Mike Bifulco: This is Tiny Improvements.

I'm Mike by ko

Everyone loves a generous free tier.

There are loads of free tools I
use to get my work done and I love

recommending free tools for others to use.

A quick search of
articles and newsletters.

I've written shows 99
mentions of the word free.

I'm no stranger to the free tier.

And most of all, I'm a huge fan
of products that use a free tier

to prove their value, and then
convert me to a paying customer.

I thought it might be interesting to
share some products that I do pay for.

Uh, like most developers, I'm
pretty sensitive to price.

I'm willing to pay a reasonable
fee for services based on

the value they provide to me.

But I'm also quick to
cancel a subscription.

If I feel like I'm not
getting my money's worth.

So with that in mind, here's a
few tools that I do pay for and

why I think they're worth it.

Let's start with
transistor.fm for $19 a month.

I get unlimited shows and episodes
and up to 20,000 downloads a month.

I've been using transistor.fm to
host my podcasts for a few years now.

. Over the years, I've used a few other
hosting services for podcasts, but I

found transistors the best fit for me.

Killer features.

Transistor does many things
amazingly well, but these are

among my favorite features.

First off, it's easy to use.

Starting a new show, takes a few
minutes, upload your episode and

you'll be off to the races in no time.

Transistor also never breaks.

Not once have I needed to worry
about my podcast feed being down.

The team adds thoughtful
features to make my life easier.

Pretty regularly, too.

For example, you can add
guests to individual podcast

episodes for better SEO.

And, you know, I love SEO.

They have great HTML and beds
to share episodes and shows

on your website as well.

Transistor also makes it dead easy
to get your show listed on all

the major podcast directories.

This is a task that's fairly
time-intensive otherwise.

And loads of other podcasters don't
do it, which is a huge mistake.

You don't want your show only
to be listed on apple podcasts?

Do you.

Being the nightmare developer that I am.

I tend to tinker around with things
when I have them available to me.

So I've also sent the transistor
team, a few support requests while

poking around with the transistor API.

And they've always been quick
to respond and super helpful.

If you're thinking about starting your
own podcast and want to give transistor

a shot, check out the links in the show
notes to get my referral link for 15% off

your first year at transistor dot AFM.

Up next descript.

For 12 bucks a month, I get 10 hours
of podcast transcription each month

and 20 hours of screen recording time.

Descript also lets you, I loved
the script because it lets you

edit audio and video files.

Like they were a text document.

I'll say that again?

Descript lets you edit
audio and video files.

Like they were a text document.

It's wild.

I was an early adopter of descript
and I've been using it to edit

podcasts and videos for years now.

Among its killer features.

Do you say?

Um, and ah, a lot when you're
speaking, do you tend to stutter?

Descript can automatically
remove that for you.

Do you want to add a section of
your podcast where you're talking

about a product, but you don't
want to rerecord the whole episode.

Descript can do that for you.

Do you want to add a video
to your podcast episode?

Descript can do that for you.

Descript can export video in portrait
or landscape mode and it makes

it trivial to create content for
Instagram, Tik, TOK, and YouTube.

I also really love their audio
gram feature, which you can

use to make close caption clips
from podcasts for social media.

If you're ready to make audio and
video editing, feel like magic head

on over to the show notes and check
out my link to give Descript a shot.

Finally, let's talk about Backblaze
Backblaze is automated cloud backups

for your computer for 18 bucks a
month, I get unlimited backups of the

two computers that my wife and I use
having a backup of your computer is

one of those things that many people
don't think about until it's too late.

I've been on the short end of that
sick one too many times in my life.

So I take a military mindset to backups.

Two is one, one is not, I have
my computer backed up locally

to a Nass or network attached
storage device using time machine.

And I use Backblaze as a cloud
backup for my computer's hard drive.

It's a set it and forget
it kind of service.

And I've been using it for years.

Among back pleases killer features.

Well, you install it once
and it does its magic.

If you ever have a catastrophic event and
need to restore your data from a backup,

you can download your files directly from
the web, or they'll send you a USB hard

drive with all your data on it for free.

As long as you ship it back to them.

Within 30 days, it's a
super thoughtful feature.

It's a great service and it's
well worth it for peace of mind.

If you're not already backing up your
computer, you probably should be.

So try Backblaze by using the
referral link I provided in the show

notes for a month of free service.

And that's it.

This is a quick one.

I'm actually headed out to take
some time off from work this week to

recharge and spend some time in the sun.

It's something I try to do regularly
to take care of myself, work life, and

everything else can be a lot to handle.

And it's important for me
to take time to recharge.

I hope you're able to do
the same from time to time.

Until next time, be
excellent to each other.

Stay positive and love your life.

Thanks so much for listening
to tiny improvements.

I'll catch you next time.