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What are you struggling with right now ?
by
IH1
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Getting the word out about my product!
Guys, if you or someone you know wants to create a personal about page of their own, please do try my product at https://oneprofile.info 😁
Looks beautiful!
Thanks, @hopia! Hope you'll give it a try, I just made it free yesterday!
I saw your product, it’s very good! Well done!
Thanks, @Rhodesie! Hope you have tried creating a page of your own and tell your friends about it!
I remember your product from a month or so ago. It seems like you're close to 2k sign-ups.
What have you done in efforts to gain traction? I've been reading https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer-ebook/dp/B00TY3ZOMS and working toward implementing some of the actionable steps.
I'd love to chat about traction. I am also struggling to get https://storycreatorapp.com/ off the ground. I believe following the traction "bullseye" approach will help me.
Hey, Michael :) There were 2 fortunate events that happened to me
Since Storycreatorapp is a video editor tool, I think you can learn a lot on how to gain traction from the founders of https://veed.io on their blog: https://veed.io/blog/
Hope it helps!
That's awesome. I don't think those guys want to help. We are competitors. I have a better product, they have better marketing. I think my solution is to find a mentor and learn/practice marketing.
I'm going to be hitting it hard with partnerships, and content creation. My goal is to win the video space. It'll be hard as hell though, but I am hungry and willing to lose it all :)
Thanks, Michael! Anyway, you don't even need to ask them (the founders of veed.io) for help. They've already posted a couple of blog posts sharing what they did to grow their video platform. I'm building a completely different product but I still learned a lot from them. I'm sure you'll gain something more meaningful from reading those blog posts.
Here are a couple of my personal favourites:
That's great! You do need to hustle hard in the beginning, especially when you're a nobody on the internet like me. However, I caution the expectation you set to win the market or space. You might end up burning out or depressed when you don't/can't hit those goals. Remember, if you want to fight, you are up against giants like biteable.com, magisto.com, filmora.wondershare.com and startups like flixier.com and veed.io.
What I recommend is to aim for a couple of hundred or thousand paying customers and continue to serve them well. If you can make a decent 200-500k per annum from just them, you're already earning well above the median. There's no need to conquer a market and kill competitors, no need to have investors dictating how you should work or grow, no need to live up to others' expectations. What's left is to just auto-pilot your business and enjoy a calm, rich life and help others do the same. You can also create a couple more businesses if you're bored.
I really love this response and advice. I totally agree, but it's hard while listening to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjRbobUjAt8
I have a very competitive drive. But you are right. I think some competitive drive helps, but I do need to keep it in check.
Man, I love MJ's video. There's this video that I love too but it's from Kobe, made me shed tears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMZEBDIXudE
Just do what you love but don't kill yourself or your loved ones to reach it.
I have a really good product in Beta. I know that it's time to officially launch it and start advertising it to make some revenue to be able to continue with this idea.
But every time I think about launching It's hard to imagine how to advertise it correctly. It's really easier for me to continue developing new features rather than creating promotional videos, resources, social media things...
That's the gap I have to pass through.
Instead of thinking about marketing as a bunch of stuff you have to make, think about it as a problem to solve. Same as any engineering one. How do you rig the larger system to visit your site/sign up to your project.
Because that's what it is. It isn't just producing content. Its figuring out the problem of how to engage with people who don't know you. And every product is different, and may have similar ways of reaching people, but certainly not the same. So, how do you solve that problem instead of making content.
That's my $0.02.
I am in a similar boat with https://storycreatorapp.com/. It's a very engineering intensive product and I am all alone. So it's difficult to market as well. I am just sucking it up and doing it.
My strategy is to produce guides, and tips on my IG https://www.instagram.com/storycreatorapp/ I have also created a Youtube channel where I am sharing these same tips but in longer form https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCkDlCPfuBTHUt0YjgIq9xw
I think doing this consistently enough will help gain some traction. It not only helps educate people but the content will be searchable for folks with these pain points as the keywords. Plus when networking with folks on IG if they see a beautiful feed full of value I believe they would be more likely to work with me.
So I am giving that a try and seeing what happens. I need to explore it for at least 1 month. Even if it doesn't help the product take off it's good to have these guides as educational resources. So not really losing much as long as I can systematize it and crank em out.
I also need to get on the blogging game. I am lacking here. I believe some in-depth posts around some Social Media tips would be epic. I could even reach out to some Instagrammers and do a quick podcast with them and turn bits and pieces into a blog post that will get indexed by Google.
