Vincent's Reviews: August 2017

Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Crowdfunding Gets a Degree: ScholarMatch Uses Stripe, Airtable, Gmail, Gravity Forms, & More to Send Students to College

Applying for college intimidates many a high school junior and senior. Getting an acceptance letter is only part of the complicated, daunting process. There's securing financial aid, getting into a dorm, registering for classes, buying books.

But not everyone makes it that far. Maybe college is a financial burden. Maybe no one in the family has ever gone before and the application process holds them back. What if you get to college and don't have a support structure in place?

Author Dave Eggers wanted to tackle these problems head on: In 2010, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that helps low-income and first-generation students apply to college and also creates a support system to increase the odds they graduate. ScholarMatch started small, helping 39 students by crowdfunding scholarships. In 2016, they assisted 698 students—97% of whom are on track to graduate.

ScholarMatch's 2016 statistics.

These scholarships are donation-based and are awarded to eligible ScholarMatch students who have participated in their college access programming. Donors are matched with an individual student and receive update letters twice a year so that they can learn more about who their money helps.

Send New Stripe Charges into Airtable as New Rows

Powering their crowdfunded scholarships is a Zap—a bridge between two apps—connecting the online payment processor Stripe and Airtable, the spreadsheet and database organizer. When new charges come through Stripe, app automation tool Zapier adds the charges to a specific Airtable database.

"Zaps play a vital function at ScholarMatch. They help automate a ton of tasks between our various Airtable bases and Gmail."Courtney Lee, Evaluation, Operations, and Research Associate

This Zap sets off another: Once donations in Stripe are added to rows in Airtable, an email is automatically sent from Gmail to the donor, thanking them for their contribution. This combination enables ScholarMatch to track donations and email donors no matter the time of day or the frequency of contributions.

Track Feedback with Gravity Forms

Expanding their services, ScholarMatch analyzed 1,400 colleges and universities across the United States to launch ScholarMatcher. ScholarMatcher's aim is related to ScholarMatch's but dives a bit deeper; focusing on students from households making less than $50,000 a year, ScholarMatch rates approximately 300 colleges for "most supportive environments for students."

To improve this tool, ScholarMatch collects feedback from the students using it with Gravity Forms, a WordPress-based form. When a student submits their feedback, detailing what they liked, features to add, etc., ScholarMatch pushes that information into a different board on Airtable.

"[Our] Zaps relay information from surveys of the students we serve to our program team, helping our team be on top of student concerns," Courtney Lee, Evaluation, Operations, and Research Associate at ScholarMatch, explains.

With each college application submitted, each dollar raised, and each student supported through graduation, ScholarMatch works to efficiently end the cycle of poverty through higher education.

All images courtesy of ScholarMatch.

source https://zapier.com/blog/track-stripe-payments-airtable/

Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Finding Flow: 5 Steps to Get in the Zone and Be More Productive

Ever had a moment—perhaps while writing, designing, or working through a complex problem—where you're so focused on a task that the world around you disappears and you're perfectly focused? It feels like you're on autopilot. Nothing can go wrong. Work comes naturally with no friction. No effort.

Athletes call it "being in the zone." Artists call it "the muse." Psychologists today have given it an official name: Flow.

First proposed by positive psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi in the 70s, flow is the mental state where we are "so immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity that we lose sense of space and time." Or as Steven Kotler describes it in Rise of the Superman, flow is where "every action, each decision, leads effortlessly, fluidly, seamlessly to the next. It’s high-speed problem solving; it’s being swept away by the river of ultimate performance."

Sounds like a dream. But like any reverie, the moment you recognize being in flow, its blissful sensation begins to dissolve and the world, complete with its distractions, comes rushing back into our heads.

We all could do with a little more flow. So what if we could dissect just what pushes us into this state and then just jump into flow easily?

What’s Really Happening When we Enter Flow?

Doing something challenging that you're skilled at? You've got a good chance of entering flow.

You're working, and then you're in flow—as if you just just accidentally fall into it. But as Csíkszentmihályi explains in a 2014 paper, there are actually specific criteria that must be met for you to enter flow:

You must have clear goals and progress
Your task must provide clear and immediate feedback
You must be at the balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and your own perceived skills

In other words, you must know what you’re doing, be able to see whether or not you’re doing it well, and be pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. This last point is especially important for finding flow—it's mastery combined with challenge that brings flow.

Csíkszentmihályi first developed the idea of flow from speaking with professionals across a variety of fields, from artists and athletes to scientists and academics. Each described entering a state of flow at a moment where their skills were being put to the test, but not enough so to feel overwhelmed by the task at hand.

Too much challenge and we get overcome with anxiety. Not enough, and our brain loses focus and looks for other stimuli.

Csíkszentmihályi best describes flow as the moves of a professional skier taking on a difficult run:

"Imagine that you are skiing down a slope and your full attention is focused on the movements of your body, the position of the skis, the air whistling past your face, and the snow-shrouded trees running by. There is no room in your awareness for conflicts or contradictions; you know that a distracting thought or emotion might get you buried face down in the snow. The run is so perfect that you want it to last forever."

The 5 Elements of Flow—And How to Bring Them Into Your Work

You might not be a professional skier, but the idea of being so perfectly focused and in control of a task that you complete it without effort is appealing to all of us (and that's another term for flow—entrepreneur Tim Ferriss calls flow "Effortless output"). Yet while clear goals, feedback, and challenge are the building blocks of flow, there’s more to it than just those three factors.

To help us find flow in more of our lives, we need to bring all five pieces of the flow puzzle together: Self control. Environment. Skills. Task. Reward.

Self Control: Focus on Willpower to Trigger a State of Flow

"In the flow-like state, we exercise control over the contents of our consciousness rather than allowing ourselves to be passively determined by external forces."- Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi

We all love shortcuts—and the idea of getting into a flow state sounds especially appealing as it means you’re almost working without working. But it still takes willpower, discipline, and self-control to get there.

In fact, self control is a key element of Flow.

"In the flow-like state, we exercise control over the contents of our consciousness rather than allowing ourselves to be passively determined by external forces," explained Csíkszentmihályi in his original book Flow.

To help us get into a state of flow more often, we need to be able to master this level of control of our consciousness. Which isn’t an easy task in today’s distracted world.

Psychology professor Nathan DeWall, who leveraged the science of self-control to go from sedentary academic to 100+ mile marathon runner, explains that we can all develop our willpower and self-control by focusing on 3 steps.

Find your standards. Your standards are the reference points you’ll use to determine whether any action you’re going to take is desireable towards getting into a state of flow—so, whether you’re going to check your email (again) or hit your 1000 word count for the day.
Set up means for monitoring. Flow depends on immediate feedback and so does self control. Whatever your task, find ways to constantly monitor your performance and adjust as you continue.
Be wary of your energy. Our mental strength waxes and wanes throughout the day (which is why it’s so important to define your own work schedule around your energy). Understanding when you have more energy will help you stay in control and give you a better chance of entering a state of flow.

Environment: Find a Novel and Exciting Space

Routine is the cornerstone of productivity. But you’ll rarely enter a state of flow just by doing the same thing you did yesterday.

Instead, find an environment that challenges you on a daily basis and pushes you outside of your comfort zone (a bit). Think of the surfer who’s forced to adapt to every individual wave they catch. According to Kotler in Rise of the Superman, it’s this novelty, unpredictability, and complexity that will set off your state of flow.

Unfortunately, few of us take our work with us to the beach. Instead, Kotler says there are a few environmental qualities we can look for to help trigger flow:

High consequences: Find environments and activities where your actions have real consequences to you. While an athlete might pick a harder course or opponent, for you, this could be as simple as speaking up during a meeting if you’re shy or publishing a post you’ve written on Medium if you’re afraid of comments and public feedback.
Rich environment: Find environments that require more of your attention and for you to react quickly to changes. Kotler gives the example of the Pixar offices, which feature a central hub for places frequented by all different employees regardless of their department.

