Arhiva: 2017

I don’t have that many friends on my personal account on Facebook (I’m not talking about the page). Still, they are about 100-ish. People that write updates, that put links, photos and the likes. But I don’t see any of those. Yes, the screenshot above is how my personal account looks like. Sometimes there’s an ad there.

In September – October last year I unfollowed everyone on Facebook.

The reason? Well, every 2-3 minutes I would take the phone, open it using TouchID and press the leftmost icon on the third row from the top. Yeah, that was Facebook’s app icon. Then I’d pull the screen down to refresh. And lose myself for the next several minutes. It didn’t matter if I was talking to anybody: my parents, my girlfriend, my sister or, even worse, my niece. I just got lost in a black hole, all of a sudden.

At some point, though, this was happening so often that nothing would’ve changed on Facebook. I still did it. It was time to stop.

So I unfollowed everyone, as I was saying. I moved the app’s icon to another folder on the phone (I still need Facebook for access to business accounts, this is why I can’t delete my account, though I thought about it for a little while). Then I changed the icon in position 1 on row 3 with the Weather app icon.

And YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT :)

For the next week or so I could tell you exactly what the weather would be for the next 10 days. Yeah, you asked me and I was the weatherman. Because my habit was still there: pick up the phone, unlock it by TouchID and then open the app in that specific position on the screen. And it took several seconds for my brain to understand that I already know what the weather will be like.

So, yes, social media plays games with our brains.

Almost a year in, I don’t open Facebook that often and, even more important, I don’t pick up my phone as often as well.

I also love that when I meet with my friends I don’t really know what they’ve been up to so we need to talk about it and I’m genuinely surprised most of the times. I still talk on messenger with many of them, so I know the most important going-ons in the lives, but I don’t see random pics, I don’t see random links.

Another side effect is that I don’t write that many personal things on Facebook anymore. I do, from time to time, but my time in the app dropped dramatically. I still get some notifications, I use Facebook Pages a lot, so I still got on Facebook. I just have a much more clutter-free life.

Were my friends unhappy with this move on my side? Some. There are some that will find out now? Yes. Will it change the way I use the app? No. I enjoy my new found freedom :)

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Photo: my Facebook account at the beginning of a Sunday morning.

And I’m happy about it, so I thought I’d write a blog post.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here it is: a reminder.

The course itself is not that difficult, especially if you’ve written code in your lifetime. I understand some things better now (like what this means in a method) and I signed up for the advanced course (which is paid). I didn’t watch any of the new videos yet since I’ve been a little bit busy these days (with the RebelBio office hours and other things, like taking my girlfriend to Wonder Woman – the first movie we see in the cinema in Cork since we moved in).

I’m quite excited about the new course since it goes deeper on the subject of JavaScript. People that went through it really enjoy the fact that it teaches you to read code somebody else wrote, which is really helpful for me. I want to hack things around to create MVPs, so I need to be able to read the code and use bits and pieces to get my ideas to life in a short time frame.

Oh, and read this article from Derek Sivers. Combined with the “Quantity over Quality” article on my blog, it really made me think about writing more on this blog. So expect more :D

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Photo: yes, that’s a badly taken photo of my monitor while watching one of the coding tutorial videos. I want to use more of my own photos (no matter the quality) instead of stock ones on this blog. And, yes, Ireland is colder than I’m used, ok? :D

As you know, I send a weekly newsletter with business articles to read, things I find interesting and similar stuff. One of the best-received emails is this one about subscription boxes. I’m putting it here exactly as it was sent because I think it can be interesting for a lot more people than the hundreds subscribed there.

Interesting (for me) is that since then (January 2017) I helped my girlfriend start a subscription box of her own (Miruna’s Illustration Box) and it’s as interesting as a business model as I thought.

Finally, before reading it, consider subscribing to Bobby’s Curated Reading List, as well :)

Hello!

I’ve always had an attraction to things based on subscription (this newsletter is one of those, after all :D ). But an entire business model based on subscriptions? Yeah, baby!

This model is called subscription boxes and I recently recognized that it’s actually a thing. I mean, I knew about Dollar Shave Club (being sold for $1 billion), BirchBox or BlackSocks, but I didn’t know there is an entire business model out there based on this. And there are, actually, about 10,000 different “boxes” sold, from Japanese candy to all kind of toys, books, food and whatever you can imagine.