My strategy there is to a really good post with videos created from the tool https://storycreatorapp.com/ I find it to be helpful in creating short videos that enhance the blog. This is a cool use case for the product.
This takes time. So I have also been seeding the idea of doing partnerships. I reached out to a cool company that has a good following. So integrating could drive some traffic and revenue.
I don't want to be all over the place but I think my strategy here all works together. The idea is turning a concept for a post into multiple posts. So "how to make SEXY progress bars" will be the context, then I can make a bunch of content around that.
I think it's a matter of patience now. I just finished up a contract for a Meal Planning tool I built for a client. That money plus savings, plus the $25k I am about to borrow from the credit card company should give me enough runway to gain some traction.
I hope at least. Worst case, I just go bankrupt and build myself back up over a few months then try again. Persistence is key!
Comparing myself to people who are ten goalposts ahead of me and feeling like crap. Drains me of all my energy.
I know what that's like. Simply don't do that :) Easier said than done, but awareness is key. As long as you're aware you're good. Catch yourself when comparing then shift focus.
We've been stuck in Shanghai self-quarantined for 2-3 weeks and looks like most folks will do everything possible to stay home another 2-3 weeks until there is a stronger understanding of the virus. In the midst of it all, I have decided to make a big pivot away from the consumer (think job seeker) due to their limited budgets, inability to understand the need for good professional documents, and fickleness. Back in build mode with a new idea. Love the creative new direction, but tiring too.
Don't you think this situation will be temporary. I would plan for how the economy will be after the virus. Just my 2 cents.
Promoting my dating app and new users acquisition.
What have you tried?
I am totally clueless about promoting my Android diary app. I have setup Play Store and Facebook product pages and no traction so far. Spent 15€ on Facebook ads. Sent some posts to relevant Reddit threads but nothing helps :(
Options I want to try
-> Ad with picture of girl in bed with phone + link to app
-> Twitter product page
-> Landing page
-> Add more features (I doubt this is not the right way at the moment)
Critic reviews welcome:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sirionrazzer.diary
Persistence is key. Dont give up. Just adapt
Hey TW!
I wrote a post about growing your audience; take a look and let me know if you think it might work for you? Happy to answer any questions!
https://www.jenslennartsson.com/audience-before-launch/
Being non-techie, struggling to build a landing page for validating my app idea.
Look at something like Carrd or Webflow, shouldn't be too hard to make a prototype with those services.
I checked on Carrd which is pretty cool, but it’s $19/yr to get option of linking custom domain. Looking for something which offers free plan with linking to custom domain.
$20 could yield sales eventually. You gotta invest! Cash is just paper, use it to work for you. Do some cost-benefit. If you're spending more than an hour figuring this out. Think about how cheap $20 a year is. 20 /365 = 0.05. If you can't afford that for something that solves your technical issues then you have problems. I say that out of love. Look in your closet right now and sell some s*(&. I guarantee you have $20 worth of crap. Cheers!
Have you started? What's holding you back? I just launched my channel not hard at all https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCkDlCPfuBTHUt0YjgIq9xw?view_as=subscriber. It was actually fun. You gotta reward yourself for these things.
What have you tried?
discovering a problem that isnt to difficult to solve, yet (hopefully wildly lol) profitable :(
Finding users to interview and then test my product in a closed test phase.
I build a platform for managers in small teams to better understand their team and build happier and more productive teams.
My hypothesis is that your team should be at least 5 people or more to get value out of it.
Now I look for said managers or teams but I am not quite sure where to look for them.
If you have any advice where to find those target customers or if you may know someone who fits the profile, I greatly appreciate advice or the connection.
This is always a tough one. People make it seem easy. It does require being resourceful. Thankfully we have so many resources for this in 2020. Pick a platform like IG or twitter. I bet there is a community of them out there and they all are 1-3 degrees of separation apart.
You just gotta DIG! Then relate. I am working on that myself with my IG https://www.instagram.com/storycreatorapp/
Sticking to creating 12 products in 12 months. I’m feeling uninspired to both create 12 things, and to create and stick to one thing.
Why 12? Or why not try to make 12 product prototypes in 12 days?
Start with whatever seems most interesting and start with just 1 product idea. If you were to start working on 1 idea/problem today, what would you pick?
I wouldn’t know what it would be, I’m not feeling inspired enough to want to dedicate the next year on one thing but I wish I could.
