Hi - I've just joined Indie Hackers and would love to get some feedback on my side project.
https://www.indiehackers.com/product/brush-ninja
Hi - I've just joined Indie Hackers and would love to get some feedback on my side project.
I've made Brush Ninja, a small online animation app that lets you export animations as animated gifs.
You can see the product page here: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/brush-ninja
At the moment I am getting some reasonable traffic, but it's largely teachers, and schools. I am also not making much money from it.
So, I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for how I could broaden its appeal, and increase my revenue.
Boy thats a really nice app. All our customers are teachers and schools too.
Some of our stuff has similar attributes I think, in that they're fun and great, but do not solve a specific and persistent need. So its hard to sell as a solution with a price tag.
While there are other ways to monetize without selling logins, I have never been successful with those and can't really speak to them.
But I think your whiteboard is the star. Its simple and really attractive. Locking it into a gif generation tool, is maybe shortsighted. Because all it can do then is make gifs. (duh) .
We use whiteboards in our product. Teachers use them to ask students to draw what they just heard, or write up a math equation or draw the position of their tongue in their mouth as they say the "th" sound (seriously). Teachers have lots of little needs and they use their creativity to bend tools to serve them. In this case I think building in the ability for teachers to use your whiteboard more flexibly would be good.
Also you need to get it to them in a form they can use. So you want it to support an LMS. Its awful to say, but if the teacher does not have an LMS of some sort (Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas) then they are probably not going to pay. They would have to pay out of their pocket. But an institution that has put in an LMS, has a server, IT staff, a budget for it, and a desire to encourage their teachers to use it. They will pay if its useful for them.
You may or may not have the desire and skills to go that route, but thats where I would go. I am right in that space too. So send me a message if you want to know more.
Hey there - thanks a lot for the feedback. That's really interesting to hear. I've never used an LMS and wouldn't have a clue how to integrate with one so that's something I would need to read up on.
When I built it - I hadn't considered that it would take off with teachers. It was just meant to be a fun tool. I think the fact there's no login/ tracking/ advertising is a big plus for them.
I may well send you a message later. Thanks for again for the feedback!
A few quick questions on the product itself:
Hi - thanks for the thoughts!
Regarding your first point - I'm not sure what you mean. Which image are you clicking and what changed?
For the banner - do you mean the site header? That could certainly be reduced in size a bit.
I have experimented with the frames on the side of the screen but was never comfortable with it. It didn't feel as logical as having them on the bottom. When they're on the bottom you can see more at once, and see we read from side to side, it felt more logical having them run from left to right. I may revisit again though since I like to keep iterating.
First Point - Ignore this. It's not occurring anymore for me.
Yes, I'm talking about the header.
The reason why I talked about the layers is due to my first experience on the page. I started playing with the drawing and then noticed the "Animated Gif Creator". It actually took me a few seconds to think about scrolling down to the frame areas, and even then I only understood how to use it once I read "New Frame". The experience in my head wasn't as intuitive, so hense the movement of the frames to somewhere more obvious.
Hopefully this helps!
Definitely helpful! I need to think more about how to make it clear for everyone. The feedback is most appreciated!
Nice to have you here @BinaryMoon!
Which one is more important to you? Broadening appeal or increasing revenue?
I think you'd get more/much higher quality feedback and suggestions if you included a bit more information about your current challenges.
Why do people buy your product, for example?
Who is using it? What do they use it for? What are the alternatives?
Hi Louis - thanks for the thoughts. I've not posted here before so I didn't know what people would find useful.
I think broadening the appeal would be nice. I have a few ideas for increasing revenue (I plan to make app versions for windows, ios and android), so if I can get a wider range of visitors then hopefully I can sell to them when the new versions are ready.
I think the main reason people buy the paid app is so that they can save their in progress animations, and continue them at a later date. With the web version you can only save one animation at a time, and when you press new it's gone forever.
Currently the main audience appears to be teachers using it in schools. There's info on how teachers can (and are) using it here: https://brush.ninja/teacher-resources/
There's not many other sites like this that I'm aware of. There are some white boarding apps, and drawing apps, but none quite like Brush Ninja.