"Steve Jobs artificially created the environmental conditions that massively upped the amount of novelty, unpredictability, and complexity in the environment because people across departments and disciplines started running into each other and having conversations," said Kotler. "As a result, flow, innovation, and creativity went up.”

Skills: Practice Deliberately to Bring on More Flow

In an interview with Wired Magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

Because flow is dependent on finding that sweet spot between your skills and the challenge at hand, it's no surprise that we need to have a certain level of mastery before we reach flow state. This doesn’t mean you won’t hit flow until you’re an absolute master at your skill—but it does mean you need to know how much skill you have and how to use it to the utmost.

One way to achieve this is to engage in what psychology professor Anders Ericsson calls Deliberate practice. Rather than just going through the motions of an activity, deliberate practice is where every session has a specific goal that can be measured, analyzed, and optimized for to increase your overall performance. As Ericsson explains "living in a cave does not make you a geologist."

In this way, deliberate practice includes many of the same criteria as flow.

Clear goals and outcomes
Immediate feedback
Pushing your skills to their limit

One way to look at deliberate practice is as pieces of a puzzle. Take a larger task and break it down into smaller, individual pieces, focusing intently on each one until you master it. As you progress through practice sessions, you’re effectively layering your mastery until the task is finished or the skill is mastered.

Not only that, but by breaking down your focus in this way, you are placing yourself squarely in a zone where your skills match the challenge at hand—the same mental spot where flow occurs.

Task: Connect To a Clear Purpose

"If a subject excites us, if it stirs our deepest curiosity, or if we have to learn because the stakes are high, we pay much more attention."- Robert Greene

While so far we’ve looked at ways that can help push you into a state of flow, one absolute requirement is a clear sense of purpose behind what you’re doing.

You need to feel an authentic and real connection to your work to devote yourself to fulfilling it in the moment. Which makes sense: No one’s going to put in hours and hours of deliberate practice, straining themselves physically and mentally, if they don’t actually care about what they’re doing.

One way to make sure that your task is tied to your purpose is to create a personal mission statement. Purpose comes from tying your values and skills to how you can make a real change in the world. Author William Arruda suggests starting by asking a few simple questions.

*What am I passionate about? *
*What are my values? *
What makes me great?

Once you feel good about your answers, you can put them into this template: The value you create + who you’re creating it for + the expected outcome.

For example, a writer might say I use my skill in crafting stories to help entrepreneurs and creatives create authentic and meaningful connections with their audience. If they’re not telling stories or being authentic in their work, they know they’re missing the passion mark.

Not only will having a personal mission statement help insure that you’re on the right path towards flow, but it will help push you beyond your comfort zone, as author Robert Greene explains when talking about mastery:

"We all know how much more deeply we learn when we are motivated. If a subject excites us, if it stirs our deepest curiosity, or if we have to learn because the stakes are high, we pay much more attention."

Reward: Don’t Look for Extrinsic Motivation

"Experience the activity as intrinsically rewarding."- Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi

Just like flow comes more often when we follow our passions, we also need to be doing work we are intrinsically motivated to complete. This means work and tasks that we feel real meaning behind and enjoy doing for the sake of doing.

Money. Awards. Praise. These can be byproducts of the flow work you do, but they cannot be the core motivation behind what you’re doing.

In fact, one of the 6 core factors a Csíkszentmihályi-style flow experience is to "experience… the activity as intrinsically rewarding." He even goes further, saying the feeling should be "such that often the end goal is just an excuse for the process."

Just like in meditation or mindfulness training, there’s no winning at flow. So before you start getting upset at yourself for not entering a flow state during your work, ask why you’re really doing it. Is it because you feel good about the work itself? Or because you feel good about what completing the work will do for you?

Not only will you find yourself slipping into flow more often, but you’ll naturally shift towards doing work that is truly meaningful to you. Effortless output and feeling good about the work you do? That’s what I call a win-win.

Find Your Own Flow

"Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments of our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times," Csíkszentmihályi wrote in Flow.

"The best moments occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile … in the long run optimal experiences add up to a sense of mastery — or perhaps better, a sense of participation in determining the content of life — that comes as close to what is usually meant by happiness as anything else we can conceivably imagine."

The irony of the effortlessness of flow is that it comes when we are working our hardest. We slip past the anxiety and stress and get to a place of serene ability. Flow is the stuff not only of great work, but of a meaningful life.

Continue Your Pursuit of Flow:

Learn more from the experts about how to make your workflow flow and get more done with less stress with these resources:

Watch Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi’s 2004 TED Talk Flow, The Secret to Happiness, then read his Flow book
Read Zen master Takuan Soho's book The Unfettered Mind on the practice of the mind without mind.
Flow takes focused work with just a bit of spark that makes you creative—something you can learn about more in our look at two other books: Deep Work vs. Messy: How to Balance Productivity and Creativity.

Header photo by Julie Macey via Unsplash; Flow diagram via Wikimedia Commons.

source https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-find-flow/

Monday, 28 August 2017

MeUndies Brings Comfortable Underwear & Efficient Workflows Together with Asana & Pivotal Tracker

Comfort is everything at MeUndies. Well, comfort, killer designs, charity, and efficient workflows. The first three are obvious if you explore the MeUndies website, where you can learn about the company's sustainably sourced, naturally soft materials for super-comfortable underwear, their dedication to creating fair paying and empowering jobs, and browse new designs rolled out each season.

But under the hood, Vicky Tatar, Director of Project Management at MeUndies, built and maintains a simple but robust system using Asana and Pivotal Tracker to manage projects between different teams.

Break time at one of MeUndies' factories in Turkey.

"Improving our efficiency is constantly on our minds. I was documenting our workflows, trying to figure out how to integrate our tools and reduce the amount of times someone has to communicate something," Vicky says.

Like most companies, different teams at MeUndies have created their own workflows and picked out their favorite tools. The Customer Experience team prefers project management tool Asana, where a lot of MeUndies' projects are managed and executed. The Dev team uses another project manager: Pivotal Tracker. "We were initiating requests and communicating about them in Asana, but then creating the same stories in Pivotal and updating both systems," Vicky explains.

"I was impressed with how easy [Zapier] was to set-up. It was just incredibly simple."Vicky Tatar, Director of Project Management, MeUndies

This wasn't a sustainable workflow, especially not for a lean team working to make the most of their time. "I was thinking there had to be a way to solve for this, so I started looking up integration tools and came across [app automation tool] Zapier," Vicky says.

With Zapier, Vicky was able to build a few Zaps—a bridge between two apps—connecting Asana and Pivotal Tracker, immediately cutting the work the MeUndies Dev and Customer Experience teams were doing in half.

"We have a project in Asana for Customer Experience requests, which includes bug reports and features, and we built a template task for new requests," Vicky explains. "The Customer Experience rep duplicates that template, fills in all the necessary details, and we use the tagging feature to then import it into Pivotal."

To follow up, Vicky has the Zap include a link back to the Asana task so the Dev team can comment on the project status.

"We set up Zapier to look for the tag and then that story appears in Pivotal at the top of the [Dev team's] inbox, so they see it immediately."Vicky Tatar, Director of Project Management, MeUndies

"[Zapier helps] consolidate all of those requests—and it also saves the Dev team time from answering one-off messages about a request. Everybody sees [the status] and they can communicate it back to the Customer Experience team quickly via that link, so the [Customer Experience team] doesn't need to go searching for that request to get an update."

Vicky also built out the reverse, sending Pivotal's Stories to Asana as new tasks so the Dev team can share their projects with the Customer Experience team, too. This transparency means a quick check- in Asana by the Customer Experience team could stop an issue from being unnecessarily escalated.