The business model is this: the customers pay a monthly subscription and they receive a box with stuff. The big thing about this type of business is that you don’t need too much starting capital because, at least in the initial stages, you just buy the things in the box as needed. You don’t have things to store, you don’t have maintenance costs. Almost perfect :)

So, to the links (and read the comments in the reddit threads, as well):

1. The inner workings of a subscription box company
2. Wet Shave Club – 1 year update
3. Ask Me Anything with these guys

These guys started by buying a subscription box business that had a $4000 monthly revenue and they’ve grown it to $350,000 in the first year:

4. Candy Japan crosses $10,000 in monthly revenues

This is a guy that sends Japanese candy all over the world (he also has a book written on the subject of subscription boxes).

5. How I Built a Subscription Business that’s Made over $50k in 6 months

This guy started several businesses with this model (including going through Y Combinator and getting $1,000,000 as investment for one of those).

6. Hot Startup Trend: Boxing Up New Business
7. How an Ordinary Couple Made it Happen with Less than $1,000 and Our Insights on How You Can Too

8. Use Shopify: How to Launch a Subscription Box: Lessons from a Successful Korean Beauty Business
9. From Socks to Sex Toys: Inside America’s Subscription Box Obsession
10. How to Start a Subscription Box Service (Infographic)

There are some more interesting articles above and below, there are some subscription box directories, just so you see how many types there are:

– Hello Subscription

– Subscription Boxes
– Crate Joy

Yeap, lots of links, I know :) But really, it’s that interesting.

Bobby

P.S.: Oh, and don’t forget I might contact you next week to tell you that you won a book (one of these three I’ve written about here). And, also, if you think this email is interesting for somebody else, forward it and tell them to subscribe to this list, please :D

A lot of people pride themselves on being efficient. And this is not bad. Unless you’re efficient about the wrong things. Which means you’re not being effective.

Take this: you have a business selling a hat. And you devise the most efficient marketing plan for selling the hat. But truth is, the hat is bad. SO BAD! And you just spent 3 months creating the best and smoothest marketing plan. And you don’t sell anything. Because people can see that your hat is bad.

Effective = successful in producing a desired or intended result.

Obviously, what you need to do is make a better hat and THEN create the best marketing plan. And, I know, sometimes it’s not that clear.

Basically, what you need to do is to become effective instead of efficient. You’re being effective once you move things forward, once you put your energy in the RIGHT things. Like improving your product. Or creating a great marketing plan ONCE you have the right product.

To sum up, effectiveness is the combination of good efficiency and good prioritizing.
It’s being efficient about the right things.. Once you have these, all you need to do is put in the work.

Anytime you hear someone saying “I’m very efficient” ask “what about?”. Because you want effective people around you. Those that are efficient about the right things.

A recent example from my own history was when we tested if people wanted to play Solitaire Arena in a very efficient way – time and money wise.

The best answer you can get to any business request/proposal is, obviously, “yes!”. But what’s the second best?

For a long time, I thought that I wanted to hear at least a “maybe”. Or “let’s talk later”. Or “if you do this thing, I might be interested”. Oh, boy, how wrong I was.

If it’s not “yes”, the answer you want to hear is a fast “No!”. And don’t be afraid to ask for it, no matter who you’re talking to. Even if, in the short term, you might lose some deals, you’ll earn a lot of time in the long run.

By getting a fast no, you spend less energy on things that are unlikely to succeed. You will not fill your mind with hope even if it’s pretty clear you won’t get what you want.

If you’re raising money, look for a fast “no” if you can’t get to “yes”. If you’re looking for a deal, the same. You’ll be better for it.

I wrote my first piece of code when I was 6 or 7, I think. My best friend’s father – a Maths teacher – was approved by the Romanian Communist Party to buy a Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer. I remember that between playing games, he showed us how to put our name on the screen (and keep it there indefinitely, until the Scroll? message – or something like this – would appear):

10 PRINT “Bobby”
20 GOTO 10

Having access to a computer in communist Romania was really difficult, to say the least. I was lucky that I found out they existed while I was young enough and that there was a computer club at the “Pioneers’ House” where you could go and learn to program in BASIC (using ZX Spectrum clones that looked like WW1 phones).

Years later, I learned to program in PASCAL, then C. I also dabbled in PHP. Then I started to write content and I started companies. So I stopped programming.

