business. I've been trying to think of the best decision I made this year and it took me a while to come up with the answer. I had to look at some numbers, some products, and dig through my email. And once I saw that email I knew I found it.

December 17, 2014

Think Different to 10x Your Business

This is post 24 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

I love this time of year. I love perusing the blogosphere as everyone starts publishing posts about how their year went. I love the introspection. We're so go-go-go that we never take the time to reflect. That makes this time of year that much more important. I stumbled onto Curtis McHales' post about 10x-ing your business and I wanted to unpack the message a little more.

December 16, 2014

Mind Your Own Business

This is post 23 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

I've really been getting into building a business and personal finance. One of the many books I read this year was Rich Dad Poor Dad. The author, Robert Kiyosaki, talks a lot about investing, real estate, and understanding the difference between an asset and a liability. There are so many good points in the book but perhaps one of the most important is mind your own business.

December 15, 2014

2014 Business Review

This is post 22 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

One of the most important things you can do is to look back from time to time and review where you are. Where did you start this year? Where did you end? Are you on the right path?

I did this last year after just getting into doing commercial plugin development and a lot has changed and my end of the year numbers (below) are very different.

December 14, 2014

Tell Users What You’re Doing

This is post 21 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

Imagine coming home from a long day of work. You open the front door, set down your keys, take off your shoes, and then see a present on the kitchen table. If you have a partner living with you it's probably a nice gesture of some sort. But what if you're the only person with keys to your home? Then it gets creepy right?

That's what I experienced today. Not with my home but with my site.

December 13, 2014

Improve Your Writing with the Hemingway Editor

This is post 20 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

Today I'm doing something a bit different. I'm writing this post in actual WordPress editor. Why is that different? Because earlier this month I switched to the Hemingway editor to help me improve my writing. I write in Hemingway, Hemingway lists suggestions, I make a few changes and then copy it into WordPress. It's an extra step but the suggestions are so useful and I've already learned how I tend to write and the types of things I have to watch out for.

December 11, 2014

Wishlists Done Right

This is post 18 of 31 in the series “Blogging for Hippo”

A month long blogging contest leading up to the release of WooCommerce 2.3 Handsome Hippo.

Earlier this summer I was planning my 16 hour drive to Colorado and knew that podcasts wouldn't be enough. I needed some longer stories to keep me engaged for hours at a time. I heard about Audible many times over the last couple years but it took me until this summer to finally signup.

One of the things that's surprised me is how effective their marketing is. They maximize every piece of data they have. I've been especially impressed with their wishlists. I started adding books to my wishlist so that when I finished a book I could reference my list to buy the next book. What I didn't realize was that they would use that data to get me to buy the book today.

Patrick's Programming Blog

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Category Archives: Discussion

Don’t Spam Email Receipts

My Personal Value of Remote Work

Maximize Your Creative Energy

Let Projects Die

Think Different to 10x Your Business

Mind Your Own Business

2014 Business Review

Tell Users What You’re Doing

Improve Your Writing with the Hemingway Editor

Wishlists Done Right