[Show IH] Hells. Yeah. I launched my first ever biz! (And I already have clients)
Hey guys!
About 7 months ago, I discovered IH. Quietly, in the background, I've been lurking, learning and gaining confidence from this community of ninja hackers.
That inspired lurkdom culminated in me quitting my job in April this year to find the headspace to try and start my own little summin' summin' 👀
Guess what.... I did it! 🙌 👉 Scribly.io [www.scribly.io]
Cue the backstory:
I've been working as a copywriter and content marketer for many years, and have been feeling increasingly frustrated at a) how exploitative the market is for freelance writers (they basically have to sell their souls to work for free), and b) how hard it is to find great writers on an on-demand basis.
There have been a couple of productised copywriting services launches, but many of them are priced at a point that troubles me.
A wise person once said, "if it seems too good to be true, it is".
It's really not possible, no matter how hard you try, to offer high quality unlimited copywriting, whilst also paying your writers a rate they deserve.
One or the other suffers: quality, or integrity. Neither of which feels like a nice compromise.
After getting caught in analysis paralysis about how to create something different in that space, in the end, I just set myself a 3 day limit to hack together a website, and launch something, anything, and then iterate from there.
And so, 3 days later, I launched Scribly.io [www.scribly.io] - an unlimited copywriting service, rooted in Integrity.
The idea is fairly simple. Depending on your needs, we can either work project by project, or you can sign up to one of the subscription packages which are as follows:
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$599 for any 5 projects, big or small
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$2000 for unlimited projects
Ultimately, the aim is to develop a longterm relationship with each of our clients, so that we can grow with you as you develop your brands, products and offerings. We don't just want to be someone you outsource tasks to, but a partner that you trust.
Since the initial 3 day hack, I've done a soft launch and got a few clients on board. I've been setting up the processes to make things run smoothly (i.e. recruiting writers, getting briefing from clients, assigning work to the writers who are best fit for the job etc). I've also been iterating the website and product offering.
There are still lots of tweaks to be made, but I've started actively reaching out to people about the service and getting people on board. I'm at the point where I figure it's better to work with early adopters and iterate on the go, rather than spend more time to make it absolutely perfect.
I'd love to hear your feedback - lemme have it (but be nice). [www.scribly.io]
I know that one of the key big things that's missing right now is sample work, so I'm starting to add that in now (but it's a work in progress).
So, there you have it! My first ever experience of developing and launching a biz idea.
So happy to have this community to learn and grow with. ✌️
Site looks great, what did you use to build it?
Thank you! It was built in Webflow - once you get your head around the editor it’s really quick to design some really polished looking pages. I’m a big fan!
Hey! 😀 Congratulations!
I was wondering how difficult is to use Webflow for someone who is not a designer (I’m a marketer)?
Thanks Andrea! It was actually surprisingly easy. I would definitely recommend doing some of their tutorials before diving in as it’s not that intuitive at first glance. But once you’ve played around with it for a few hours it becomes relatively straight forward. There are also quite a few templates you can buy if you prefer too. If you have any questions with it just reach out!
That’s great news! I was tired of using WordPress for my projects but at the same time I was worried that Webflow’s learning curve would be too steep.
FYI, I’m seeing a lot of productised services recently. Only a couple of weeks ago someone launched something similar on PH:
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/scribble-3
This is awesome! Good job and the site looks very warm
Just a quick one:- have tried googling your name and the results look very unique, I can help you in changing the outcome just in case your interested
I love the use of your word unique 😂 yes unfortunately, PornHub features a lot of women who share my name. I promise none of them are me. I think I should change my professional name to my full name which is Daniella Mancini, what do you think? There’s no way I can compete against a porn star SEO wise 😅
Oh I don't know ... 😅
Hi Dani, I love what you've done. Indie hackers really is the place to be, I spend more time here than on Twitter and Facebook combined.
As for the emm_unique name, I searched your full name"Daniella" and your LinkedIn profile was the only thing that popped up. I'd advise you to use that instead as a Google search is one of the first things most clients start with.
Guys, I searched her name in Google and DuckDuckgo, I found no profile on the site mentioned.
Instead, I found - Instagram and other social media list and people search engine.
I feel both of you guys should limit your search or communication on Pornhub sites - as search engine results are shown based on your interests.
With above chat, now we know to regular scientist visitors on Pornhub.
Busted!
Looks interesting, bookmarked for later.
