I don’t think that means we should quit working our tails off to create the best web app or website just because something similar has been done before. I do think it means, though, that we should not feel defeated because we’re working with ideas that existed before us.

We knew we were reinventing the wheel to some extent when Jumpchart was born. Fact: there are other website organization tools out there. Same thing with Staction and Paprika. But we felt we could do it better. We didn’t look at wheel reinvention as a negative. Instead, we recognized how important it is in the grand scheme of things. Versions are what get us to the best.

I mean think about it. Writers don’t publish an unfinished book. Architects don’t let tenants move in before the building is done. Hundreds of logos are sketched before a winner is chosen. There are steps to finishing a project, and many versions are created along the way.

Sixty years from now when we’re all old and wrinkly, there could be a revolutionized way of organizing website content that works for virtually everyone. And that’s great – it truly is.

All we hope is that Jumpchart somehow played a small part in its existence.

I’ll admit, I’m bitter about my recent experience with my cable company, but it’s opened my eyes. For years at my house we’ve been putting up with crap like intermittent service during big games, a stubborn DVR box that works only when the stars are perfectly aligned, missed recordings because of “unknown technical difficulties” and only the rarest of opportunities to talk to a real human being when we need help. Not to mentioned we get absolutely zero monetary refunds to cover our emotional damages from getting so worked up. When we finally called to find out how we can get more for our money (and threaten to take it elsewhere), we were not-so-politely told deals like that are stubbornly reserved for new customers only. I didn’t feel so much shocked as I did betrayed.

I Would Like Some Cheese with My Whine, Please.

Alright, I’m just going to say it. What about me?

I’ve paid for their service for years, and even sent them business a couple times. I trusted them to give me the best quality possible, and haven’t cancelled our account when they’ve fallen short on their promises. And then when I so desperately need them to come through for me, they made me feel like I was two inches tall and not worth their time. #bigcompanyfail

It got me thinking how different big brand loyalty is from small brand loyalty. As part of Paste, I thought about how we try to make the most out of our users’ brand loyalty. Since we’re such a small company, we have every opportunity in the world to make each experience a positive one. Of course, it’s ideal that our users never get frustrated enough to contact us complaining, but if they do we want them to feel like their problem is the only one on our plate.

We’ve Done a Few Things Right.

I must say how awesome our users are. There are lots of reasons they e-mail us, but they’re almost always sure to give us feedback of both the positive and constructive variety.

This, for example:

“I adore Jumpchart and found it very useful indeed. I downgraded because I am a designer by trade and am not often involved in the IA of a site. If I need it again in the future however, I will definitely re-upgrade. I have also recommended Jumpchart to associates.

A couple of things that would make the tools more useful to me personally would be to have the ability to:

+ Add a header and footer to each page (with things like a search bar and registration sign-up elements)
+ Associate a design comp with each page

I hope this feedback is helpful and thanks very much for the wonderful service!”

(Full disclosure: When this user e-mailed us, we were in the middle of launching our newest features, which included design mockups, so she didn’t know about the goodness headed her way.)

That support e-mail validates for me that we’re doing something right in the brand loyalty department. That this user would come back to us instead of searching for something else speaks volumes toward the success our attention to customer service has seen. And I think as a big company you’re just not able to give each customer the attention they need to feel special. It’s one of the benefits of being the small guys.

But how did we do it?

We’ve made absolutely certain to respond quickly to all support inquiries. We do everything in our power to go above and beyond when answering questions about how a feature works. We’ve showered our users with gifts of free space, free memberships, and even some of these to show our appreciation for feedback and loyalty. But the most important thing to me is that we didn’t discriminate who we gave what to based on how long they’ve been a customer, or how much they’ve used our products.

We love our new customers, but we have our older customers to thank for being where we are today.

Now every paid (we’ll come back to this) Paprika account gets to receive email. When you email your Paprika account with a subject line that matches an existing project, your text gets appended to the end of the existing project. When you email a new subject line you will create a brand new project.

We think you’ll find all sorts of uses for this (We have!) When some one emails you something that needs done, mark it up Paprika style, and forward it to your account. When you’re stuck in traffic, and can’t get a good 3G connection (AT&T we’re looking at you) just send an email to your Paprika account, -it’ll go out when you get a signal. When you’re offline at a meeting, take notes in your email app, and shoot them to PK when you get time.

If we had it to do all over again, this would be in the launch feature-set. It’s so incredibly useful we just can’t believe we did without it. Unfortunately email is unavoidable. You get all sorts of info emailed to you on a repeatedly daily basis. When your simple productivity app can gulp those emails down, you just can’t imagine the difference it will make in your workflow.

Back to the “paid account” thing. We’re still running with our idea that our base app is incredibly useful, and it offers a ton of goodness for free. As we add functionality to the app, we’re going to charge for it. We hope we’ll add enough great stuff that our free users will see the value in an upgrade.

Paprika update
Here’s a totally honest update on the progress of Paprika so far.

• Paprika is our fastest growing app in sheer numbers of users per month since launched.
• It’s gotten more blog posts, and more tweets than any other app (within the timeframe)
• It’s got our best conversion rate of testers to “real users” of all of our apps.
• It’s also got our poorest upgrade percentage we’ve ever had. People try it, people like it, and people just keep on using the free account.