If you have different teams working in different project management tools, try MeUndies' Zaps that bring tasks from Asana to Pivotal Tracker and from Pivotal Tracker to Asana:

You could also try using Asana's Boards features to organize distinct projects that all fall under the same umbrella—like MeUndies' Customer Experience team's inquiries to the Dev team.

MeUndies for days and days and days...and days and days and days!

Vicky hasn't stopped experimenting with new Zaps, either. "I can quickly play around and within probably an hour, get a new Zap set up and document the process. With a lean team, if you have an hour, you need to get it done because you never know when you'll have an hour again."

All images courtesy of MeUndies.

source https://zapier.com/blog/manage-projects-asana-pivotal/

Sunday, 27 August 2017

BOSTITCH N66C-1: The best Coil Siding Nailer? Read this Review!

The BOSTITCH N66C-1 1-¼-inch to 2-½-inch Coil Siding Nailer is a powerful nailer that can be used to drive wire weld and plastic inserted coil nails. It is a reliable performer that will handle the vast majority of jobs you can throw at it and that has a number of good design features that make it an all-round great choice for many home improvement fans and other professionals

But of course, just because it’s a good nailer, that doesn’t mean it’s the right nailer for you! We put this tool through its paces for a few weeks to see how it held up on repeated use and so that we could deliver you an in-depth review!

Product Description: Never Fail to Nail

To look at, this already feels like a relatively premium nail gun with a nice glossy orange finish and a very ergonomic handle that feels good in the hand. This is an important point, seeing as you can find yourself using these for long periods and it’s crucial that they don’t get uncomfortable to use after a while. It uses an aluminium housing, so it is a little more high-end than a plastic tool but it’s also not going to weigh a ton. This is again important if you plan on using the tool for a long time.

To use, the nail gun is powerful and precise. It will work with a large number of siding materials, including soft woods and steels and in our tests it never backed down from a fight. The pressure is of course adjustable and has a range of 70-120 PSI. This will ensure that the nails go in to the right depth and provides a driving power of 515 in/lbs. It can work with nails of a variety of sizes and will also work with a range of air compressors.

For those who are new to nailers, do note that this does require an air compressor. If you buy this tool on its own, then it won’t have a power supply and for that, you’ll need a battery operated nailer (these are rarer and less powerful). Air compressors are a good investment: they are useful for a wide range of different applications and they are relatively affordable and last a long time. Just don’t buy this tool without one!

Pros and Cons: Siding Made Easy

The positives here are the lightweight construction, easy use and impressive power. This is a nailer that you’ll be happy to use for extended periods and that’s also possible thanks to the impressive 350 capacity magazine. This means you can go a long time without needing to reload.

It also has a redirectable nozzle, which means you can ensure that the exhaust isn’t blown in your face. This is a nice touch, as it can get pretty irritating after a while otherwise! The soft foot is also useful to prevent damage to softer woods.

Most importantly, this product is very reliable. We never had any jams during our review and we never experienced any misfires.

Of course, it’s also important to remember that this is a siding nailer specifically. That means it is designed to be used to add siding to your home or to fix up what you already have. Does that mean that it won’t work for a range of other applications? Not at all – but it is worth noting that it isn’t designed as a general ‘all round’ tool specifically.

The only other downside is that there is no switch for changing the nature of the trigger – you need to switch them out manually. Not a big issue!

Conclusion: On Your Side

To conclude, the BOSTITCH N66C-1 1-¼-inch to 2-½-inch Coil Siding Nailer is a great choice if you need to nail down some siding. It’s affordable and reliable. Unlike some other products, we never had any problems with jams or misfires and the design is very smart with a few clever touches. Of course you might be able to get a little more power at a higher price but you’ll see diminishing returns. For siding in particular, this is a great buy and comes highly recommended.

from Toolerant http://www.toolerant.com/bostitch-n66c-1-the-best-coil-siding-nailer-read-this-review/

source https://toolerant.tumblr.com/post/164679650340

Thursday, 24 August 2017

Effective Networking: 6 Apps to Meet New People and Build Professional Connections

Success isn’t just about what you know. Who you know plays an outsized role, too. Relationships spark our creativity, help us land jobs, teach us things we'd never learn on our own, and, frankly, make life more interesting.

Easier said than done, though. Cold emailing can feel like a sales pitch. Events are often hard to find—and harder to remember. Once you meet people, you still need to keep all the names and addresses straight. And besides remembering, you need to relate to them—enough that you can both connect each other to opportunities in the future.

It's a needful task, one that can help you find your next job—or the next person you'll hire at your company. And there are apps to make it easier. Here are 6 of the best tools to make new connections and network effectively.

6 Apps to Broaden Your Circle and Help You Network

So many people to meet, so little time to meet them. Choose wisely.

Odds are you won't just randomly bump into the people you want to meet on the street. Even if you attend all the right conferences, you'll still have to try hard to meet the right people.

And yet, meeting new people and building a strong network is one of the best ways to advance your career. As Rob Cross and Robert J. Thomas write in the Harvard Business Review, “The executives who consistently rank in the top 20% of their companies in both performance and well-being have diverse but select networks—made up of high-quality relationships with people who come from several different spheres and from up and down the corporate hierarchy.”

So how can you effectively do that, when you don't have enough time to meet people as it is? These apps can help:

Shapr (Android and iOS)

Best for meeting new contacts

Remember how easy it was to make friends as a kid? Just show up at the playground, bond over your shared love of kickball, and bam! Instant connection. Unfortunately as adults, like-minded professional connections don’t just materialize from thin air.

Enter Shapr, a app that matches professionals in the same industries. Think of it as Tinder for networking. You’ll register through your LinkedIn account and add up to 10 interests, like startups and entrepreneurship. Each day, the app suggests 10-15 potential contacts for you based on those interests, location, and professional experience, ensuring you only receive contacts that are relevant for your needs and streamlining that initial search process.

You’ll swipe anonymously through profiles and when the interest is mutual, you’ll be matched—and can arrange to meet over coffee. No more worrying about spamming people with unsolicited requests.

Shapr Price: Free

Bizzabo (Android and iOS)

Best for networking with new people at conferences

You (or your company) spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars attend business conferences in pursuit of new connections. But just try finding the person you need, let alone sparking a meaningful, intimate conversation in a packed conference hall of thousands.

Bizzabo's event apps can boost your chances. It filters through lists of event attendees and helps you message relevant people.

Just register with your LinkedIn account, and Bizzabo will automatically fill in your profile. You can then search for conferences in your area and register in-app. Even before you register, you’ll see a list of attendees, so you can assess the landscape before committing the hefty fee. When you’re at the event, just click on a name to see their company information, a link to their LinkedIn profile, and list of mutual connections—and an option to message them.

Bizzabo also lets you invite friends, add events to your calendar in-app, and share your attendance through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, so you can let your real-life circle in on the fun as well. And if you're running events, you can use Bizzabo's software to help manage attendees and help your attendees make the connections they want.

Bizzabo Pricing: Free mobile app for networking at events; custom pricing for Bizzabo's event management tools
Using Bizzabo to run your events? Connect Bizzabo with 750+ apps to automate your event management with Zapier's Bizzabo integrations.

CityHour (iOS)

Best for spontaneous meetings with other professionals

Between the first introduction emails and back-and-forth scheduling messages, even a 15-minute coffee chat can take more than double that amount of time in planning. But with CityHour, you can network on a moment’s notice.

When you’ve a free moment to network, the app instantly connects you with like-minded professionals in a 50-mile radius who are also willing to connect. This eliminates all the lead time, carries a guarantee of having a conversation, and lets you convert your downtime into a productive networking session. Especially if you’ve just moved to a new city and haven’t broken into any local business communities, this app can give you the insider tips you need to further your career.

