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I became a developer during quarantine and I built this

I spent quarantine studying programming. I studied 4-5 hours every day.

I learned that everyone can learn to code. You don't need a special talent. The key is to have a learning plan and be consistent. There's no more.

10 days ago I launched my first serious project using what I learned. It's called Check my Presets (https://checkmypresets.com).

It is a website where photographers and creators can create a store of presets (Lightroom filters) and earn money selling them.

Currently we have +1000 stores, +700 presets uploaded and +100 orders and a user earned € 50 in one day! This is her store: https://lnkd.in/difkbPZ

Now I am facing the final boss, the market. It is very hard and has already defeated me many times in the past. But we keep fighting.

Feedback from this community is really welcomed.

Thanks,

PS: I will soon share the learning plan I made in quarantine. Part of 0 until launching an application with users, databases ... etc.

  1. 3

    Wow...this is impressive and so inspiring. Good for you.
    Eagerly waiting on that study plan.
    I keep falling off and it's so frustrating because you almost always have to go back to near- beginning every time.

    1. 1

      I have failed many times. I have started from the beginning 5-6 times. This quarantine I decided this time will be the last time so I finished courses and projects and I learnt a lot.

      I will share this study plan soon! I hope it will help you.

      1. 2

        Really?
        Honestly, I thought it was just me; that I was weak and lacked the discipline to stick to a study plan.
        Thanks for sharing this.
        Recently got back to it again (just yesterday actually), so I'm eagerly waiting for that plan.
        Cheers.

        1. 1

          Yes! And I know a lot of people who has dropped learning to code and then they come back and made it.

          Keep going!

          1. 1

            Thanks for the encouragement. Much appreciated.

  2. 2

    Man! you did a good job, especially during the quarantine... and i also love that made during quarantine

    1. 1

      Thank you so much! Your words are a boost of motivation.

  3. 2

    Great job this looks awesome. I love how users can see before and after, which is definitely more compelling. I think it would be better if people see more examples of presets and storefronts on the front page before signing up.

    (Also, the links for the two different storefronts on the front page both lead to the same one.)

    1. 1

      Great idea! I will show more stores in the landing page!

      PS: Thank you for telling me the 2 links are the same!

  4. 2

    Hi Jacin - on your final boss I am surprised you are not doing content marketing. Usually anyone near the photography and filters space has an extensive library of help with photography and filters blog posts to draw in enthusiasts.

    1. 1

      Thank you for the idea! Is something I have to do sooner than later. Thank you @disrael

  5. 2

    How did you get people (sellers and buyers) at the same time to have so many products and sales?

    1. 1

      Hello Dariot, thank you for your comment.

      I just have to get sellers because the sellers then share theis stores in theis social networks to get buyers.

  6. 2

    Great job dude! BTW, I noticed all store sales goes to the same Paypal account and I was wondering how you set up the payment mechanism. I normally use Stripe and sometimes Braintree, in order to set up marketplaces, and was wondering how you set up yours, just curious :)

    1. 1

      Thank you so much Bruno! All the sales goes to the same Stripe account. I got the bank account of the users and we make transfer to theis IBAN accounts every few days.

      I will use Stripe connect in the future (So the user can link their Stripe and receive the money directly).

      1. 2

        Interesting, well good luck really I wish you the best, keep it up and never give up! I've been doing this for 20 years, and have fallen soo many times, but every time I have to stand up and have learned soo much from every fall. Cheers!

        1. 1

          Thank you so much!!!

  7. 2

    Looks cool. The demo page is in different language, but looks great. Good luck with your journey.

    1. 2

      Thank you so much @prakashn! The demo page is in Spanish because it is the store I'm using in my other company (Flamingueo) to sell presets. Now I have more users I will change it to one in English :)

      Thank you so much for your words!

  8. 2

    Amazing. Often times, being new to sth gives you the perspective that veterans can't have. I'd never thought of the idea lol.

