The easiest way to grow a business is to be in a growing market.

If the market is growing, more new people are showing up than leaving. The growth is outpacing the attrition.

Even if you don’t have the greatest product… even if your marketing is sub-par… even if you make some mistakes… chances are you’ll still grow.

Because as the market grows, every competitor usually gets at least some of the new customers and clients entering the market.

It’s organic growth.

On the flip side, one sure way to be in a shrinking business is to be in a shrinking market.

You could have the best product… the best marketing… the best customer service… and all that wouldn’t matter.

You’d still struggle just to stay even.

In a shrinking market, most businesses focus on cost-cutting to increase their profit margins. That way they at least have a chance of maintaining profits while revenue shrinks.

One business I’d hate to be in right now: newspapers.

From the April 9, 2010, issue of The Week magazine, citing the NY Times:

Last year [2009] was one of the worst ever for the newspaper business. Advertising revenues fell 27.2 percent, or more than $10 billion, from 2008, which at the time was billed as the worst year for newspapers since the Great Depression.

For most newspapers, this means they needed to somehow make up 27.2 percent of their annual advertising revenue — just to stay even!

One business I’d love to be in right now (assuming I had the skills): iPhone app development.

On January 22, 2011, Apple announced that “more than 10 billion iPhone and iPad apps have now been downloaded from the App Store.”

The app market has grown faster and bigger than just about any other market in human history. (One of my past clients is doing VERY well in this market. There’s far more demand for app developers than there is supply.)

Want to start a business?

Here’s a tip: Make sure you’re going into a market that’s on the upswing. It’s the easiest way to grow a business that I know of.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• 31 Ways to Grow a Business
• 4 Reasons to Consider Coaching as a Business
• A Tipping Point in Books
• Basics of Business Growth
• Why Recessions Are Good

I recently bought a new Apple iMac to replace my ancient Dell laptop. I knew I was going to need to learn a new interface, new keyboard shortcuts, and which new software to get to replace the programs I’d used on my PC.

But rather than blindly researching on my own, I decided to ask my subscribers for their best tips and tricks, plus their recommendations for the best Mac software programs. And they delivered in spades!

In fact, when I printed out all the comments, it came to 23 pages worth of information! (And that’s not even counting the email replies I received.)

As you can imagine, it’s taken me quite a few hours over a number of days to read through all the feedback, research all the software programs, and tabulate the results. But the end result is a fairly comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts, software programs, and productivity tips for Internet marketers who work on a Mac.

Let’s begin…

Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

On a PC, most hotkey shortcuts begin by pressing the Control button plus some other button. On a Mac, there is still a Control button, but you actually use the Command button for most shortcuts. For instance, to bold text on a PC, you’d hit Control B; but on a Mac you’d hit Command B. With that in mind, here are a few helpful shortcuts.

Command T : Hit Command plus T to open a new tab in your favorite browser.

Command ~ (tilda) : Hit Command plus the tilda key (left of the 1 key) to toggle between windows within a single application (e.g. multiple browser windows within Safari).

Command Tab : Hit Command plus Tab to toggle between multiple applications (e.g. Safari, Pages, and iTunes).

fn F9 : Hit the Function key plus F9 to view all open windows in all open programs, then click to select the window/program you want.

fn F11 : Hit the Function key plus F11 for the equivalent of “Show Desktop.” All your open windows will slide out of site instantly.

fn > : Hit the Function key plus the right arrow to instantly scroll to the bottom of a web page.

fn < : Hit the Function key plus the left arrow to instantly scroll to the top of a web page.

Command Shift > : Hit Command Shift plus the right arrow key to toggle between tabs in your browser window.

Command R : The F5 key on your Mac won’t refresh your browser window. Hit Command plus R instead.

Command > : Hit Command plus the right arrow to move your cursor to the end of a line of text.

Command < : Hit Command plus the left arrow to move your cursor to the beginning of a line of text.

Shift Command 3 : To capture an image of your screen.

Shift Command 4 : To capture an image of a specific portion of your screen.

fn Delete : On a PC, you get a backspace key and a delete key. Not so on an Apple keyboard. You get one delete key. If you’re in a text document, place the cursor at the end of a word and hit delete for the equivalent of backspace. If you’re at the front of a word you’d like to delete, you can press the Function key plus Delete. This is the equivalent of the delete key on a PC.

Of course, there are many more shortcuts available if you’d like to learn them. Here’s Apple’s complete list of keyboard shortcuts.

And if you’re just switching from a PC to a Mac (like I am), you can check out this series called 100 Top Tips and Tricks for Windows Switchers by Cult of Mac.

