What do you need help with right now?
At the beginning of every month indie hackers share their monthly goals with each other. Now let's discuss the challenges we're all facing to reach those goals!
What do you need help with?
What help/advice/service can you offer others?
Please reply to someone else and help them out — especially if you've requested help yourself!
Discipline and focus. I would like to get my MVP out in the open but it's taking some time.
I'm also working with a technology stack (Vue/Firebase/Nuxt/Bulma) that I'm learning as I got a bit bored with C# and .net.
One thing I tried when I found an MVP was taking too long was to just set a deadline for it. Something short -- like a few days, or a week. If you don't have anything done by then, ship a landing page.
Thanks for replying. I have a place holder on the website but it might be a good idea to get the landing page and sign up/register your interest form up before the mvp. It would feel like an accomplishment.
Not sure if it's the issue for you, but I found it counterproductive to work from home. Since I started to go to coworking each day, I'm doing much more work within the same hours.
Thanks for replying. I did this for a day too and it was very helpful. I work full time and have 2 young kind so time is a precious thing as I'm sure it is for a lot of people.
Someone wise once said "It doesn't have to be perfect but get your MVP out there!"... well I'm paraphrasing from on of IHs inspirational quotes. But seriously, changing stacks during your MVP building might not be the best thing to do. Just get something out with sticky tape and powerpoint. And iterate when it is live.... apparently :)
Question about discipline. Why do you feel like you lack discipline? Like what are the symptoms of it? Do you procrastinate? Do you not work on the product for periods of time?
Figuring out what lack of discipline looks like can help you reverse it.
I think it's a combination of genuine tiredness and a bit of learning curve with the new technology stack. When i get stuck into it I enjoy it for the most part. Weird npm error messages not withstanding...
What are your actions when you say to yourself "I have a lack of discipline right now."
Get specific.
Thanks for commenting on this.
My general routine is: Get up, bring kids to childminder/school, work, get home at around 7pm. Spend time with the family and by 8, when they are all asleep, I hope to start on the project but I almost have to force myself to acknowledge that this is something that I am interested in. I think I just need to have smaller milestones. Release a landing page. Then some content. Then an MVP.
I have exactly the same tech stack. Let me know If I can help
Thanks very much. I will keep this in mind.
As regards discipline, I suggest you to always keep the focus on your main GOAL. If you don't have it then you must create it. It has to be so big it scares you. For example, your goal can be to create the best hyper-casual game in the world.
After you set up your goal, define quantitative metrics about that goal. What "best" means in numbers. In the beginning, it can be D1 (day 1) retention >75%. As Lord Kelvin said: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."
The second, and maybe one of the most important things about goal settings is to find WHY that goal is important to you. On first, it could be obvious "because I need more money", but that's some reasonable answer. The real answer have to be from the heart and it comes after at least four WHY questions. For example:
Q: WHY my MVP is important to me?
A: To make more money
Q: WHY more money is important to me?
A: To make a better life
Q: WHY better life is important to me?
A: To achieve my dreams
Q: WHY achieving my dreams is important to me?
A: To live a more fulfilling life
Q:...
A:....
Finding a purpose in everything you do is important for intrinsic motivation. It brings positive emotions and emotions are energy. Energy moves mountains.
The third thing to make yourself more disciplined is to focus only on the first next thing you have to do. Don't look on the whole road you have to cross till your goal. For example, don't focus on everything you have to do to get to your MVP, because your brain will scare how much work it has to do. So, just focus on the next small piece of code you have to write, and write it the best you can. After that, focus only on the next thing.
The fourth thing, set a DEADLINE. The deadline is very important because it forces you to distinguish important from unimportant things. Simply, to say NO to most unnecessary features for your MVP.
As regards focus, use your time and energy wisely. Put all your to-do tasks on the calendar. To-do lists are almost useless. Only tasks organized in the calendar drive action. You have to manage your time and energy very good.
After you organize your time, disable all possible notifications. Notifications are distractions because it's scientifically proved that the human's brain needs about 20min to focus, and if you lose your focus by simple notification you can gain that focus again very hard. So actually you don't lose 1 min to look at your notification, but much much more, but we as humans are not aware of that.
I hope something of this will help someone. I wish you get your MVP done. Keep rocking 💪
Thanks so much for this thoughtful response.
My main goal(s) really is to work on something that interests me, learn a new technology and hopefully make a living working for myself. The main blockers for me are my full time job and family commitments.
I think I'm stuck in my head too much and not sitting down and doing the work...
You're welcome. Hope this answer will give you some insights to get your work done.
The only person who has 100% power to change things in your life is only YOU. You have to ACT because action changes things.
