MacTips Reaches 10,000 Subscribers - iTunes Giveaway!

In celebration of reaching 10,000 subscribers–we’re giving away 2 iTunes gift certificates, $50 and $100. To win a certificate enter a suggestion for MacTips in the comments. Any suggestion at all. The two best suggestions win.

mactips-logo-small-white.pngToday MacTips reached 10,000 subscribers for the first time, and it’s such an important milestone I wanted to take a moment and thank you–the readers.


Picture 50.png

But before I do that, I’d like to thank the writers here at MacTips. They’re the heart and soul behind the website and without them the site would not be where it is today.

So, in no particular order thanks to Omer Zach, Michael Zhao, Travis Jeffery and most recently Brandon Hopkins.

The past couple of months we’ve seen some spectacular growth here at MacTips. Below is a graph of subscribers to MacTips for all time:

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As you can see things were steady for a long time. As we updated more frequently with unique content–more of you subscribed.

Another reason for this is the success of the MacTips Widget which has been hovering in Apple’s Top 50 Widgets since its release:

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So from me, to you–thank you. Thanks if you’ve ever read a story. Thanks if you’ve ever linked back. Thanks if you’ve ever submitted a tip. Thanks if you’ve ever commented on a tip. Thanks if you’re reading this now.

Thank You!

I think I speak for all the writers when I say we love writing Mac tips–but it’s much more enjoyable to have an audience you can engage in conversations.

As my way of saying thank you, I’m giving away 2 iTunes gift cards, $50 and $100. I realize this isn’t a ton of money, but it’s the best I can do on a student’s salary.

To win the gift card you have to make a suggestion in the comments and leave your e-mail in the e-mail field.

The suggestion can be anything you want–anything at all.

Here are some examples (and feel free to use and expand upon these):

  • I want to see more Mac tips, 1 or 2 per day is not enough!
  • I want less Mac tips, a couple long tips are better than a lot of short tips
  • Write less about OS X applications and more about tweaks, hacks
  • The Mac Switchers page sucks, redo it.
  • The forum is dead, you should find a way to make it more active
  • Write more tips on X
  • More advanced or beginner tips

By anything I mean anything. I really want to hear what you guys (and gals) have to say.

Anything from topics to write about to changes with the widget to a re-design of the website.

The two best suggestions win the $100 and $50 certificates.

Here’s a tip, the more constructive your suggestion the better your chance of winning.

So if you say “x sucks” I will definitely accept your criticism. But if you say “x sucks because a, b, c” you have a much better chance of winning.

Contest ends Saturday April 26th at 12PM CST. Winners are chosen by me.

And once again, thank you. We’re at the stage where things start getting really exciting. You’ve noticed we’ve started doing giveaways recently. This isn’t possible without an audience.

We’ll have many more giveaways and things like it in the future, stay tuned!

Update: Thanks everyone for the awesome suggestions. We had dozens of great ideas–many of which I’m already trying to incorporate into MacTips. I changed the rules of the contest half way through, and without telling anyone.

Because there were so many great entries, I decided to give away 5 $30 gift certificates instead of 2 larger ones. I think this is a little more fair to everyone who made suggestions.

The winners of the contest are Concetta, Daniel, PleanBean, Hayley and Carl. Everyone should have received their certificate with the exception of Carl. Unfortunately iTunes only lets you purchase 4 certificates per day–so I’ll send Carl’s out tomorrow.

Again, thanks to everyone who made suggestions–I’m very happy with the turnout.

Here’s to 20,000!

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44 Responses to “MacTips Reaches 10,000 Subscribers - iTunes Giveaway!”

  1. 4Avatars
    Alexandria Riley
    Hey, I enjoy mactips but it can be overwhelming. I would suggest organizing or making categories based on user's experience and expertise. I konw you somewhat have this, but how about something more beginner user friendly! Also it is possible to have video tutorials in the mactip categories...staring at words at screen especially when you have no concept of a mac is scary and a little overwhelming :-p
    HOPE I WIN!