But I miss it. I miss being able to think of something and being able to put together the lines of code to do it. I want to be able to create the MVPs for the ideas I have.

This is why I decided to relearn programming. Following suggestions from some good friends, I chose JavaScript. It allows frontend programming, as well as server side (through node.js) and I can use a wrapper and put the result in the mobile app stores. So, the perfect tool for an early MVP.

I found an applied course of JS and I’m starting from there. It’s nice because you basically follow on-screen examples and I’m better learning through hacking rather than going through the fundamentals first and so on. Another good way to learn is this described here by Derek Sivers. It’s not really for me, though, even if I reached the 6th or 7th chapter of the book he recommends.

What do I want to build? Nothing in particular, but keep an eye here to find out as the ideas come out :)

Oh, I don’t have that much time to dedicate to this, so progress will be slow. But at least there will be some progress, I promise you!

I was reading a Reddit thread the other day. A guy was doing an AMA about his startup and had this to say about it:

As a result of this, we are now a pretty rare breed of business as we started with no finance, no VC Funding etc etc, we did it the hard way and are building it the ground up. We use our profits to grow and have no outside help.

Most of the businesses people build are not VC funded or started with huge financing. Most of the businesses are started with some savings and a lot of time put into growing it. I looked for some information on it and I found the infographic here, that gives you a better image of how people finance their own entrepreneurial endeavors.

I didn’t want to point fingers to this guy, though. He’s not the only one that thinks that most entrepreneurial initiatives are heavily funded by outside investors (especially semi-pro and professional investors, like angels and VCs). There are lots of people that think this (at least in the circles I move and read of). And I think we’re a little deluded. And I say “we’re” because I think I’m also heavily biased toward invested startups, as well. After all, MavenHut raised several rounds and this is how it got to be successful.

What’s wrong with the invested startup delusion?

It’s bad thinking that you can’t really start anything if you don’t have outside investment. That all you need is an idea and someone to put $50k-$100k-$500k-$1M in and you’re set, you’re gonna change the world. Because you should focus on doing something and improving your product. Instead, the wanna-be entrepreneur will waste time running after potential investors, “networking” the hell out of all the events in their immediate (and not so immediate) area and, in general, being annoying. Really, have you ever had a guy that never raised a dollar in his life explain to you how to raise money from VCs? Even if you’ve done this several times in the last years? It really gets on your nerves at some point.

Being annoying aside, even more important is that you deprive yourself of a lot of experiences that will generate the great ideas that will help you get a good company off the ground.

And I talk from my own experience: I started doing “business” online in 2005 with no savings or money whatsoever. I was lucky my sister allowed me to stay in a room in her apartment for a while, but that’s all I had going for me. I looked for work on what is now Upwork, this helped me understand SEO, that helped me understand Wordpress, that started me on blogging, that led to a car blog that I wanted to monetize through a racing game that went nowhere. All this took about 6 years. By the beginning of 2012, I started a new project, a platform for 1 vs 1 single player games, with 2 guys that I worked with at the second version of the racing game I told you about. The project would later become Solitaire Arena and MavenHut. Without a doubt, the final result changed my life a lot for the better.

My entire online experience came from starting “something” online without any kind of financing. Yes, MavenHut was eventually financed by a VC and I’m happy for it. I still think starting an investor supported startup should be the natural evolution of your experience with entrepreneurship, not the start of it.

The next time you hear someone saying they just need a “small” investment and they’ll change the world, slap them across the head and send them to ask for investment from their close friends and family (the talked about FFF, the third being fools). If they can’t convince someone that knows them and should trust them, why do they lose time trying to convince someone they don’t know?

Finally, I know this won’t change, people will still dream about the VC fairy instead of just doing something with the resources they have. But if I get to convince at least 1 person to start anything, my job’s done ;)

Oh, and a plug for my Curated Reading List, where I often add articles about bootstrapped businesses. Subscribe and see for yourself.

P.S.: my sister got handsomely remunerated for the “investment” she’s put in more 10 years ago when she gave me and my cat the smallest room in her apartment. The cat didn’t care about rules, he got the entire apartment as hunting ground the next day. I didn’t :)

During the last 6 months I found myself using Reddit more and more. I’ve had a Reddit account for the last 10 years or so, since the times of Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon. The reason I didn’t really use it until recently, though, is that I thought the site was crowded with things I didn’t care to know, overrun by people that wanted cat pics (I love cats, I lose hours from time to time watching at photos, but still…).