I fully understand because I was in a similar situation about one week ago, and fortunately, I get fired and now I have time to fully commit to my dream.
From your response, I think you don't have a clear definition of WHY do you want to achieve your goals. I already describe the process before. This is really important to know, because its the energy that pulls you forward.
One other thing you have to do is to get some coworking space, get there and do your work. It's very important to make your environment ready for your goals. If you have so many duties about your family, you have to take for about two hours every day and separate from them so you can do your job. This is like you want to lose weight. You can't lose it if you eat junk food, and you will always eat junk food if your fridge is full of it. First, you have to empty the fridge and full it with healthy food. Also, you go to the gym to train, but not to study. If you want to study you have to go to the library.
I hope I described well the point 😄
I'm building an MVP with the React version of your stack (Next.js), also with Firebase and Bulma. Happy to trade notes/share what I may know!
Faced similar problem myself. I had been working on my product for couple of months and could not launch it, as I kept on adding more and more features. Then I read this book, The MOM test.
It inspired me to take that leap and reach out to a prospective user for reviewing my app that had very limited features, but nevertheless it was something tangible.
I have the same issue. I have an idea but finding the time to work on it and get the MVP out takes time.
Feel this as well - I just exited a very stressful point of life last spring and it's been nice relaxing and gaining new hobbies over the past six months, but I deeply miss making progress in side projects. At the same time, I know that making progress in those will likely add more stress/lead to potential burnout again, so I've been avoiding it.
I'd love for some help with cold outreach. Launching my MVP is dependent upon some users agreeing to create profiles (think Key Values for summer camps), so outreach is going to be a big part of that. My attempts to date haven't gone that well.
Check out this @louisswiss podcast https://player.fm/series/sales-for-founders/how-to-write-cold-emails-that-get-results-with-laura-lopuch
Great suggestion, thanks @AlexMartynov and @louisswiss !
Thank you for the tip. I struggle with the same problem. Subscribed and will probably binge it tomorrow
Thanks for the mention Alex!
What have you tried so far?
I've emailed a few people in the industry with whom I have mutual connections. I haven't pitched the product yet, just asked for some time to talk about an idea I have that could help their business. Not sure if that's the best approach or not but it doesn't feel too great on my end, I'd rather be direct about it.
I found the best way to get people to agree to give me some of their valuable time is to help them out first.
Whenever I am doing cold outreach, I research the person and find something that I can help with -- maybe it's a link to an article or even helping them with a pain point that your product can solve.
It might take a few times reaching out, but most people will eventually respond and then I can discuss my proposition.
Oh ya, sending a little gift in the mail with a small personal letter never hurts either. 😉
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll give it a shot 🤗
I need expertise in writing copy / promotional articles. I love building features for Zigpoll (https://www.zigpoll.com) but when it comes to putting them out there and writing documentation it always feels like a slog. Is there any way to make this more fun? Does everyone outsource it or are there some tricks I'm not getting?
It's fun when you are teaching what you know. I think that when you are not writing with an agenda, but just to educate and to share your knowledge with other people, this is when things get fun and interesting.
You will position yourself as a key person of influence in your niche and get more business connections at the same time.
You know that's a really good point! I didn't realize it but I definitely lost sight of the writing as art/relief and only consider it as a marketing tool these days. I'll try to reframe it!
You can still think about it as marketing, but not in the broader sense of marketing. Think about writing as a human-centered marketing strategy. What would your prospective clients love to learn?
Later, of course, you can connect a content upgrade to your article to drive marketing leads and fb/google pixels to run ads, but always start with your user in mind, when writing.
Here are some ideas
First article could be a review of your current stats on your articles. Tell people what you have tried, what you haven't done yet.
2nd could be how you can use Zigpoll to get ideas for articles. Ask your people what type of article they would want to read, or use it to AB test different headlines.
3rd could be a why it feels like a slog, and what you are going to do to make it better.
Thanks! I really appreciate the actionable steps, will definitely go through and fire off a piece for each one of these.
I'm working on a brand review for a taste of tango - https://tasteoftango.co.uk
Just trying to pull everything together and not be so quiet about speaking about what I can do. This will involve a move from Wordpress to Squarespace as I have realised just how much time I spend on the site doing technical stuff and want to use that time for creative stuff.
I am also hoping to make more audio tastes of tango.
What do I need help with?
I guess getting the word out there about a taste of tango - I'm trying to get more people dancing by making it more accessible, highlight the social dancing side and EI skills that are involved. I've been dancing for ages (20years) and would love others to discover it.
With the brand review I'm trying to pull my existing content together in a better way to present my content, classes and audio tastes of tango which are lessons to listen to.