CityHour Price: Free

1 Million Cups (Android, iOS, and Web)

Best for group meetups with other entrepreneurs

For entrepreneurs and business leaders, networking is essential to survival. But between raising capital, managing employees, and actually growing your company, there's precious little time left to find new events and contacts. 1 Million Cups helps by organizing monthly meetings for entrepreneurs. Simply search for your city to find local events—the app supports communities across the United States from Aberdeen, South Dakota to Silicon Valley. And for a more intimate conversation, you can also search for individuals you want to meet.

It's an easy way to go to events where you know you'll learn from others in similar shoes.

1 Million Cups Price: Free

FullContact (Android, iOS, and Web)

Best for organizing your contacts

Between your professional email, personal email, old college account, client records, and LinkedIn, your contacts are spread out everywhere. That’s fine, until you need someone’s phone number and need to search through six inboxes for those seven digits.

And when you meet someone important in real life? Better commit their business card to memory before you accidentally throw it out—or more likely, you'll be left frantically Googling some misspelling of their name as if you’ve never met.

FullContact saves you from both situations, organizing all of your contacts—from all your apps and your paper business cards—into one app. Just register with your email and you can import your contacts from all of your accounts—Gmail, iCloud, and Office365—as well as Excel spreadsheets and social platforms. One login and you can access your full address book. Then, snap photos of your business cards with the mobile app, and it'll recognize the text and add them to your address book too.

Ideally, you’d keep in close enough contact to realize when people change companies, email addresses, or phone numbers. But sometimes, work piles up and people fall between the cracks. No worry—FullContact's Premium version will search the Internet once a month for updates to your contacts’ information and automatically keep your address book up-to-date.

FullContact Pricing: Free for 1k contacts and 10 business card scans; from $9.99/month Premium plan for 25k contacts and 50 business card scans per month
Connect FullContact with 750+ apps to automate your contacts workflow with Zapier's FullContact integrations.
For a deeper look at FullContact's features and pricing, check out our FullContact review.

Clearbit Connect (Gmail, Web)

For finding anyone's contact info

Connecting to strangers is as easy as sending an email…as long as you can actually find their email address. But sometimes, you check their company website, LinkedIn, and even their social profiles only to come up dry. Sure, you know that most of the company’s emails go firstname.lastname@company.com, but even that's not working. So how you can find the right address without falling into an Internet blackhole?

Check out Clearbit Connect, a Google Chrome extension for Gmail that essentially acts as a search engine for email addresses right in your inbox. Click the Clearbit icon that appears in the top of your inbox and you can search for contacts at specific companies. For instance, if you were looking for someone at Zapier, you’d enter the name of the company and find a list of employees. From there, you can search for people by name or title. So if you wanted to talk to Wade Foster, you could search Wade Foster or if you didn’t know his name, just Co-founder or CEO would work, too. On each contact’s profile, you’ll find their email address and links to the social channels they’ve registered through that address.

And when you're reading emails, Clearbit's sidebar in Gmail will give you extra details about a contact, perfect to refresh your memory before reaching out to an old colleague.

Clearbit Pricing: Free Clearbit Connect for Gmail with 200 contact lookups per month; from $99/month Enrichment API for automatically finding contact info for 2.5k people per month
Connect Clearbit with 750+ apps to automatically find out more about all of your contacts with Zapier's Clearbit integrations.
For a deeper look at Clearbit's features and pricing, check out our Clearbit review.

Be a Human

These apps can help you find people to network with—but they can't do the networking for you. For every minute you save on sifting through contacts, spend a minute sending a personalized thank-you email, connecting an old coworker to a new opportunity, or mentoring one of your employees. You can save time on finding contacts or scheduling meetings, but you can’t shortcut your way into the mutually beneficial relationships you need to grow your career.

Have a great tip or app that's helped you make solid connections through networking? We'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Conference table photo by Lee via Flickr; Crowd photo by Steve via Flickr.

source https://zapier.com/blog/best-networking-apps/

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Build a Better Customer Experience: How to Automatically Text Your Facebook Lead Ads

If you've spent any amount of time cycling in a city, you know all too well that stolen bicycles and bike gear are a serious problem. Sometimes you get lucky and find your bike on Craigslist or OfferUp. Other times, it's a hard goodbye.

Unfortunately, inconvenience isn't the only cost of the crime—one night, when a friend was hit by a car after their bike light was stolen, a Kickstarter campaign was launched in early 2012 to create the theft-resistant bike light.

"That [Kickstarter campaign] went well, so we kept on going with other accessories that help people theft-proof their own bikes for riding in the city," says Vlad Pick, COO and co-founder of Fortified Bicycle.

"Those also went well, so about a year and a half ago we launched another Kickstarter for a completely theft-resistant bike that we think is sort of the ideal bike to ride around town."

The Invincible 8Speed from Fortified Bicycle

Working with the cycling and Kickstarter communities, listening to their feedback, and tweaking designs, Vlad and his co-founder, Tivan Amour, CEO, raised over $178,000, blowing past their original goal.

Complete with custom locking mechanisms, the Invincible Bike was the product of years spent discussing the needs of the urban cyclist. But Fortified Bike needed more than just the Kickstarter community to make this bike a success; they had to spread the word far and wide.

Texting New Facebook Leads

"We were experimenting with Facebook Lead Ads, trying to find the best way to get as many people to learn about our bikes as possible, and we thought, 'Hey, this is cool, but it doesn't help us get in touch with these people,'" Vlad explains.

"One of our sales guys actually had the insight that it works really well when you text people after they've said they're interested."

"We found our way to Zapier, and we fell in love with it and have been using it religiously ever since."Vlad Pick, COO & co-founder, Fortified Bicycle

Soon after this revelation, Vlad found app automation tool Zapier and built a Zap—a connection between two apps—that texted new Facebook leads almost immediately after they had entered their phone number and expressed interest in learning more.

"Using Zapier to do that makes it so the experience really feels magical to the end user, because they say, "Yes, here's my phone number," and then a few minutes later they get a text message from us. Most people write back, which was pretty cool to find out and pleasantly surprising," Vlad says.

Instead of users receiving a text message a day or two later when an employee manually checked the leads, Fortified automated the process with Zapier, Facebook Lead Ads, and Burst SMS, a message delivery service.

If you too want to connect with new leads immediately and send a text after they opt-in, give this Zap a try:

Don't stop there, though: Fortified Bicycle adds a step to their workflow, creating rows in Google Sheets to effectively transform Google Sheets into their database for leads. Bringing in leads from a variety of campaigns into one place allows Vlad to run reports and learn more about the people interested in Fortified Bicycle. Try it for yourself:

Using Slack, Calendly, and Burst SMS to Enhance the Customer Experience

Fortified Bicycles is dedicated to building a better customer experience—an experience that begins long before a potential customer enters their information on Facebook. To make good on their commitment, Vlad and Tivan would spend the months before each Kickstarter campaign talking with both the Kickstarter community and the cycling community to make sure their idea resonated. Maintaining that connection meant adding accessibility.

For example, if a customer happens to be in the Boston area, they can schedule a test ride of the Invincible Bike directly through the Fortified Bicycle website with a member of the team.

"For test rides, we just enable sign up through our sites and we use a third-party plugin called Calendly," Vlad explains. "We were very fortunate that Calendly integrates directly with Zapier, because as soon as somebody schedules a test ride on our site, we get a notification in Slack, and we know when to expect to them, we know what kind of bike they're going to want, and all that happens automatically."

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Because Fortified Bicycle had seen such a positive response from texting leads, they made sure their new test rider received a text message soon after signing up.