Until, once, I remembered something a friend of mine wrote about: if you want to understand something, you have to actually use that thing in earnest. So I started reading about “How to use Reddit”. And here’s what I ended up with :)

What is Reddit?

A forum of forums, a community of communities. It’s a collection of information from every domain possible which gets upvoted and downvoted by the multiple millions of users there and, based on that, it gets presented to all the users/readers on their homepages. If you don’t personalize your homepage it becomes a collection of photos and politics. But if you DO personalize your homepage, it’s a great tool to know what your community’s interested in.

First thing: use Reddit Enhancement Suite. I don’t know everything it does, but I know that my experience is so much better than with the default Reddit look/options. It’s a browser plugin that works with most browsers. From now on, in this article, I assume you have RES installed.

Second: you can find a subreddit (a niche forum, if you want) on about any subject possible. So you have to decide what kind of information you want to have on your front page of Reddit. Because, yes, Reddit has highly personalized homepages for every user. You can, basically, subscribe to any subreddit to appear on your home page and, more important, you can remove any subreddit from your home page.

You go here, where you can see the subreddits you subscribed to. As of now, I’m subscribed to about 100 subreddits, mostly business and travel, but I am also subscribed to things like YouSHouldKnow, PS4Deals, PS4, which are things I’m interested in. I’ll put a list with all the subreddits I’m subscribed to at the end of this article.

For obvious reasons, if you are interested in business and startups, subscribe to /r/Startups and /r/Entrepreneur. Also, one of the best subreddits I’ve seen around is /r/JustStart. Targeted mostly to Amazon affiliates, it’s really good because it has ridealong case studies (people write what happens to their business almost every month and it is really, really interesting to read). Another similar one, for any type of entrepreneurial business, is /r/EntrepreneurRideAlong.

Also, if you want to find interesting subreddits, search in Reddit. Or, even better, you can search for “interesting subreddits in [niche]” on Google and you can find lists from people that are really interested in the same things.

This is how I find good content to read.

Participation in communities

Another thing you can get from Reddit, though, is participation in communities. If you are the person that likes to help others, but on your own time, not theirs, Reddit is the best place. I go, every 2-3 days, to /r/Entrepreneur and /r/Startups and look at the New section on each subreddit. That’s where you see the latest things people post. And I try to comment, helpfully, on those things (if I have something to say, obviously). The reason I go to New instead of Popular or Controversial is that, by the time I get to the posts in those sections, I really have nothing to add. Most of the comments are thoughtful, people are genuinely trying to help, so I’d just repeat what others said.

Of course, from time to time you might have something to add in form of a post. An interesting link, something you want to ask or share. As long as it’s interesting for the community, people will react well, thank you for it and share with others. Be careful, though, at self-promotion. And I don’t say this about things you share with the community (my post about quitting MavenHut was received well enough), but about links to your blog/website that don’t really add anything to the subreddit. Then you will be hit with a lot of downvotes that will kill your karma. And some sarcastic comments that you will not enjoy :)

What’s karma?

Well, it’s a kind of credits system. It shows how relevant what you say and publish is for the communities you are part of. I have about 200 karma at this moment (which is really low), but I’ve seen accounts with tens, if not hundreds of thousands of points. Truth is, each subreddit has a different chance of getting on the /all page (which is, basically, the page everyone sees by defaultif they didn’t personalize their homepage). Once you get there you will probably generate about 30-40,000 karma. So, if that’s your play, this is where you need to get to. Most of the things in the subreddits I follow don’t get to /all, so you don’t really get a lot of karma.

And talking about /all: until recently I didn’t look at the page at all. It was full of politics regarding US elections (both Trump and Clinton fans manipulated the algorithm to get their stories on the front page). Several months ago, though, Reddit gave users the opportunity to exclude subreddits from the /all page. And now it’s somewhere I go from time to time. I removed almost all politics, all conspiracy theories, almost all pics. It makes a much better page for me now :)

Finally, before showing you my subreddits, I have to tell you that it took me about 2 weeks to actually start to get what Reddit is about and about 3-4 months to actually start making an effort to contribute to the communities. I do this about 3-4 times a week, for about an hour (contributing, I mean). I also read Reddit almost every day, for about 30 minutes, to see if there’s something interesting to read available.