So finding people who would be open to trying tango in this way or hearing about what I do would be helpful. At some point (after things look a little more slick) I would love to get some press/the right people talking about it.
Sending energy and inspiration to all the indie hackers out there. Keep going.
The brand looks brilliant though! You might want to change the copy here and there, but I wouldn't spend much time on moving to Squarespace or polishing it much longer if you don't absolutely must. Just focus on getting the word out there, from where I'm sitting this is ready!
Thank you so much. I did it all myself, hence the tech fatigue and just wanting to do the creative side. I just think now that SS will give me a good framework to build on.
A fresh perspective for getting the word out is very welcome. We've had a local instagram account cover me and my classes recently and I'd like to build on it.
I’m interviewing people that work in nonprofits and have finally tapped my personal network. Anyone here worked for or running a nonprofit?
I might know two people who work/run a nonprofit. May I know the purpose of the interview?
Hey!
I’m interviewing nonprofit fundraisers/founders for an article series on their fundraising accomplishments. Eg “How J from Red Cross raised $20,000 with a matching campaign.”
Hey Chris, sorry for the delay in replying back.
Sean from Rawanda Orphans Projects http://rwandanorphansproject.org/ would be interested. Let me know if you are interested. I'll connect you two together.
Need help
-sourcing injection molding manufactures
-building a web app
-building a REST api
-raising venture capital
If you have revenue, happy to take a look at financing option via Corl - https://corl.io/.
Thanks ben, corl is awesome. I actually hadn't looked at the website before but I really like what you guys are onto. Will revisit as a later date when I have some revenue to show for myself.
Thanks for the kind words. Let's keep in touch.
i can help with REST (GraphQL), as long as you know what are your core models/tables it might be possible to have it working in 1 day
Thanks Ruslan. I havn't defined the models/tables yet. Basically I want to give ecommerce sites the ability to reroute package returns to their next customer order destination. I figure building an api to do this is the best way.
Once you define the models/calls/replies to your api (basically what exactly your api needs to do) contact me with that info and we’ll see the next steps
I can help you with the web app/api part. How far have you gotten and what are your challenges?
Hey Lewis, to be totally honest I'm at ground zero. I come from a design and business background. My current challenges are:
-Defining proper architecture/stack for the platform.
-Defining my data sources
-Integrating with ecommerce systems
Trade you for help building your landing page?
Yeah. for sure! Lewis dot Andrew dot Campbell at gmail, we can start off with a vertical slice of your functionality and go from there. Let me know your skill level too
Looking for interesting stories of women building profitable businesses for https://womenhustlers.com
Also - looking for ways to scale traffic
We should chat Pritisha, we have a lot of female founders in the portfolio that are crushing it!
Hey @BenAmesy - we spoke on email :) Thanks for reaching out
Would love to share, but I'm not super profitable as yet.
https://tasteoftango.co.uk
Great site! Just passed it onto a few friends of mine to check out. 🙌
Thanks Anita. Don't forget to subscribe yourself too :)
https://womenhustlers.com/subscribe/
Im happy to give you some pointers on scaling traffic. SEO is my thing
Hello @Itsmayham . I'd love to. How can we connect? Email? I'll send you one.
Hey saw your email come through! I'll get back to you later tonight or tomorrow. Will be traveling the next few days
I am looking for beta users to try https://mysocialhike.com
So far got 4 user to try it and now looking for more so I can launch it by the end of the month. Any suggestions will help.
Thought this was a way to meet up with folks for a hike
Sorry to disappoint you.
Actually nahart's suggestion is really valuable. Basically it tells you that many users may be confused about your product. Also, a lot of traffic may be completely unrelated with social media tracking, but may be rather tourists. Honestly, I would rethink about changing the name.
Ya I will look for a better name related to product.
How much are you charging? I can't see a pricing link anywhere.
Could you consider adding some features to make it more attractive?
I.e instead of just graphing number, provide some insights based on the data.
Even if you need to write them manually for a few customers :P
Also, I'd second the suggestion for a different name.
@nahart @mfarajewicz @atymic As you suggested for a different name for MySocialHike, I was thinking about Smlytics.com. Will it fit?
For me it's too complex - you know what 'Sm' stands for so it's obvious to you that it's a puzzle of Social Media and Analytics. Imagine what happens to someone if you tell this name.
I think the best idea is if you take a pen and paper - and write down all your ideas. Then create a post on IH. List all those ideas and ask people what they thought about each name, and if they were close to guessing what is aim of the app with such name. And the end of the post ask for a suggestion for their own name - there is a lot of creative people here, someone may have a brilliant idea.
Have just signed up Gopal. Looking forward to your email.
