15
14 Comments

Kevon Cheung's Build in Public Guide -- Why You should Read It

I became a big fan of Kevon Cheung this week as I read through his brilliant guide on Building in Public.

Read it.

Even if you aren't going to build in public, you should still read it.

It's not just 1 guide, it's 5 guides wrapped into 1

1. It's a Guide on Building in Public.

It contains all the little details and nuances that will take you weeks to understand otherwise.

It explains why he got into this trend & how are people benefiting from it.

It will also help you decide if you yourself want to build in public or not.

2. It's a Guide on Writing Online.

Writing online is nothing like writing anywhere else.

It's a unique skill, and might be the most important skill to have in an increasingly online world.

Kevon breaks down this critical skill beautifully in this guide.

3. It's a Guide on Leveraging Content Distribution Channels.

If you are in the content game(who isn't!), you need to know which platform will work for you at what stage, and how.

Youtube, Reddit, Twitter -- Every channel needs a unique strategy.

Kevon explains those nuances well in this guide.

4. It's a Guide on "Writing A Guide."

Yes, We see plenty of guides floating around on Twitter and being sold on Gumroad all the time.

But very few of them actually add so much value.

Kevon has gone deep into the Build in public trend & uncovered great pearls of wisdom, for the rest of us to learn from. And that too free!

5. Finally, it's a Guide on Riding a Growing Trend and Making it Your Own.

Kevon has become the face of the "Build in Public" movement for me.

For anyone looking to leverage a growing trend, there is no better way to do it.

You should keep this guide as a reference doc.

Read the guide here : https://kevoncheung.com/building-in-public

Also, read the follow up post he wrote after the success of the guide: https://kevoncheung.com/blog/building-in-public-guide-behind-the-scenes

  1. 4

    Definition of meta: he's building a "building in public" guide in public.

    Anyway it seems cool and I want to give it a read, but I feel like the basics are pretty straightforward, right? Building in public and being transparent is a good way to stand out when you are getting started, but I've read a lot about how it eventually becomes a liability once you get off the ground -- e.g. people start copying your idea, copying your business model, copying your marketing copy etc when they believe it's all tied to a successful business.

    1. 1

      True, it's not for everyone, you just have to find your own way of doing things.
      The guide does a great job of giving the framework to think about building in public.

      Whatever you do, there should be a solid reason to do it.

    2. 1

      I think you're right, the basics can be pretty straight-forward. So far from what I see/hear, everyone is sort of at a different place on the spectrum. Some have their own definition of building in public, and some don't know where to start. So it is important to see if this approach fits into your plan. It is not a must to do it.

  2. 3

    Thanks for sharing! Just finished reading the guide. Actionable tips. Will implement them!

  3. 3

    Hey Ayush, totally surprised to see a post with my name as the title. As someone who only started writing more recently, I'm flattered!

    And thank you so much for breaking it down to these 5 awesome points. I'm going to save this :)

    1. 1

      Awesome!

      I really found the post very helpful.

      And thought other people on IH might find it useful as well.

      I think these are skills every IndieHacker needs, even if they want to build in public or not.
      And also, I want to cheer on good work when I see it. Especially on this platform. That's the kind of vibe I get from IH.

      I dare not post this on Reddit or HN :P

  4. 3

    can't agree more! Kevon's stuff is awesome!

  5. 2

    One thing I kinda missed in that guide was: What do you do when things go wrong? When you've had negative growth for one month? Then another? Then another? Do you keep building in public? Does telling everybody you're losing users only make more users leave? (Apologies if he covered this)

    1. 1

      I think there is one point in the guide where he says your users and your support group are different entities.

      I think the other "builders in public"(support group) will cheer you on when you fail, and your users will be a source of feedback when you fail.

      Having a distinction is important. That's why you need to know why you are building in public, to build a support group or to build a userbase.

      And I think the bottom-line is that you remain authentic to who you are. Authenticity is appreciated by everyone.

  6. 2

    Indeed, that's a great guide. I find myself coming back to it every now and then to re-read something. Thanks @kevon for creating it!

    There's one thing I struggle with though, which is finding a topic to talk about. Most of my day is spent coding, so at the end of the day I try and find something that happened to share, something that could add value to my following, but are they really interested in knowing I tweeked the colours of the website, or that I added another sorting filter to the lists? After all it feels more like I'm writing my own journal then.

    How do you guys find inspiration for creating content, to write something that's not very personal or related to what you just did, but valuable on the bigger picture?

    1. 2

      It's not imperative that you share everyday, or share everything that you do.

      I think people love authenticity, if you are able to do that even once a week or once a month that's alright.

      But you should be clear why you are building in public, is it to build a "support group" of fellow "builders in public" or to "build an audience". Both will have different approaches.

  7. 1

    In case any one has still got any burning questions for Kevon or just wants to dive into the subject more or just wanna hear from him in person haha, we're gonna be having a casual 1h chat with him about it in a couple week.

    Sign up here: https://talks.joinselva.com/?ref=MFnSVQ

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