Free and open-source Twitter analytics
I decided to open the source code of FollowRoad.One (a simple Twitter follower tracker) and make it entirely free. It is the first project on my recently started journey of 1001 projects, and I want to experiment with it as much as possible.
I could write that I want to be generous, but I reflected and discovered three fundamental reasons to make the project free and open-source:
- Self-promotion;
- To acquire practical skills faster;
- It solves only my problems for now.
Self-promotion
I do not have any credibility — nobody knows me. Helping others is one of the best ways to make new friends and gain credibility.
By the way, help does not have to be free. You can help in exchange for money. But for me, it is easier now, just build and give for free without asking anything in exchange.
Why I want to promote myself is another question I have not reflected on yet. Vanity?
Skills boost
I do not know how to build products that people love and pay for. I assume that making a free and open-source product might help me gain skills in communication with customers and problem-solving. And later, I can convert these skills into something that will put bread on the table for my family.
I want to ship daily to feel accomplished. And the project without any obligations which I can infinitely improve is a perfect playing field to constantly ship.
Only I need it for now
I build the project to solve my problems. I like to play with numbers, and my current Twitter account is an excellent place to analyze what happens.
So, that's why I am not sad if nobody cares and won't use the project. But if somebody wants and uses it, I am happy.
Monthly expenses
For now, it costs me $17 monthly to support the project (a server and a database). As far as I use the project, it is not a problem for me.
If it grows, I can continuously optimize it and reduce expenses.
You are welcome
Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback on my thought process or journey, I am happy to hear and discuss it.
But, please, do not judge the code for now. I know how shitty it is. I will improve it gradually.
I am open if you want to help with the project itself or propose features.
Originally published at dmytrokrasun.com.
That was fast, nice to see you have already started.
Don't get me wrong but I don't get how making a project free and open-source will help with what you've listed. To me it sounded like you simply avoided to try selling it, which is fine.
Making it open-source is a good move but I personally couldn't find it much helpful especially since it's not a library that I can import and use directly. It's a code base I need to build on top, so I'd be happier to work on a cleaner one. That might be just me tho.
Promotion;
You may not have the credibility yet but you have the skills, motivation and execution and probably more. Many people without those already making sales. So don't underestimate your position. You'll only learn by trying.
As you said, it doesn't have to be free, you can keep it open sourced but ask for a fee or make it freemium by adding premium features. An example; https://github.com/DevUtilsApp/DevUtils-app
Needs;
People enjoy tools for twitter, however tracking follower's count doesn't sounds helpful enough. What can I do most with this data, unfollow the unfollowers? Understand when (after which tweet) I got unfollowed?
Expenses;
Since you are on a road to build 1001, maybe it's better to get familiar with free tiered solutions, maybe it's possible to host it on Vercel and if it's not a big deal to move from mysql to postgresql, supabase offers dedicated servers with some limitations.
Features;
I'd suggest to have open profiles, an example; https://ilo.so/ It's a great way of displaying social proof. Also it's a hands-on experience for visitors instead of looking at images of components.
Extra;
In the previous post you've mentioned to get better at design and AI. About design; I'd suggest you to go and pick a font pairing for yourself and use them from now on in your blog, in your products. You may think it as a branding process.
About AI; this may sound absurd but current twitter tools usually aim for automation, scheduling, content generation. I'd like to have a solution that 5-10 AI accounts replying, liking, retweeting my every tweets. Faking it 'till making it.
Keep it going!
Anil, I thought about your reply all evening and decided to apply the most of it. Your feedback is a gift, and I am so lucky to receive it. Thank you.
Yes, you are right. I am afraid to sell. Do they call it impostor syndrome? I do not have any active users now and obligations, so I decided to sell instead of making the product for free after your reply.
And I will close the source since there is no value in it. But I will gradually extract and polish components that might be useful for others.
It is one more argument to make the paid version. The free version does not force me to learn.
You are right, it is not enough, and there is not much value in it. I have a massive list of ideas. But I need to reframe and rethink them. What value do they bring to potential customers?