  2. 4Avatars
    richie
    I recently downloaded the widget and it literally changed my life! I am now the in-house Mac Genius in the office, the go-to guy for anything cool with the Mac, he he. Just a quick suggestion, can you make the widget minimize if there's no new tip? And maybe an alert (like Mail) if there's a new tip? I always find myself checking almost obsessively for updates. This way I won't be so crazy always checking my dashboard. Congratulations guys! Kudos from the Philippines :)

  3. 4Avatars
    Shannon Magnani
    I thought there would be more hacks and tweaks, but I have found this more application related tips many of which I do not use. I subbed as I thought there would be more things I could use to get the most out of my operating system

  4. 4Avatars
    Ola
    I would like to see more tips on 3rd party software that can help me in my studies.

  5. 4Avatars
    Bob P.
    I'd suggest offering tips n two different flavors - simple and advanced. I've just make the switch from a PC to a mac and so am struggling at some of the most basic things - e.g. how do i select multiple files in Finder, as opposed to one at a time. I recognize that although this learning curve is pretty steep ... it will be pretty short. Once I get the rudimentary stuff down I will then want to take a crack at more advanced stuff and at the time will not want to wade through simple tips (e.g. OF COURSE you use the command button!).

  6. 4Avatars
    Hayley
    On the mactips widget you should add the little up/down arrow buttons that usually appear on top and bottom of a scrollbar. It's really fiddly/annoying to scroll down because the page is so long that one tiny move of your mouse scrolls down for ages. The arrows would make it a LOT easier to read without all the fiddlyness.

  7. being completely new to mac (i bought a macbook air) AND being a senior citizen, i would like more tips for beginners somewhere or to know how to search for them if you already wrote them. thanks for the tips!

    smiles, bee

  8. 4Avatars
    Thomas
    Mactips works well in Dashboard, but I cannot subscribe it with any RSS-Reader, like NetNewsWire and others.

    There seems to be buggy code:
    http://feedvalidator.org/check?url=http:%2F%2Fwww.mactips.org%2Ffeed%2F

  9. 4Avatars
    Ken Grazier
    Remember that simple tips, a few of which you've shown, are great for people who have just switched to Mac. I know when I first did, there were a lot of simple things that I didn't find out until I talked with friends.

  10. 4Avatars
    Danielle
    I love reading mactips! I like reading about new applications, however, I really don't buy much software, most of what I need (besides Office and iWork) is free or came with my mac. Free application reviews would be cool, but maybe less of the demo versions?

    Also, I think more "intermediate" tips would be nice, at least for me. I am definitely not a beginner, and know the basic shortcuts and secrets about my mac, but I am not too into using terminal or anything yet, so more material in between would be nice. Along those lines, tips for applications that a lot of people use, Safari, Mail, iTunes, Word, Pages, etc. would be awesome.

    Keep up the good work and I'll keep reading!

  11. 4Avatars
    Jon
    Could you synthesize the Mac Switchers page? Consolidate it into sections of importance and use. 105 Keyboard shortcut posts is way too much. This would be a lot of work but would be so useful.

    Maybe develop a test that evaluates your mac proficiency and then directs you to what you still need to learn.

    Separate Apps tips and Apple tips somehow.

  12. 4Avatars
    Dan
    My tip: a new contest for an updated logo. When was the last time you heard Apple call it a MacIntosh?

  13. 4Avatars
    Jack
    Congratulations on this huge milestone! I enjoy reading MacTips and you have some great tips!

    I think you should make more tips on Photoshop and Pixelmator, particularly those for beginners. You only have 5, and it would be nice to have some more.

    Here's to the next 10,000 subscribers!

  14. 4Avatars
    Landon Johnson
    i really do think the site needs more updating. On the weekends is almost a must. But the site is awesome as is! more features on os x apps too!

  15. I suggest categorizing tips as "beginner" and "expert", or something like that. I think that would help me size up more quickly the relevance of the tip to me.

  16. 4Avatars
    Carl
    One suggestion I can think of is for the daily email. Perhaps keep the current subject, but include the names of the 1 or 2 apps that the tip is for. Or perhaps have themes for each day...Monday is iTunes, Tuesday is OSX, Wednesday is for switchers, Thursday iMovie and Fridays are free offers.

    Also, it would be nice to have an index at the beginning of the email as to what the content is...IE, which apps have 'tips'.

    thanks...as a recent switcher, I enjoy reading your tips each day....they are fairly short emails that I can actually get to each day...thanks

    Carl
    Victoria, BC
    Canada

  17. 4Avatars
    susannah scranton
    my suggestion to you is.. don't stop what your doing, keep doing it. lol.
    hacking for dummies would be a great idea, if thats doable. also,more meat and potato's, let's get into the nitty gritty, get our hands a little dirty.
    for instance: every week have people submit hacks, the person with the best hack gets it published on your site at the end of the week.
    Just a thought... thanks again for all your hard work!! susannah

  18. I like getting the tips, but too many of them are too esoteric (read: power users only) for my use. So I suggest fewer Terminal hacks and more things that are more practical for average users (e.g., new widgets, utilities, productivity shareware, obscure settings, etc.) I know a lot of people like messing around in Terminal, but frankly, it's playing with fire so I try to avoid it as much as possible. Or maybe, as someone else suggested, just have regular stuff and power-user stuff appear separately. Hope this feedback is useful.

  19. 4Avatars
    Cary
    I would love to see some more tips on doing things people already do but more efficiently. Whether that means automation, or scheduling, etc. I would also love it if you guys put out like a "best of" every month, with the most popular or useful tips just in case people don't check the site (or the newsletter) every day.

  20. 4Avatars
    charles goodson
    I just want to say that I am so glad I stumbled on this site about 6 months ago. It was a lifeline to me having been a PC person for over 20 years. When I meet someone who just buys a Mac and says "no manual ?" and I say " nope....but check out mactips" tells you all the little secrets that Apple forgot. I remember feeling like a moron the first day on my Mac ..I had never heard of "safari" browser in my life. I turned on the computer and stared at the screen "okay, ummm how the hell do you get on the internet" ... I swear I had never heard of Safari - so I 'm staring at the icons, going hmm no Explorer...and I couldn't "get on the internet" to read about Mac, since I coudln't find the browser link in the first place -- Finally, I just started all those bouncing icons until i hit on Safari. It was only a few days later that I found your site.

    Because of your tips, I have customized my Mac more than any of my friends. I have more "stickies" with reminders than I can even keep track of - Now, I just click on one link in the bookmark bar and it opens all my fave sites at once - and every morning with about 10 other sites, I get my daily dose of Mac tips.

    EVERY time I find a new tip I love, I go "WHY can't Apple tell us about these ?" I guess that's the mystique of Apple and why I love it - It never gets old -

    So, my suggestion for you is to keep doing EXACTLY what you're doing. You're doing a great job - oh I really loved the "video" "how to" you had on a few weeks ? or months ago that was really cool. I forgot what tip it was, but I remember you said you were trying something new with video tips - they were EXCELLENT.. for a newbie like me.... it was just the speed I needed. Maybe a color coded message at the beginning of each tip (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced" would be cool too - so you get the idea of what you're getting into. Some of the tips are very complicated for me and I'm a bit afraid to try ( like the terminal tips) not sure about doing that just yet.

    Anyway...great job... keep up the work

    Chuck Goodson, Southern Cali

  21. 4Avatars
    Alex Hwang
    I think you should:

    1. Give more tips, but this is just be because I am a 10-year-old, so I have a lot of free time to look at the site, but I know this is tough for you guys.

    2. Make the forum a little better; there are some threads that are 6 months old with no replies...

    3. Write more about freeware. I mean ScreenFlow looks great, but for a person like me (who can't buy anything without his mommy's approval) or someone who just doesn't want to spend any money because they aren't really tech-savvy and want something as cool as the pricey apps.

