[Show IH] Launched my first blog post and site about my Slack bot side project
Hello IH!
I finally launched my first blog post about "approvals" (e.g. expense / holiday / etc) and how I plan to tackle them on Slack. I am working on a Slack bot for fun, which I might turn into a profitable business some day if there is any demand for it. I chose this idea because it has allowed me to start with a simple fun project to learn some NodeJS + JavaScript, as I wanted to get my hand on some backend development (super fun coming from a Java/Android background - dynamic code feels so dirty! :P).
Even though my app is nowhere near production ready and I have a long way to go, I have no regrets so far, because I have learnt so much, and I have got into the habit of launching often and getting things done, which is probably the most important take away of all for me.
I have developed a good foundation and set of skills to launch another project if need be, and have stepped outside of my comfort zone of mobile app development. So don't worry about trying to get things right, just take small steps, experiment and keep launching.
My time isn't focused on just coding, I'm trying to devote a lot of time to marketing, etc. I think the main struggle will be finding customers. On the one hand I need some pre-validation, but without launching the app into the Slack app directory I think it will be quite difficult outside of it - even with beta releases. The aim of the blog post is to get some validation as well as provide some education, but even this is a learning process in itself.
I have created the website myself using html/css and BootStrap. This was super fun, and I'm a really big fan of static sites now. I honestly had no idea you could host and get SSL certificates outside the typical big providers like Google and Amazon, but things have come such a long way. What I like about all of this stuff is that I pretty much get to control it, outside of the walled gardens of the app stores.
My site is really simple, no fancy design, but to just get it to this level where I can get subscribers has taken quite a bit of work! For example learning basic bootstrap, and having to decide which mailing list provider to use; that takes some research and then you have to create the forms, etc. (I am using MailerLite for now). For the next version I will work with my designer friend to make it look nice and also probably use Hugo to generate the site.
I have a long way to go, but I thought I would share my initial launch, and I will keep launching as necessary.
"If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." - Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn
https://www.productivebot.com/blog/how-to-use-slack-to-manage-your-approval-process
If you have any feedback on the content or the idea that would be great, for example is it too generic and should I dig more into specific verticals? Even better if you think it will be useful for you or your team/business and if you have any specific "approval" requirements I would really like to hear from you! :)
Thanks for reading.
