6
11 Comments

Blurt: 10 months in. A leaky bucket. 💧

A breakdown of the problems I'm currently up against with Blurt.

Taking all I've learned in the last 10 months and thinking, maybe I need to try and do this a little differently.

Appreciate any feedback.

  1. 2

    You're doing little work on it (distractions with consulting) and it's growing, churn is high, and that seems a problem, but perhaps that can be worked upon, given the time...and the time it usually takes for traction?

    It feels like there are positives there that can be worked upon. From what others post here, I know many struggle to get any kind of customers, I feel it's important to remember that. Maybe you are onto something good.

    Also, my new pet peeve is testimonials that only have (white) males. Showing some diversity in things like that could make all the difference. It would for me, at least. I don't say this to give you, or anyone, a hard time. It's more a case that it's important to to remember that building a product involves knowing that branding is (partly) about how you make other people feel.

    1. 1

      Thanks, Rosie. This is reassuring. I'm guilty of little patience so maybe I need put in a bit more time. There's a frustration as a founder to find PMF so the patience is difficult… 😅

      The lack of diversity on the social proof aspect of Blurt has bothered me too. Appreciate you calling that out. Need to put in the work for greater exposure here.

  2. 2

    Hey @coreygwin, nice to see a fellow San Diegan! What part of San Diego are you in?

    Solid article, all points resonated. Coincidentally I'm your target customer as I literally just bought "On Writing Well" (it's sitting next to me on my desk) and am trying to write more frequently. With that said, I was somewhat hesitant to give the 15 day free trial a go. I love the clean design of your landing page but a couple bits of feedback:

    • The gifs are way too fast (makes it hard to know what your software does)
    • It's very clean, but the lack of contrast makes it so nothing stands out

    TBH I don't know how much of a burden the paywall is, if anything just emphasize the free trial more so it's clear that it's risk free.

    I just signed up, gonna give it a go, I'll let you know what I think.

    1. 1

      Hey Ian! Fellow San Diegan! I'm over in PB.

      Really appreciate the feedback! Will be sure to make a better emphasis on the trial period. The whole landing page really could use an overhaul. Doesn't really convey the value to be had from using Blurt. Needs to tell a story better. (Also, thanks for mentioning the GIF speed! 😅)

      Look forward to any feedback you have! Let me know what does or doesn't work for you!

      P.S. There's a San Diego IH group that meets up every month or two. We've got a Slack group too—shoot me a DM on Twitter and I can add ya!

  3. 1

    Could you tell which tools have you used to make the animations in your landing page? I've been looking for something like that.
    Thanks!

    1. 1

      Hey Will! Are you talking about the screenshot zoom? I'm using react with a library called react-waypoint to detect when the elements are on the screen and then scaling accordingly! All the demo shots are GIFs.

  4. 1

    Hi Corey,

    I think that there is a lot of similarity between blurt and makerlog (https://getmakerlog.com/).

    So i was thinking maybe for a social element you can make a telegram group for blurt where people help each other (i don't know if it exists already).

    Loved the concept of aha moments ! You are doing awesome work. Just keep the momentum going :)

    1. 1

      Big fan of Sergio and Makerlog!

      A Telegram group for Blurt does exist! :)

      It's not terribly active but we do have occasional great discussions.

      Seems most of us stick around in it for a chatbot I built that notifies when someone hits their goal! I need to consider bringing that in app too.

      Appreciate the support!

  5. 5

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 1

      Wow, thanks @webapppro. Really appreciate your support!

      Absolutely is a turning point. I wonder if raising the price and SEO will help with churn but agree, there's certainly something I can do with the positive momentum. Really appreciate the advice.

      1. 2

        Raising the price does help with churn. You end up with serious customers.

        That is why you see a lot of SaaS companies move upstream bigger checks and less churn.

        Of course going from smb to enterprise is different than $5 to $10 dollars. But if the product has product market fit for the $10 customers it should help.

        1. 1

          Makes a lot of sense! Thanks, Volkan. Largely why I opted to require a credit card for signup too. Serious customers. Will consider!

          1. 2

            This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments