Ever wonder of that website or software you are working on is worth the effort?

In the late 1980′s, I was writing songs as fast as I could. To make sure I wasn’t wasting time, I stumbled on to a test to determine if I should keep working on a particular song or not.

I would play a rough mix of a 4 track demo for a few people, then I would check my ego at the door, sit back and carefully gauge their reaction.

Reactions always fell into one of these three categories:

• “Yeah, It’s alright” This is the kiss of death. There is no point in spending another moment on it. What this comment actually means is: “It’s boring. It’s so lame that I feel nothing when I listen to it. It’s not worth me getting involved!”. Stop working on this right away, and move on. It’s difficult to abandon your work like this, but you have to find the courage to do just that and move on.
• “I LOVE THAT!” Always a nice thing to hear, but it has to be real. We all want to be loved and hear that our work is wonderful, and sometimes even strangers will tell you this. But you can learn to tell when it’s real. Look at the body language. Are they shaking? Nervous? Are they asking for more or changing the subject? Do you catch them wanting to tell other people about it? Those are all good signs. Make sure your ego is in check before accepting this reaction as real. When you do get a real “I LOVE IT!” reaction, proceed full steam ahead and enjoy the ride. Note: Loved ones telling you this should be discounted. Don’t ignore them, but remember they have an interest in you that goes beyond your work. A reaction like this from someone you don’t know is a much better gauge.
• “Good God that SUCKS!” At first, a reaction like this is, in fact, very painful to hear. But eventually you’ll realize that this is the best possible reaction you can get. Most people want to avoid confrontation, and telling you something you did sucks takes a lot of motivation – and the fact that your work made them react like that? That’s a good thing! Yeah it’s possible that it does suck, but this reaction indicates that it is also possible that someone will love it just as much as this person hates it. Keep working on it. You may be on to something.

When your work provokes an “I love it!” or an “I hate it!” reaction, you are on to something. If it doesn’t provoke a reaction (even in a rough form), it never will. Get it? It’s the fact you created the motivation to react that counts.

It’s no different for websites or software. If you get your design down or show the idea to someone, or you launch the thing and it’s met with a reaction of “Yeah, it’s alright”, you are wasting your time.

In the next few months, I will have some great examples of this that we have applied recently to software we are developing. Until then, go for the big reaction. Users should love it or hate it.

Either one is a good thing.

Amazing audio of how the first chord of “A Hard Days Night” is actually stacked.

I am not a fan of Springsteen’s music – but for anyone brave enough to risk it all in pursuit of a dream, his keynote speech of his experiences in music from SXSW is priceless.

“The elements you are putting together do not matter… There is no right way, there is no pure way, there is just doing it”

These are our picks for the top ten best websites or web applications for 2011.

Our criteria was simple: Our life is just that much better for using them.

Our thanks to all the people who put in all the hard work to get these sites out there – you’ve done a great job, and we think everyone should know about it!

Strictly for developers, Heroku knows their customers and did an amazing job of building a website (and a service) that developers love to love. Through almost every interaction we’ve had with Heroku, we learned to like them even more. Extra bonus for the website just being damned nice to look at.

We do some video here, and ZenCoder became our "must have" tool this year for working with all the various video formats and standards.

MX Tooklbox is priceless for diagnosing email problems. MXToolbox makes dealing with annoying email tasks almost as sexy as Liv Tyler, but I digress.

We started using Harvest over the last year or so. The features for doing estimates is perfect for some of our clients, cutting down the time it takes to get a proposal out by about 90%. We also use it in combination with co-op.

"My internt thing doesn’t work!" – We’ve all gotten that phone call or email right? No details, no usable information, no nothing. Support Details comes to the rescue, being the quickest way to find out what your end user is using for a computer, OS, Web Browser and software versions.

Hands down the best designed website for an individual promoting his brand. Beyond the great design, Derek Sivers offers some insanely great life lessons – our favorites being Kurt Vonnegut Explains Drama, It’s either HELL YEAH or no! or anything in his most popular list.

pusher.com makes it amazingly easy to bring real-time interactions to your applications without having to rely on the resource sucking Ajax polling practices of old. Used in combination with task queuing systems like resque, you can create some user experiences to write home about.

