There’s nothing like a product launch to call to mind the things that you know but fight against. Our recent launch of Boxrockit reminded me of the fact that there is no such thing as perfect code.

Although Boxrockit was a quick project in relation to our other projects, I confess that I still obsessed about both the design and code. Being a stickler for perfection definitely helps create beautiful products, but can be a drawback in a fiercely competitive environment – especially if not carefully managed.

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Paul Weingartz on Boxrockit.com

I’ve poured myself champagne, turned up the music and according to Sean, I’m doing a bizarre-looking happy-dance. And that on a Monday! I encourage you to do the same – in fact, record it, YouTube it and send me the link.

Tom Peters once said “Celebrate what you want to see more of.” I’m sure you can bend that anyway you like. Today, exactly one year ago, I started writing these monthly news roundups – it’s the News Roundup’s 1-year birthday and I’m celebrating it like you won’t believe.

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Tony Finger on Boxrockit.com

Twitter is already being used by many as a channel for customer engagement, marketing, sales and customer service. Why not e-commerce?

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently revealed that there are 100 million global active users on Twitter. The company has shown stunning growth. It takes a mere week for users to send a billion Tweets.

Imagine you have a 1000 followers that are avid fans of your work. Now picture having instant access to unobtrusively tweeting your digital product to 1000 potential customers. Also imagine making it easy for them to click and buy. Then factor in the power of social sharing while you sit back and watch the stats. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

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Boxrockit.com

We just launched boxrockit.com! Here’s a quick overview of the product:

What is Boxrockit?

Boxrockit is a social commerce application that allows users to sell digital products on Twitter. Users can sell music, eBooks, videos, digital art, photography, fonts, software and other downloadable products. The app helps users automate promotional and product tweets with a nifty tweet-scheduler.

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I was contemplating whether to avoid publishing September’s news as I didn’t have much to say. The team worked on getting stuff done, but there’s nothing to show or talk about publicly yet. When that thought felt like a cop out – I got my act together. So here I am, updating the September news in the middle of October.

The thing is some projects, much like rockets, don’t always take off according to schedule. The trick is to keep working on the engines.

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Want to start selling online, but don’t know how or where to start? This guide is for you!

E-commerce is one of the best ways to sell and market products, whether making additional money through a sideline business, extending an existing retail store or by going all out and targeting the global market. Whatever your reason for starting a store and selling online, you will need to grab attention through a well-designed store that connects with customers and inspires them to respond to your store in the way you want – not only interact with you, but also purchase the goods that you offer and become loyal customers that will return to your online store repeatedly.

We understand that when you start such an endeavor there are often more questions than answers. Sometimes you don’t even know which questions to ask. This guide is designed to help jumpstart the journey by providing you with key questions and answers in concise, easy to read sections.

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Don’t get a Border Collie – they have an annoying herding instinct, they require loads of energy, they need a job, they chase things, they jump 6-foot fences, they are prone to behaviour problems. I mean you don’t really want something that nips, digs and chews! (Don’t all dogs?) Did you know they suffer from separation anxiety? Just look at the Border Collie Rescue Centres to see how many people have given up on dogs – you don’t want that breed. So the naysayers said.

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This month we’ve been kicking ass at Wixel. For real. Geeks can do sport too you know.

Sean was preparing for a kickboxing tournament – when he wasn’t kicking code butt, he was punching the crap out of the new boxing bag at he office. We’re all a little fearful after seeing the round house kick and advanced upper cut. As a safety consideration the rest of us decided to take up self-defense next month.

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Beverley Merriman, Managing Director of Wixel at BYM 2011

Bev was invited to speak at the Brightest Young Minds Summit in South Africa. She spoke on Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Here are 10 quotes from her talk:

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This post is a whopping 12 days late. I’d love to apologise but I believe apologies online are very last season. I’ll just shrug it off like Google shrugs off criticism on Google Plus.

I was going through speaker prep, followed by speaker jitters followed by speaking-gig postmortem. Much like being a blogger and never writing the perfect blog post – a speaking gig just never goes 100% the way you envision. I mean you get close, say like 98% perfect but there’s always that illusive 2% that’s just one step ahead of your best intentions.

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