From Almost Quitting to $400+ revenue in 3 weeks
Hey everyone,
I wanted to share a little bit about the journey of CopyUI so far. It took me almost 5 months to take CopyUI.com from $0 to $400+ in revenue. Yeah, those aren't big numbers, but as this is my first indie-hacking endeavor, I say this was a success. I almost gave up on it multiple times; it just wasn't worth the effort (this was about 3 months in).
The only "strategy" for growth I had in mind was Twitter and Reddit. After discovering #buildinpublic, it seemed like a good way to reach developers looking for good UI, so I started building in public. After a few weeks, I started interacting with people and talking to some folks building in public and pitching them CopyUI.com, which at the time only had a couple of components, but some saw the potential very early.
After working on a few components and sharing them on Twitter, I got a couple of signups, but the real kicker came on the day I launched the pricing plan. The day I announced it, I got 2 signups 🤯.
False advertising 🤭
I shared this post on Reddit, and it kind of blew up and brought in hundreds of new users, but none of them paid. Understandable, but this was still a success because I received a lot of valuable feedback and ideas.
After that, I got 1 paid user and radio silence for about 2 months. That's when I almost threw in the towel. To make matters even worse, I was having some personal issues, and continuing to work on this just didn't make sense financially.
So i talked to a friend who's familiar with building businesses, and he told me what I already knew, that this won't scale, So I decided to stop working on it 😔. I went on to work on freelance projects, and weeks went by without me working on it. But then, almost 2 months later 🔔, out of the blue, a new customer popped up 🤩!
I couldn't believe it, so I got to work adding more value for the users. After that, I optimized the landing page, added 20+ components, and started posting more on Twitter. CopyUI started getting more sales, growing week by week as I put in the work and added more components.
By now, you're probably wondering what the hell happened there.
And once again, out of the blue, a fellow indie-hacker named Peter Mick checked out CopyUI and became a paid user. He also tweeted about the product, which caused the sudden spike in revenue.
This was on a Saturday, and by the end of the weekend, we added +6 paid customers, +$149.86 in revenue, and +22 new users.
It didn't stop there 📈. It just kept growing more and more. Users started signing up, and by the end of the month, CopyUI had:
+$280 in revenue (+857.5%)
+10 paid customers
79 signups (+380%)
Now, CopyUI is growing steadily after the price increased from $29.99 to $69, getting one to two paid customers per week. Let's see where this baby goes 🚀.
What's to come?
A lot more components and Templates. We've been talking about it for a while, and this is definitely going to send our revenue through the roof. At least that's what we're hoping. But most users are excited about components so more of that is on the way.
Thanks for reading and you can find me on twitter @alemalohe
It's always a pleasant surprise when things work out. Good luck to you!
Yeah, thanks 😁
Congratulations. Try out more channels, I'm sure you'll go up and above from here. Peter mick is really cool.
Yeah, he's cool, for doing this!
Very inspiring, congrats on pushing through the doldrums!
Thanks =)
Congrats man! Long effort pays 💪
Looking at flowbite.com or tailwindui.com, it seems like it's mainly a one-time payment business. Makes sense though, since with a monthly subscription you could get all the components out of it...but would miss the new ones. Are you considering a low subscription style? Motivating people to keep the subscription n displaying something like "10 new components / month" or idk. It could be a way to compete against them. Maybe some A/B testing to try there :) Good job, looks sick !
Thanks!
And as to the pricing, it's currently $69 for lifetime access, the price will gradually increase with the rollout of Templates, but yeah CopyUI is trying to cater to what people don't get from other UI Libraries (Unique designs and new components), and yeah A/B testing some stuff right now =)
Way to go Alohe!
Thanks, Shri!
Nice to see you here 😄
Lander vibe alone makes me want to buy. Nice work.
Haha, glad to hear.
Thanks!
After working on a few components and sharing them on Twitter, I got a couple of signups, but the real kicker came on the day I launched the pricing plan. The day I announced it, I got 2 signups
Lol, yeah!
You gave me an idea on how to market with the help of #buildin public, thanks!
Glad it helped!