Extremely easy to implement, indextank.com allowed you to search through boatloads of data from your own website and display the results before you could bat an eyelash! We loved this thing, but LinkedIn bought them and gutted the talent pool. Now we have one more reason to not use LinkedIn.

This year found us lurking into the “No-SQL” movement shadows. As we began experimenting with the possibilities of a world free from the purgatory of SQL dribble and the traditional normalized hell we all know so well…we found solace in mongohq.com. MongoHQ made using MongoDB in our applications a breeze. We didn’t need to find a hosting provider willing to install MongoDB, we can use MongoHQ from anywhere! They’ve been good to us, and extremely easy to get up and running as we push forward on our pilgrimage to a better world.

And finally, we have to include YaRacer. It is, hands down, the easiest, fastest and simplest way for anyone running a motor sports event to handle their racers, events, registrations and club members, if we do say so our selves, and we do. That’s because we built it ourselves over the last year, and we are damned proud of it.

Yet another reason I think I will abstain from ever seeking the assistance of a VC firm. I think they actually made the poor people in these companies partake in this God-awful video.

Like you, I love to say “yes!”

Those of us that are fortunate enough to be busy working in technology know that opportunities often appear to be endless: We have ideas we want to try, people we want to work with, requests from customers for new features, new hardware and software that seems to appear on a daily basis, new methodologies, partner opportunities, new trends, new customers, new markets… it’s exciting for sure. Saying yes just seems like the natural thing to do, it feels good, and so most of us can’t resist.

Why is it that we can’t resist? My theory is that most of us have a secret belief that we are Superman and that our time is unlimited, so what’s “just one more” project? I first realized this when I was working with someone who couldn’t say “no” to anything. And I mean anything. It was an eye opener for sure.

I’ve found the bottom line for me to be that if I am constantly allowing my attention to be taken over by ever opportunity that floats into my existence, then focusing on the truly important things becomes very difficult. Pretty much impossible.

That’s where the secret power of “No Thank You” comes in.

First, you have to know and dwell on what is truly important. That’s something I hope to address in more detail later. For the purpose of learning the secret power of “No Thank You”, I’m going to assume you and I both know what the truly important things are.

When you have that focus, any new opportunity can be easily viewed through the prism of “how does it fit with what’s really important?” It’s amazing how fast you can make a decision based on that question alone. Sometimes the opportunity will gel perfect and you can give an enthusiastic “hell yes!” and the new tasks and responsibilities will be engaging and fun – as they should be.

After awhile the opportunities that don’t fit so well start to feel like what I imagine Kryptonite feels like to Superman. It’s almost counter intuitive. You would think that saying “No” would feel bad and reduce your strengths, when in fact, it’s the opposite. I finally got it when I read Derek Sivers post on saying no unless you can say “hell yes!”.

The key for me was creating the Successful No. A Successful No is polite. You keep your focus and your attention you don’t insult or tick off the person or persons who wanted you to say yes. Everybody wins. You do that by merely being empathetic to the requesters wants and desires. Or just don’t be a dick. Either one works.

It does not mean saying no because your feeling lazy, overwhelmed, or just don’t like someone. It should never become habit just to say “no” without consideration.

Instead, it’s about saying no when you’re not really that thrilled by the opportunity; if doesn’t make you a little nervous, excited, curious and more alive, it may not be a good fit. It means saying no when you think about the opportunity and you get that tiny little headache and start to wonder if anything will ever change. Those are BIG red flags you should pay attention to.

When you’ve done a Successful No, don’t forget to celebrate it just as much as you celebrate the things you say yes to. More often than not, a Successful No is just as valuable as the things you say “Hell Yes!” to – even if they don’t show up on the balance sheet.

A Successful No has secret powers. It’s like spinach to Popeye. It makes what you say “Hell Yes!” to that much more engaging. It keeps the Kryptonite away. It gets you a tiny bit closer to really being Superman.

I work with a lot of freelance web designers and developers and I love them all. But most of them have a problem with cash flow. One month they are seemingly swimming in money (and less likely to accept work from us), the next they are scared to death that they may have to get a “real” job to pay the bills.

