Top Going Paperless Products Of 2011

Top Going Paperless Products Of 2011

Vancouver FireworksThroughout the year, I am reminded that DocumentSnap has the best readers on the entire interwebs. I am extremely grateful and honoured[1] that many of you choose to support the site by purchasing going-paperless products through my links. For that, I thank you.

One unintended benefit is that I can run some reports and see what the most popular products are. I can’t see what you purchased, but I can see what products are sold in an anonymous, aggregate format.

Many people found last year’s list interesting, so here are the most paperless going-paperless products, eBooks, and DocumentSnap products that were purchased via my links in 2011.

Physical Products

Physical Products 2011The top 10 physical products for 2011 are:

  1. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300. For the second year in a row, this is the most popular scanner. It hits the sweet spot of price, speed, and scans duplex and has a great document feeder. My review here.
  2. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500. Fujitsu’s powerful Windows desktop scanner. It is fast, holds a bunch of paper, and people swear by it.
  3. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M. The Mac version of the S1500.
  4. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100. Fujitsu’s new portable scanner that was released in 2011. My review here.
  5. Fellowes W–11C Shredder. Fellowes’ 11-sheet cross-cut shredder.
  6. Belkin F5L009 Network USB Hub. A network USB hub. Some people have reported good results using their scanner over the network with one of these.
  7. Canon imageFORMULA P–150. Canon’s popular portable scanner with TWAIN support and Evernote integration.
  8. Fellowes B–161C Shredder. Fellowes’ 16-sheet cross-cut shredder.
  9. NeatDesk. Neat’s desktop scanner with receipt categorization software.
  10. Doxie Go. The newest Doxie portable scanner that lets you scan without being plugged into a computer. My review here.

EBooks

Top EBooks 2011The top 10 eBooks are:

  1. Evernote®: The unofficial eBook to capturing everything and getting things done. Daniel Gold’s excellent (and recently updated) ebook about using Getting Things Done with Evernote. My review is here.
  2. Evernote Essentials. If you want to master Evernote, this book by Brett Kelly is hard to beat. My review is here.
  3. Take Control Of Your Paperless Office. An extremely comprehensive guide to going paperless by Joe Kissell. My review is here.
  4. Take Control Of Getting Started With Devonthink 2. I point people to this guide when they ask me about Devonthink. Also by the ridiculously prolific Joe Kissell.
  5. Take Control of Backup Up Your Mac. The name says it all. What do you know, it’s by Joe Kissell!
  6. Take Control Of PDFPen 5. PDFPen is a great Mac application for working with PDFs, and this is a good guide if you want to master it. By Michael E. Cohen.
  7. Take Control of TextExpander. I use TextExpander all day every day, and this guide will help you become a TextExpander ninja. Also by Michael E. Cohen.
  8. It’s All Too Much. Not about going paperless specifically, but it is a great book by Peter Walsh about clutter in general and dealing with the emotional aspects.

DocumentSnap Products

Top DocumentSnap Products2011 was the first year that I created some of my own products and courses. In case you are curious, here are the most popular ones:

  1. The Unofficial ScanSnap Setup Guide – Mac. The Mac version of the guide won the top spot, but not by as much as I had expected.
  2. Paperless Document Organization Guide – Specialist. As you can tell, this is by far the most popular version of the Paperless Document Organization Guide.
  3. The Unofficial ScanSnap Setup Guide – Windows. The Windows version of the popular ScanSnap guide.
  4. Paperless Document Organization Guide – Practitioner. The version of the Paperless Document Organization Guide without the videos or Paperless Action Plan recordings.
  5. Paperless Action Plan. In October and November I ran a month long course all about going paperless. It was popular, so look for it to make a return soon.
  6. Paperless Document Organization Guide – Master. The “premium” version of the Paperless Document Organization Guide that includes the recordings from the last Paperless Action Plan.
  7. Going Paperless Jumpstart Teleseminar. In February, I did a call with a group of DocumentSnap readers to answer questions. The recording is available for purchase.
  8. The Unofficial ScanSnap Setup Guide – Combo. Includes both the Mac and Windows versions, for you cross-platform folks.

Thank you again for supporting the site in 2011, and I hope you find this list as interesting as I did. This year, look for more content on a wider range of scanners, and more how-to information.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this list, head on down to the comment section.

(Photo by johnrawlinson)


  1. I used the Canadian spelling there to show how sincere I am.  ↩

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 2 comments

Peter Carney - December 14, 2012 Reply

Here's how I went paperless: http://www.thepizzabinder.com/

DocumentSnap Time Machine | Tips To Learn How To Go Paperless | DocumentSnap Paperless Blog - January 8, 2012 Reply

[…] Top 10 Going Paperless Products Of 2010 The most popular products purchased through DocumentSnap in 2010. If you’re interested, the 2011 paperless list is here. […]

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