Here are the subreddits I’m subscribed to: (if you want the link, just put reddit.com in front of it, I’m not gonna add 100 links. I’ve bolded the reddits the I think are really, really interesting.

Keep in mind that these are things I find useful, but there are some aspirational things there, as well (like /r/LongTermTravel). A guy can dream, right? :)

A list of all the subreddits I’m subscribed to

/r/entrepreneur
/r/startups
/r/entrepreneurridealong
/r/JustStart
/r/travel
/r/books
/r/history
/r/longtext
/r/ireland
/r/lifehacks
/r/cruise
/r/webmarketing
/r/todayilearned
/r/smnallbusiness
/r/wanderlust
/r/TrueReddit
/r/emailmarketing
/r/lounge (I think you need to be buy gold for this – like a premium subscription)
/r/youshouldknow
/r/datasets
/r/digitalnomad
/r/analytics
/r/debtfree
/r/Cork
/r/depthhub
/r/solotravel
/r/printSF
/r/adventuregames
/r/lowcar
/r/ifyoulikelblank
/r/truegaming
/r/explainlikeimfive
/r/travelhacking
/r/buyitforlife
/r/mildlyinteresting
/r/irishtourism
/r/everymanshouldknow
/r/playstationplus
/r/travelprotips
/r/getdisciplined
/r/dotcom
/r/travelblogging
/r/OutOfTheLoop
/r/PS4Deals
/r/OffGridCabins
/r/growmybusiness
/r/longtermtravel
/r/TravelHacks
/r/CozyPlaces
/r/PPC_Analytics

“Because of the amount of money I’d spent, I felt incredibly invested in making sure the car was always perfect. It made me realize that most rich assholes are just too protective of their stuff.”

I’ve found this quote on the okdork blog, in this article. While Noah Kagan talks about buying a $70,000 Jaguar F-Type (which in Ireland is about €140,000), I think we feel the same about anything that we invest a lot in – either money or time.

What happens when we invest too much in something, relatively to what we can afford? We become overprotective. We stop being objective, all of a sudden. We overvalue the thing even more. It also becomes a defining part of us. And I don’t think it’s good.

It happens when you invest money in a business, as well. The business you invested the most money in gets the most of your time, even if it might not be the best business you invested in.

It happens when you invest time in relationships: it’s gonna be a lot more difficult to see the problems with your childhood friends or your long term relationship.

Food for thought: when is it too much for you? Financially and time wise?

I was going last week through my “spring cleaning” of things I use online. I’m not talking about the business tools, but the services and tools I use, for my own, personal benefit. So I thought it might be interesting for you to read an article about all the things I can vouch for since I give them the best review ever: opening my wallet every month. Who knows, maybe you get some ideas.

Dropbox

I’ve been using Dropbox for so long now, I can’t really remember how it was before it existed, when I needed to carry all my files with me, on a USB stick :) It took me about 3 years to say “ok, I’ll pay yearly, it makes more sense” :))

Evernote

I actually wrote an article about how I use Evernote about 3 years ago and the way I use it didn’t change much. I got into the annual payment last year, as well. I moved to Premium once they changed to the new pricing options.

Pocket

I don’t really use Pocket as a “dump everything I want to read” tool (that’s what Evernote is for). I use it more for “I need to have something to read on the plane, so I will add all these 40 long articles to it”. Because the only way I could have the mobile sync was to pay for it, I paid for it. Now, that I think about it, I travel a lot less and the internet is no longer that much of an issue, so I might stop using it. But, since I paid annually already, we’ll see. Oh, and the reason why I use it over Evernote for reading on mobile: the articles look a lot, lot better and less cluttered. I don’t know why, I just like it more. Later edit: I stopped paying for it, since I don’t use the offline option as much anymore.

Google Drive

I just use it for backups. Oh, and Photos, because Google Photos is the best photos app ever: have you tried searching in it? It’s worth it just for the search images function and how well it works.

Netflix

Need I say more? I pay for the bigger account, with 4 devices and UHD content, but I don’t really see much of a difference on a 4K screen between UHD and FHD, frankly. If I think about it, since I pay monthly, I wonder if I can pay yearly.

Hulu

Some TV series are available here and not on Netflix, so I pay for the account without ads. I need to check out if I can pay yearly as well. While Hulu is not available outside of US, I travel quite often there that it makes sense. And sometimes I get “creative” about it :) I stopped using Hulu. It just wasn’t worth it anymore.