I’m here to tell you, you do not have to live like that.

There are some simple and practical steps you can take to “spread the wealth” to yourself. When I was getting started, I had the exact same problem and it was the only part of being my own boss that sometimes kept me up at night. By sharing a bit of my experience, my hope is that it will help make your life a little easier.

Take a Deep Breath

Repat after me: There is plenty of work out there. Somedays it may not seem like it, but this industry needs all the good help it can get. We need you. Your clients need you. Don’t panic thinking you’ll wake up some day and there just won’t be any work out there. There is plenty of work out there.

NOTE: The last paragraph does not apply to anyone who sucks. Sorry.

Monitor Your Pipeline

Your pipeline is the jobs you are bidding on, have proposed, or expect to have a contract for soon. Nothing, I mean nothing, is more important to Cash Flow and your peace of mind than knowing that you have more work on the way.

Check that pipeline at least a few times a week, every time you get a lead and every time you send out or get an agreement back. The most common problem with pipeline monitoring is that you just get too damned busy and forget it. Don’t make that mistake. Use a white board, or a spread sheet, a piece of paper or any of the online SAAS tools to keep track of it, but do it. If you find you really don’t have the time, make the time.

If you’re just starting out, your pipeline will be thin: That means you need to spend more time on it. Whenever it’s thin, you will need to spend more time on it. That’s the bad news. The good news is that as you become more established an have a list of good clients, the more it will magically start filling itself up. I’ve started from ground zero twice, so I know this happens. If you’re doing good work – have faith.

Make Time for Sales

I don’t care how busy you are: If you are not marketing and selling yourself, you’re not only NOT moving forward, your moving backward! When you set your priorities each week and each day, make sure it includes as much time as you can devote to marketing (that includes blogging, sharing on the social sites, going to meet and greets and calling on clients).

You’ll have to make time for proposals and contracts as they come up. But do not put them off. Nothing says “I’m Not Dependable!” like not responding to a request for a proposal until prompted to do so three times.

If your just too busy to spend a few hours each week doing sales and marketing, then you are too busy period. Take a closer look at what your spending time on and make some changes.

Get Retainer Like Agreements When You Can

Sometimes it works best for your client and it can be great for you. Simply take the total project cost and spread it out into monthly payments.

Collections – Do it

It’s well known that the longer you let a bill go unpaid, the more likely it is that you will never get paid for it. Make sure the terms are upfront and accepted by you and your client, and if they are late, follow the procedure, but keep up on it.

Understand Change Orders and Use Them

If you agreed to X amount of time to perform X task, stick to it. Every once and awhile some will try and talk you into doing a lot of extra work that was never discussed. In my experience I’ve found that most customers have no intention of trying to get something for free from you. They just get excited when they see the possibilities and want more – that’s a good thing!

It’s your job to let them know when it’s out of scope – and get them a proposal ASAP and perhaps, win yourself some more work. Issue a simple change order via email or your estimation tool of choice. Let them know how much the additional work will be and how fast you can realistically get ‘er done.

You’ll find most clients are just fine with this – in fact, they appreciate the professionalism.

Spread Your Money Out

If you have anything you charge for annually (say hosting, license fees for some of your code, retainers etc) when that money comes in, stick it in the bank, and only use 1/12 of it every month. Yeah I know it can be really tempting to use that cash for something you really need now, but develop this discipline and you will find it does not take long until you have a nice, dependable, monthly income coming in.

Budget Alerts

I’m not an accounting guy, but I learned long ago to setup the accounting so that at a moments notice you know how much your monthly burn rate is. Once you know that, you know how much scratch you need in the bank account each and every month. Setup and alert at your bank, and once the amount in that account goes below what you need, you get an email alert letting you know. It doesn’t solve the problem if you have no cash coming in, but it puts the issue on the front burner so perhaps you can do something about it – like check your pipeline and check your receivables.

These things are a start… but the work. What works for you? Got some other suggestions?

“Just thought I’d let you know I got a phone report for the month of august, and we had 236 [calls] from our website number last month!