Suggestion. A way to sign up by just using email, not google account. Unless I'm late to the party on some advantage, I would prefer to sign up with email.
Best of luck with it!
I just registered. Can you please add the option to change email address?
There isn't the option atm, feel free to email me if you need anything changed (email in my profile).
Sure will do. Are you also the founder of mysocialhike?
Ah, sorry, got it muddled up with a IH request. I'm nothing to do with SocialHike, lol. :)
Your tagline doesn't make much sense.
Your Social growth to your Inbox, every Monday
What if you did something like "A graph of your social media growth, sent to your inbox every Monday?"
Thanks for suggestion. I'll consider this.
Hey there. I just signed up to your app and added twitter to my dashboard. I expect the email next Monday. Cheers!
Thanks for giving it a try.
Hi Channing, Matteo here, short-time reader, first-day poster 😅
This month, I want to help more. I'm a content traffic consultant. I basically help companies create best-in-class content that can educate and help their prospective customers.
For example, if you are a design company and your clients are startups, I will help you create content that can really help startups deliver better customer experience through design, and share it with key people of influence in your niche to spread the word.
Lately, I'm getting great results with my clients, and I thought it's the time to teach what I know - I'm bored of reading the same content on the same topics over and over again because "it helps to rank".
Helping is also one of the reasons why I registered at Indie Hackers.
Hi Matthevv - I would like to learn a bit about creating content. I would be super grateful for any help and tips!
What exactly would you like to know?
Thanks
3.the lead authority blog on productivity is already there. don't focus on that. focus on delivering great content that your target users will enjoy. single articles can bring you revenue, you don't need a full blog.
Hope this helps!
Also another question :) - any particular tips for content marketing for software that is something completely different that anything else and potentional users don't actually yet know it may help them?
I mean doing marketing about another Trello, Slack or Buffer is from one side easier because you address problems and solutions people already heard about.
My app is a different, it's completely fresh and I sometimes struggle with people thinking "I don't yet see how it works"
Ok thanks. Still having question to 2)
I have a small nonprofit I run, where I hold cool, "different" events for foreign students in my town. Mind you, I am also a student! Right now, I am looking into upping the promo messages, description of events, and such. Do you wish to help?
Hi, I'm available for free advice here on IH but I can't help more than that. Full of client work, sorry! 😁
I need expertise in paid ads. Specifically FB and getting a net positive ROAS.
As far as services go, I'm knowledgeable about growing newsletters (Unbankd has 16,000 free subs, started from 0 less than two years ago) and web design.
If you need help with either of these I'd love to help you out as I continue to add early users to www.getslice.co via paid ads.
Paid ads are hard. Especially for SaaS products because you can't really use carousel ads and hope someone sees a product that they want to buy. There are a lot of people out there promising the world but IMO the best strategy is to 1. build out a funnel and 2. apply it to some audiences.
Optimizing the funnel and the audience is the tricky part - but it's a better strategy then throwing a bunch of ads out in the wind and hoping for the best. Here's an article that helped me when I got started w/ this: https://klientboost.com/ppc/facebook-marketing-for-saas
Thank you for the resource. Right now I’m seeing break even conversions (or slightly less) but slowly optimizing. Is there a number of impressions or timeframe you would recommend for testing?
Break even day 1 (day 10 I'm guessing) or LTV? I'd add another tier, 6month, make the 3month stand out /pre selected. I'm assuming a lot here but I'd say you're in a great position if you're break even day 1. Optimize your audiences, break out separate retargeting ads, split test ad copy and images.
Maybe add a testimonial section to /sign-up/ - In the bullets I'd expand on "Help fight malnutrition" -> "Help fight malnutrition - $1 for every plan helps fight world hunger". Use google page speed and optimize your pages - some of your images are 3.6M https://tinypng.com/ - Use a CDN/proxy for caching cloudflare is good and free.
You're at an exciting time I think some simple tweaks could push you to ROAS > 1.0 very soon. congrats
LTV! Also, thanks for the website/design tips. They are really actionable.
For the ads, I'm continuing to gather data prospecting before I slam home the retargeting ads. In your opinion, would you give a signficant discount for the retarget ads? Or just keep the same content and hammering home the 10 days free?
Not a significant discount but a limited discount. Today only, etc. Create scarcity... they're warm leads - they're ready to buy. Also, you're going to have different ads convert warm (retargeting) vs cold traffic
hrm... here's some honest feedback about LTV. This is going to get better and then a lot worse. Try to think of your customers as concentric circles - like a dart board. The smaller ones are easier to find, cheaper, insane brand loyalty and can be your biggest promoters. FB ads are going to get more expensive in general from here on out. You'll optimize and bring down CAC (customer acquisition cost) in the short term but it'll look like a linear graph up and to the right over time. Another reason why I like separating out warm vs cold - you can pump/pull down each as costs rise.
I would seriously think about upping your price. I don't know your complete story but I'm guessing you've been out for xx+ months. You've added more features, providing more value. It's time to raise prices. Raise prices by 50% - test for a bit and see what conversion does.
If it seems stable, do some sort of mini launch. Raise the price by 50% offer a 20% off discount for the first week. Celebrate all the new features. Blast your current customers to get their friends to join with an exclusive 25% off coupon. Still higher than your current prices.
I'd also add that 6month plan asap. If you can get ROAS of 1 on day 1 (day 10) then you can start growing ad spend.
To add to the concentric circle bit. This is per audience. You may tap into a different audience and it'll seem like gold at first. It'll fade and become more expensive. You'll likely develop new niches... holiday time, buy this for your spouse, date night.
Also, I would brainstorm an upsell. Directly after someone purchases, between now and thanksgiving - offer them an exclusive recipe pdf of thanksgiving meals. Christmas - exclusive holiday pdf. This will up your CAC so you can spend more and you're providing more value to your customers. Think... "would you like fries with that?" - "super size that?"
Another thought with the 1/3/6 plans. To get your pricing/discount right - 6 should be 10-20% and 3 30-40% of purchases. Rough metrics but something to go by... if everyone is taking your 6month, it's too inexpensive. You'll have to look at LTV for each as well, every niche is different.
Anyway... you're in the fun zone, seems like you're close to gold :) good luck!
Based on my limited experience working on a food service, similar to the one you're launching, I'd say the margins are super thin and you have a long-long road to seeing any positive ROI. That's why you're seeing other companies raise 10s and 100s of millions, in hopes of churning profit later. You are better off first converting your friends and your neighbors via word-of-mouth and just knocking on doors and shaking hands.
BlueApron crashed hard, after IPO, because they were dumping marketing dollars in hopes of long-term customers, but for every $400 they spent, they'd see only ~$150 back. Don't have the source, read it somewhere last week.
That's the beauty of Slice:). It's not a food service, it's more a food assistant. The margins are actually 90%+ as all the food is either shopped at grocery stores or delivered via third-party service like Instacart.
And yes, that's why Blue Apron crashed (you probably read it on Pitchbook). But Slice is competitive with eMeals and Mealime rather than a meal-kit company or delivery service. Thank you for the insights though.
Smart idea!
Ah, I see what you did there. So instead of going through the trouble of packaging meals, you just order the groceries for me, and give me the recipes that match. Smart!
Focus! Focus! Focus!
Thank you for the great post! I am currently working on passportlist.co
Hi! I am working on a meal delivery startup and could you help with this survey?https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kYfJJ1jqhJw5EjMfeuG_RUqgT4AjR6uE1N1tmtzr0lI/edit
I need help finding a co-founder, doing everything solo is difficult.
I provide logo and graphic design services for business and personal brands. I'm looking to scale and would like some advice on reaching out to new clients. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
In return, if you have any design questions or issues related to your business, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll be happy to help however I can.
I'm trying to input different names in a set in a python code which makes the names appear in a different order when printed severally but I'm having difficulty doing this. I need help.
I need help understanding my early customers, likely many of you.
This month I want to have a fairly open discussion to understand what worries, if any, founders/product managers etc have about the data they keep.
I asked a specific question here. https://www.indiehackers.com/post/what-are-your-concerns-about-data-security-has-gdpr-changed-your-opinion-f98e0e96a2
Talking to anybody building SaaS businesses. I'm starting a new project building a product to help SaaS companies get off the group faster and need to understand what tools people are using at the moment.
I'm happy to help the community by reviewing fundraising decks if anybody is looking to raise early stage VC (pre seed/seed).
Co-founder. Currently working on an MVP and truly understand that I can't work this alone. None of my mutual friends are into this.
I have a full-time job and two businesses to run I wish I had more time all what I need now is efficiency!
http://Startbook.club
I'm looking to do customer development with people who have issues with onboarding/converting trials to paid users. 🙇♂️
I am looking to get ScoutBallers to an MVP stage before the end of 2019 but I have been been having challenge with finding a developer with a reasonable demand. Most of them wants a solid payment before embarking on the design of UI and UX but I can only afford a cash plus equity arrangement at this time because i am putting all my skin in the game.
I need help meeting and doing customer development interviews with community builders of all kinds. I'd love any introductions. Email me at colin [at] community-os [dot] com.
I'm also planning a podcast so if you have experience with that, I'd love your advice.