    1. 1

      Thank you so much Txu! 🙏🏻

  9. 2

    I don't anything about photography, but its seriously impressive you've learnt to develop something and already released and making some money on it in such a short amount of time. That's awesome

    1. 1

      Thank you Boardy! To be honest, I'm not making a lot of money. I can't even pay the servers yet. But I'm excited because everyday I'm just a bit closer to profitability.

      1. 2

        You might not be making much yet, but got to start somewhere :) the fact your you've had users pay proves there's a market for what you've done.

  10. 2

    Excellent work! Love the concept. I did notice a slight glitch when you hover over the ✌️at the bottom of a creators page, it reloads all the images sometimes causing the page to skip around also. I assume this has something to do with the fact the image changes on hover? Do the filter images have the same CSS class that you use to reload the image on hover? If so that may be it and you may just have to create a separate CSS class for your icon at the bottom.

    Noticed you don't have a blog. It can be a great way to attract new users. I too launched a project during lockdown. Https://contentkoala.com - Might be useful to you?

      1. 1

        Can confirm... though I'm not getting the fist on hover, I assume you took that out?

    1. 1

      Thank you so much! Wow, you are totally right about the glitch. Thank you.

      I don't have a blog yet and It would be great to have one in a near future. I will be considering Content Koala. Thank you again.

  11. 2

    It is very impressive what you have created here!!

    I might caution you on that everyone can learn to code statement. I teach intro programming and there are definitely many hurdles for many people. Maybe say everyone with sufficient drive and dedication can learn to code. Seeing or having an end goal will definitely help.

    Anyway, very interesting page. I'm curious where and how you promote exactly. How did you get people to discover your site?

    1. 2

      Thank yo so much Neea.

      I will be careful in the future about the sentence "everyone can learn to code". Say everyone with sufficient drive and dedication can learn to code is a better aproach.

      To be honest, I own a company called Flamingueo and it is famous in Spain so I used Flamingueo's audience to get the first users.

      Then, the rest of the stores are users that discovers the website through the stores of other users (in the footer there is a footprint: 'Made with checkmypresets.com')

      1. 2

        Have you watched Ratatouille? (if not, i highly recommend it).
        But it stems around the phrase "Anyone can cook" and it applies here. To quote Anton the reviewer from the movie.

        In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.

        1. 1

          I haven't watched Ratatouille but after your comment I'll do it for sure.

          Amazing comment. Thank you so much Iain!

  12. 2

    This is SO impressive especially because you just learned recently how to code and already have a 1,000+ stores. I am curious on how you marketed, you're a king!

    1. 1

      Thank you so much!!

      To be honest I own a 'famous' company in Spain (called Flamingueo) and I used the audience to launch the product. This is how I got the first users.

      Then, in all store in the footer there is a footprint: 'Made with checkmypresets.com' so one user can bring more users.

  13. 2

    You don't need a special talent.

    My current theory is that "talent" is basically just code for "enough enjoyment to be willing to do it for a bunch of hours every day, even when it stops being easy."

    1. 2

      I love this definition of talent. Thank you so much.

  14. 2

    Hi @Jacin, very impressive! Congratulations on your success!

    Some questions:

    1. You learned to code using multiple tools in a relatively short period of time. Are you willing to share how you did this and with what courses? Udemy etc?
    2. Although LR presets is a giant market, have you considered hosting presets for other photography platforms, such as ON1 or Affinity?
    3. How did you come up with the domain name? ie rather than sellmypresets or presetmarket etc, it kind of sounds like it is a preset checker rather than a marketplace.

    cheers!

    1. 2

      Hi @antarctican thank you for your comment.

      1 - I will write a post about my path learning to code. I started in EdX completing the course: CS50

      2- Yes! I want to start small and focus on a niche. But it would me great to open the platform to other photography platforms and even presets for video

      3- I thought it would be a good idea the sellers could say 'hey checkmypresets.com/username' as a way of saying 'Have a look to my presets'. Maybe I chosed the wrong expression.

