3
16 Comments

What tool do you recommend for monitoring traction?

I built a website and it’s starting to get some traction. So far I’m using a TelegramBot to being notified when something important is happening, but I’d like to have more insights :

  • new payments
  • new signup
  • etc

And if possible, have filters on these (last week, last month, etc.).

Do you guys recommend a particular solution that you tested? Something that is plug and play?

#tech-questions

  1. 2
    • I process all payments via Stripe. Stripe provides a good analytic dashboard.
    • To see traction in signup I created a simple admin dashboard with filters, all information taken directly from the database.
    • I use Google and Facebook analytics to see traction in visitors.
    1. 1

      In fact, I haven’t think of Google Analytics, but they provide events tracking, which looks like it’s exactly what I’m looking for! Do you use that as well?

      1. 1

        I use events to learn which signup button on the landing page is more clicked by the visitors. And also usage trend.

      2. 1

        I use Google Analytics to see the geography of my users and analyze traffic channels to know which of them works for me better. For tracking events, I use Facebook pixel. And I don't have a good reason why I chose FB but not Google. I set it up when I've been just playing with Facebook pixel to understand it's functionality.

  2. 2

    You could use Airtable to collect that info (via their easy to use API or Zapier) and display it per week/month...

    Airtable plays well with Slack for notifications (that's what I use) - not sure about telegram.

    Have also used Zapier to send myself an SMS on new customer etc. That's fun!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the tip! Seems like a nice hack, but isn’t long to set up?

  3. 1

    For notifications i use ifttt for everything.

  4. 1

    Self-plug: we're making an app dedicated to monitoring new payments (and other events, like failed payments, subscriptions, refunds, etc.).
    It supports Stripe & PayPal accounts, and a bunch of other IH-ers already uses it.
    It's called CashNotify.

  5. 1

    We're finding Slack integrations easy to find and set up. We've got our new signup forms sending a notification to a Slack email address that filters to a specific channel. We have Typeform connected to Slack to send survey responses to another channel. We have a Gmail filter that forwards an email to another Slack channel after a contract has been executed. And we have MailClark integration to not only receive but respond to support emails from within Slack.

    We haven't activated payments yet, but I imagine most payment platforms will either have a Slack integration, could be integrated via Zapier (which is super easy to set up -- we use it for automating the sharing/updating of information between our services while the Slack notifications are just that, an FYI), or solved through a simply Gmail filter (tracking any payment emails from Stripe, for example) and forward solution.

    1. 1

      I don’t use slack, but I do like this spirit! Is it not too hard to maintain?

      1. 1

        We've only been running for a month, but so far, there has been no maintenance once the notifications have been set up.

        If you don't use Slack, most project management / collaboration tools that we have used seem to have email addresses that allow you to send content to the service. If that exists for your tool, then setting up Gmail filter/forwards would seem to be a fairly easy solution.

  6. 1

    Hey Corentin, I recommend you the book "Financial Management for Technology Start-Ups: A Handbook for Growth", in there you will find the metrics you need according to each stage of your startup.

    1. 3

      By the way, chartmogul.com is cheaper than Baremetrics

    1. 1

      I know that one! Haven’t try it yet but seems like a natural go through once I will have >$1K of MRR.

      Until that, I’m quite interested to know how do you feel about it?

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