Best Mac Software Programs for Home-Based Internet Businesses

All told, I received recommendations for more than 60 different software programs. I’ve broken them down into broad categories and ranked them according to how many times they were recommended. So the first program in each list was the most recommended, the second program was the second-most recommended, and so forth.

Even better, I’ve made sure to note which programs are free, or at least offer a free version. So if you’re on a tight budget (or you just like to save money), you can focus only on the free programs.

Best Mac Text Editor:

• Textwrangler – 8 votes (free!)
• TextMate – 2 votes
• Bean – 1 vote (free!)
• TextEdit – Mac’s native app, received a few “good enough” votes

Best Mac HTML Editor:

You’ll notice that Textwrangler is repeated from the list above. This is because some text editors can be used for plain text or HTML markup. People who code by hand will often use a text editor as an HTML editor.

• Textwrangler – 5 votes (free!)
• Dreamweaver – 3 votes
• BBEdit – 2 votes
• SeaMonkey – 2 votes (free!)
• Espresso – 2 votes
• Coda by Panic – 1 vote
• KompoZer – 1 vote
• Komodo Edit – 1 vote (free!)
• Aptana Studio – 1 vote (free!)
• Rapidweaver – 1 vote
• Flux – 1 vote
• NVU – 1 vote (free!)

Best Mac FTP Programs

• Transmit by Panic – 6 votes
• Cyberduck – 6 votes (free!)
• FileZilla – 5 votes (free!)
• Fetch – 2 votes
• FireFTP – 1 vote (free!)
• Flow – 1 vote

As you can see, there was a two-way tie for Best Mac FTP Program. Here are three of the comments I received:

From Alex Juel: “Best FTP: Transmit – I’ve tried Cyberduck, Filezilla, and Fetch and none compare. Transmit seems to be the most stable, especially when transfering lots of files at once.”

From John Lenaghan in his article 7 Applications Every Mac-Based Internet Marketer Should Be Using: “Transmit lets you edit files on the host so you don’t have to download them, edit them and then upload them back to the server. If I’m testing something or making a minor change to a file this can save a lot of time.”

From Ralph Napolitano, the Special Projects Manager for Business Breakthroughs International: “For FTP, anyone recommending Fetch is old school and Transmit is somewhat limited compared to Cyberduck. The nice thing with Cyberduck is it even works with Amazon servers. Nice!”

My comment: I personally researched this and Transmit 4 has been upgraded quite a bit. Panic says Transmit has 45+ new features, including the ability to handle Amazon S3. From what I can tell, Transmit appears to be the better program, which is why I bought it. That said, Cyberduck is free while Transmit costs $34. Either way you choose, I’m sure you’ll be happy.

Best Video Screen Capture Software for Macs:

• Screenflow – 11 votes
• Camtasia – 3 votes
• Jing Pro – 2 votes
• iShowU HD – 1 vote
• Snapz Pro X – 1 vote

Best Screen Capture Tool for Macs:

• Snapz Pro X – 3 votes
• Skitch – 2 votes (free!)
• Jing Pro – 2 votes
• Little Snapper - 1 vote
• ImageWell – 1 vote

My comment: The most affordable way to have the ability to do video screen captures PLUS static screen captures is to get Jing Pro; it’s only $14.95 a year. Its only limitation is that screen capture videos have a 5-minute limit. If you need to create longer screen capture videos, you’ll be best served by one of the more expensive options.

Best Mind Map Software for Macs:

• FreeMind – 1 vote (free!)
• Mindjet Mindmanager – 1 vote
• iMindmap – 1 vote
• OmniGraffle – 1 vote

Best Mac Password Manager:

• 1Password – 4 votes
• LastPass – 2 votes (free!)

Best Applications for Running Windows:

• Parallels – 3 votes
• VMWare Fusion – 1 vote
• Virtual Box – 1 vote (free!)
• Cross Over – 1 vote
• Boot Camp – Mac native app

There wasn’t a whole lot of input on the best way to run Windows on a Mac, but I did note this tip…

From Rob Metras: “Get VMWare Fusion for your Virtual Windows Platform – Better than Parallels.”

Best Mac Software Program – Miscellaneous:

A bunch of software programs were recommended in this category. I’ve organized all recommendations into subcategories for easy reference. And just for the record, it seems people were more passionate about Scrivener than any other program, which is why it’s the first program listed below.

From Brian McLeod: “Check out Scrivener from Literature and Latte for an amazing writing tool.”

From Dr. Hambrick: “TextMate is the best text editor, but Ryan, you’ve got to check out Scrivener… I love Scrivener so much! It’s a program in a class by itself. [...] I can’t live without Scrivener.”

