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Filter by: Web design tech | Blocks Edit updates | Indie Aisle updates
Filter by: Web design tech | Blocks Edit updates | Indie Aisle updates
What I worked on, blog posts, and recommendations for 2025.
Being aware of the stress put on our body and mind.
Being indie means being scrappy and taking a lean approach to doing things, including being on the web.
Not just for physical health, but mental health, and problem-solving.
What to consider putting in an email signature and how to setup in your email client.
Use the visual theme editor to turn your HTML design into a content management system and collaborate on pages via drag and drop inline editing.
You should offer an email sign up as an alternative method for your audience to receive updates from you.
Collecting different kinds of information from your visitors.
Blocks Edit for landing pages, Indie Aisle relaunch, and a bunch of content!
Short and succinct guides for creators to learn about best web practices.
The Pages theme is designed for indie creators and the indie web.
We’ve decided to design something simpler, narrowing down stats to just a few key metrics that we believe are all that are needed.
You can now use the visual editor for editing and building static pages, with the same simple interface and collaboration features.
Our second service is an extension of our form spam bot blocking, submitting your form to your email.
Getting the wrong idea of what AI can actually do because we’re trying too hard to put a human face on our devices.
Newsletters are by far the most popular type of email sent out, meant to keep your readers in the know with news and updates.
Our first service of the Indie Aisle model is now live: spam blocking for your website’s forms.
Differences between web and email dev and coding an email based on the latest email design trends.
Loyalty program notifications, product recommendations, and triggered emails for keeping customers engaged.
A single HTML page consisting of modules with placeholder content.
Providing instructions, offering support options, and asking for feedback on your customer’s overall experience.
I’ve been using the Vision Pro for a week and it is as neat as everyone says, but it’s just too uncomfortable for my particular head.
Beyond a blogroll, for all the updates you follow on the web.
Allow your visitors to get your updates by showing them the ways you’re available, all presented on a Follow page.
Sales and special offers for your customers, upselling, and abandon cart techniques.
How OpenAI uses AI hype, and fear, to cover up its harmful practices.
AI, driving an electric car, and side projects.
Before SMS and phone notifications, there were emails, and they are still the most effective way for your customers to get important, timely, notices.
Important member management options and recurring payments.
Stop linking to social media platforms to share content on your site.
Confirmation emails are some of the most widely read, and are often saved to be referenced at a later time.
If you hold an event, email is a great way to inform your audience about it and set their expectations.
If you’re launching something new, why not let your valuable subscribers in on the news?
The welcome email has the highest open and click-through rates, use it well!
How electric car technology is so much better than gas cars.
No more tables, no more VML, no more Outlook’s dirty code!
And 12 essential items you should include on your checklist.
Pandemic fatigue and the new normal.
Is a decentralized alternative the way to go? And what does that look like?
How we got to the current version and how we're looking forward.
Forget social media, push your updates out via email.
How we got our cool new Blocks Edit feature to work.
I've had my iMac that I primarily used for work for over six years now. I just recently replaced it with the new iMac that came out last year.
Gilbert Gottfried died a couple weeks ago. He was my favorite comedian. The best comedian ever, no hyperbole.
3 steps towards systemizing your email’s production.
Amazing Jonathan died recently. He was one of the funniest comedy magicians, and even one of the funniest comics without the magician part.
A framework for more clearly defining the language around your design system and templating techniques.
A lot like 2020, but we've adapted to the state of pandemic.
They have more options than you need, yet still have design and workflow limitations.
The real reason people are choosing not to get vaccinated
The most important of email metrics, maybe the only thing you need.
A new approach to email that has turned managing my email from a feeling of dread, to a feeling of joy.
A year to remember, even if you don't want to remember this one.
Accessibility in email design doesn’t have to be an arduous task.
The biggest lesson to learn from the pandemic.
Using a design system helps you better analyze your emails, streamline production, and iterate on strategy for your campaigns.
10 tips on working from home: being productive and staying sane.
How to stay on brand, hone your content craft, and make your writing memorable.
Word processors, content management systems, and visual editors.
The pre-2020 year in review. Things I did, blogged about, read, watched, and played.
Like email being around for a long-time to come, so will these fundamentals.
Developing taste and habits, and embracing side dishes
The types of visual email editors: simplified with template options, complex builders, and using your own custom template.
It’s the content of the media that’s important, not its physical form.
Working together on a team based on maximizing the most valuable aspects of your skillset while allowing other team members to maximize what they’re good at.
At least half of email opens now happen on mobile. So there’s no longer an excuse to not enhance your emails for mobile!
Too much information as an impediment for action.
This year's Phoenix Startup Week theme is #ThrivePHX, for helping entrepreneurs grow by involving the Phoenix community in their process.
Branding and design aesthetics can sound like a fuzzy proposition, but understanding their underlying principles can lead to strategic results.
Our phone is a distraction in not only wasting our time, but wasting our attention.
...I highlight the good stuff of the books I've been reading, along with comics, what movies and shows I've enjoyed, along with videogames, and even music.
Doom came out 25 years ago. Doom was one of the first video games I was really into as a kid.
A big trend... is the shift towards using a design system for email campaigns.
Stress and anxiety comes from the unknowns. Having a way to put them into perspective I think greatly helps you alleviate some of the unnecessary worry and get past the hump.
I showed up an hour and a half early to the airport, because you know, the security theater one has to go through. And this time, it sucked even more than usual.
Slide deck and notes from my talk on email marketing for web developers.
...if you want to feel better now, feel better later, and live longer, then plant-based nutrition is the way to go.
There is a resurgence in email marketing and an increased demand for marketers, copywriters, designers, and developers.
...design thinking is essentially both creative and analytical thinking working together holistically.
