You Should Make This A Habit.

Two weeks ago I launched WebCheck AI, a chrome extension that gives you context on what you read online. Let me tell you why I decided to go for it.

Everyone keeps an idea journal. Whether it's on a physical notebook, or the notes section of your phone, or as text messages to yourself, most Indie Hackers probably have a million ideas that they write down somewhere (or not) but rarely do anything about them. And that is GOOD!

Turning an idea into something serious takes real work and time commitment and you can't spread yourself too thin and pursue every idea that pops into your head.

However, here is something you can do for EVERY idea you get. In fact, you should turn it into a habit. It is not time-consuming and can be very revealing.

Here it goes: MAKE SURVEYS. Make surveys your best friends!

Whenever I get an idea, I open up Typeform, create a survey, and start sending it out to the relevant Subreddits and Facebook groups. And guess what? People like to help.

Message:

"Hello, I am currently building a/n X to help Y and would love your input. Please take 30 seconds to fill out this short survey. Fill free to skip any question and thank you in advance! "

Protip #1: Be catchy and general in the message and specific in the actual survey.
Protip #2: Make all questions optional.

For the survey itself, make sure to ask the following:

1. Find out some characteristics of the people answering the survey.
2. Ask them to rate their interest (1-10) on some features you have in mind.
3. ALWAYS, leave a question for people to give comments.

You will find that you will quickly :

1. Discard ideas (which feels great! You could have just saved yourself months of work that goes nowhere)
2. Get new ideas. In which case: Make new surveys.

I literally sent out dozens of surveys over the years because I made it a habit.

It was a survey which made me decide to pursue WebCheck AI with full force, after receiving the most overwhelmingly positive and high number of responses ever.

After making a quick survey and sending it out, as usual, my Reddit / FB began to explode with UpVotes and likes. I got over 100 responses in 2 days and the sentiment was so positive, we went for it.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you had a chance to try WebCheck yourself. I would love all the feedback I can get.