From: Calvin from Simplero <calvin@simplero.com>
Subject: News from Simplero: Landing pages, coupons, and Simplero in any language

Ciao, Lovely Simplerista

I'm back in New York, and it's great.

I don't know about you, but for me, I tend to get into these productivity bursts from time to time. It's hard to plan for, but sometimes it just feels like I have the wind in my back, and lots of things get done. Things that I've been wanting to do for a long time.

These past few weeks have been like that, and it's continuing at an increased pace on this side of the ocean. I've implemented a slew of new features, gotten my "talk" prepared - you know, the one that I'm going to travel around to conferences and other events to give - I've been working on onboarding and marketing for Simplero, and worked through some of my "stuff". All while spending quality time with kids, wife, and dog.

Important note about my newsletters

So you might have noticed that these newsletters tend to get pretty personal. Some people love it, some people don't care for it. That's okay. I get that. In the future, things might change, but for now, that's the way it is.

But, if all you care about is what's happening with Simplero, it's good to know there's a fixed structure to them. First, the personal stuff. You can skip this. (In fact, you can skip the whole thing, or even unsubscribe completely, that's okay too.) Next comes New Features in Simplero. Then comes the Random Links from Around the Interwebs. If all you care about is Simplero, you can just skip down to the section about Simplero. Deal? Good.

Now on to the really personal stuff :)

Rave in the morning

This morning I went to a morning rave party here in New York. I had no idea what it was. My friend Lauren asked me last night if I wanted to go. I was like "what is it?". She sent me a link. A no-alcohol party from 6-10am in a church. I wasn't sure, but set my alarm just in case. In the end, she overslept, and I ended up going alone. And it was pretty fucking cool!

House music (at least I think that's house). A guy on stage with a giant dick strapped to his neck - no, wait, it wasn't a dick, it was an electric violin. Yoga. Massages. Smoothies. It felt very Burning Man like. In fact, it brought up a bunch of the same feelings that I also experienced at Burning Man around my sexuality and my relationship with the opposite sex. High schools and parties and rejections and feelings of inadequacy. Sex and gender relationships is such a fascinating subject, not just because, well, sex, but also because it is inextricably entwined with the essence of who we are and our core creative force.

Intuition is a powerful powerful force, but oh, aren't we good at ignoring it? I felt called to go to this event. I wasn't sure why, but I knew I was. But I was a bit late. I wasn't going to arrive until 9.15, when it had started at 6 and ended at 10. I had these thoughts running around my head: "It's too late. It's silly. They're going to laugh at you, say you're a sleepyhead, what were you thinking. You better not go." But I'm getting better and better at separating the substance from the noise.

The intuition that says I should go is the substance. The mental chatter is the noise. I know to expect it now. I know what it sounds like. What it smells like. What it tasts like. I know to simply ignore it. Sometimes I'll mentally project "don't worry; I got this; we're safe; it's okay". Other times I'll just make the rational argument of "what's the worst that could happen? I go, it's too late, I go back home, but at least I got some fresh air, a bit of a walk, and now I know what it's like for next time". Often I'll do both.

But it didn't end there. At one point, there was this woman that I felt called to give a hug. All my shit immediately comes up. "She's going to think I want to have sex with her, she's going to think I'm a creep, she's going to say no, it's going to be awkward, don't, don't, don't, it's not worth it". But I went ahead and called out to her and asked if I could hug her. She smiled and said yes. We hugged. That was it.

Later, I felt called to have a 10-minute massage. At first I said no, because I found it a bit pricey and because the event was over, and I felt like I had to get on with my day. But then I noticed what my mental chatter was trying to do, and I went back and signed up. And I'm glad I did. This guy was really really good. In 10 minutes he did more than most 60-minute massages manage to do.

And after that, people were still just lingering, and there was a grand piano right there. I felt called to sit and play and sing a song. Enter mental chatter: "Oh, you can't, you're disturbing people, they're talking, nobody wants to listen to you, blah blah blah". I sat down and played and sung one of my favorite songs. It didn't hurt. People appreciated it.