      Thank you!

      1. 2

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

        1. 1

          Great idea, thank you!

  15. 2

    Something I didn't understand about your product is that, where are all these stores? The website presents only one store which happens to be the one you're the co-founder of. A google search reveals only 4 stores.

    1. 1

      Hi! When you create a store you get a link to share with your audience.

      I'm sure I have to improve the SEO of my webpage. It would be amazing if a google search could reveal all the stores.

      Currently we have +1200 stores that have uploaded +800 presets. (https://imgur.com/WmRRujJ)

      You can check this stores:

      https://checkmypresets.com/ireneelladoo
      https://checkmypresets.com/sararoviraa_
      https://checkmypresets.com/byfranmanso
      https://checkmypresets.com/PeachPresets
      https://checkmypresets.com/maariionaa_
      https://checkmypresets.com/mery.magu
      https://checkmypresets.com/Storner
      https://checkmypresets.com/noemi.presets
      https://checkmypresets.com/rocioromero_01
      https://checkmypresets.com/laau15
      https://checkmypresets.com/danielaluucas
      https://checkmypresets.com/Aldybelmor
      https://checkmypresets.com/Nereap98
      https://checkmypresets.com/Noelia_lb10
      https://checkmypresets.com/Soniialoopez_
      https://checkmypresets.com/marcos_2015
      https://checkmypresets.com/Mariovdp89
      https://checkmypresets.com/carmeennfg
      https://checkmypresets.com/celebrity.presets
      https://checkmypresets.com/Mariuki1318
      https://checkmypresets.com/Con.rolloo
      https://checkmypresets.com/Stonebythemoon
      https://checkmypresets.com/marinasaez3
      https://checkmypresets.com/justmyspambitch
      https://checkmypresets.com/luuciaaasanchez_
      https://checkmypresets.com/miriammoros18
      https://checkmypresets.com/Luciaaj23
      https://checkmypresets.com/Stonebythemoon
      https://checkmypresets.com/celebrity.presets
      https://checkmypresets.com/Carlotainpiree
      https://checkmypresets.com/lucyvf18
      https://checkmypresets.com/Irene_.cr
      https://checkmypresets.com/Noelia_lb10
      https://checkmypresets.com/Albiitaa
      https://checkmypresets.com/Inigo.soto8
      https://checkmypresets.com/iriaagonzaalez
      https://checkmypresets.com/bymood
      https://checkmypresets.com/coral
      https://checkmypresets.com/missglos

      Thank you for your comment (Help about SEO would be amazing).

      1. 2

        Real basic, but:

        • Are these directly crawlable from your home page?
        • In any case, put them in a sitemap
        1. 1

          Thank you so much! I will start from here.

  16. 2

    Hi @jacin! I do like simple and elegant solutions/apps like yours, great work :)

    One question, do you regulate the prices for presets or user can set any price he/she wants?

    1. 1

      Hi @vladyslav, thank you for your comment and for the kind words.

      Every user can set the price he/she wants from 1$ to 100$ per preset.

  17. 1

    Love it Jacin! Very inspiring. I would love to hear more about how you are growing your business and how do you acquire new creators.

  18. 1

    Wow! Super impressive.

    All about the little things:

    Sign-Up * No card needed (as a user, on the landing page is $ focused, for obvious reasons, first thought would be, "I need a card" but noting "*No card needed" for sign-up - makes the user feel that they are welcome, you are not taking unnecessary data and information, only add a card when the user is good and ready.

  19. 1

    Looks good, congrats!

    1. 1

      Thank you so much!

  20. 1

    What languages did you learn?

    1. 2

      I learnt Python and Javascript (Vanilla and React).

      And this product is made using: React, Mongo, Express and Node

  21. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 2

      Amazing story. I feel we are running similar paths. Keep going mate!

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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