Hey ladies, what do you need help with right now?
Let's support our fellow indie women by helping each other out! Below post something you're struggling with, could use feedback on, or a question you need answered. Help others by responding to their posts with your thoughts or feedback.
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When someone thinks 'community building' I want them to think of 'rosie sherry'.
All ideas welcome 😍
Haha I agree with @gczh, you're the first person I think of when I think of creating communities.
Maybe follow @amyhoy's example and release some free guides, materials, courses, etc. all under rosiesherry.com? I imagine that would increase your brand awareness and increase the number of people who see you as a subject matter expert on community building.
I should add, so far I’ve neglected rosiesherry.com and chose to restart community focused stuff in rosie.land, and there’s also my newsletter - rosieland.substack.com
I already think of "Rosie Sherry" when someone says community 😂
You should totally do a "Community Examples" where we can all learn from your experiences + ideas 👍
I definitely think 'community building' when I think of 'rosie sherry.'
How far do you want to take it? Are you aiming a personal brand?
I'm in the community ecosystem with Xapnik, and when I found your resource page I was so excited! You saved me a ton of time. I would now consume any content that you chose to put out, and I would amplify it, both personally and via Xapnik.
So, I think you could choose any channel and medium you like (podcasting, videos, webinars, conference, etc.) and are most comfortable with. You've got a built in starter audience who'll amplify you right here :)
I've spent so many hours on the gathering of the resources, I found it so difficult to find anything and never had what I wanted to hand when I needed it. I figured it would be useful.
The resource is a habit now, any time I find something relevant, I just add it. It doesn't take much effort. I have a flow with the newsletter atm too, I've not skipped a week on it yet. Though it takes more effort.
I guess I'm kind of habit stacking, not trying to do too much too soon.
I've done:
I'm itching to do something that makes a bit of money:
I think for all of us that's what we associate you with, do you mean outside of IH? If you want to coin the term maybe you should start a blog or podcast "communitybuilders" where you feature or talk to people who built communities around their business.
Robin comes to mind when I think of Productized startups, Ben Tossell when I think about no-code, Harry when I think about marketing and am sure you can find tons of people to interview.
Longer term more outside of IH, but keep it tech/founder focused for now, mostly because of lack of time.
Hello!
Firstly, I will describe my startup:
I know how hard is now to sell. Meetings are cancelled, no possibility to fully show your concept. I have created a tool named PrezCall that may make your job much easier. It is already helping our clients making calls more visualised. Especially for non-tech-savvy users.
How it works?
Give it a try, we offer 7 days of free trial.
Look at: https://prezcall.com/
So now I really need any advice on how to/where to find first customers and promotion :)
I'm loving this group as days go by, I like how supportive women can be :)
Me too! Thank you @rosiesherry and @asebold for starting this discussion, I've always felt alone as a female maker but this hangout has really given me much more cool ideas and inspiration!
Hello!
I'm currently running a news entertainment website and i'm struggling with ways on how i could potentially monetize it. I want to get monthly recurring revenue but I'm not sure where to start.
I'm currently still growing my audience on twitter @/DailyCpop . I've grown by 1.5k followers organically on twitter, with no ad spend in a month. But one of my weaknesses is that I always stumble when finding the right way to monetize my following.
I would appreciate any help!
Nice work on that Twitter following!
Because it seems like you have more than a couple of possible ways to monetize, I would recommend running some tests to see what gets the best response.
So, for example, I think you (if you aren't already) could test merchandise with your logo. I have a feeling you'd be really good at designing merch. And, I don't know a ton about your audience, but am I right that they're into merch?
Next, I'd test out a paid community (at, like $4.99 a month or something). Promote an exclusive members only Slack or Discord. Sign-ups could get a free C-Pop t-shirt or mug or phone protector (or whatever), a follow from C-Pop on all their social media, along with other stuff you could think of that would be exciting to them. Most importantly, it would be a place for them to geek out together in a safe space. And they'd feel like they have a backstage pass to C-Pop (which you could enhance by following them back on social media, liking their posts, etc.). See how many people sign up to be notified when it launches. If 1000 sign up for notification, the worst you can probably expect to follow through and pay is 10 people. That wouldn't be a bad start honestly. They'd help you build the membership from there.
Another potential option I see for you is the influencer route. You'd have to get your personality into the game, though. I'm not sure how much of that you're doing now. But you'd probably have to start a YouTube channel and do a daily "newscast." Influencers (it doesn't require a massive audience! even a few thousand can start monetizing) can make nice money.
It's fun looking at your business and brainstorming monetization ideas!
Hi Kirsten! Thank you for the three ideas. I'll think of how I can execute the first and second.