If you want to send Slack notifications when an invitee creates an event, give this Zap a go:

But if you want to add that extra step to text your new invitee and keep your customer experience in the next level, this is the Zap for you:

"To me, bikes and Zapier kind of fill some of the very same fundamental needs: It's cheap, efficient, and healthy in the same way."Vlad Pick, COO & co-founder, Fortified Bicycle

Fortified Bicycle takes their community interaction seriously. It's what led to their successful Kickstarter campaigns and, in turn, has allowed the team to create damage-resistant and theft-proof bikes and bike gear. Staying close to their potential customers makes all the difference, Vlad says.

"I think folks are generally delighted to receive that level of personal attention, especially if they weren't expecting it. And that all happens through Zapier automatically."

Maintaining a connection to your community can be intimidating. But Fortified Bicycle learned that adding a personal touch to your business and engaging with customers doesn't have to take hours each week—you just need the right tools.

Fortified Bicycle also wants to extend a discount to Zapier's blog readers: Use "ZAPIERBIKES" (no quotation marks) for 10% off an order. The code is valid until October 31st, 2017.

source https://zapier.com/blog/text-new-leads/

How to Back Up Everything From All Your Apps and Devices

You know you should back up your files. But it's a chore that's easy to ignore until you accidentally delete that Facebook album—right after deleting those same pictures from your phone.

Accidents happen. Even your most-trusted gadgets and apps could go haywire and lose your data. Or, more likely, human error could wipe-out your treasured files.

Backups give you some peace of mind. They're your insurance for all kinds of digital disasters. And trust me: You'll be grateful for your backup when your smartphone hits the pavement.

Here's how to back up anything and everything—including your web app data—to make sure you always have a second copy in case of emergency.

What is a Backup?

Ever worried you'd lose a sensitive document, perhaps your birth certificate or ID card? The best safeguard is to copy it and use the copy by default, while keeping the original stored away in a file cabinet or safe.

Backing up your digital files is the same. A backup is just "an extra copy of data in case the original is lost or damaged". In some ways, having the same file on your phone and computer is a backup, as is having the same file on your computer and in Dropbox or iCloud.

The problem is, you could lose your phone and computer the same day. Or, you could delete your file in Dropbox, which would instantly remove it from your computer, too.

That's why you should have a backup of all your data that's stored somewhere safe and separate from your everyday devices (like on an external hard drive, or a remote server). Then if you delete something, or your computer dies, you can pull discarded files out of the digital dumpster.

How to Back Up Everything

Years ago, when you only had one desktop PC with a copy of Microsoft Office and Creative Suite, backing up your data was easy. Today, your documents are scattered across apps like Google Docs, Spotify, Evernote, and a handful of social networks.

Your backup strategy needs updated to fit today's workflows. Instead of simply dragging some files to a flash drive, you need to download an archive of everything from your favorite web apps—and remember to do it on a schedule. Apps with integrations can automatically save copies of your data to another app. Then, once you have all of your files on your computer, it's time to create a true backup of everything.

But first, what if you've deleted a file already and need to restore it?

Undelete Recently Deleted Files

You just hit delete on a file, and you're about snap your laptop in two. Don't. Odds are, you can recover the file.

If the file was saved in Dropbox or Google Drive—or if you made in an iOS or Mac App Store app that auto-saves to iCloud—and it's been less than a month since you deleted the file, you're in luck. Here's how to get your files back.

Recover Files from Dropbox

Deleted a file from Dropbox? No worries. Dropbox saves versions of your files and folders for 30 days, so you can recover previous variations from total destruction.

Just open Dropbox online, find the folder where you deleted files, and click Show Deleted Files in the sidebar. From there, you can restore the files back to that folder, or download them directly.

Recover Files from Google Drive

Google Drive does a bit better: it saves deleted files to a Trash folder, much like the one on your Mac or PC desktop. Here, though, you'll likely never think to empty the trash, so your deleted files are easy to restore nearly forever.

Just open Google Drive online, click the Trash link on the left sidebar, then browse through the trash to find the file you want. You can then open it or right-click to restore it to its original folder. The same works for Google Docs documents, spreadsheets, and presentations: if you delete one accidentally, it'll be in the Trash where you can easily restore it. You can also open a Google Docs document, spreadsheet, or presentation and click on the link beside the Help menu to see previous versions of the document—though those are only stored for a limited time.

Recover Files from iCloud

Just like Dropbox, iCloud keeps deleted files for 30 days. If you deleted a file from an app that syncs with iCloud, a bookmark from Safari, or a contact from your iCloud account, just open your iCloud Settings page and click one of the "restore" links at the bottom of the page.

You can browse deleted files and restore them to iCloud Drive individually. They'll be shown in reverse order—the oldest files at the top, since they'll be permanently deleted first. With contacts, calendars, and bookmarks, you can download a recent backup archive to restore everything including the more recently deleted items.

Recover Deleted Files from Windows

Even if you never turned on backups for your Windows computer, you still might be able to restore recently deleted files. Just right-click a folder in Explorer, select Properties, then click the Previous Versions tab to browse older versions of the folder—including files that may have been deleted.

Or, if you just want an older version of an existing file, right-click on it and select Previous Versions.

Now that you've got that file back, it's time to make sure you never have to worry about losing files again. First, let's back up the data from each of your web apps, then set up automations to create a second copy of every new file you create in the future. That'll get all of your files in one place, so you can back them up automatically.

Export Data From Your Web Apps
Automatically Save a Second Copy of Everything
Secure Your Data with Backup Software

How to Back Up Data from Popular Apps

Getting deleted data back isn't enough. Instead, you should be also saving copies of those files automatically, to make sure your most important files never get misplaced.

These steps will help get your most important files backed up from the most popular web apps:

Google Apps

Getting a copy of everything you've saved to your Google Account is easy, thanks to Google Takeout. Takeout helps you create an archive of documents from Google Docs, pictures from Google Photos, messages from Gmail, bookmarks from Chrome, places in Maps, and more. You can download everything at once, or grab an archive of data from the apps you use most.

Most of the apps let you choose to export all of the data or just one particular section—Gmail, for instance, lets you export only emails with a label you select if you want. Google Docs goes even further, letting you choose the format you'd like to have your Google Docs documents, spreadsheets, and presentations saved in.

Office 365 and OneDrive

Want to download all of your Office documents? If you're using the personal version of Office.com (typically with an @hotmail.com or @live.com email address), just open OneDrive, select all your files, and click Download. Office Online saves your files in standard document formats, so you can open them in other word processor and spreadsheet apps easily.

If you have an Office 365 for Business account, though, you can't bulk download files from OneDrive for Business. Instead, install the OneDrive app, and have it sync all of the files to your computer for a second copy—something that could also work with a personal account.

To save a copy of your email messages, contacts, and events, you'll need to install Outlook on your Mac or PC. The good news is, Outlook is included with most paid Office 365 accounts (you could use the free trial to save an archive, though). Just install Outlook, sync your data, then click File -> Open & Export and save a .pst file.

Email

The same trick works with most email accounts: if you can't export a copy of your messages from your email service, just sync it with an email app on your Mac or PC, then export the messages there.

On a PC with Outlook, just follow the steps from Office 365 with any other email account. If you use the Windows Mail app, you can either export messages in a similar manner in Windows Vista and 7, or on Windows 10 you can save a copy of each synced email from your Windows Mail App Data folder.

On a Mac, sync your email accounts with the Mail app, then select the folders you want to export in the left sidebar, right-click and select Export Mailbox.

Calendar

Calendar events quickly fade away as your schedule marches on, but sometimes it's nice to look back and see what all you've done. The good thing is, calendar events are typically stored in a standard format that most apps can open.

That gives you several options. Often, you can subscribe to your calendar in another calendar app. Either log in with your accounts to sync calendar events directly, or enable sharing and subscribe to the calendar in your other app. Then, you can use the Calendar app's Export option to save an archive of your calendar events—something both Outlook and the Mac Calendar app support.