An email client is our canvas, HTML and CSS are our paints and the tools we use for our content act as our paintbrush.
The way the buttons and switches affected these virtual worlds, made me look at my interactions with objects of the real world differently, or, more carefully.
The Myst video game series is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
Just how marketing is a way to present ideas, sales is essentially trading those ideas with each other and goes hand in hand with marketing.
Break things down, understand each job, find specialized tools, connect them all together around your assets.
I'm going to guide you through using the power of thinking about email templates modularly, or in 'blocks'.
...some of my notes on marketing-related presentations I’ve attended this past month.
I've been spending the last six months or so writing content for my startup, Blocks Edit, fine tuning the website to clearly communicate what the product does, how it does it, and who it's for, along with regularly writing blog posts to further promote the ideas behind it. And during this period, I learned what marketing really means.
Lifting my head up from work to hear other people talk about their startup journeys while sharing mine helps me be more mindful of the ups and downs of running a business, appreciating the things that work well and making the stuff that doesn't feel less frustrating.
It ultimately allows you to put together content in a way that feels more natural and come out with the best quality email each time.
In about five years, I’ll probably end up getting another new one. What would that look like five years from now?
It may be time to revaluate your production process and spend less time in the trenches.
This year I've had my head down in work. I wrapped up my Lifehacks comic book series. And I launched Blocks Edit, my new web app startup for email marketers.
Since around 2009, during the month of October, I would decide to watch a handful of horror movies that I would preselect from a list that I kept adding to.
Blocks Edit is now live and ready for you to improve how you send out marketing campaigns.
Recently, Adobe officially announced it is discontinuing support for its Flash browser plugin by 2020.
Detective stories are about solving a mystery, which comes from our inherent need to figure out and resolve things.
Every once in a while I decide to rewatch certain movies that come to mind. Usually the ones that have stuck with me and which seem to come up because they relate to a particular mood I'm in.
A client Projects that I’ve been working on for a year and four months now has finally launched this week. Transform with Chris and Heidi, an iPhone and Android app.
It’s been five years since the last Mass Effect videogame series ended, four years including its additional content and since I played it last.
To keep track of the stuff I enjoy, I use a basic mobile web form I developed. My goal for 2017 is to release a full-blown app version (developed by a real programmer).
Last weekend I was in Las Vegas for ScoopFest, an event held for fans of the podcast, Matt & Mattingly’s Ice Cream Social.
I've been rewatching some episodes of Penn and Teller: Bullshit! on Hulu and man does that show still hold up despite running back in 2003 through 2010.
This election is showing us how the Republicans and Democrats continue to make sure they are the only choices for president as traditional media continues to decline to media on the web.
I'm an Apple user because I want technology to fade into the background of what I'm doing.
Practicing the process of understanding my motivators has helped me figure out the things I should focus my attention on.
A couple of months ago I found three burned CDs in a box somewhere labeled ‘Mix 2005’. I apparently made them over ten years ago at a time when I listened to music on a portable CD player that played MP3s.
It turns out that libertarian ideas are very much for everyone. Whether you consider yourself Democrat or Republican.
It’s always interesting to see how something is done. I’ve tried to be conscious of this and show how I make my comics.
You may have heard about the FBI demanding that Apple crack into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California shooters. Apple has refused because they feel that it is a huge security risk to their customers.
...the process for writing is very similar to the process for interface design.
At the end of every year I go through the list I keep of various things I enjoyed and pick out my favorites. Here are my faves for 2015.
This year, fans of Back to the Future celebrated the year of the future based on a date in the second film in the series.
Laziness is viewed as a negative characteristic. It's something I've always struggled with myself since whenever I felt lazy, I would feel guilty and often force myself to try and do something about it.
Avagate, Lifehacks #2, Keeper and the Soldier.
You may have heard of Soylent by now: the meal hack for geeks. If you haven't, it's basically a meal replacement drink designed to give you the nutrition your body needs while making it easy to prepare and consume.
During the early days of MP3s, WinAmp was the best Windows MP3 player around.
Teller, of Penn and Teller fame has been known to say that the things you're most passionate about you do when all the chores are done.
Growing up, I've always enjoyed making things.
One thing that makes Indie Aisle unique is the reading experience. It's designed to make it easy for your readers to start reading right away and give them options for reading the way they are most comfortable with.
One of the best ways I've found to get it out to people so far has been to take the hardback book to sell at comic book conventions.
I recently released the Hacktivity graphic novel, including the paperback edition. It represented a year and a half's work in its final form.
It can be easy getting lost in what we should change in our lives for our goals and miss what we already have for them.
When I originally came up with Indie Aisle over four years ago, it's original goal was to make it easy for independent authors to publish their books digitally online.
The animated GIF above has a timestamp of 12/26/1996, I was 12 years old at the time.
...I still find the work involved interesting.
I've blogged on an off in the past, but it was always about thoughts and ideas in the form of short sections. I seem to have missed the point of the logging part of blogging...
The Machine That Changed the World is a comprehensive documentary about the history of computing produced in 1992. Here are the highlights of the series.
Recently I did some cleaning for the new year. Most of it involved throwing away old stuff I no longer needed. Among the stuff were boxes from old video games.
Wired Magazine has all of its sections archived online since its very first issue.
Even though I only used it for a brief amount of time, I think it's what inspired me to do what I would be doing for a long time!
Demos were audio-visual presentations that ran in real-time on a computer. They started as a way to show off computer performance, but quickly became an art form, mixing graphics, music and coding mastery into unique compositions.
I've been a Wired magazine subscriber for a few years now and I figured they would be a great source for learning about how the world viewed early personal computing and the internet in its early stages.
In recent years, the buzz around hardware components has shifted to entire system upgrades. Hardware has become so much cheaper that it's just more convenient to get a new box or laptop every 2-3 years.