    Thanks for all of this website, and don't think I hate it because it rocks!

    Alex (a little 10-year-old boy who likes iTunes)

  22. 4Avatars
    Alex Hwang
    I also think a little AJAX or Javascript might spark up the site and draw more users.

    For example, an easy cookie technique that when a user comes onto mactips.org, the website asks for their name. Later, when they sign on again, a popup could be displayed that says: Hi Name!

    Here's the thing I'm talking about: http://w3schools.com/js/tryit.asp?filename=tryjs_cookie_username

    Alex(again)

  23. 4Avatars
    Matt
    I would like to see more Terminal tips and explanations. I am not an experienced user of Terminal but I find it very intriguing and would like to know more about how it works and how to use it. Keep up the awesome work

  24. @David ...We already do. Go to any tip and it should be either categorized as "Easy", "Intermediate", or "Advanced".

  25. 4Avatars
    Mark Molchan
    Please provide tips for Mac dumbies ( this is just my tenth day). Especially tips for transferring music,docs. and photo files from PC to a Mac.

  26. 4Avatars
    Craig
    I absolutely love the tips, however I would like to see more "discussion" on each daily email. Perhaps a direct link in the email to a dedicated forum? Also, a better way to search archived tips would also be great! Thanks guys!!

  27. Thanks for the suggestions. If any of you would like to request a tip or submit a tip, feel free to do so by clicking "submit a tip". It's located on the top of the page in between Discussions and Subscribe

  28. One thing: Free apps category

  29. 4Avatars
    Stephen Fink
    On the mactips widget, I think it would be great to maximize and minimize comments for a post, so there is no need to enter the browser to see these. There's no better way to find out how well something actually works than reading what luck other people have had with it. Call me lazy, but I it's something I would enjoy quite a bit.

  30. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    how about some tips "for the rest of us" (like people who use Macs with the Mac OS)
    I looked over the tips from this month - here's the list:
    (stay tuned for comments and suggestions at the end)

    23 - Hear
    22 - Freedom
    21 - Jaxtr
    21 - Fluid
    21 - Evernote
    19 - iPhone slow motion
    16 - Visor
    16 - opening new tab in Safari
    16 - Quickbook
    15 - iPod serial #
    15 - using Terminal to have fun
    14 - Mailboxer
    14 - Adium
    13 - Boot Camp
    12 - NetNewsWire
    12 - closing tabs in Safari
    11 - Omnifocus
    11 - resetting he PMU on a AirBook
    10 - contact actions in Mail
    10 - Snapture (for iPhone)
    10 - fixing Mighty Mouse
    9 - NetRestore
    8 - Pixelmator
    8 - Ecto
    8 - PhotoShop
    7 - iCal events
    7 - Afloat 2
    5 - FF 3's Buttons
    4 - Twitter clients
    4 - iPhone/iPod touch backups
    4 - hidden Safari keyboard shortcuts
    3 - RescueTime
    3 - using QuickLook with Safari
    2 - SafariStand
    2 - Quicksilver with Terminal
    1 - Eliza
    1 - MarsEdit

    that's 37 tips - of those,
    23 are about 3rd party apps (most of which cost money)
    5 are non-computer hardware-related
    5 are browser-specific (hint - not everyone uses Safari)

    I'm left with these 4:
    15 - using Terminal to have fun
    13 - Boot Camp
    10 - contact actions in Mail
    7 - iCal events

    None of those address interests I have (don't use Terminal, Boot Camp, or contacts)

    How about a little more about our beloved computers and the astounding OS we use???

    I have a gripe about some computer magazines I get.
    Some consist mostly of reviews (read: ads) for 3rd party software and hardware.
    I remove the 2 - 10 pages that are relevant to me (an ordinary run-of-the-mill MacUser who uses Apple apps and computers), and toss away the rest.