That's the only easy way to back up iCloud, Exchange, and Outlook.com calendar events. For Google Calendar, you can also directly export a .ics file with all of your calendar events from your Google Calendar settings page.

Dropbox and Box

The simplest way to back up Dropbox—or any other file-sync service—is to install its app and let it sync all the files to your computer. You can then copy the files to an external drive, or back them up with any standard backup app.

Alternately, you can download everything from the Dropbox website. Go to Dropbox.com, select the files and folders you want to back up, then click the Download button in the right sidebar or in the drop-down menu on folders and files. If you already have that folder synced to your computer, Dropbox will show an Open link instead that will show you the files on your computer.

There's a catch, though: you can only download up to 20GB or 10k total files at once. If you've stored a lot in Dropbox, you might need to download individual folders separately.

The same tricks work for Box—only here, there's no limit on how much you can download. If you can't sync your Box account with your computer (still the best backup method) then open your Box account online, click the checkbox at the top of the page to select everything, then click the ... button and select Download.

iCloud

Most apps on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac save files in iCloud by default, and you can download each of them from iCloud Drive online. Just open iCloud Drive, and you'll see a folder for each app with its files inside; select the ones you want to back up, and download them.

The best option, though, is to sync iCloud to your computer. On a Mac, log in to iCloud in your Internet Settings, and enable iCloud Drive. On a PC, install iCloud for PC then have it sync iCloud Drive files to your computer. Then you can copy and back them up as normal.

If you want to save full-quality photos and videos from Apple Photos, there are also two options: either use the Download Originals option in the settings for the Photos app, or use Apple Photos in iCloud.

For the latter method, select the pictures you want—individually or by Moments—and download them. This will download each photo individually, though, so you'll then need to organize them in folders yourself.

Streaming Music

Music used to be just another file on your computer. But now you have the option to use music streaming apps—effectively, your "music library" is just a list of songs you like. That's still something worth backing up, though, especially if you want to switch music services.

You can download a playlist of your favorite music from most streaming services. Then, to access it elsewhere, use an app to convert your playlist. Stamp supports Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and YouTube, runs on your Mac, PC, or iOS device, and costs $9.99 per device to transfer unlimited songs.

Soundiiz, on the other hand, can convert full playlists for free and runs in your browser, and supports Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube, Qobuz, SoundCloud, Dailymotion, Deezer, Groove, Napster, Discogs, and standard iTunes playlist files.

Twitter & Facebook

Good news: Both Facebook and Twitter make it easy to back up your digital self.

Twitter Archive lets you download a zip with your Tweets in a .csv spreadsheet file, JSON archive, and an HTML file that lets you browse through your Tweets in a Twitter-like interface. It doesn't download your photos or direct messages, though—all you get are your plain text public Tweets.

Facebook Archive gives you a bit more: your posts, private messages, photos, and videos. They come in a rather plain HTML file that lets you browse through posts and comments in your browser.

Evernote

If you use Evernote on your Mac or PC, your notes are already backed up with the rest of your files whenever you run a backup app. But for extra security, you can always export your notes manually.

Just select everything in your Evernote account—or pick specific notebooks—then click File -> Export Notes. There, you can select the format to save your notes. Choose .enex if you want to import your notes into another copy of Evernote, or to import them into 3rd party notes apps like OneNote or Apple Notes. Alternatively, choose .html to view your notes in your browser and save file attachments in their own folder.

WordPress

Want to move your WordPress.com blog to your own server, or switch to a new CMS? Exporting WordPress content is easy, no matter where it's hosted.

Open your WordPress admin panel, click Tools -> Export, then select what you want to export from your site. That'll download all of the text from your site—posts, pages, and comments. It won't download images and other media, though. For that, you'll either need to copy them from your server, or download them individually.

Your Phone or Tablet

Mobile devices are easier to back up than your computer, since they're set to back up everything online automatically. Android devices can back up almost everything to Google Drive, while iPhones and iPads do the same with iCloud. If you lose or break your device, just sign in to the appropriate account on a new device to get everything back.

But what if you want to back up all of your files together? You could download files from iCloud and Google Drive, or you could just create a full backup on your computer.

For an iPhone or iPad, you'll need to sync your device with iTunes. Install it, if you haven't already, then connect your device to your computer and click Manually back up now in the device info page.

For an Android phone or tablet, you can copy the files from your phone with Google's free Android File Transfer.

Everything Else

If you need a copy of your chat conversations, email newsletter subscribers, form data, and other web app info, you're in luck. Most professional apps include an export tool so you can download a local copy of your data.

Here are links to export info for some of the most popular professional web apps. If your app isn't included here, search its Help or Settings page and you'll likely find a similar export option.

Slack: export a JSON file with the entire chat history from all your team's public rooms, along with links to all shared files.
Trello: export a JSON file with card data from individual boards; Business Class accounts can export all boards at once. Or, use the Export for Trello Chrome extension to save a .csv spreadsheet file with your cards.
MailChimp: export a .csv spreadsheet file of active, unsubscribed, or cleaned subscribers' email addresses.
Salesforce: export all records from an object in a .csv spreadsheet file, or use an SOQL query to find specific data and export it.
Typeform: export all results from an individual form in a .xls spreadsheet file
Wufoo: export all data from an individual form in .xls, .csv, or .txt format
Asana: export data from an individual project in a .csv spreadsheet
Pipedrive: download an export of everything in Pipedrive to an Excel spreadsheet
Podio: export data from any Podio app in an Excel spreadsheetz
Basecamp: save a full HTML export of everything in your Basecamp account to view projects, comments, and more just as they would look inside Basecamp—similar to the Twitter export (works with both Basecamp 2 and 3).
GitHub: use Git or GitHub's API to download all files in GitHub repositories to your computer.
LinkedIn: download a spreadsheet or contact card export of all contacts in LinkedIn.

There's only one problem with most of these exports: most of the time, you only get one type of data from the app. But many of them also include other data you've spent time creating, including email templates, survey questions, and more.

Think of everything in your apps that you've spent time creating, and make sure you've saved a copy of it somewhere. Say you've made an email newsletter in MailChimp. To download your email template, open the Templates list, click the down arrow beside your template, and select Export as HTML.

Of course, every app is a little different: some will have you copy survey questions as text, others will let you copy the HTML. Poke around and find a way; you don't want to lose your hard work.

Automatically Save a Second Copy of Everything

Downloading copies of your app data works, but not if you forget to do it. It's something you'll need to do on a schedule.

To simplify the process and avoid any missteps, try app integration tool Zapier: it can save a copy of anything from more than 600 apps to a tool of your choice.

You could save copies of your Dropbox files to Google Drive, log form results to a spreadsheet as they come in, save notes from Evernote to OneNote, or add new contacts to your CRM and Google Contacts at the same time.

Let's try backing up MailChimp subscribers to a Google Sheets spreadsheet as an example. First, make a new spreadsheet with columns for each contact field you want to save.

Then, make a new Zapier automation with MailChimp's New Subscriber Trigger to have Zapier watch for new contacts added to a MailChimp list. Then, select the Google Sheets Create Spreadsheet Row Action, pick your spreadsheet, and click the + icon beside each field to select the correct item from MailChimp. Test and turn on your Zap, and from here on out your MailChimp subscribers will be added to the spreadsheet as soon as they subscribe.

Those same basic steps work for most of your web apps. Just setup some automations, and you'll always have an extra copy of your data.

Here are some example integrations to get started, or check the Zapbook for integrations with your favorite apps.