Back before we hired you we were only getting about 60…”

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to get emails like that from the people we work with! A 393% increase in calls from their new website… that is cool!

Facebook has gone out of vogue. It’s no longer cool. Nothing says “I’m hip” right now like “I don’t have a facebook account”.

There’s actually good reasons for that. I remember the very early days of AOL and the moment it struck me that AOL was nothing more than a gated community – with an annoying landlord named Steve Case who demanded I read what he says before I could get into my house. The lack of freedom and the lack of exclusivity made it one giant cesspool of new internet users. The bottom line was that even though I met many new friends via AOL, I found my life was better without it. I cancelled it, and never missed a second of it.

Facebook has become AOL with a better interface, a nicer way to share photos, and millions more people. Along comes Google+, who has the advantage of identifying and fixing the issues that make facebook a place I can’t wait to leave. The fact that Google+ got 10 million users in a very short period of time is proof that there is a huge demand out there for a facebook alternative. Could Google+ be it?

The Google+ Circles feature solves a ton of problems for me over facebook. With Circles, I can separate my friends, family and people I barely know, and I can separate them as well by political ideology. Bottom line, I can compartmentalize my life a little. We can discuss all day if that is a good idea or not, but for me it works.

The interface is a tiny bit kludgy right now on Google+, but in the weeks I’ve been on it, the Google team is making very quick changes to it, and all of them have been for the better. The photo upload, albums, sharing… is all MUCH better than facebook.

Google+ is not without some problems; I don’t like how much information they want from me, when I already think Google knows way too much about all of us now. But it’s optional, so you don’t have to give it to them. The +1 button? I’m not liking that, no pun intended.

But if Mark Zuckerburg isn’t crapping his pants right now, he should be. Google has real money and real resources to make this work. Zuckerburg’s money is all built on ridiculous valuations that are basically a house of cards. If a mass-exodus has already begun on facebook, it will take just months for him to lose millions and millions of users… and facebook will quickly become MySpace II. There is real demand out there for this, and it appears Google is responding to it faster and better than facebook.

We’ll see. In any case, one of them has to lose. With so many options on where to put your information out there it becomes overwhelming… people will seek to simplify and that means cutting out services that are not making your life better.

And remember, with everyone of the social sites out there, someone else owns the property you are parking your information house on. You’re better off having a central website that you own and can update and style anyway you choose.. then send people back to your site with a link from all the services where you are sharing information.

That’s my 2 cents for today.. more as I play with Google+ and cancel my facebook account(s).

If you are a Podomani client and would like a Google+ invite, shoot me an email.

UPDATE: Facebook gets and “F” in Customer Satisfaction. Even the airlines did better. Customers don’t like the interface changes, the increasing concerns about privacy, and the expanding use of advertising.

If you’ve never heard of it, The Vasa was a Swedish warship built from 1626 to 1628 that didn’t get very far.

King Gustavus Adolphus did not understand, nor did he care about the details of ship building. Yet every time he felt some new pressure or found some new inspiration, he would issue new orders on the size and configuration of the Vasa while it was under construction.

In one such story, the King found out his rival was building ships with two gun decks. Not to be outdone, the King declared “Me Too!” and ordered a second gun deck be added to a ship that was only designed to have one. The subordinates who were building the ship were never given the opportunity to explain why that was a bad idea (amongst the ships numerous other problems), and lacked the courage to confront a man so powerful as the King.

Just one mile into it’s maiden voyage, the Vasa encountered a wind slightly stronger than a breeze. It rolled over and sank.

The ship was mostly forgotten to history until it was located in 1956, and then raised mostly intact, ultimately becoming one of the Sweden’s biggest museums and tourist attractions. It is somewhat of a monument to an Epic Fail, but it’s truly a fascinating historical relic.

The Vasa’s story always serves to remind me several things that are always good to be reminded of:

• People really do want to do their best job, so let them.
• If you don’t understand the details, shut the hell up, or learn them.
• Ignore everybody.
• There is no point to playing the game of “Me Too!”
• Sometimes you have to argue with the King. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.
• Life is experiences, not things. Even if you are part of an Epic Fail, there is always a chance for immortality!