Welcome to Fresh van Root newsletter #62. How was this year so far for you? I was quite busy, and I am a little burned out from all the work, the pandemic, lock-downs, and more. Thankfully, I will leave the office for a longer break soon to recharge my batteries and spend more time with my family.
This is the last regular issue of this newsletter this year. You will get one more edition that features the most clicked stories of 2021 later this month. From now on we will feature one image we like per edition. Have a great December. Stay safe & fresh.
For all new subscribers, here’s what this newsletter is about: I am exploring content and apps at the intersection of marketing, productivity, content creation, and social media. My bi-weekly newsletter is a curated and concise summary of that exploration. Stay fresh. Rolf
🧠 Hand-Picked Content
Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 (Blog post, 5min)
An easy to understand explainer article on Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0. What platforms grew big in Web 2.0 times, and how will the technology of Web 3.0 (Blockchain, NFTs, Machine Learning, AI) change the game for that platforms? More
What Is High Output Marketing (Read, 17 min)
A detailed and structured guide about High Output Marketing. Good food for thought on how to increase the leverage and optimise your workflow. If you have some spare time, check out the embedded video with Andre Grove too. More
Positioning vs Strategy vs Vision (Read, 5 mins)
These are connected business concepts, which get mixed up and misunderstood often. This text graphically explains what is the difference between the three and why it matters. More
Do Not (Always) Take Things Personally (Read, 7 mins)
Other people’s emotions are not necessarily about you. So why take it personal? This article about emotional generosity contains of 10 patterns on how not to take things personally and get to the root of an issue faster. A very useful read. More
Consistency in Design (Blog post, 3min)
Sometimes being consistent in design can have the opposite effect than the one you intended for your users. More
🛠️ Tools & Apps & Services
Web Page Builder
Quarkly is a web page builder with a slick & fast user interface. You can choose from a range of templates to quickly prototype your landing page. After that, you connect your GitHub and Netlify accounts to publish your page. To get your first page up, zero money is needed. Editor Screenshot | More
Right Click Save As For – For All Images
There has been a lot of talk about the well-known Right Click > Save Asfeature in browsers (because of NFTs). Now, what if you want to save *all* pictures of a website? This tool called Image Extractor will do the job. More
Web App For Video Conversations
With ZipMessage, you can record your screen/webcam and share it with the world quickly. People then can reply to those messages with their own videos (without needing an account). This app reminds me of ThreadIt, an app by Google that is very similar. More
Audience Research on LinkedIn
I recently looked for a solution to look up LinkedIn profiles by email address. Apollo is a tool that helps you to accomplish that. You can upload a CSV file with email addresses and it tries to find the matching LinkedIn profiles. Their Chrome extension also surfaces some details (like tech stack) of a person/company that you wouldn’t otherwise see. Apollo has lots of other features and may replace LinkedIn Sales Navigator for you. Screenshot Chrome Extension | More
Twitter Sidebar – Chrome Extension
Blackmagic is a tool for Twitter power users. The developer behind it also released a browser extension that can turbocharge your Twitter life. With it, you can get stats on engagement, interactions. But also set reminders for replies, add notes on a user, and more. More
📣 Fresh van Root
Free WordPress Elementor Course
You might have heard about the page builder tool Elementor. It’s the tool the Fresh van Root website is built with, and I also created a course about how to use the page builder. I offered the course for free on Reddit, to get feedback and share it with the world before the content gets old. 20 people reached out to get the link. But for sure, all my newsletter subscribers can check out the course too. More
New Hoster For Fresh van Root
Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting company. It makes life easier if you lack the technical skills to manage a WordPress website (security, backups, and more). We recently switched to Kinsta from Amazon AWS. In this blog post, I outline the reasons for that. More
🏞️ Your Next Wallpaper?
🔗 One More Link
Visually Entertaining
Photos, illustrations, graphics, short videos. All on this Twitter account called suuuperposition. More
Play Townscaper – In Your Browser
Townscaper is an indie city builder video game. Now you can play it in your browser. Has some meditative effect. Examples | More