The Sparkline — a blog for independent creatives and entrepreneurs building matterful things.

Learn how to set goals that actually stick The tuneup your website desperately needs
Basic

It's one of the most common questions we hear from entrepreneurs: how do I get more stuff done? Why do I keep procrastinating!? Productivity is about more than just how you organize your sticky notes (though, let’s be honest, that is pretty important) and in this course Chase shares the essentials of productivity specifically for online business builders.

In this step-by-step course, you’ll learn exactly how to set up your email list, how to grow your list the fastest, what to email your list, and lots of advanced techniques. The formula for building a big email list is actually fairly simple and consistent, whether you have 10 subscribers or 10,000 or more.

Learning to create effective and engaging content is one of the greatest skills you can bring to your business. Anyone can create content, but very few people can actually create effective content that creates true fans and customers.

Launching a podcast is an extremely complex and sometimes frustrating process. In this course you'll learn the different types of equipment and software you should use, how to properly record, edit, and tag your podcasts, how you use the best tools and services for hosting and publishing a podcast, and get your podcast launched.

A quick and light introduction Fizzle. This course is mandatory for all Fizzlers and features, amongst other things, a Panther growl!

Nathan Barry is an experience designer for both the web and iOS apps. He also recently published The App Design Handbook, a guide to designing beautiful iOS applications. In this interview Nathan explains why he left college early to freelance, how working at a startup in Boise took him from being a designer to being an iOS programmer, and how he successfully grossed $12,000 in one day of eBook sales with less than a thousand subscribers to his blog.

Corbett Barr is the founder of Think Traffic, a site that helps entrepreneurs grow thriving and profitable online audiences, and he's also co-creator of Fizzle. In this interview we fill in the gaps between where he started and where he is now. Find out how Corbett started blogging, why he started Think Traffic and how he grew his following in the early days. We also discuss the question: what would you do differently if you were starting all over again.