For now, it is not critical, but thanks for the advice with Supabase. I managed MySQL on DigitalOcean for $12 and one VM for $5. But if the costs grow, I can optimize or even move to SQLite as an experiment. I use Go, and it does not require a lot of computation resources.
I like the feature, and it also has a virality component in it.
I am not good at fonts, can you recommend something. I use default fonts provided by Twitter Bootstrap. Do they seem boring?
It is against Twitter automation rules. They probably have detection mechanisms for such behavior.
For now, I think that getting the first 1000 followers should be done organically. It helps to find your way and your style. It is super hard, and I have not imagined how hard it is.
I can pay for Twitter Ads and get 1000 followers in one week, and then more followers will come organically because of some kind of social proof. But the problem is that this approach won't help you learn the hard way. What do you think?
Most of us started from 0. I'm still there tho :) You can choose a route to build an audience first, be active on twitter, tiktok (not kidding). Write articles on various sites and gather all those following into one basket. Then push your product.
But I believe it won't be the case until you defeat that imposter syndrome. You can code, not many people do. They want to improve their quality of life and happy to pay for it. As long as you make that happen, there is nothing wrong with asking for money in return of your effort and time.
Once I scraped some data, put it into a spreadsheet, wrote about it several times here. Some people bought it. I felt like a scammer at first, it was easy for me to scrape that data, asking for money was absurd. I was ready to refund, I was ready to provide whatever extra they'd ask for. I was dying to get a feedback but I couldn't ask.
Somehow our path crossed with few of them and they thanked me. As it turned out, they were busy building their own products, and what I offered simply gave them a speed boost. That's it, win-win for both sides. Everyone is happy end of story. It took me a month to convince myself this is how it is.
I wasn't forcing anyone to buy what I offer, it was a proposition. If they think that's worth the money. Then it's a deal!
That's why I suggest you to dive in, experience it for yourself. I bet many of your assumptions will fade and be replaced with new ones.
I didn't mean to say there is no value in it. My initial thought was; There are 1K+ results on github for "twitter analytics". There is no way for me to look all of them when I need it, I need to read/watch your codebase on a tutorial or course. So I'd know it exists.
However I check it again, filtering down to Go language it yields 9 results. So it can be useful for many people.
About virality and marketing, this one was a good read for me; I finally got some trial signups with this strategy
About fonts;
My goto font is Montserrat; but mostly when I design logo. I suggested that because building 1001 product is the thing but there were no similarities in between your blog and the 1st product's landing page. Wouldn't it be better if people say when they see your fifth project; "Oh I know this, this is Dmytro's style."
Additionally IMHO typography would be a good start for good design skills.
https://www.fontpair.co/
https://fontjoy.com/
I'm not much familiar with their terms but how about not playing by the rules? Also, some bots retweets certain hashtags, some thread bots reply while they are unrolling. So what's left, likes?
I believe I've read somewhere, it was OK as long as you put your name (who's responsible for the account) into bio.
Of course I'm not saying you should build this, it came to my mind while I was reading your post. Mentioning you wanted to advance in AI.
For me not everything has to be in the hard way. No need to master everything and it's probably impossible. Also, I don't think getting 1000 followers through ads would help much. There is probably more to it.
People leveraging keywords, scheduling, engagement. There are accounts with hundred thousands of followers with almost zero engagement. I don't think they paid for those followers, they are already popular figures but without finding their way through twitter's algorithm I don't think that number matters much. IDK.
@Rusted, sorry, I am responding with tremendous delays, but you post thought-provoking answers, and it takes time to figure out what you wrote.
For now, I don't believe in this path. But I see the value Twitter and IndieHackers bring me, even without selling anything there. Your replies are a great example. The feedback you give improves my journey and thought process. And for me, it is the most important thing for now.
Thanks for sharing your story. It is inspiring. Yes, you convinced me that I should experience selling.
For now, the code at least shitty, so anyway it does not make sense.
I like the idea of reusing fonts, including overall design style. It makes shipping cheaper and faster.
Agree with you, but was is the easy way :)