A Ramble

I haven’t been super motivated to write here for the past two weeks. I started two posts, got sick of them, and now they’re sitting as drafts. One’s about having even less stuff and the other is about radical honesty. Maybe I’ll finish soon.

Instead I’ll just write about what’s on my mind, because otherwise who knows when I’ll post next.

First the main reason I haven’t been excited about posting – I’m making a new product. Not a pickup product, though.

Key to having any good web site (that you’re trying to make money from) is testing. You test different headlines, offers, prices, colors, fonts, graphics, etc. You’d be shocked how much of a difference these things make.

The problem is that there’s no really good testing software out there. Actually there is (SiteSpect, Offermatica, Optimost), but they’re super expensive. There’s one called KaizenTrack that I bought, but it’s terrible.

Frustrated, I decided to write my own rudimentary one. A couple weeks later and I have an alpha version that’s actually running tests. Not only that, but it’s BETTER than the other ones. I used SiteSpect extensively while at Smiley and despite costing $7000 PER MONTH, mine is BETTER. It’s easier to use, easier to set up, and has/will have much better reporting on the results.

It’s so good that I’m going to sell it. I came up with a really clever way to do some of the hard parts. I still have a lot of rough edges to smooth out and a lot of features to add, but when I’m done (within a month), it will be THE BEST multivariate testing platform and will be WAY cheaper than the big ones.

Exciting!

If any of you have thought about learning how to do web programming, you should really give it a shot. It is WAY easier than you expect. I’ve only programmed this stuff once a few months ago when I was making a quiz site (never finished it). With less than 100 hours of programming under my belt, I’m proficient with PHP, Ajax, DOM, cookies, MYSQL, mod rewrite, and a bunch of other stuff. I’m not an expert by ANY means, but I have enough knowledge that I can built pretty efficient programs. Go find some tutorials on PHP/Mysql and try it.

I helped my parents move today. Holy god do they have too much stuff. I cringed with every box I loaded. In just over a year I’ve been involved in 3 moves. What a disaster. I hate moving. I am so anti stuff now. It actually FEELS BETTER to have less stuff. It’s like a huge burden is lifted. Although I’ve really been enjoying driving it, I can’t wait to get rid of my car next.

I’ve started doing Crossfit. It’s the workout program that a lot of Olympians, UFC fighters, and martial artists do. It’s what they used to get people in the movie 300 trained. I’ve only done two classes so far, but they are INTENSE. I have never pushed myself so far and hard. During the first class I was doing pushups until I was blacking out. I first heard about it from a skinny geeky guy named David Braun. I didn’t really look into it because he was skinny. Now he’s probably all muscled up and I missed out.

Sometimes I write people’s full names in blog entires just in case they google themselves. I always like reading blog posts where people have linked to me and it’s sort of the same thing.

Anyway, if you want to do the Best Workout Plan In The Land, go to www.crossfit.com. Read all about it there because I’m too tired to write all the details. It’s great.

The forums here have been going really well. There’s enough posts that you can check many times a day and there’s always new stuff to read. The people posting are all really cool. No one argues or talks like a typical internet forum retard.

I think Ron Paul actually has a shot at winning. He won the FOX NEWS DEBATE! If there was any debate I would have bet he’d lose, it’s that.

Not to mention our government keeps screwing up WORSE and WORSE. I really believe that the US is not going to be “the place to be” for much longer. I can’t WAIT to get out of here. If Ron Paul wins, I think we’ve got a great shot at being an awesome place to live again.

I normally hate politics but I love Ron Paul. He’s not perfect, but he’s great.

Last, I’m really sorry I don’t post more. I know it’s not a huge deal or anything but lots of you check back frequently to see if I’ve updated and I know it’s disappointing when I don’t. Right now I’m working REALLY hard because I want to have a lot of passive income by the time I leave. I’ve made some huge personal breakthroughs with productivity which I will share soon.

I think I have the question of “How to I STOP procrastinating and DO what I KNOW I’m capable of?” answered. At least for me, and hopefully for some of you. That post coming soon…


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20 responses to “A Ramble”

  1. Magnus Avatar
    Magnus

    LOL you didn’t tell me KaizenTrack sucked. I’m actually liking it.

    You should attend the Blueprint superconf, four days of Tyler genius. We just had it here in London.

    The reason we procrastinate is because a part of us doesn’t want to do that thing. See? Tap tap tap.

  2. Alex Shalman Avatar
    Alex Shalman

    Hey Tynan.

    I’m excited to read your productivity post. I have you in my RSS feed, so I’ll be here when you get here!

    Also, I’m very interested in your testing platform. I know when we were e-mailing back and forth at one point you recommended KaizenTrack to me, but now you say it’s terrible. Good thing I didn’t throw down all that money to buy it then.

  3. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Hey, why are you using php vs. something like Ruby on Rails. It has a reputation for being way easier/quicker than php & co.

  4. Tynan Avatar
    Tynan

    For the record, Kaizentrack is the ONLY usable program out there right now. Those other ones are thousands of dollars a month. It’s just that it sucks compared to TynanTrack.

