Allan's Favorite Things from 2011

I wanted to share a few "things" we've found that have helped us in various ways.

Intercom

Even though Intercom is currently in beta, I've found it very useful. You can message certain users within your app using various filters.

CallRail

CallRail allows you to see where each caller came from. Perhaps customers who found you from Twitter call you more often than search engine traffic. Find out with CallRail.com

TweetPerView

TweetPerView allows you to put an overlay on your embedded videos. The overlay will hide and allow the user to play the video if they tweet a selected phrase. I'm a big believer in social currency. We're currently using this app on our LessConf session videos.

Harmony App

Harmony is the CMS we're running the LessEverything site on. It was fairly easy to setup and the support is amazing. Recently HarmonyApp was acquired by Github.

Sellfy

We're going to be using Sellfy to sell our ebook this spring. It allows you to quickly sell digital goods and even give social currency discounts.

Coffee Maker

I love caffeine in the form of coffee. Tassimo Brewbot produces a great cup of joe. FYI, it's better than the Keurig coffee maker.

LessFilms

This year we launched LessFilms. Eric Darnell is the lead on the project, and it's off to a smashing start. LessFilms can produce both live-action and animated (kinetic text) videos.

Followup.CC - Email Tool

I love to keep a clean inbox, so if there's an email that I don't need to address for a few days or weeks, I forward it to this app and they'll send it back to me when I need to take action on it.

This made me laugh

Monthly Foodzie Box

For around $200, Foodzie will mail you a box of goodies each month for a year. The box is filled with different treats (mostly handmade from around the US). Each treat comes with a story about the company and the recipe. My wife and I enjoy the experience, and I highly recommend it.

Productivity Gains

Get Concentrating is an OSX app that eliminates distractions.

The War of Art

No, I'm not talking about the Sun Tzu book. The War of Art talks about how to start and finish a project. It's an inspiring book.

Audiobooks from Audible.com

Maybe I'm late to the party, but audible is rad. I bought their subscription, so I get a book per month to listen to.

Bacon of the Month Club

Okay, so I don't yet have a subscription to Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club, but I'd like one, so if you're feeling generous, please buy it for me.