Save a Copy of Contacts

Back Up Photos

Save Form Results to a Spreadsheet

Copy Files to Another Storage Service

Save a Second Copy of Notes

Back Up Blog Posts

Keep a Spreadsheet Archive of Anything

The Best Backup Software to Secure Your Data

Now that you've saved a copy of everything from all your apps, and have your apps automatically backing themselves up with Zapier, it's time to make a full backup of everything on your computer.

There are two main ways to back up your computer. You could either save a local backup, where a backup app saves a copy of your files to an external hard drive in your home or office. That's faster and cheaper, and lets you easily restore files if you need later. All you need to buy is an external hard drive, and perhaps a backup app.

Your second option: save a cloud backup, which stores a copy of your files online. It's a bit slower, but also safer—if you were robbed, your house burned down, or you lost your backup drive, you can still restore all of your files. It'll just take a while to download them, and you'll have to pay around $5 per month for an online backup.

Here are the best options for both types of backups, for your Mac or PC.

Time Machine

Best for simple backups on your Mac

Macs come with a built-in backup tool, Time Machine, that saves both a full backup of your computer and previous versions of your files. Just connect a new external drive to your Mac, and Time Machine will open automatically, offering to turn that into a backup drive. Or, you can connect a hard drive to many routers—or use a Time Capsule device—to save a Time Machine backup over your Wifi network.

Once you've saved a backup, you can view previous versions of any file on your Mac. Or, if you want an online backup on iCloud, enable iCloud Drive and save all your files there. You'll still be able to use Time Machine's previous versions feature on any iCloud file.

Time Machine Price: Free with a Mac

Windows File History Backup

Best for simple backups on your Windows PC

Your Windows PC is likely already saving previous versions of your files, so you can undo recent changes. You can use that same feature to save a full backup of your computer to an external or network-connected drive.

Open the Start Menu and click Settings, then scroll to the bottom of the Settings Page and select Update & Security. There, tap the Backup tab on the left, and you can choose an external or network drive to back up your computer. You can browse previous versions of files from that backup, or can restore the entire backup—an easy way to get all of your data back if your computer dies.

Windows File History Price: Free with Windows

Google Photos

Best for a free backup of all your photos

The goal is to back up everything—not just your pictures. But photos are often some of your largest files, and they're often not backed up to any other apps (where your documents would often be in Dropbox and your computer, say).

As such, Google Photos is a great sidekick to a local backup. Just install its app, and it'll back up a "high quality" copy of all your photos for free. Essentially, it saves RAW files as JPEG and reduces them to around 16 megapixels. Then, you can always download a copy of your photos if something happened to your local backup.

Or, if you want an original copy of all your RAW photos, just add extra storage to your Google Drive account and Google Photos can back up original, full quality copies of all your photos.

Google Photos Price: Free for "high quality files" (around 16 megapixels max, in JPEG format); from $1.99/month for 100GB storage in Google Drive

Backblaze

Best for simple online backup

Want a simple way to back up files online? Backblaze is one of the easiest to set up, and is the backup app that both Wirecutter and Sweet Setup recommend.

Just install the Backblaze app on your Mac or PC, and it'll save all your personal files automatically with no extra fuss. Best of all, it lives right in your system settings—it feels like part of your computer, rather than some extra tool you need to run.

There's only one downside: it only backs up external drives for 30 days after they're last connected to your computer. So, if you store most of your files in external drives, you'd need to connect them to your computer at least once a month to keep them backed up.

Backblaze Price: $50/year per computer

Arq

Best for online backups on your own storage accounts

If you want complete control over your backups, check out Arq.

Arq gives you the same settings as most other backup apps: you can back up everything, save versions of files, and add your own encryption key. The difference is, Arq lets you save your backup to the cloud storage service you want: Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon S3 or Glacier, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, OneDrive, or your own server. And it works great with external drives, or for backing up multiple computers to the same place.

If you already have a paid Dropbox or OneDrive account, that gives you 1TB of space for backups without paying anything extra. Or, you could use Google Cloud Nearline, Amazon S3 Glacier, or Backblaze B2 storage for as little as $0.005/GB. And if you want to save multiple cloud backups—perhaps to Google Drive and Dropbox—Arq can do that as well.

Arq Price: $49.99, plus online storage from around $0.005-0.01/GB, depending on service

Mozy

Best for backup and file sync together

Mozy is pricier than other backup apps—its $5.99/month plan only includes 50GB of storage instead of the unlimited storage most apps offer. But that's partly because Mozy is also a tool that lets you access your files anywhere.

Just back up your files with Mozy, then install the Mozy Cloud Drive app, and you can open any file from your computer, anywhere. It's like Dropbox for your entire computer.

Mozy also includes more enterprise-focused backup options. You can use it to back up your servers, or use its Spanning service to automatically back up Google Apps, Office 365, and Salesforce along with the rest of your company's files.

Mozy Price: 2GB backup for free; from $5.99/month for 50GB from 1 computer

Carbonite

Best for full image backups of your computer

Most backup apps only save a copy of your files. If you get a new computer, you'll need to install your programs and set your preferences manually, and then copy the files back from the backup.

Carbonite simplifies that by saving a full image archive of your PC. It archives everything from your computer—including Windows, settings, and programs—and saves them to an image that you can restore to a new computer. And, it also includes the standard file backup for Macs and PCs that other backup tools offer.

Carbonite Pricing: from $59.99/year for one computer; from $74.99/year to backup external drives

Never Lose Data Again

It's not just your Word documents and Paint drawings that need to be backed up today—it's also your CRM contacts, project management tasks, and email marketing templates. With your data spread across dozens of web apps, it's tough to keep everything in one place.

This weekend—or the next time you have a few free hours—it's time to make your backup. List every app that has critical data, and export a copy. Then set up automations to save a second copy of everything you can—and add reminders to your calendar or to-do list to periodically manually save a copy of everything else. Once that's done, turn on an automated backup app to keep a second (or third) copy of your data somewhere safe.

The next time you mess up an email template or delete a photo, you won't need to panic. It might take a few minutes, but you'll be able to get your data back for sure. And that's worth the effort.

source https://zapier.com/blog/backup-everything/

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Zapier for Alfred: Run Automated Workflows From Your Mac Keyboard

The quickest way to do almost anything on your computer is with your keyboard. Copying and pasting text? Formatting a document? Searching searching your computer? A keyboard shortcut is almost guaranteed to be the fastest way to do it. And on your Mac, you can add new keyboard shortcuts to most apps to speed up your most common tasks?

But what about your favorite web apps? Many of them include keyboard shortcuts while you're using them—but what if you want to quickly add data or find something in them without opening them?

That's what Zapier's Alfred workflow lets you do. In a few minutes, you can add a quick keyboard command to add data to your favorite apps anytime you want from your Mac.

A Quick Alfred Introduction

Alfred is a productivity app for macOS that can quickly search your files and the web, launch apps, or expand your text. And, with the Alfred Powerpack, you can install or build your own workflows that—in just a few keystrokes—let Alfred manage your music, create events and notes, search through your emails, start timers, and even turn off your computer.

Say you want find info about penguins. You'd open Alfred (by pressing its keyboard shortcut—often Command + Space or Alt + Space), type wiki penguins, and the correct Wikipedia entry would open in your browser. With the Evernote workflow for Alfred, you could then open Alfred, type ennew, then select New Note from Google Chrome URL to save that page in your Evernote notebook.

Easy, right? It's a quick way to save time and get more done on your Mac.

Introducing Zapier for Alfred

You can use that same power to run workflows between 750+ apps, using app automation tool Zapier, anytime you want from your Mac using Alfred Workflows. Say Bob emails you and asks to be added to your MailChimp newsletter list. You could copy his email, open MailChimp, find your list, and figure out where to add his email.

Or you could have an Alfred and Zapier workflow that adds new contacts to MailChimp. You'd type zap bob@example.com into Alfred and he'd be added to your email newsletter list.