We’re incredibly happy with the progress of Paprika so far. But one thing is for sure. If we’re to make our money back on the hundreds of hours of time that went into the development (We know… such a simple app! but it takes more time than you would think to do it right) we need to keep adding cool new features to the paid account. We think $5 a month is an incredible bargain and we hope you’ll give it a shot. Go check out Paprika

“I’ve been a staction user for a while now, and I started to “get” the flow of using staction after a few days.

With paprika, I got one of the free accounts, but I haven’t really been spending any time in it. For me, the mark of a good productivity app is whether I willingly jump into using it in the course of a normal day.

I find myself reaching for staction to put post-it notes, todos, and it’s a pretty smooth experience.

I would like to get to know paprika better, but the thought of having to retype or copy and paste over my notes from staction makes it a bit of a chore.

Now that the product has been out there for a bit now, what kind of workflow feedback are you seeing from your users? Any suggestions or tips?”

A legitimate question, and one we were happy to answer!

“To be honest, – we’re not too sure about everyone’s workflow so far. We’re trying to gather info via support, but we haven’t done any surveys, or customer interviews yet.

But here’s how we use Staction and Paprika. 80% of everything we do still gets recorded into Staction. But those occasional projects that have buttloads of todos, or lots and lots of notes have never fit well inside of Staction. It’s an admitted weakness. Staction is for short bursts, and quick communication check-ins. But it’s not great at the long-form. So when we don’t want to cloud the stream with long posts, or too many posts at once, we create a Paprika project, and share it in the stream via a link.

I think of it like a folder inside the project. Share a link, mark it as a todo. Visit the Paprika page, and mark all the todos complete, then hop to Staction, and mark that whole link complete.

But Paprika is much more a personal-use tool right now. I use it tons for my non-work-related tasks, and notes. I use it for my “do this today” stuff that the group really doesn’t need to know about. I share little lists with my wife. I hope with some upcoming updates, we’ll make Paprika even more friendly for quick notes, and better sharing. It’s a small app, and not everyone needs it now, but we have some really exciting plans to grow it over time.

Thanks for writing. You have no idea what it means to us when people care enough to write to us about our apps.”

Do you have any additional tips you’ve picked up while using Paprika?

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” -Henry David Thoreau

As your startup company grows, and you evolve as a team, can you organize your goals like Bess did?

What do you hope to achieve through your business?

• I want to be engaged and excited, not just satisfied.
• I want to choose when, how, and with whom to work.
• I want to have a direct connection between my income, and my audience. I want to sell directly to, and interact directly with, the “end consumers” of what I create. No middlemen.
• I want to create the kind of company I dream of working for.
• I want to work with awesome people, who are exuberant and optimistic. Who are gutsy enough to challenge the status quo (and me). Who believe that long-term relationships are more important than short-term money.

Read the whole manifesto here.

File Storage in Paprika.

We first realized the value of file attachments when we added them to Jumpchart, then integrated them into Staction, and by that time we couldn’t help but carry them over to Paprika. It seemed like a perfect fit, after all. The ability to attach images and files to our notes is invaluable, and really helps speed things up. Now… and later.

For example, when using Paprika to organize a client project, we might do something like this:

Slipping in the document from the client right next to the todo helps keep everything streamlined and in one place. You don’t even have to look at the bottom of the project to see a group of attachments, then try to figure out which one goes with which todo. It’s all black and white.

It’s like combining three steps into one- you don’t have to worry about keeping track of any number of files you deal with on a daily basis. Find it once, and be done. Then, when you share your project with your teammates (or whomever!) via e-mail or Staction, you don’t have to attach that same document… ‘cause it’s already there.

Those steps might not seem like they’d take up a lot of time… but in a world where productivity rules, every second counts.

So… everybody gets 5MB for free!

You can pick your poison for taking notes on what goes on in your noggin, but if you’re normal, picking up a pen probably isn’t your best bet. You type faster than you write. Penning flat out takes too long. Plus, there’s a chance you won’t be able to decipher your own handwriting later…

Consider an online tool. I couldn’t help but think how each of these can be integrated with Paprika- especially now that you can attach files to your projects.

A peek into my workflow: My latest freewrite is about two and a half pages. It pertains to a todo I have in Paprika, but the todo is part of a larger project, and the freewrite is in Text Edit. So I saved the doc and attached it to the Paprika todo.

Ideas are only ideas until they’re organized and thought out- getting them down is the first step.

File storage is the first of our paid features. Get 250 MB of storage, and we’ll throw in an extra ten projects for just $5 per month. Visit your account tab to upgrade now.

For more information on how to attach files in line with the content in your projects, check out our support document.

Here are some simple ways you can edit and save projects you’re working on:

• When you’re viewing a project, press Cmd+E to quickly get to edit mode.
• Once you’re in edit mode, you can press Cmd+E again to cancel, and go back to viewing your project.
• Alternatively, you can hit Cmd+S to save your changes.

Note: If you’re a Windows user, the same shortcuts apply, just with Ctrl+E, and Ctrl+S.