Phew. Not always easy to follow that voice, but it feels good, and at least I'm getting better at not letting the chatter stop me.

New Features in Simplero

We launched a new editor for landing pages, signup forms, and sales pages, recently. It lets you see the results of what you edit, at the same time you're writing your content, live updated. Should make it so much easier to work on those pages. We hope you love it too.

We also have a new Global coupons feature, which lets you offer either a percentage-off or an amount-off across all products in your store. This is great for Holiday promotions.

You can also change what the first page of your spaces is called, so you can call it "Welcome" for example, if you prefer that. Or you can turn it off completely and just use the first regular page as the front page for your space.

Finally we upgraded the underlying code to Rails 4.2. We like to stay on the most recent version. It was quite a bit of work on our end to upgrade, but the deployment went pretty smoothly.

What's in the Pipeline for Simplero

Let me talk about what we're currently working on, to give transparency. Know that nothing is guaranteed until it's actually been released. Sometimes there are ridiculously long hold-ups with new features. So even though I've talked about them here, doesn't mean they'll ever see the light of day.

First up: Translation! That's right. We're opening up for translating the public-facing parts of Simplero into any language, and we need your help. I've got someone translating into Spanish already, but we'd love to see someone translate into Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese, and whatever else you may need for your business. I'll find a point person for each language, and then you'll get access to a web interface where you translate about 1100 keys from English to whatever language you're responsible for. Then those translations will be synced to the production code from time to time. Reply if you're interested.

I'm also working on upsells - the ability to offer 1-click offers after people make their initial purchase. The Global coupon feature actually came out of that project, since a % or $ discount is an easy way to make a special one-time offer for those funnels.

I'm also working on additional trigger options, so you can subscribe/unsubscribe to lists in Mailchimp, send email, SMS, or post to a web hook when things happen.

And I'm looking at the checkout form and how to improve that.

And there are still some emails that need to be converted.

Aside from that, I really need to get our production server moved before the end of the year.

So there should be enough to keep us busy for the rest of the month right there.

Random Links from Around the Interwebs

A couple of interviews that have touched me recently. First, Jon Stewart on Howard Stern. Like Jon, I'm a bit burned out on the Daily Show. For some reason, since watching it live a few months ago, I haven't watched it much. I've been much more excited about The Colbert Report (which only has 11 episodes left). But the interview was great. I find it really fascinating to hear about the struggles he faced finding a director for his movie, which was why he ended up directing it himself. I always had this idea that the rich and the famous lived in a different world from us, without traffic jams and with no mundane problems. I know now that that's not true, but I still need to be reminded of it ever so often.

Then there's Jonathan Fields interviewing Danielle Laporte. It's over a year old, but I only got to listen to it now. I guess I wasn't ready. It was perfect for now. Two things in particular stuck with me. 

First, about 20 minutes in, she talks about the need to be seen, and that it's actually a divine need. We all need to be seen, to be experienced. Nothing wrong with that. Honor it as a calling. Use it as a mantra: "How can I be seen today?". To be seen is to be of service, at least for those of us whose purpose in life it is to lead by example. 

Second, about 30 minutes in, she talks about wanting things. Most of us feel like we have to justify why we want things. Or we don't allow ourselves to want what we want. And we don't really want what we want, with all our hearts. Turns out desiring something, both in a sexual and a non-sexual way, is really scary. And oh so powerful. Which, of course, is why it's scary. Check it out. It's a good interview.

DHH has long been an inspiration. His post about accepting the worst is good.

This upside-down umbrella is so fucking smart. Goes to show, there's infinite amounts of innovation stil left to be done. Don't ever say there's no opportunity anymore.

I wrote about net neutrality a few weeks back. So it behooves me to also share an opposing view that I actually find somewhat compelling. It's from Mark Cuban, and I agree with it, except for the fact that I do not trust the internet access providers one tiny bit, and that the real problem here is there's no real competition in the market, so if you give them the opportunity to exploit their market power, my prediction is they will.

That was a long newsletter, but I've ben off for a couple weeks.

See you again next week.

With love,
-Calvin