So, without further adieu, I present the best Mac software programs that fall outside those listed above…

Writing & Editing Programs:

• Scrivener – for outlining, storyboarding, and writing
• OmmWriter – for concentrating on your writing (free!)
• TypeIt4Me – for fast typing and custom shorthand
• MarsEdit – for (off-line) desktop blog editing
• CopyPaste Pro – for saving multiple items on your clipboard
• Sitesucker – for saving entire websites to your desktop
• Dragon Dictate for Mac – for speech recognition, voice to text

Audio Recording & Editing:

• Ecamm Call Recorder – for recording Skype calls (audio and video)
• Wiretap Studio – for recording audio (Skype calls, etc.)
• Audacity – for editing audio files (free!)

Image Editing & Video:

• Pixelmator – for editing images
• Lineform – for vector art, diagrams and illustrations
• Kingconvert – for converting video and ripping DVDs

Note-Taking, Productivity & Organization:

• Evernote – for taking, storing, and searching notes (free!)
• DEVONthink Pro – for organizing and annotating lots of information
• Yojimbo – for collecting, storing, and finding information
• OmniFocus – for personal task management
• Apimac Timer – for running multiple timers simultaneously (free!)

Email & Instant Messaging:

• Adium – for managing multiple instant messaging (IM) feeds/platforms
• Mailplane – for managing multiple Gmail accounts

System Utilities:

• Flip4Mac – for playing WMV format videos (free!)
• Truecrypt – for disk encryption
• Superduper – for fully bootable backups and system recovery
• Jungle Disk – for data synchronization and remote backups
• Cocktail – for system maintenance and interface tweaks
• Growl – for customizable desktop notifications

Best Mac Tips and Tricks

From Markus Allen of the weekly Stump Markus radio show:

Best Mac tip: Your new iMac turns anything that’s printable into a PDF file. For example, if you have a document (it doesn’t really matter what it is, or even what application you used to create it) – chances are you can turn it into a PDF. Just hit Command+P (or select [Print] from the [File] menu). Next, you’re going to see a button labelled “PDF” at the bottom-left of the Print dialog box… click this, and you get a bunch of PDF options. The second option is to “Save as PDF…” Done. Instant PDF. This tip works well to create swipe files of those super-long webletters… yep, this PDF tip captures everything.

From Shel Horowitz, author of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green:

My biggest productivity shortcut: In the Finder (like the Windows Desktop), drag the folders you use most often into the Places section of the left-hand nav bar, then move them into alphabetical order. Boom — one-click access to anywhere you want to go.

From Nick Dalton Pernblad of the iPhone Development Blog:

Task: Publish your ebooks on the iBookstore

Software: Pages (latest version)

Steps: Load your text document into Pages and export into EPUB format. You can then upload the EPUB file to Lulu to get it published on the iBookstore.

Result: Expose your ebooks to a new marketplace and brand new customers with very little effort and investment.

And, last but not least, you might want to check out Kevin Cullis’s book for work-at-home folks who want to start a business with a Mac: How to Start a Business: Mac Version.

So there you have it: Just about all the Mac tips, shortcuts, and software programs you could possibly want to know about, all in a single blog post. ;-)

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. I spent quite a few hours putting this post together. I hope it’s a valuable resource to you. If you like the post and want to reference it in the future, please bookmark it on Delicious, Digg it, Tweet it, etc. Thanks in advance for your help!Similar Posts:

• Attention Mac Users – I Need Your Help
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Yesterday, I finally “retired” my five-and-a-half-year-old Dell laptop and bought an Apple iMac to replace it.

So far, I love it. Feels light years beyond my old PC set-up.

But right now I’m focused on two important things:

1. Transferring important files over to the new iMac.
2. And… Learning how to most efficiently use my iMac.

With that in mind, I’d like to solicit your help.

Please leave a comment sharing your #1 tip, tool, or shortcut for your Mac computer.

• It could be a little-known function for doing something cool.
• It could be a Mac software program that you just can’t live without.
• Or it could be any other tip or resource you feel I (and other Mac converts) should know about.

I’m particularly interested in any advice you have in how best to use a Mac in a home-based business.

• What’s the best HTML editor for a Mac?
• What’s the best text editor? (I used Textpad on my PC.)
• What’s the best screen capture video software?
• What’s the best FTP program?
• What’s the best way to do screen captures?
• Do you see how many questions I have? :-)

Not only will I read every comment, I’ll also take all the best tips and publish them next week in a brand new blog post, with attribution.

So get to it! Share your best Mac advice by leaving a comment below.