Tennis TV

WTAtv.com

It’s really bad that WTA is not on it anymore since I watched as many matches of the Romanian ladies as possible, but I still keep it for the ATP games. And my father uses it, as well, and he would be really sad if he didn’t have it anymore. And I really can’t have my father sad, can I? :) I also added WTAtv when it started to stream. Unfortunately, WTA’s streaming site doesn’t have an app.

Spotify

I’ve created the account the last time I’ve been to the states. It’s perfect for several people in the family (you can add up to 5, I think, under the $15/month contract). I pay monthly, cause I wasn’t sure I want to keep, but I’ll see if it’s possible yearly. I used to pay for Google Play Music, but I didn’t like it as much. I think Spotify has a better discovery engine and I like this a lot.

Overcast

The best podcasting app there is on iOS. I really like it (the cutting of pauses alone reduces podcasts duration by 5-10%, probably), but I hate that there isn’t a macOS version. There’s not an Android version, also, but I don’t use Android, so I don’t really care about it.

Myus

I need a stable US address and this is a good solution for me. They changed a little bit since I started using it: I used to be able receive packages and letters there with the basic account. Not anymore, so I need to look a little bit at how much I really need it now. The thing is I got a replacement bank card sent there and “receiving packages” is no longer part of the plan, so I needed to reorder a new card from the bank to another address. Which was bad, as you would expect.

CyberGhost

The best VPN solution I used in the last years. I used some others before and I had some issues so I preferred to go with CyberGhost. The reasoning at that moment was that if I really had any issues I could actually meet them and talk to them since the company is based in Bucharest and I could actually go to their office. Thankfully, I didn’t need help, since the app worked really well doing what I need. Though now I’m a little sorry I didn’t visit them. Who knows, maybe I could’ve invested a little bit in them and be even happier about the acquisition they announced last month :)

I use VPNs because I travel a lot and I feel uncomfortable connecting to public wifi networks without a VPN. Yes, I get “creative” with streaming services from time to time, but not as often as you would think. I’m a lot more concerned about security.

I pay Cyberghost yearly, as well.

Kindle Unlimited (Amazon Prime)

I’ve used Kindle Unlimited sparingly from time to time. You basically get free books to read, but the books aren’t always the greatest. Still, there are some worth reading, like The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. But combined with Prime, which I started to use more in the last year or so since The Grand Tour is free with Amazon Prime and staying a lot more in the US and Ireland, I use Prime for free or cheaper deliveries as well. Again, I pay monthly, I need to look if it’s possible to pay yearly.

1password

It’s not a monthly service, It is a monthly service now, for which I pay :) I paid for it on all the platforms I use (macOS, iOS). It’s the service I use the most on a daily basis since I have weird passwords that I always forget :)

RunKeeper

I haven’t run since September, but I keep paying this monthly because ONE DAY!!!! SOME DAY!!!! I actually played a lot of tennis during the winter which caused some weird problems with my Achilles tendon and I need a treatment which will happen in May. So hopefully, by June I will start using the app again. I stopped running. I still go to the gym 3 times a week, but I replaced running with water sports (kayaking, in particular).

Soulver

This is an app I paid about $10, I think. It’s the best calculator there is. I don’t know how to really explain it, but it’s good :)

Because I don’t consider my blog a business, here are some things I use for the blog, as well:

Mailchimp

I started to use it recently for this blog’s Curated Reading List. I used to use Aweber, but I hate their design section (I don’t want to create an HTML template, I know it’s possible). I pay for it monthly, I don’t think they have a yearly program since you pay based on the number of users you have.

Aweber

I used this for the last 5-6 years and I really like it as a platform. I understand it, it seems really straight forward for me. Designing a good looking email is an effort that I don’t want to make, unfortunately. So I am gonna quit on it in the next 1-2 months (once I move some email lists).

Hostgator

I’ve used it for 8 years or so, I think. I have all the small sites I still own there (from this blog, to my cousin’s, to Miruna’s illustration site and interview site). I should look at paying yearly :) I actually moved all the sites I own to wpx hosting and I just use Hostgator for experiments I try with some sites, nothing important.

ContactOut

Whenever I need to contact someone I found on Linkedin, I prefer to do it any other way than through Linkedin’s messaging system. I prefer email and this is the tool I use to see if it’s available.

These are the service and platforms I use every month. And I support them with my credit cards :)