Well, I've gone down the rabbit hole again - the one many of us know too well. I spent months and months coding / building a new web application (https://www.procedurerates.com - a database / price comparison of medical procedures in the US). The application is serverless to keep cost low and built to scale. Spent a lot of time on the technical SEO, page speed, and responsiveness on different screen sizes.
I now have a rock solid application with no users, and failed to make a plan to do so. I need a way to get the word out and come up with a content marketing plan, even though my expertise is not in that subject matter. I find the hardest part of indie hacking is balancing time between the product and tech, and marketing. Any advice here?
Just getting used to my new workflows for thegoodstartup.com after our launch last week! Always so much to do every day in terms of social media, writing, and interviewing, but these founders' inspirational stories on starting their socio-environmental impact companies keep me going. I just need to figure out how much I can reasonably do in a day without getting burnt out
I need time. Unfortunately I cannot focus on Amezmo during the day because I have a day job.
Is there a way other people here can help you with that?
Focusing on getting users. Great product but the users are elusive... (as always). "If you build it they won't come"... so the hustle continues. While I'm here... any UK and Ireland devs that need to integrate cost effective payments in their product give us a shout https://www.bankpayments.net
I am looking for:
I need help thinking of creative ways to market https://www.albumdaily.com
Come join in our weekly growth notes/discussions, latest one here - https://www.indiehackers.com/post/what-have-you-been-doing-this-week-to-grow-your-product-281758c6af
I need help to figure out what is intuitive and what is not for my app. It would be very helpful if someone would:
Take a screen recording of them going on Yubi -Share More (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yubi-share-more/id1478314430) app for the first time and just exploring what is immediately on there.
Then send me email of recording via day1labs.inc@gmail.com
Started to reply to tell you to use Hotjar, then I recognized apple link. Anyone know if Hotjar works with mobile app's or if there's a comparable tool?
I need help with staying motivated to get my product out there. Finding resources to post it on and keep pushing.
What is your product. What have you tried already?
I started with www.landing-page-specialist.io. It's hard to find clients without paid advertisement and even then it's a big market to compete. I thought focussing on small businesses and startups would be a good idea but lost focus for a while now due to my regular day job.
I started www.elyfornoville.com to set a goal for myself, get myself out there, generating content for my subscribers and keeping myself motivated. It's going better now and hoping to send out my first mailing soon. I am still looking for great ways to push my website to a wider audience. For now I tried Indie Hackers, Hacker News and Twitter.
In the pipeline I have a new project that will work around diabetes friendly restaurants. As a type 1 diabetic I have a struggle with eating out and not knowing how much to inject cause you don't know what they put in your food.
Creating something and putting it online it not a problem for me but working actively on it and getting the word out is a different story.
Nice idea with the personal site Ely, can see this working well to motivate and keep yourself accountable. Challenge I keep running into
Thank you. It's based on existing personal sites but it's something that should keep me motivated!
Working hard on getting the MVP for Jobflow done.
After interviews with companies, I learned that they would rather be connected directly with candidates, instead of having to do the messaging and planning through our site.
That means I've had to refactor the whole flow of connecting candidates and companies, and changing the revenue model to a subscription based one.
I still hope to have a beta released by my birthday the 21st. Would be a great gift to myself :)
Sounds great would love to know how you got companies to agree to interviews
Hey Deweysi!
It was a mix of reaching out to companies I had in my network, and looking for the right type of companies and just writing the CEO or hiring manager asking for feedback and if they would like to jump on a call. People are pretty happy to help!
Great stuff, that’s reassuring to hear, thanks
Well, to be honest, a few upvotes on HN :) The notes I took on a conversation between DHH and Matt from WP started to gain traction, but then disappeared. I'd love to see them back on the front page - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181898
But aside from that, I would love more readers. I've been busy making notes and making sure the consumption experience for SmashNotes.com is good, but haven't spent an awful lot of time getting new readers.
If there are specific topics you're most curious about, let me know below and I'll show you some delightful notes about them. Deal?
We've been admiring your IH summaries from afar. I'll make a note to keep reading. 👍
Don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure HN tracks when users arrive via direct links to posts and upvote them. Then the posts get penalized. Might be safer to merely mention the title of the HN post so users can navigate through and find/upvote the posts "organically".
I seem to remember one of the mods stating that's not the case (any more?).
Would be pretty silly if they did, because there are so many HN aggregators out there that post to Twitter etc... I imagine a decent proportion of all upvotes will be from a direct link.
What they definitely do do is look for voting patterns (ie having the same group of people upvote your posts each time). That seems to be a better way of preventing people from gaming the system IMO.
