steve-benjamins

LOOK AT THE FIRST SENTENCE ON THE PAGE!!!

Name one thing inaccurate in my article. Happy to update it if you can!

ITS THE FIRST LINE OF THE PAGE!

Oh very interesting. I’d love to learn more — any specific thing you’d suggest I look at?

He’s not criticizing me he’s criticizing my incentives. Sure. You’re being pedantic, but sure.

I’m suggesting a more productive argument would criticize the substance of my article — not my incentives.

This is an article outlining my subjective experience. My criteria is not silly — it’s based off of my experience with Mailchimp.

I don’t want an email marking tool that:

• Charged overage fees • Uses dark patterns to charge me more

You’re suggesting a realistic outcome is people running software review sites for fun or fame?

The cheapest tool is Flodesk. Not MailerLite or Brevo.

I made a review with affiliate links.

Instead of criticizing my article, you’re criticizing me.

Does the content of my article seem dishonest?

I agree affiliate content should be read skeptically but you also have to be realistic: why would anyone go to all this work if not for some financial incentive?

Op here. I can assure this is not the case.

And it’s not as simple as cross-checking their public affiliate offers because these types of companies are always offering higher, private payouts (in exchange for editorial control).

Op here.

That’s not even true! Loops is in “the best” and if doesnt have an affiliate link.

All “the rest” have affiliate programs too… I was just lazy to sign up for them.

Not everything is a conspiracy. The reality in this case is more mundane.

Op here.

That’s not even true! Loops is in “the best” and if doesnt have an affiliate link.

All “the rest” have affiliate programs too… I was just lazy to sign up for them.

Not everything is a conspiracy. The reality in this case is more mundane.

This is not a universal comparison. This is the story about how I tried 25 email marketing tools. I’m sharing my subjective experience. You might be looking for something that my article doesn’t claim to offer.

That’s fair! I actually “tried” more than the “elite 6” but I eliminated many of those tools for different reasons

… We didn’t choose Brevo.

You didn’t even read the article!

OP here.

What would you compare the tools on? Be specific

Can you be specific about “iffy”? I’d be curious to know more.

Op here. I sort of agree but all these tools offer affiliate programs and I can assure you we chose MailerLite because we think it’s a tool we can use for 5-10 years.

That being said: besides running a startup (Atlist.com) I also run an affiliate site (it’s how we funded Atlist) and I would agree there is good reason to read affiliate websites skeptically. I regularly receive offers from website builders to “buy” the top spot in my best website builder roundup. https://www.sitebuilderreport.com/best-website-builder

Just to add this wasn’t written from the perspective of a solo freelancer. I’m part a 4-person startup (Atlist.com)

Do you have to manually do this or can it be automated?

True! Have you tried it? Any thoughts?

Great point. Thanks for sharing.

(I originally considered it “not automated” because it wasn’t on by default but that’s a bit harsh in hindsight. )

I disagree. It’s a dimension of the decision, certainly not the “one thing” to look for.

… unless you’re a spammer haha.

That’s fair. Any specifics?

It’s not just Europe that’s blocked

Hey HN,

I made a simple tool for creating custom map styles for Google Maps.

You can of course already make custom styles with Google's Cloud Style Editor — but I've always felt it's a bit intimidating. I think the interface could be simplified.

(Here's a screenshot of Google's Style Editor for reference: https://share.cleanshot.com/VR76WYSd)

Stylist is a simple but hopefully useful alternative to Google's Style Editor. I tried to whittle down all the options to the 20% that 80% of users need.

This is something I've been hacking on in my evenings. I wrote it in jQuery and Jekyll cause I have very modest programming skills. Please don't make fun of me haha.

It's a pretty glaring omission that there is currently no way to save styles for future editing. Hopefully the tool is still interesting (and maybe even useful).

The tool has a marketing angle: it's meant to support a startup I co-founded (https://www.atlistmaps.com). The idea is people might create styles and then be interested in using them with our tool.

No way! Do you think he’d be interested in visitors? I’m in southern Ontario and I’ve wanted to visit Russ Finch’s for a long time but would love to see something closer to home…

Hah! I found songs I wrote on here.

Kind of a treat to read through the meanings. They nailed most of my songs — sometimes even articulating the meaning better than I could myself.

A few meanings didn't "feel" right but those were songs with ambiguous lyrics. Likely more the fault of the songwriter than a poor interpretation :p

Example: https://www.songtell.com/steve-benjamins/circles

What city is this?