You're right that I've had experience making merch before, but those do require some form of downpayment at the beginning (i.e. making the merch) and there might be some licensing issues we might run into if we use images of the celebrities without permission. But that said, I thought the merch idea would be great paired up with the third idea you've suggested - creating a brand and then merchandise for that brand would be a genius idea! But I'm a camera shy person by nature so I'll have to go figure out how to make face-less videos!
The second idea on a paid community sounds like a really good idea, and I'm looking forward to testing it out soon, maybe after launching a newsletter subscription! Thanks for taking your time to craft out this thoughtful advice, I really appreciate it!
Oh I Really this. I might spin off a bit too far now but having worked in the fashion industry for a long time I know how valuable this could be for brands who want to get an understanding of the Chinese market, but does not yet have a local office or PR person. I think this is such a great overview on who's "in" which could be valuable for so many companies who wants to send stuff to Chinese celebrities (knowing that it's huge in China to buy exactly what your fav celeb is wearing). For this, maybe you could offer a pro-account or one-off payment for a summary on all of this, and maybe their press contacts? A premium newsletter could be interesting as well. In this particular case it could also be great to list what kind of brands they usually wear. I imagine that brands and agencies could pay quite a bit for this since it would save them So Much time.
I understand that this is probably not at all the direction you were thinking to head at, but it's one crazy idea 😅💁♀️
Hey Emelie! This is such a cool and refreshing idea, I've honestly never thought about it!
I'm just curious what you might mean by "I imagine that brands and agencies could pay quite a bit for this since it would save them So Much time." Do you mean to say that some fashion companies might have difficulty trying to find out what clothes are worn by popular celebrities in China?
That's a really interesting thought! It really has gotten me thinking. I've never really thought about it from the "fashion" perspective before but I think it's a very good "b2b" revenue stream idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
Happy you like the idea :)
So, after working in high end retail for many years I could that that a lot of Chinese clients came in and just showed a picture of a celebrity and said they want to buy what that person is wearing (I literally had people who had travelled from China to Sweden to buy a lot of clothes from this brand because their fav celeb was wearing it) - so I make the conclusion that influencer marketing must be HUGE on the Chinese market. But since western companies might have a hard time finding out who's "in" in China, if they don't have local knowledge, I think you could use your platform for enabling them to find out who to sponsor with free clothes etc.
It's not so much about "to find out what clothes are worn by popular celebrities in China?" - but rather to make sure that you know who's the "it-girl" who you should make sure is wearing your brand :)
Sounds like a great idea
Hey Vera! I think your site is a great candidate for paid subscriptions. You could try offering exclusive content with a paid newsletter or put some of your content behind a paywall for "members only". If you read up on how people have monetized similar websites with substack I bet you'll get a bunch of ideas (not that you have to use substack, but it'd give you a starting point).
Hey Allison! Thanks for your advice, I think I'll try and launch a newsletter on substack by next week. I've also been given the same advice by multiple newsletter writers so I'll probably update on how it goes.
My one worry is that my following on twitter still isn't "big enough" yet to get any substantial subscribers. But then again, I'll never know until I try, so I'll go for it! Thank you so much for your advice :)
I think if you're growing by 1.5k a month you definitely have plenty! They clearly value your content, so just focus on demonstrating how much more value they can gain from your paid content.
Hey! I can't offer you help with the monetization part. Just wanted to spread some positivity and commend you on growing your following that well! Congratulations! :)
Hey Tulika! Thank you very much for your kind words! Let me know if you're trying out anything similar on twitter, would be happy to help if I can be of any :)
Thank you for offering @Vera! I will be sure to reach out to you when it's time :)
I'll go first :)
Hi Allison! I've visited your site and watched the video about your app. I love it, it's educational and also fun. If only I had this for politics class back in high school!
I'm not the best at providing help on how to reach out to reporters as haven't done this before yet. But your app can make use of social media (especially twitter/instagram) to go viral (esp. when it's nearer to the US presidential elections)
There's a few areas you can work on to grow your user base on Instagram.
I'm familiar with instagram having grown my first instagram page KpopKart from 1 to 20K followers within 6 months. The theme of your app has the buzz-worthy and 'viral' effect that could do well on instagram if you can figure a way to get your existing users to discuss about their progress more!
I would be happy to advise you if you have any questions and feel free to DM me on twitter if you need any more tips :)
Cool. Thank you for taking the time to provide so many thorough tips!
I'm a political junkie. So I loved this and shared it with my gang at Ragtag (volunteer technologists for progressive candidates and causes).
I think your site looks really sharp, professional and trustworthy.