UPDATE: I’ve finally tabulated all the results and published them here… Best Mac Tips, Software & Shortcuts for Internet Marketers.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Feel free to leave a link in your comment if needed. But please know in advance that all comments with links are held for moderation. So it may take me a few minutes — or a few hours — to publish your comment depending on when you leave it. Thanks!Similar Posts:

• Simple Tips for Getting More Traffic
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You might wonder why I asked you to tell me your favorite brands a couple weeks ago. The reason I did this was to prove a point: brands are powerful.

In a world of information overload, brands are even more important. They give us a decision shortcut — a way to side-step all the choices we’re faced with every day.

We don’t evaluate dozens of different brands every time we go to buy a certain type of product. We do our evaluation once, maybe twice, then we default to our “brand of choice” for months, years, and possibly decades.

This is the power of a brand.

In a way, we are brainwashed… or brandwashed… to make certain buying decisions.

Does this mean that brand-name “image” advertising is good advertising? No. In fact, most image advertising is terrible. Yet brands thrive in spite of their advertising. The question is Why?

If you look at all the brands people listed as brands they love, you’ll find that most of them deliver more than just a product or service; they deliver a positive memorable experience.

For instance, Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks were all listed more than once. And all of them deliver an experience.

• Apple offers a fun, low-stress environment where you can demo all their computers and ask as many questions as you want before you buy. (Of course, they have an amazing product, which doesn’t hurt either.)

• Amazon offers a fast, convenient buying experience that is customized to you and your buying habits. Ordering is easy, prices are hard to beat, and Amazon’s personalized recommendations often lead you to new musicians and authors you would have otherwise never discovered.

• Starbucks offers more than just coffee — they offer a pleasant environment where you can relax, read, study, visit with friends, or check your email. When you buy a cup of Starbucks coffee, you’re also buying ambiance.

Starbucks also showed up on my list. That’s because my wife and I used to go on dates at Starbucks. It was our favorite hang-out both before and after we got married. We’ve been going to the same Starbucks/Barnes & Noble combo for more than a decade now. That’s a lot of talks and a lot of memories.

So each time I support Starbucks, I’m buying not just the coffee (which I happen to like), I’m also buying my memories and all those good feelings I’ve associated with Starbucks.

In my view, people love brands that:

• Create a (positive) memorable experience.
• Stand for a certain value system or world view.

I believe a “memorable experience” is created primarily through one of two ways.

First, there is the experience that is designed to be extraordinary from the get-go. Take Disney, for instance. There’s nothing like it. And you’ll always remember the time you spend there because of that.

Second, there is the unexpected experience, usually in the form of outstanding customer service. This is why USAA showed up on my list. They’ve repeatedly given me excellent customer service. I haven’t experienced that anywhere else. So USAA stands out big time.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting because people hate brands for the same reasons they love them. We hate brands that…

• Create a (negative) memorable experience.
• Stand for a certain value system or world view.

Two examples…

Example #1: I hate Borders because I’ve repeatedly had bad experiences at their stores. And not just at one location — multiple locations. I was so upset by how I was treated at these stores that I literally “black-listed” them for years and refused to even step foot in one. Even today, years later, I will go out of my way to support their competitors.

Example #2: I strongly dislike Wal-Mart because of the values that run the company. Their approach to business is to save money at any cost — costs to the environment, costs to third-world countries, even costs to taxpayers. This is not what I believe in, so I intentionally avoid shopping at Wal-Mart.

So you see, we love and hate brands for essentially the same reasons. Interesting, eh?

Glenn Livingston dropped by and left an insightful comment. I’ve reproduced some of it here:

When I was a Fortune 500 consultant, we were involved with an advertising agency which wanted to promote the belief that people could define themselves by the three brands they absolutely couldn’t live without. They’d ask people what a typical day would be without those three brands. [...] Is your brand one of the 3 your customers couldn’t live without?

What a powerful question that is!

This is not to say we can all create “indespinsable brands” — but it’s certainly something worth striving for.

Remember: The more choices there are, the more important your brand is. Because a brand is how we shortcut the decision-making process. So, believe it or not, having a strong brand is important even for information marketers.

Case in point: How many blogs do you read on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?

I bet your daily blog list is short indeed. Maybe 3-7 blogs, max.

Taking a cue from Glenn, a good question to ask if you’re an information marketer might be, “Do I write one of the three blogs my customers couldn’t live without?”

Keep this in mind whenever you write blog posts… create information products… or do anything that defines (or refines) your brand.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. If you participated in my brand question from the previous post, thank you. It made this “thought experiment” much more interesting.
Similar Posts:

• Tell Me Your Favorite Brands
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