    If I recommended Kaizentrack to you, I will give you my program for free.

    Elai: I can’t imagine anything being easier than PHP. I took a quick look at Ruby but it seemed complicated.

    Tynan

  5. peyton Avatar
    peyton

    Good to hear from you, Tynan. Like Alex, your blog is on my rss feed, so when you post, I read! I’m looking forward to the article on motivation and productivity that you mention at the end of this entry. Plus I’d love to hear your thoughts on “passive income” and entrepreneurship.

  6. Truth Avatar
    Truth

    I’ve been following Ron Paul closely since about 2002/2003. It’s great that he was speaking out against the upcoming war with Iran way back then (www.newamericancentury.org), as was Kucinich, but Ron Paul is a racist and a homophobe. The Great Depression was brought on by all the governments of the world relying on unregulated capitalism (unlike the travesty of ‘free market’ capitalism we have now, which is actually really very protectionist… for corporations). These two short, old films highlight all the problems with Ron Paul’s ideas: http://www.archive.org/details/Despotis1946 , http://www.archive.org/details/democracy_1945

  7. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Interested to hear your take on productivity Tynan. Especially since I’ve gone from being a self-employed, semi-successful internet market for the past three years, to having to resort to putting out resumes this week because my income has dropped to the point that I have to go find a job again.

    Something is missing from my life, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. It’s incredibly frustrating though – I know that.

    Also there is another multivariate testing piece of software out there. The author is an incredible a$$ but the product itself is supposed to be first rate: http://www.MuVar.com

    But don’t expect any support, and if you ask questions of the author, expect to be rudely insulted in return.

  8. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    For Web Dev PHP is the most simple language and a LAMP setup makes things rather simple. Ruby, though not hard is a little more complex then PHP IMO. I come from an asm and C background myself, that’s where it gets hard. If you have only limited coding background I recommend you have an security audit done of your code before you decide to sell it. It will save you tons of time and money in the long run. I used to do it for a living but have moved on.

    On another note, Crossfit is the best. I train BJJ and MT and I’ve never had a better overall conditioning routine in my entire life.

  9. JMG Avatar
    JMG

    Hi, how are you? I read your book and I want to see Dara’s picture. Where is it? Thank you very much

  10. Magnus Avatar
    Magnus

    Things I don’t like about KaizenTrack are that it isn’t very flexible in the number of variables it can add to a test. I don’t really see a good reason for this. Also I don’t get why it should be necessary to upload files at all, when it has write access to the server.

  11. Donovan Avatar
    Donovan

    What about Google Web Optimizer? That has all sorts of report features and easy installing options.

    I’ve just taken up jiu jitsu, keep me posted on how your workout goes.

  12. Tynan Avatar
    Tynan

    Magnus: I found the taguchi tests to be nearly useless. I always used the PHP split test option. With mine you never need to upload files or mess with your old files. The entire test can be created on screen.

    Donovon: I haven’t used google optimiser but the fact that it uses JS alone is enough to turn me off. Javascript only tracks 90 something percent of your traffic. Mine does 100%. Also mine has features like one click to instantly implement the new best version. With Google you’d have to manually make the page that it says is best and upload it.

    I’m going all out… it WILL become the new standard for multivariate testing.

    Tynan

  13. Carl Zetterlund Avatar
    Carl Zetterlund

    lol Tynan. I love your confidence.

    I’m really curious about your productivity thing.

  14. hi Avatar
    hi

    Tynan.. Sorry Ron Paul has no chance. I like him too, but let’s be realistic. http://pollingreport.com/wh08rep.htm

  15. Will Avatar
    Will

    @hi – do you always believe what the mainstream media tells you to? There are several reasons why traditional “scientific” polls are not accurate in relation to Ron Paul

    1. They only call people with landline phones. This leaves out a huge segment of the population which only has cell phones, particularly younger voters.

    2. They only call registered republicans likely to vote. Much of Ron Paul’s support is coming from independent voters (not to mention democrats!) as well as many other people who have never voted before.

    3. Remember how they laughed at Jesse Ventura when he was running and then people came out of the woodwork to vote for him? I think the same thing will happen with Ron Paul.

    4. If you need any indication of how well Ron Paul is really doing, look at the results of Fox News’ own text message poll after the last debate. And no, those results can’t be fakes since you can only vote once per cell phone:

  16. Will Avatar
    Will

    Here are the results:

  17. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    I think this is the first time I’ve heard anyone besides my father citing Fox News as a legitimate source of information.

  18. Idatemodels Avatar
    Idatemodels

    Tynan,

    You’re kind of like a high maintenance girl, and us readers are like needy AFCs. You’ve told us you’d write us a post, and now we’re just waiting by the RSS feed, hoping it’ll show up… Well! I for one, am going to get over this “one-itis” and go out there and find myself a new blog to read…

    -Michael

    PS. Yo, I’m just messing with you. I guess I can wait a little for your post on radical honesty. Peace 😉

  19. ufc betting Avatar
    ufc betting

    Ciekawy blog, tematyka podobna do mojego, zapraszam na moja strone, pozdrawiam

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