I think it would be worth testing a different headline (the subhed clearly conveys the "what") that conveys the "why"/the value proposition. What will I get out of playing it? I imagine you have some good ideas about what that value prop is for teachers. What's the other audience? What's the benefit they get out of playing it? Community engagement?
I see some testimonials that hint at who else the other audience is, but the fact that I don't know who it is from looking at the site means that you could definitely add some more info below the fold. People want to talk themselves into why they should use your product. Help 'em do it :-)
Yeah, I've def struggled with how to target my two different audiences: people who want to play for fun and educators. Educators are pretty easy to convince honestly. But I haven't figured out a catchy headline that conveys "this is a blast" for the individuals interested in playing.
Your copy is super clear. I totally got it right away.
It seems like you mention it's for teachers to help get students to engage in politics. Maybe a section focusing on who it's for could be helpful to get people to self-select and signup?!
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, right now I'm trying to target two audiences with one sign up page, which is likely confusing. I'm going to try to create separate sign up pages for each audience this month.
Such a cool concept!
Loved the colours. The testimonials with the picture and names gave me a sense of real people actually using it + understanding it :) And I think "Ready to get started?" was a great call to action. It was quite motivating to just get on and sign up. (Tbf I haven't signed up since I don't have as much knowledge/interest in US politics but I was super close to signing up :) )
Aw thank you! Totally understand, the demographic for this is very localized lol. Thank you for checking it out!
Hello all! Thanks @allison for starting the thread and everyone else who's participated.
Hello!
I'm about to launch my product (https://teamo.team), a corporate group card to celebrate remote teams and I'm trying to find ways to get early users without too much paid ads. So far I've been posting on Product Hunt and IndieHacker forums, and my plan is also to talk about it on LinkedIn.
I would appreciate any thoughts on my product/remote work and building team culture, getting early users and more!
Thank you!
Aw I really like this! There are so many people blogging about working from home and remote teams right now. Maybe you could reach out to them? Perhaps a message like "Hey I saw your article about "topic". Really great read. Since you write about remote work, I was wondering if you would be interested in my product Teamo, which creates virtual greeting cards to foster stronger relationships among remote teams."
That's such a great idea - thanks so much Allison! If you will, I'd like to invite you too to try out our beta product once it's ready :)
I've been fine-tuning this product for about 3-4 months now and I'm ready to launch...except for one thing...I can't figure out a domain name!
The name of the product is Curio. Curio is a wholesale marketplace for independent, women-owned lifestyle brands.
I've tried a few different options for the domain, but all are taken. I've tried:
curiobrands.com
heycurio.com
shopcurio.com
The .co's of all these are available but I find that people often type .com instead of .co and I don't want to create any confusion.
heycuriohey.com but I feel the brand gets lost in the middle.
Would really love some support with domain suggestions so I can move forward with this!
Hey Raquel!
Curio sounds pretty neat. I see a ton of IHs use less popular tlds like ".co" ".io" ".shop" ".club" ".app" ".dev" and so on. I would favor using one of these tlds to get an easy to understand domian name over "heycuriohey.com". Personally, I like "shopcurio.co"
I ended up going with meetcurio.com and heycuriohey for social media.
I like that too!
Hi everyone! I am a confidence coach and the founder of a company called Public Speaking Methods. I used to be horrifically terrified of public speaking, but over the years, I've successfully overcome my phobia and have become a confident public speaker in ways I never could have imagined before.
Today, I'm on a mission to help people (especially women) own their voices, overcome imposter syndrome and tackle public speaking fear. I would love any advice on how to reach this type of audience and anyone I can help!
Hi,
Landing page seems clear. Only one comment i have is why are you not on the front page. The quality of your picture is not good enough for someone to feel inspired to pay top dollar. You are selling you and your methods. Maybe a picture of you in front of a audience.
Maybe a visual flow of method rather more words. Sell your confidence on the screen.
Yasmeen
That is me on the front page. All the photos on the site are of me :)
Sorry I looked on my phone the pic on front page seemed to be covered with a banner I could just see half a face.
I'm redesigning https://xapnik.com landing page this week. (The one now is very much a placeholder.) I'm obsessing of course over the headline :D
Xapnik is an app that's like Slack for all your community's social media feeds. I'm targeting serious, full-time community builders for whom engagement is a vital metric to success.
Here are some headlines/subheadlines I'm playing with. Would love reactions, thoughts, suggestions.
Level Up Your Community Engagement with the app that’s like Slack for all your social media
Go Beyond Monitoring and Scheduling. Level up your engagement with the app that’s like Slack for your community's social media feeds.
Get Real. Engage.
