Random.AndrewWarner.com

Interesting blog post from the author of Evernote Essentials.

His best tip:

If I had to attribute my success to one single thing, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it was the affiliate program. When other people who really believe in what you sell are given the opportunity to make some cheddar while they share your wares, everybody wins. This arrangement has brought me countless customers that would have never heard of me or my stuff without the recommendations of my affiliates.

Read the rest of what he learned here: 10,000 Sales Later: Lessons Learned from Selling Evernote Essentials | Bridging the Nerd Gap.

Check out this quote from Subvert Magazine’s great interview with Seth Godin:

As an adult, the launch of my book packaging gig was the real deal. I was choosing to go into business. I sold my first book the first day to Warner Books for $5,000. I got half. Off to the races!

And then…

And then I got 900 rejection letters in a row, turned down 30 times each by 30 top publishers. Over the course of a year.

Full stop failure.

That’s when I realized I had no real options and this was the real deal, the course of my life. Stay in or get out, and I really had no choice. I was in.

Seth’s team went on to do 120 books.

You should read the full interview here: Seth Godin – Full Stop Failure. | Subvert Magazine.

From IndieReader:

Thomas Hertog claimed that, by using a few simple tricks, he’d gotten his book onto Amazon’s bestseller list. In an article titled “Amazon Kindle’s Best Seller Ranking Is Bogus,” Nick Farrell writes: “Over five months all he [Hertog] had to do was buy and download his book to his Kindle 173 times. He has also written 42 customer reviews that he voted on a hundred and eight times to raise the ranking on Amazon’s bestseller list and recommendation lists.”

Isn’t it too easy to lose focus and do work that’s outside your mission?

In 1986, Apple published a clothing catalog.

The whole thing is ridiculous, right down the descriptions, like the one that starts out, “For people who run, or just want to look like they do….”

Tattoo artist Ryan turned rogue after discovering that Rossie had cheated on him with his best friend.

Rossie originally tried to have her ex-lover charged with assault but she had signed a consent form agreeing the tattoo design was “at the artist’s discretion”.

via Tatt-poo for cheating | The Sun |News.

According to this article in the LA Times, 61% of Americans thinks sea salt is a low-sodium version of table salt.

We’re not sure how the American people started believing that sea salt was a diet version of table salt, but we suspect their tendency to equate “natural” with “better for you” has something to do with it. To that way of thinking, anything with the word “sea” must be more natural.

Both table salt and sea salt are mostly sodium chloride, a naturally occurring chemical combination of sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl), familiar elements on the periodic table.

So, as the articles says, “salt is salt.”

This is how how the economies of US states compare to foreign countries.

I read it here: The size of the states: If they were countries | The Economist.

From Tim Ferriss in 37 Signal’s blog:

“One of the recommendations that I make to many of the startup founders I advise is to have at least three or four areas of interest outside the business,” he explains. “Don’t become a Dow Joneser, someone whose mood and self-worth goes up or down dependent on the Dow Jones, which you have no control over.

“If your entire ego and identity is vested in your startup, where there are certainly factors outside of your control, you can get into a depressive funk that affects your ability to function. So, you should also, let’s say, join a rock climbing gym. Try to improve your time in the mile. Something like that. I recommend at least one physical activity. Then even if everything goes south — you have some horrible divorce agreement with your co-founder — if you had a good week and set a personal record in the gym or on the track or wherever, that can still be a good week.”

The stinkin’ WordPress iPhone app won’t let me link properly, but I found the quote here:

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2734-tim-ferriss-on-tolerable-mediocrity-false-idols-diversifying-your-identity-and-the-advice-he-gives-startups

I saw this photo on Yahoo News today:

Did Obama dye his gray hair away? – Yahoo! News.