You are very welcome! =)
The website looks fantastic even as it is still in the early stages of development. I appreciate you sharing the story, and I wish you luck finding paying clients.
Thanks, CopyUI is at 16 paying customers now =)
Great story @alemalohe!
What did you do when you posted on Twitter? Were people asking about CopyUI or did you reach out to strangers?
I found some people building in public and I just tweeted whenever I added a new component to the library. people love seeing progress that I know!
Proud of you for the resilience!
Thank you!
Ah a saas resurrection! Congrats on the success, I hope to follow in your steps soon. Our project is called saas grave.
Lol, What does it do?
It's a common space for people to bury business ideas that met an unfulfilled and tragic end.
Haha cool, I guess we'll see how Copy UI goes 😅
Thanks for sharing your story, hoping to take a bit of your perseverance along, while I work towards my first MVP :)
Glad to be of help! Good luck!
This is awesome! Seems like you could use a consistent marketing engine. Have you thought about email marketing?
Yeah, 5 of the paid users are from an email I sent out a few months ago.
I'm trying everything in regard to marketing the product and optimizing the site for better conversion
Woah 5 paid users from email is amazing! I've set up cold email marketing systems for a lot of businesses, it's one of those channels that seems to always work consistently. More than facebook ads imo (at least it's more consistent). I'd try to build a cold email system, you've already proven it works.
Way to stick with it!
As someone else mentioned below, your product can be great/well thought out and executed... but marketing and make or break things for sure.
Just curious, do you have any plans for small marketing actions to keep folks flowing in?
It looks like most of your success has been leveraged via WOM and inadvertently borrowing other people's audiences. I'd think making a plan to do that with some intention every quarter would be helpful. Happy to share some more thoughts around this!
Actually, I've been blown away by the 42% increase in user acquisition this month! Even when I've been inactive on social media for weeks, the user base keeps on growing.
Nice! That's always a win. My prod marketing brain is always asking, "what is the strategy that is working, do I understand why it's working and how might I repeat it again in the future if I want/need to do so?" Word of mouth and audience borrowing are working well for you (I love both of those strategies, btw.) Good work!
Very inspiring. Thank you. I have to read this everyday to keep pushing on my project.
Awesome, glad to hear that it was helpful! Remember, never give up without giving it your all 💪
Nice one man
That's nice Alohe, Congratulations!
Yeah, Thanks, Emmanuel! 😊
Congrats!
Thanks =)
Congrats Alohe, thanks for sharing.
I just start a new project for weeks, and already wondering how long should I give it a time until I give up
From my own experience, don't just throw in the towel on a project. Take a step back and weigh your options.
Ask yourself, have you given the project enough time? Some projects can take weeks or even months to get going. So chill out and keep at it.
Are you having fun with the project? If it's not your thing, maybe it's not the right fit for you. But make sure it's not just a temporary mood.
Are you making progress? Even if it's slow, it's important to keep moving forward. If you're constantly stuck and not seeing any progress, it might be time to take a break and reevaluate.
So, it's totally up to you and your situation. Don't let your emotions take over, if it's not working, it's not working. Move on and find something that sparks your interest.
Hi, good and inspirational storytelling!
I checked the website on my iPad pro 11, while using it vertically, there are two section which need to be corrected. Unforgettable interfaces & beautiful interfaces made easy made easy are partially invisible.
I wish you the best of luck, never give up!!!
Thanks, man.
Yeah, I'll look into it!
good lucky!!!
It would be good to add UI components for affiliate sites, using static site generators. I was looking for components (there are a lot of plugins for WordPress, but nothing for static sites - JAMStack). If there was a solution like that, we would subscribe.
Sure, I'll look into it!
Thanks for sharing your inspiring journey! Your story shows that perseverance, building in public, and seeking feedback are key to success in entrepreneurship. Keep up the great work with CopyUI!
Definitely, and thank you so much!
congrats! Definitely let us know how it goes
Thank you so much! If you want to follow my journey I mostly share on Twitter, https://twitter.com/alemalohe, But I'll also occasionally share my wins and losses here
Congratulations on embarking on your journey!