Just a quick note, your site link is not linked to the right site. Right now it is pointing to https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/www.scribly.io instead of www.scribly.io
Hah...What a rookie error... Thank you for pointing that out!
Hey Dani!
This is so cool, I just recently launched my first landing page after lurking on here for quite some time too. Just wanted to wish you all the best, this looks so cool. I may switch my model to something similar. Right now I do a shareable spreadsheet, but I like your idea of having a form and helping people on a customizable level.
Feel free to check out my idea here: bkapts.carrd.co
Thank you very much! And huge congrats to you too - I will definitely check it out 🙌🏼
I think that the idea is great and fills the market need for companies/entrepreneurs that don't have the budget to hire a full-time copywriter.
My only thought is that the value prop on the homepage is mainly around affordability, ease, and speed. All good things, but I was wondering "but is the writing any good? Will it sell more widgets for me?"
Great feedback, thank you! I've been thinking about how to evidence the potential ROI of the investment into the service. I'm writing a big cornerstone piece of content on it right now. Is there anything from your perspective that would be really impactful to see on the home page at a first glance?
Perhaps copy that's more like "boost conversions, sell more...etc"
Idea: why don't you show an example of before/after of, say, an Amazon product. How much it was making before your copy, how much is making with your copy. Something tangible.
P.S. In your only sample there's a typo in the first paragraph.
That's a great idea - thank you! And thanks for pointing out the typo 😅 fixed it now.
How many words can you expect per project? Currently, you can't tell how much you pay versus how much you get.
Website looks great. How did you get your first customers?
We don’t have a word limit, but only projects up to 1500 words can be delivered within the timeframe of the subscription. So if you needed a longer project we would still do it, but just take a day or two extra. As we only work on one project at a time, this impacts the total amount of projects that can be completed within one month - but otherwise, there’s nothing too big or small :-)
I basically did a soft launch with clients I’d been working with on a freelance basis to see if they’d be interested in making the switch to this service. Had a really positive response and secured 3 customers that way. I’ve also been doing manual outreach to startups that have been recommended to me as being potentially interested in this kind of service. Quite a lot of manual work so far. I’m going to really focus on ramping up my content marketing in the next month or so to try and boost organic traffic.
Really nice idea and landing page. I'm struggling with the term project though. What does that mean? Is it one landing page or blog article for a website or the whole website? I'd like to have some info button or tooltip explaining this on the pricing page
Ah that’s great feedback Johannes! I hadn’t considered that could be confusing but I totally understand what you mean now you say it. A project that can be delivered in the specified timeframe is anything up to 1500 words. We can do larger projects but over a longer period. So if it was, for example, a whole website, we would break that down into perhaps 4 or 5 individual projects and work through them one by one. I’ll definitelly make that clear on the site - really great point!
Wow, congrats Dani – Scribly looks awesome!
Impressive to see $12k in revenue already, how long have you been going and how did you find your early customers?
I can totally see myself using a service like this – do you have more examples of blog posts, landing pages etc? Can you do technical/tutorial type posts?
Thanks Mike! That’s really great to hear! I have many more examples of blog posts and landing pages, I’m just waiting for the clients to allow me to share them on the site. Otherwise I’m going to create some fresh samples to share as this is one of the key things that’s missing right now. Yep we can absolutely do technical posts - what kind of thing do you have in mind?
This is a service I could easily see myself paying for in the near future. One thing about the pricing confused me though. Why is one project $60 and 5 projects $599? It looks like I could just buy 10 projects individually for the same price (as long as I could deal with a 1-week turnaround). It seems either one project should cost more or the 5 project subscription should cost less.
PS: Love the landing page! I need to learn how to use Webflow...
Yeah so think this is definitely something that I need to clarify better. So small projects start from $60, but they would be very small projects (like for example, pulling together copy for a FB ad). The price scales up depending on the work - so a blog post, for example, would start at around $120. But this is something that's been pretty confusing for a lot of people so I'm definitely going to fix that!
Please do, i was ok for 60 for a blog post, not for a fb ad. Now it's clear but i had to read more :P
I like the website and how it present the information.
What do you think about writing blog post for some companies?
I'm not native English speaker so for me its hard to write good content. It would be nice to spent few minutes describe my ideas and opinions about some topic and then get articles in good English:)
For example I just launched https://worfor.com and it will be good to have our little blog but I don't have anybody to write few post to it:(
I guess makers will use it;)
Hey ! Yes we offer this service 😃 is it something you would like to hear more about? I can email you if so ☺️