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Where were we 10 years ago?

It’s been a decade since I gave this short talk at Ignite Minneapolis, titled “How to Take Perfect Photos Every Time.” I’m sure title was inspired by the sarcasm of the infamous 2009 Merlin Mann and John Gruber talk about blogging ,“149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog

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The Stupidest Experiment

Me since 2001: Don’t revisit your Van Halen book for a third edition. It’s an endless pit of work that never makes money and invites trolls by the dozens. Me in 2022: Let’s do this thing. As always, I’ll report back with my findings on Substack,

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Just putting it out there

Publish your weird ideas in public. You never know who’s listening. Back in May 2021, I posted this idea about a guitar design to Twitter, tagging EVH guitars: I asked EVH for a Nuno-style version of the guitar (which is a natural-finish ash or swamp ash guitar body with

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Surviving the Ad-pocalypse…Again

Experience is a brutal teacher. One lesson, that is almost never passed along, is that creators should avoid advertising as a business model for as long as possible. Sure, most of time, it seems like the easiest, fastest way to put food on the table, especially to a younger generation

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Having trouble starting your next thing?

Make a list of writers, podcasters, and YouTubers who are consistently pushing out great stuff – in the ugliest ways. Refer to it often. I love slap-dash creators! I won’t name names here, but they’re not hard to find. From the CEO who records videos on his morning walks

Having trouble starting your next thing?
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The Cures for Burnout

Hi there! I’m back from Maine and ready to publish. How has the summer treated you? The hope is that it’s sunsets, pools, and loved ones having fun all around you. The truth is often that we hope the summer just staves off the inevitable burnout for a

The Cures for Burnout
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You are more interesting than you think.

I’m guessing you’re a generalist, because most people are. But the online content-consumption machine seems to reward those who make their personalities all about one thing. I believe that’s a distracting, unhelpful remnant of the first 29-ish years of the web — minus the first five years. Why

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Why move to Ghost?

I got a lot of messages after my move to Ghost Pro from Squarespace (after being there almost 15 years). I figured it made sense to post the reasons publicly. So, here goes. Better Experience Yes, you pay a lot more. But, you’re paying for the time saved toward

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The Most Useful Book Cover Constraint

Love plain linen hardcovers. Wisdom without hype. pic.twitter.com/nlvHCAWcMe — Derek Sivers (@sivers) September 6, 2021 I can’t tell you how many hours and how much money I’ve spent on book cover design. But, for nonfiction, nothing beats the stamped, cloth cover. It somehow adds more weight

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Be everywhere. But be your best here.

The biggest trend in branding this year appears to be one of the oldest trends — signature models. From shoes to guitars, old-school brands are flooding the market with products stamped with a creator’s personal brand. A “brand” is just a “reputation.” The bigger you get as a company, the