Agreed. I'll ask one of the HN mods about it later this week.
We need mentorship (paid or not) of a skillful digital marketing specialist.
I'm looking for some people willing to take a look at www.seesnap.com .
It's a new platform that could be really big, and help a lot of people - just need some that are willing to get in early and give thoughts.
Problem solvers welcome!
What is your site about? It seems like a picture taking app from the landing page
Second that. "Users solve problems using photos" is rather ambiguous. It would be really helpful if you give an example of 1 problem that we could solve, then people who have that problem could sign up for your service and see if it works out.
Great question. Our team was looking for a better way to solve problems, & had a breakthrough when we realize that we could use photos + data + thoughtful ui/ux to make a platform that helps people solve problems more easily.
In short - users use photos to solve problems, while we use data to put their photos to work & connect them to a movement of problem-solvers.
Sorry, but solve what problems? I'm still not sure I understand what Seesnap really is.
What i got so far, is that its a platform where i can ask a question, and then get solutions with pictures? Is that correct?
There's a lot going on in the code & more to come too!
@nahart @ngajhede @kirill
Here's the basic idea:
See a problem (broken streetlight) --> Snap a photo --> The right person is notified to fix the problem (public/governement office) --> Receive photo confirmation of resolution.
See a problem (dirty equipment at restaurant) --> Snap photo --> Assign to restaurant employee (if you're the boss) --> Recieve photo confirmation of completion --> Accept/reject resolution --> Say good job!
That helps, but I think that you would really benefit from narrowing the focus of your idea.
The two ideas you mentioned include very different users (I'd imagine that a restaurant boss already solves this problem by speaking directly with an employee without needing an app.)
I think that your first idea has more promise, but is already being addressed (perhaps poorly in some ways) by your cities 311 service. The cool thing is you can see how people in Nashville are currently using 311 using this open dataset.
I think that for a lot of these requests, downloading an app and taking a photo is more cumbersome that calling 311.
I'd recommend looking through the data to come up with some ideas where you think the city/citizens would benefit from a better solution & setting up a meeting with your city to understand their pain points & how you could address them.
Thank you for your feedback! We need people like you who are willing to give your thoughts
I think the idea is really interesting. But I would definitely work on storytelling when describing the idea of the app.
I would start with a smaller range of problems: fixing stuff on the street - it's easier to describe.
When describing the problem and solution I would use some statistics that many people struggle with telling/making a call when seeing something is wrong - because they simply don't like to. I think doing the same narration as "Abandoned cart" story with some marketing products would increase understanding of your app.
Thanks! I definitely agree with you on storytelling an using stats.
Your landing page doesn't tell what your platform is about, how you define "problem solver" and what is it for
Problem solver is anyone who sees problems in their daily lives & wants to do something about it.
Here's an example: I see that there is bird poop all over a bench in front of my apartment building that I would like to sit at. I snap a photo & select that I'm willing to pay $5 to whoever will clean it. Later, someone cleans the bench, sends photo confirmation & then seeing the solution, I accept the task has been completed. After I accept, the person who cleaned the bench gets $5!
Obviously this can scale up to large companies needing to manage what their employees need to get done throughout the day, citizens who want their city cleaned of graffiti & litter, & people who need things fixed around the house & are willing to put a price on it!
Thanks for the feedback & questions! I would love to have you sign up so I can continue to get your feedback.
No idea what your product could do.
Who is it for? What does it do?
It probably could do a lot, but focus on one specific use case to get people to pay attention.
Hey Josh! You're exactly right that it can do a lot, but here's one use case:
Imagine after a storm, a large tree branch has fallen across your driveway. It's too big to move. You use SeeSnap to take a picture of the branch, asking for it to be sawed up & removed, and add a bounty of $50 on it. Someone responds that they're willing to do it, comes over & completes the job. They add a photo showing that your driveway is cleared & that the branch has been sawed up & hauled away. You're able to see the photo evidence of this while you're at work, & accept the photo response. At that point $50 is sent to the person who completed the task.
Obviously this can be used for many different things & doesn't have to include a cash bounty.
One use that we are passionate about is solving the global litter problems we have. Imagine if on the way to work, we could all snap photos of problem areas, & each add a couple dollars to give the person who picks it up. Then someone who is homeless or jobless (or just needs some extra money) can go around cleaning the city, posting photo proof, & earning money at the same time.
We would love to have you on the journey with us to make the world better one snap at a time. I would love it if you would sign up & give your thoughts as we give early access to certain users.
Hey, Indie Hackers! 👋
I'm trying to catch and solve any bugs on a Font Matcher/Pairing web tool that I'm about to release: https://fontpairings.bypeople.com/
The idea of my tool is that you can test and try your font matchings (we also provide some pro suggestions). On different website layouts, to find the best option for your site.