That's how a number of people on the Zapier team use Alfred to stay productive throughout the work day. UX Research Lead Eileen Ruberto uses Alfred to add tasks to an Airtable database in seconds. I use Zapier for Alfred to save the tasks I complete throughout the day to I Done This. Customer Champion Juan Vazquez uses Alfred to make sure he never forgets the perfect gift for someone, by having Zapier add gift ideas to his list in Airtable right from Alfred.

And it's how author Paul Minors unsubscribes people from his MailChimp email list, with what he calls "the geekiest automation I've ever created."

Here's how you can kickstart a series of actions in your favorite apps with Alfred's shortcuts on your Mac and Zapier's .

1. Install Zapier for Alfred

The Zapier for Alfred workflow takes whatever text you enter and sends it to Zapier

After you install Alfred, just download Zapier for Alfred and double-click the Zapier for Alfred.alfredworkflow file to add it to your collection of Alfred workflows.

2. Make a Webhooks Zap

Use a Webhooks Zap to connect to Alfred

Now, let's make a Zap (an automated workflow that connect apps in Zapier) to use with Alfred. Open Zapier, click Make a Zap!, and select the Webhooks by Zapier app. That gives us a link that Alfred can use to send data back to your Zap.

Choose Catch Hook, click Continue in the "Pick off a Child Key" screen, then copy the webhook URL Zapier shows, which should be something like https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/123456/1abcde/.

3. Add the Webhooks URL to Zapier for Alfred

Paste your Webhooks URL into your Zapier for Alfred workflow

Let's leave the Zap for a second, and add that link to Alfred. When you first installed Zapier for Alfred, you should have seen a dialog box like the one above. If you don't see it, just click the [x] button in the top right corner of the workflow.

Now, double-click the text in the Value box beside the ZAP_URL environment variable on the right pane. Paste your Webhooks URL there, and press save.

Now open the normal Alfred search pane (with Alt + Space, or your own custom keyboard shortcut) and let's try using that workflow to add a new contact, Bob, to our email list. Type zap bob@example.com into Alfred's search pane—as in the screenshot at the top of this section—and press return on your keyboard.

Now go back to your Zap, and click the "Ok, I did this" button to test your Webhook step. If you click the "View your hook" link on the resulting screen, Zapier will show the email address you just entered. Yay, it works!

4. Finish Setting up Your Zap

Add the Note field to the Zap template

We'll now add a MailChimp action step to our Zap, to add contacts to our email list. Click "Continue" to set up the action that will happen after the webhook is triggered. Then just select MailChimp from the Action apps list, choose Add/Update Subscriber, and connect or choose your MailChimp account.

Use the dropdown box to select your MailChimp list and click the plus sign at the right of the "Subscriber email" field to select the Querystring Note item from your Webhooks step (which contains the email address you entered in Alfred search).

Save and test that Zap, and Bob will get added to your email list. Next time you need to add someone to your MailChimp list, just type zap followed by their email address into Alfred and Zapier will do it for you in a second.

5. Copy the Workflow and Repeat

Add as many Zapier for Alfred workflows as you want

Want to use Alfred to trigger more than one Zap? Sure thing.

Just right-click on the Zapier for Alfred workflow in Alfred's sidebar and select Duplicate. Give this workflow a new name—perhaps one that describes what your Zap will do.

Then double-click the Keyword item in the workflow to give this Zap its own keyword. And, as before, open the workflow settings from the [x] button and add the correct Webhooks URL for your new Zap.

Search Through Your Web Apps with Alfred and Zapier

Zaps like the MailChimp one we just made are handy to add data to your favorite apps—and since Zapier supports over 750 different apps, there's a lot you can do with that.

Odds are, you're already used to using Alfred to look up data—and Zapier can help you search through your favorite web apps, too, using Search Actions.

Perhaps you need to find contact info from Salesforce, Google Contacts, or MailChimp. Maybe you need to find data from a Google Sheets spreadsheet, an Airtable database, or an Evernote note. Zapier can find that contact and send you a push notification on your Mac with the details.

Find a Google Contact's info with Zapier

Let's try the Google Contacts one. Add a Google Contacts Find Contact step to your Zap, and add your Webhooks Notes field to search that email address you'd entered in Alfred.

Add all the data you found to Pushbullet

We now need to get the info back to our Mac—a notifications app like Pushbullet is perfect for that. Add another step to your Zap, select the Pushbullet app, then fill in the note with all the detail Zapier just found about your contact.

Test and turn on your Zap, and whenever you enter an email in your Alfred Zapier workflow, Zapier will send you a push notification through Pushbullet with the details. Tap the notification to copy all the details and use them in your work—without having to ever open your CRM and search for customer data again.

Send More Data to Zapier with Alfred

You can send as much data to Zapier as you want

Entering a sentence, email, or other short text into Alfred is handy—but what if you want more? Perhaps you want to add new contacts to your CRM, with their name, email address, and phone number, all from Alfred.

You can do that too, with Zapier's Named Variables. Essentially, you'll type a category, followed by the text you want to send to Zapier in parenthesis.

To add a new contact, say, we'll enter the following in Alfred:

Name(Bob Tester) Email(bob@example.com) Phone(1-234-567-8900)

Now, in Zapier, you'll see a Name, Email, and Phone field along with your full note. You can fill out each item in, say, a Google Contacts Create Contact action to add someone to your address book.

Get Started Quickly with Premade Zaps for Alfred

In a hurry? We've made some Zapier workflows so you can get started with Zapier for Alfred quickly.

Just remember: Make a new copy of the Zapier for Alfred workflow for each Zap, give the Alfred workflow its own keyword, and always copy the Zap's Webhooks URL and add it to your Alfred workflow.

Add Contacts

Want to set up that MailChimp or Google Contacts workflow in a few clicks—or make your own contact workflows? Here are Zaps to start with:

Send Emails

Once you've added new contacts, it's a great chance to reach out to them and start a conversation. With these Zaps, you can send a template email to someone in seconds from Alfred.

Create Tasks, Projects, and Events

Opening your online project manager, calendar, or to-do list just to add one new task takes way too much time. These Zaps can do it for you automatically.

Post to Social Media

Don't open your Twitter app to share that brilliant Tweet. Odds are, you'll end up distracted, wasting valuable time instead of getting back to work. Let Zapier for Alfred post that next message for you automatically instead for distraction-free social media.

Get Notified

Need to lookup data from your work apps with Alfred? Start out with these Zap templates to quickly get notified—then once you've turned them on, edit the Zaps and add a step in the middle to find the info you need.

Bonus: Run Zaps from Terminal

CURL + Webhooks = Zaps from your Terminal

Ever wanted to trigger a Zap from Terminal? The same trick that lets you run Zaps from Alfred also works from Terminal.

Just make a Webhooks Zap the same way as normal, copy the URL, and keep it somewhere handy (perhaps in a text expander app). Then, whenever you want to run the Zap, just enter curl followed by your webhooks url, with ?note=YourText appended to the end with your text instead of YourText (and remember to replace any spaces with %20). For example:

curl https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/123456/1abcdef/?note=Hi%20Bob!

That'll send your text to Zapier right from Terminal.

Your Turn

Now that you know how to run Zaps from Alfred, it's time to make some new workflows. Perhaps you need an easy way to lookup data from your apps, or a quick tool to add info to your work software. Go make a Webhooks Zap, connect it to Alfred, and you'll have your favorite Zaps only a few keystrokes away whenever you need them.

We'd love to hear how you use Zapier with Alfred in the comments below!

Get Zapier for Chrome, Too!

Want to run Zaps from the Chrome browser on your Mac or PC instead? Check out the Push by Zapier Chrome Extension—it's another great way to run Zaps whenever you want.

source https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-for-alfred/