Twitter is an excellent platform to market yourself and receive relevant feedback and suggestions from potential users. In fact, even for my feedback tool ruttl, I make an effort to remain active on various social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Indie Hackers, so far they have yielded great results.
Best of luck to you!
Definitely, I don't think I would have made a cent without Twitter, Not a big fan of linked in tho, haha
Awesome story, congrats! Definitely let us know how it goes
Thank you so much! If you want to follow my journey I mostly share on Twitter, https://twitter.com/alemalohe, But I'll also occasionally share my wins and losses here
Great work @alohe
Thank you!
Interesting, how do you handle customers that have issues with components or requests?
No issues so far, but request they usually DM me on Twitter
Your focus on providing pleasing UI-components is particularly interesting because, in addition to their functional benefits, beautiful designs can help to create a positive emotional connection with users. When users enjoy using a product, they are more likely to become loyal customers and brand advocates. Keep moving forward and good luck!
Can't agree with you more! 🙌
And, Thanks 😊!
So happy to hear that you finally got it figured out!💪
Thanx for sharing and keep it going dude🙌
Thank you so much, I will 💪
Alohe, you did an excellent job! It's motivating to see how you overcame the difficulties and frustrations of starting an indie hacking business.
Still got a long way to go, but yes, I consider this a win. I'm glad to hear you found it inspiring 😊.
Congrats Alohe,
You've just discovered an ever present truth in startup land - startups don't struggle to grow because their product sucks, but because their marketing does.
Focus more on marketing rather than your product and you'll continue to grow :-)
Haha, yeah definitely! 🙏
The power of the internet. very cool. Happy to see the ball starting to roll. Goodluck on your journey!
Thank you!
A very good start, I've checked the site and looks great, for sure, it is going to be developing, but even now looks great. Thanks for sharing the story and good luck with payable customers.
Thank you so much! 😊
Just checked out CopyUI and I really like what you've done. I'll be following your progress and definitely thanks for sharing your story.
Your landing page is well designed imo. A thing you might want to fix though is that the links of the 'Hero' component example are clickable and can be quite confusing to users if decide to click on them. Also maybe consider making the text that says 'Some Example's' above the dropdown more visible. It took me some time to figure out what's going on there.
Best of luck!
Thanks for the feedback, and you're right about the links on the hero component on the landing page. Will fix it now =)
Inspirational and motivating, thank you for sharing. More power to you :)
Glad you found some value in this! 🙌 Thanks for letting me know, I appreciate it!
Congratulations!
I’m curious about the feedback for why this “won’t scale”. I don’t see any immediate red flags upon first glance.
Also, your website was confusing to me on mobile, because it wasn’t immediately clear that the Hero section was an example. So I’m reading a landing page about building user interfaces, and then suddenly there’s stuff about finances, some kind of user engagement graph, and an early signup button that does nothing, etc.
Maybe make it so that’s more obviously an example, and link out to a full demo?
So basically, I spent 3 months building this thing and only had around 120 users, with just a couple of them actually paying for it. I made like 70-something bucks in revenue which was pretty disappointing considering the time I put in to build it
Congrats! You did an amazing job!
Thank you so much =)
Im following your work on Twitter,,, You are doing great!
Keep pushing and you will achieve great results
Thanks, man, and yeah, I've got a great feeling about this =).📈
Many congrats!
Thanks! 🙌
Congratulations!
Thanks! 🙌
Blogging is a wonderful platform to connect with people and share information on various topics. It's impressive that Alice has been able to build a successful career in writing and digital marketing based on her passion for blogging about health and fitness. Her dedication to spreading knowledge and promoting a healthy lifestyle is certainly admirable. https://www.modafinildirectuk.com/shop/
Iframeception :p https://imgur.com/a/Qpn4s15
Congrats, but I'm pretty sure it's not "Vanilla CSS" when you use Tailwind and a component library. Not that "Vanilla" isn't something to strive for anyway, libraries exist for a reason.
Well, CopyUI has components in Html + CSS, Html + Tailwind, React + CSS, and React + Tailwind not sure what you call that, haha.