Right now I'm working on the function to test the fonts over any given custom URL, thanks a lot for testing, and thanks to @channingallen for opening the thread :)
Also, finding people to give me their emails on http://www.stumbleapod.com so I can do some user interviews
StumbleUpon for Podcasts no?
Why are people not giving you their email? What is your conversion rate?
=-) Hi Josh - sorry, that was a bit of a snippy reply, there. Spent half my day working on something in my "day job" that was a complete waste of time and it had me saying 'why tf am I not working on what I want to work on right now".
At any rate, yes, stumbleupon for podcasts. Literally just decided today, after that waste of a morning, to launch a splash with an email grab. So, no data yet, but we'll see. I've yet to dangle it around some in front of anyone, yet. This is actually the first mention of it in the world to IH! I guess I'll work on SEO and posting around on some message boards and see what type of interest bubbles up.
Getting eyeballs to my newsletter is something I want to start doing better, but really not sure where to start beyond social media.
https://stadialist.com - for anyone interested in football related history :)
Where have you shared it so far?
What is your best newsletter? Could you make that into a static page and share that?
I have a cool team around me helping me with the different aspects of my business.
What I do need help with, is finding an internship in New York or Pennsylvania! I am part of a European programme where I get to go work in one of the upper locations for three months, with all expenses being paid by the European Union!
Therefore, I can go work FOR FREE for three months, to either New York or Pennsylvania! I've written a few interesting founders, but It's not going well...
Have you tried reaching out to local startups/companies?
Hi there fellow indie hackers,
I need help building the definitive list of the best cafes to work from, spreadsheet link here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GzwHUx1X_zYcKJY0VZhw4R_S1tyOIvrp9U5Bm75_1zE/edit#gid=0.
Once I get 50-100 rows I will build a website out of this and hope it becomes the reference point for "where to work as a remote worker".
Thanks for your help and I'm here to help you if you need any beta testing.
Cool!
in my city (Slovenia, Europe), this is taken care of with a cool github page :).
Would you mind sharing that cool github page, please? 🤗
sure thing!
After searching for 5 minutes, I couldnt find it! Ah, so I think you may have found a good niche,😂.
https://github.com/otobrglez/awesome-workplaces-slovenia :)
Oh, first Slovenian i've seen on here! Maybe my reply was actually a bait to get some slo lurker to come out, hehe!
I hope so 😇. Thanks anyway! I will comeback to you when I'll have the site ready.
Once you have that csv you can build a nice open data portal + api on it using www.opendatasoft.com (Disclaimer : I work there)
Thanks for sharing that! I will take a look at it.
We are currently investigating which marketing channels work best for us. So far we want to focus on networks like reddit, betalist, twitter. Once our product https://turtle.community is more mature we also want to post to HN or producthunt.
We also want to start writing a blog but are not quite sure about which topic.
On the other side we can offer help to people with technical problems covering nearly everything from backend to frontend. This involves web applications, apps, landing pages, design, architecture, databases, hosting, ...
Your landing page isn't super clear.
"Links Worth Sharing" - what kind of links? Why should I care? What does it do?
"Exchange, discuss and save the best dev and startup tools to build your project as efficiently as possible" - how is this different than product hunt? HN? Indiehackers?
Get super specific.
Yeah I agree, we probably want to rephrase the headline.
Well,
Because the cookie notice sitting at the bottom of the viewport is the same color as the header and the charcoal text color does not jump out to say "this is a cookie warning" I thought the whole site was just that single sentence of copy and a sign-up link. Only when I checked the scrollbar (on desktop) did I see there was more to the page.
this is the first time I am hearing this :)
Are you doing macro or micro marketing? Lately ive begun doing micro marketing for my events, and I found it good to build discussion around your event on smaller whatsapp groups!
Sry marketing noob here, what is the difference?
I would say macro has to do with sharing something on large open channels. facebook, instagram, branded posts come to mind. Whereas micro, I see it as everything that has to do with one on one. so collecting mailing lists, and then sending quality mails with new about your event. also, talking with demographics interested in your product on whatsapp, or wherever your audience lies. it could be tik tok...
thx for the explanation. I would say we use macro for marketing and micro mainly for feedback.
Expanding the days in to 30 hours long and my body not requiring sleep?
Why not 48 hours?
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Hi, we do this as a service, but I'd be more than happy to chat and help you out.
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Perhaps don't see it as 'advertising'? Also, happy to chat/help/advise, love social media without letting it take over my life.
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DM on Twitter to discuss/arrange something.
For SongBox or GetFed?
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