My first OS X app, WorkBurst, is now available in the App Store! To celebrate, I want to share with you my entire process, from idea to app release. I did everything without writing a single line of code. The total cost? $304.
The most important lesson here is that you don’t need to learn how to code to make apps. You should learn to code if you want to know how to code. If you want to make apps, there are other, more direct paths to take.
Here’s mine. Continue reading
Successful entrepreneurs aren’t the people who come up with brilliant, unique ideas. Instead, they’re the ones who solve people’s problems. If you’re banging your head against your desk trying to think of a good idea, you’re doing it all wrong. Talk to people, find out where they’re struggling, and ask them about their ideal solution. BAM! They’re giving you real and proven ideas.
My guest today is neither a writer nor an editor, yet he’s the founder of ProofreadingPal. Brian Kaldenberg is a wildly successful problem solver. He found a specific need (proofreading services), did keyword research to investigate the market, and built a minimum viable product. Now his company is almost four years old and rapidly growing.
We discuss the early days of ProofreadingPal and how Brian grew his business to where it is today. He also shares his Adwords tactics — invaluable information for people trying to drive online traffic.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:46 — 37.3MB) | Embed
When a game like Flappy Bird is able to hold steady at the top of Apple’s charts, it’s easy to think that creating a hit app is easy. After all, how hard could it be to create a game like that? A few pixel animations, some tap controls, and you’re done.
But, just like getting your scribbles featured in the Museum of Modern Art, creating a runaway hit application is a lot harder than it looks. Sure, learning to write the actual code can be a challenge, but these days there’s a lot more working against you than that. Continue reading
When you come from a non-technical background, listening to developers speak can sound a lot like FDJKFJ CJ KCDJK REJISJ KLSSJ K SKD.
Fortunately, my guest this week is here to help. Vinay Trivedi is the author of How to Speak Tech: The Non-Techie’s Guide to Technology Basics in Business. In this episode, we talk about specific things that non-technical people should learn in order to remain relevant in the workforce.
When you’re a novice, sometimes you don’t even know what questions you should be asking. Vinay helps lay a solid tech foundation so that you’ll be able to use where ever your learning takes you in the future. If you’re ready for developers to stop sounding like they’re speaking in tongue, it’s time to listen up.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:11 — 40.4MB) | Embed
We’ve just about reached the tipping point. The major technology companies of tomorrow won’t be focused on allowing users to do more — rather, they will allow us to do the same number of things but require much less work.
The internet gave rise to monster first-generation companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a slew of gaming and coupon businesses. These companies allowed people to do things and they could never do before, like keep in contact with all of their friends, stay up to the minute with global news, and farm little multiplayer digital worlds no matter where they were. These companies are all about doing more.
But there is a limit to how much we as humans can do in a single day. It was easy for these companies to acquire user’s attention when the Internet was still young — simply because there wasn’t that much competition. Now, we are running out of new things that people want to do digitally. Continue reading