Level up your engagement with the surprisingly easy app that’s like Slack for your community's social media feeds.
Community Engagement Superpowers. Level up with the app that’s like Slack for your community's social media feeds.
Engagement Is The Community Superpower. Level up with the app that’s like Slack for your community's social media feeds.
Engagement Is The Unfair Advantage. Level up with the app that’s like Slack for your community's social media feeds.
Grow Your Community Faster With The Power of True Engagement Across Social Networks. Xapnik’s the surprisingly easy app that’s like Slack for all your community social media.
Xapnik looks cool! I feel like with copy, people have such short attention spans that less is more. So I like #1. Perhaps you could even shorten it to something like "Reach next level community engagement with a single app"
One thing about these headlines that confused me was the mention of slack. After I looked at the website I understood what the app was, but comparing it to slack made me think it was a chat client. Also slack does quite a few things, so I wasn't sure which part of slack this was referring to.
Thank you so much for this feedback!
Yeah, I go back and forth on the Slack analogy. I'm trying to instantly put the image in your mind of what the product does: organize all your social media by groups of people. But that's a big fail if it's the wrong image, heh. I'll have to keep experimenting with ways to communicate that.
From my initial scan of the website, it sounds like you're making a social media management tool. In fact, it sounds like Hootsuite / Sproutsocial meets Slack, since you're aggregating the feed into a messaging app instead of a dashboard.
Can you unpack how aggregating feeds into a messaging app will give me more control over something I'm trying to do? Also include what outcome/benefit I'll get (as community lead) from aggregating into a messaging app instead of a hootsuite/sprout social app instead.
this will help differentiate why this is a MUCH better idea without having to say "like slack".
Pure gold ^^^. Thank you :-)
This is my superpower, I've done it for over 1800 founders in silicon valley. Any thoughts on how I can turn this into a business? :)
Hmmmm :) Problem with founders is, they don't have much money.
As a cash poor founder, I can tell you what I do spend money on:
(I just bought the entire Strategyzer series, "Mom Test," and "Obviously Awesome")
I'm terrified of wasting money on anything that I can find for free if I look hard enough. I'm terrified of offerings out there that are just looking to exploit my hopes and dreams (and therefore steal my money).
My first thought (which you may have already ruled out) when you say you have a superpower is that it can be leveraged into a personal brand that gets you paid to:
But I know suggestions are rarely helpful, especially when given without the full context :) I do think you're in the right place here at IH to research your market!
Very thoughtful response, thank you. If you only knew my background, all of your suggestions are exactly how I developed this. It's not really what I want to do but it's one of the things that comes easily to me. Building out my idea - not so much.....
I'm clear and succinct with other peoples projects, I always know the most direct path one should take to grow and where not to waste time. I fall apart when it's mine own thing. It's always around where to start.....once that happens, I know the audience to target, how to pitch it, the content that should be written etc... where's a group for that? :)
Hey all! I just started an apparel brand that sends underprivileged orphan girls in India to school. We donate all of our profits. We are getting a decent amount of traffic but have low sales and conversion rates any tips? BTW our website is www.empow3r.shop
Hi, I've just looked through your shop. I used to run a shopify store myself and here are some tips I can share with you to drive sales and conversion.
Make your value proposition stronger
Your shop has a very strong call to action on the basis that it's for charity. I would recommend that this message be added to every product page, or when the customer "checks out" so that they can constantly be reminded that they are buying for to spread goodness.
Work with influencers on Instagram
One of the most cost-effective ways would to get more sales would be to directly message influencers on instagram and share about your cause. Convince them to share a picture of them wearing your apparel on their page. Chances are they would want to be associated with doing charity, as it brings a goodwill badge to their brand. Send them a product for free, ask them to wear and share on their story. This can definitely help, especially if the influencer has a strong personal brand. Even if it's not a personal brand, an instagram page dedicated for the good of charity would do well too!
Improve on your "About Us" page
I think the content of your page is solid, that's great work and a noble cause you're doing right there. But if I were someone browsing your page, I would need more convincing to know that you're a "credible source". Put some pictures, or even show your own face. This creates a sense of trust and goes miles to help gain credibility from the rest.
I hope this helps! You can always let me know if you need further advice.
Agree with heytherebuddy that you should test featuring the apparel on the homepage. There are probably a bunch of similar successful e-commerce operations out there that you could look at to see how they've mixed the fashion message with the mission without sacrificing either too much.
Could you feature some of your merchandise on your home page as well? Maybe fewer clicks to get them to the goods could help.
Also, at first glance, I was expecting the catalog to be full of stuff made by the girls you support. I know that's not very actionable, but just wanted to let you know :-)
Great idea.