What's New: Twitter's new login requirement

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Bye bye embedding, hello screenshotting:

• Twitter has removed embedded tweets for unregistered users. Check out the new update below.
• Here's how to use free email courses to target your ideal customers, upsell premium offers, and grow your company.
• Founder Mac Martine went from $0 to $58,000 in monthly revenue in 30 months. Below, he shares his unique strategy to generate leads.

Want to share something with over 75,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

📱 Twitter's New Login Requirement

by Channing Allen

The gist

Embedded tweets are dead.

Twitter's new login requirement has a big implication:

When tweets are embedded on other platforms (messaging apps, blogs, newsletters, etc.), readers will only see plain hyperlinks unless those readers:

1. Have Twitter accounts, and
2. Are logged in.

The news

Twitter has started blocking unregistered users from viewing tweets.

Blogs, newsletters, and mainstream news publications have long relied on embedded tweets to pluck interesting content from Twitter. But most readers don't use Twitter. The platform's 396.5M users are only ~5% of the global population.

Even if you assume that the readers of certain publications (like Indie Hackers) are more likely than average to be Twitter users, "more likely than average" isn't enough.

For example, probably 65% of the people currently reading this newsletter would be able to actually view a posted Twitter link.

But we're not cool with 35% of you having to stare at an ugly, useless link without being able to actually see the tweet. And we're not alone in this.

So here, have a screenshot instead:

What are your thoughts on Twitter's newest update? Let's chat below!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Growth Trends newsletter

🤬 Reddit is threatening subreddits to go public again, or else.

🤖 The ad industry is going all-in on AI.

🛍 TikTok may soon bring its e-commerce store to the US.

🤩 Seven customer success strategy guides.

🛏 The business of bedtime snacks.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

📧 Trend Alert: Email Courses

from the Trends.vc newsletter

Problem

Students need a structured way to learn new skills.

Solution

Email courses are courses delivered via email.

They boost student success by giving a clear path and time scope for desired results.

Predictions

• Students will pay for instant access to all course content to get the value faster.

• We'll see gamified email courses. They will boost engagement with points, achievements, and leaderboards.

Opportunities

• Use free email courses to upsell premium offers.

• Build a niche email course. Target your ideal customers with a clear value proposition.

• Build an evergreen email course.

• Use email courses as lead magnets.

Risks

• Spam: Your emails may land in spam.
• Data privacy: You can get fined if you don't follow privacy and anti-spam laws.
• Reputation risk: Poor courses lead to false expectations, under-delivery, and loss of trust.

Key lessons

• Build a value ladder by upselling higher-end offers at the end of the course.
• Stick to one topic per lesson to keep students focused.
• Free, valuable email courses are great lead magnets.
• Email courses help you sell other products. There's a 70% higher chance you'll sell to an existing customer than to a new one.

Hot takes

• You need long-form sales copy to sell paid email courses.
• The first lesson sets the tone for the whole course. Pack it with value.
• Clear lesson titles will increase your course completion rate.
• Email courses can teach complex topics. Artificial Intelligence using Python is a 30 day course on machine learning with Python.

Haters

"Email courses are impersonal."

You can let students reach out to you via email, social media, or community.

"My lessons will get lost among other emails."

Like any email, your lesson may get lost in the noise. Add reminders, rewards, or other incentives to boost engagement.

"Email courses seem like a bad fit for what I have to teach."

You have options. Self-paced courses are flexible, and give instant access to the whole course. Cohort-based courses offer peer support and easy access to the teacher.

"If I build within an existing ecosystem (i.e. Notion), I'll need to keep my course in sync with its changes."

You'll have to, or your course may get stale. This is platform risk.

More reports

Go here to get the Trends Pro report. It contains 200% more insights. You also get access to the entire back catalog and the next 52 Pro Reports.

Would you build an email course? Share your thoughts below!

Subscribe to Trends.vc for more.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

from the Marketing Examples newsletter

A real person with personality will outsell any faceless brand:

Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.

Subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

💰 Mac Martine Hit $58K MRR in 30 Months

by Mac Martine

Hi, founders! I'm Mac Martine, and I went from $0 to $58K MRR in 30 months.

Here's what that path looked like!

2000–2007

I got a job at a big tech company and started to teach myself to code. I failed at early attempts at making money online.

2008–2011

I started looking for a SaaS idea.

Online revenue earned: <$1K.

2011–2012

I quit my job and went all-in on my first SaaS, an appointment scheduling app. I knew nothing about this market, but I felt there was an opportunity. It was a poor product choice, but I learned a lot from the experience.

Online revenue earned: <$1K.

2012–2015

I gave up on the app and immersed myself in the local startup scene to learn from others.

Eventually, I joined a two person startup in an incubator with a small amount of funding. Our startup got acquired. I worked at the new company for a bit, but got laid off.

2015–2018

I went all-in on freelancing, building SaaS MVPs.

2018–2021

In 2018, I decided to change course. I reached out to all of the founders and higher-ups that I knew.

I'd reach out to five people at a time. I'd take them for coffee and ask them tons of questions. Then, I asked them who else I should talk to. I'd get introductions and book more meetings. I'd go home and review my notes, looking for patterns and recurring pain points.

I kept repeating that. I'd build small proofs of concept, show them in my next meeting, iterate, then repeat. Finally, I had it: A LinkedIn outreach automation tool. I went deep into coding land for four weeks. The app had a long way to go, but it worked.

Almost four weeks to the day from writing the first line of code, I emailed all the people I had met with to let them know that we were live. I swiped a card that day, and had my first customer.

Within 30 months, I was at $58K MRR, with ~$3K in expenses. In 2021, I sold for seven figures.

2023

I'm now helping others reach profitability, with The SaaS Bootstrapper.

Lessons

Surround yourself with people doing what you want to do. Learn all you can from them. Help those coming up behind you.

Don't stop. The common thread among all successful founders is never giving up!

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?

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Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Darko, Dru Riley, Harry Dry, and Mac Martine for contributing posts. —Channing