Why do you think you need to dedicate a year to 1 idea?
Explore more. Have you started working on anything yet?
I’m working on something that could fix an itch for myself.
Keep you posted :)
Finding users who I can interview with.
If you could add some context I would be more than happy to think things through with you.
You're only need a few at first, they are usually not so difficult to find.
Thanks for reply! We're building a platform which is basically playlists for learning. We have some users but when I tried to reach out them, they never reply back.
I like it, just signed up!
I will get back to you with some feedback.
Really appreciated! That would be awesome! Thanks again. You can also reach me out firat@jooseph.com
First impressions (on mobile)
looks good, interesting concept! The biggest problem for me would be to keep at it so I would need something to to remind me regularly to do the next part.
I would like to be able to subscribe on a module and set a schedule for myself. Then for example each week at a set time I would get an email with the next part of the module.
How are you planning to monetize this?
Hmm so, we're about the launch new site in a week or two and there will be follow button on the modules. There'll be boxes at the side of the resources that you can click and track your progress. Also there'll be like dislike button under the every resource so you can rank resource. But we didn't come up with any idea about scheduling.
Can you explain me more about why do you want to schedule the modules?
I know from experience that I would at some point forget about the site.
Setting up a reminder at a schedule of my preference will help me to follow each resource in the module.
This way, I can commit myself to completing the module at my preferred pace.
I'm STRUGGLING with finding the right target audience to kick start https://storycreatorapp.com/. I am on the fence between agencies and small entrepreneurs. I haven't felt a real pain point.
It seems like my solution is more so a vitamin rather than a pain killer. I am trying to figure out how I can become a pain killer and have users beg to use my product.
The product is an online video editing tool that helps you create social media content efficiently https://storycreatorapp.com/. I think I did a good job but I need more data to know if what I built is crap or if it's actually useful.
I am unsure of which traction channel to double down on. So in the meantime, I am running some tests on various channels. I have created an IG account https://www.instagram.com/storycreatorapp/ and plan to post tips every other day or so. These tips are tied in with the tips on the YouTube channel I just created https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCkDlCPfuBTHUt0YjgIq9xw?view_as=subscriber
My goal with these content items is to break down core features and explain them well as if they were meant for a toddler. Super easy to consume. Once I run out of these features to cover I plan to do a series where I take popular video ADs, social media commercials, etc. Then show you how to recreate those videos using Story Creator. This will help put my app to the test.
While doing that I can turn some of that same content into blog posts. Plus I will have additional blog posts converted into other post types. The idea is to talk about something valuable then converting that into multiple forms of content. I might even try out podcasting.
The plan going forward is to ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE.
I am STRUGGLING with pre-selling. I have all these long term growth strategies but I keep hearing I should pre-sell. I am really stuck here as I have a limiting belief. I don't know exactly the user's pain and if I am solving it.
I think with pre-selling I may position myself as an engineer who can build them the video editing tool of their dreams. They would just need to hop on a weekly call and we can agree on what features to implement. This priority goes toward agencies. I would love some thoughts on that.
That pretty much covers it. Also looking for a mentor if anyone has taken a software project to the moon I would love to learn!
A note to myself. Id also like to try to reach out to blogs and do collabs. Plus podcasts!
Validating my next side project for growth marketers.
Slow. Because not much motivation recently.
F*&^ motivation. It's all about discipline :)
Finding a universal comments section for my website.
Why isn't Disqus what you are looking for ?
Some sort of comment button on the bottom right of the screen which then pressed on shows a kind of youtube like liv comments for the entire website.
That exists ! It's called Relay: https://relaychat.app/
But the issue with it is that not all users who visit my site will have the plugin...
Click on "Site Owners" at the top right of the screen. You can install the script on your site so that anyone can see it.
Motivation.
In my experience, motivation is closely tied to momentum.
What's the smallest step you can take today? Draft an article? Create an HTML page? Sketch a design? Take it step by step.
I work full-time as a dev, but when I finally get home I really have a hard-time motivating myself to work on my own projects. Not only that but I also study at the same time (college).
Well, I don't have an easy solution for you man. Also, did you think about the questions in my 1st reply? It seems like you're listing the reasons why not do anything, instead of finding some why do it.
Can you reserve 30 minutes every day for 1 project?
Thanks for taking the time to even answer :)
That made me think a lot. Totally true.
Good job!
When in doubt, focus on the smallest step strategy.
Glad I could help.