    I don't mind some reviews ...
    but it would be nice to see more about ...
    Address Book, Finder, iCal, Mail, Preview, Quicktime, TextEdit, Dictionary, Stickies, Dashboard, Finder ... etc etc ...
    more about the Leopard OS
    Time Machine, Stacks, Quick Look, ...
    and more about iLife apps
    (at least iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD)

  31. Great suggestions everyone, keep 'em coming.

  32. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    your archives and categories could be more user-friendly

    to wit:
    should I want to explore the category of keyboard shortcuts, I have to scroll through 105 posts to see what's available
    It would be great if, when you click on a link, you see a (clickable) LIST of all the entries for that topic.
    Likewise, it would be great to click on a month in the Archives, and have the same kind of list appear.

  33. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    a couple of more FRIVOLOUS tips:

    a) let us know which tips won the Pixelmator licenses
    b) what's "wrong" with this list of MacTips writers?
    Brad, Omer, Michael, Travis and Brandon
    (hint: this is a woman asking this question)

  34. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    Giveaways are great, but I think it would rock if you raise the chances of a person winning a contest like this one -

    you said you were offering "2 iTunes gift cards, $50 and $100"
    How about SIX $25 cards??
    or better yet, TEN $15 cards
    Hey, I'd be happy with one of those ...
    AND you'd get to choose 9 other posts as winners (besides this one, of course)
    Looking over the posts so far, I think choosing 10 winners would definitely be in the realm of possibility.
    Oh, yeah, give the winners public recognition - list the posts, along with their "names" - who wouldn't want a minute of Mac Tip fame??

  35. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    Travis - "Go to any tip and it should be either categorized as "Easy", "Intermediate", or "Advanced".

    Where?

    But this gives me an idea, for those who are visually oriented.
    Your little calendar icon at the beginning of a tip has a green bar at the top.
    How about?
    green = beginner
    blue = intermediate
    red = advanced
    purple = any level

  36. I don't want to get into answering individual suggestions, but I felt compelled to reply to these two:

    b) what's "wrong" with this list of MacTips writers?
    Brad, Omer, Michael, Travis and Brandon
    (hint: this is a woman asking this question)

    I completely agree. The fact of the matter is not as many women applied last time we were hiring, so the men had a bigger pool to choose from.

    Next time we hire I'll give women more of a chance to see if we can't even this out a little bit.

    you said you were offering "2 iTunes gift cards, $50 and $100"
    How about SIX $25 cards??
    or better yet, TEN $15 cards


    This is a good idea, I'm just weary of changing the contest rules after I've posted them. I'll think about it.

  37. Perhaps you could have a downloads page of Mac cheat-sheets: PDFs of all the shortcuts and handy tips for different kinds of activity (Photoshopping, general Leopardry, iWorking, etc.). Plus you could provide a screensaver, a bit like the word-of-the-day one that comes with OSX?

  38. 4Avatars
    Jerrett Wilson
    I have only been reading MacTips for only a month or two, but I really love the information you guys give! However, I have noticed that several tips have to do with using code and other technical stuff that some new Mac users may not understand. My suggestion is to balance between tips that are more practical for the new user and tips that will appeal to the more technical Mac users.

  39. 4Avatars
    Jeffrey
    I think the most useful thing you could do is add the following 2 features to the MacTips widget:
    -up down arrow on the scroll bar (as well as scrolling with the up down arrows on the keyboard)
    -allowing text and photos from the widget to be selected (so you can copy it without having to go to the actual website)

    Keep up the great work!

  40. 4Avatars
    Sue
    I'm new to MacTips, and I'm one of those new users who found you through the MacTips Widget. I have not found a way to reduce the physical size of the Widget (it's about 4 inches wide and about 2 inches high on my MacBook). I'd like to see the Widget smaller in physical size until you click it to see what's new at MacTips -- then it could increase in size (to the size it is now). This would make it much handier to handle in the Dashboard; right now I have to keep MacTips down toward the bottom of my screen so I can find my other widgets.
    Since I just found your site through the widget (about 2 weeks ago) I don't have much to add except to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the tips so far and I appreciate the time and effort you all have put into it.

  41. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    how about a place where we could REQUEST tips??

    something like,
    request: tips for downloading/saving videos
    request: tips for speeding up our Macs
    request: tips for making snapshots
    request: tips for using/creating animated GIFs
    request: tips for reclaiming hard drive space
    (you get the idea)

    then, readers could send in specific tips for needs others have...

    having requests made would jog readers into volunteering specific info they have
    and often there is more than one solution - some solutions are "better" for individuals than others, for various reasons ...

    I'm sure readers would be a valuable resource for various types of solutions. Sometimes I go merrily on ways that are more difficult than easier methods I don't even know exist.
    When I see an easier way to do something, saving me time/effort/resources/etc, I am grateful!!!

    Often, there's more than one way to skin a Cat (Leopard, Tiger, etc ...)

  42. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    This tip is on the basis of having read the 37 posts above, where I noted a common thread of being overwhelmed with the site. By virtue of all it tries to be/do/cover, that's pretty understandable.

    I have a couple of suggestions to "streamline" the site.

    1) There are a LOT of beginners/switchers here, crying out from the depths of Mac Tips. I'm not one, but I've been one (we all have), and I feel their pain ... ;-D
    Put the hack/terminal-type tips in a separate section, easily accessible to the gurus here.
    BUT (important) put a short entry (with a link) in that day on the homepage announcing
    **** new tip posted in Hack Section about xxxx ****
    Any interested hackers could go there.

    2) I don't know if this is typical, but this month about 2/3 of the tips were reviews of 3rd party software.
    Maybe those reviews could be put in a separate section also.
    BUT (important), as in the previous case, put a short entry in that day on the homepage (with a link) announcing
    **** new tip posted in Third Party App section about XXX, software that does a killer job of xxxxx****
    In addition, if there's a tip related to that 3rd party app, a homepage announcement could also be posted.
    Anyone interested enough to pay for an app that does "a killer job of xxxxx" could follow the links.

    Those apps could be sub-divided by topic (image-editing, video, audio, etc).
    That would really simplify matters for those who are interested in finding good image-editing software, and would like reading reviews & tips for each app to decide which to purchase.

    Putting in place some type of system you could devise along these lines, more advanced readers could quickly check the homepage and follow links to hacks or 3rd party apps.
    What would remain in the homepage, for the most part, would be more Apple/Mac OS-specific tips, which should be of interest to general readers.

    Whew! I hope some of this is comprehensible!!! :-)

  43. 4Avatars
    Concetta
    This is a really small suggestion,
    for those who don't check MacTips on a daily basis:

    On the home page, in the right-hand column, you have sections for things like recent comments and discussions. Good idea!

    Maybe another small section with links to "Hot Topics/Discusstions of the Month". If someone hasn't checked in for a while, they could see what the "buzz" has been in the recent past ...

    Is there any way right now to do this besides scrolling through the pages of days, and checking for the "fire sign" where you show the number of comments?

  44. 4Avatars
    PleanBean
    Wow, 10k, awsome job, guys!! I quickly glanced at your site using the internet archive site, and it looked pretty fresh back in 2005 with 23 tips!!
    http://web.archive.org/web/20050803024117/http://www.mactips.org/
    Nice to see you growing and improving like hell.
    Theres really not that much that hasn't been said, and i think not much actually needs to be suggested, you have everything going for you..
    But if i were to request one thing, i would ask for when you first look at the tips, only the title is showing, and maybe a brief description, but if you click on the title, the rest of the tip unfolds and you can read the whole thing if your interested, and when your done reading you can click on the title again and it will minimize.
    Another thing you could do is change the Categories, and have broader categories instead of, for example, having a category specifically for "Photoshop", you could broaden it to be an "Images" category, and an "Internet Browser" category, instead of "Safari", "Camino", and "Omniweb" (which each contain some tips of each other's categories).
    Also, i suggest you have an option for Advanced Search, so you can search by date, author, etc.
    Thanks for listening! :D

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