Appernetic

Build static websites without remembering strange commands.

No Employees
Founders Code
Solo Founder
Content
Design
Productivity
SaaS
Writing

Because there was no static website generator, git, github, markdown editor combo that had the workflow that I needed.

April 6, 2021 End of life

Could not afford the cost at the moment, $25/month so I deleted the infrastructure. I blame covid and lack of focus at the moment. I was planning to build it more decentralized with IPFS and GitHub but never got started. But now it's time to start new endeavors and build sustainable solutions.

May 2, 2019 Release Party, https://fitness-rebels.com.

Finished the last steps on the static website. Added Cloudflare CDN, pointed DNS. Web design UI/UX, Hugo customization coding, Logo creation, branding, Content creation, Assets pipeline for images, JS and CSS, Google Analytics, GTMettrix speed test (73 and 80), Site verification, Opengraph, Shortcodes, Twitter cards, Disqus comments, Google Sheets, Cloudflare CDN, GitLab Hosting with custom domain and TLS with RSA encryption, DNS configuration education and handover. 43 hours á 2000 USD. Puh!

April 16, 2019 Share a low point or difficult obstacle you faced.

I need to improve the service to get it from zero revenue. Now the problem is that it's hard to find the time to do that while you are consulting and freelancing. I have started a Patreon account and also thought about crowdfunding. But no good strategy yet.

April 16, 2019 What was it like to build the first version?

I had learned Node.js and Angular but not all the design patterns and abstract concepts like promises etc. Also, I had to be better with Git and learn everything about Hugo. I had already worked with Amazon EC2, Linux and GitHub for many years so the technology stack was already set.

So it all was about digging as deep as possible in every part of the tech stack and iterate.

April 16, 2019 The journey - How'd I come up with the idea.

I started an Internet Service Provider back in 1995 with some friends. I was the one learning and building backend services and productizing everything, offering DNS, ISDN, Fiber, analog modem connections, email service, web hosting with Coldfusion/Perl CGI etc, It worked and we started to reach breakeven after 3 years, but it was hard to motivate 14 hours workdays. Then most of the websites were static, but I was fast moving to build dynamic sites with Pearl and Coldfusion. The thing we lacked was the focus. It's not possible to both try to be an ISP and a web agency with only one person doing the daily work.

So I now I thought after a couple of failed startups that I should start something similar to a web host/ISP (which had never failed and was a success). But nowadays the competition is on another level but technology has also evolved and changed.

So I researched how to build a Startup with zero cost that offered web hosting and of course it was not possible. But I also noticed the JAMStack movement (the term was not invented yet) and had used Jekyl before. So after 1-month research back in 2015 I started to build Appernetic based on open source projects, free and freemium services and connected API's. It was almost ready in January 2016.

Of course, I had no users and no marketing budget so it took another 5 months to build up an organic reach on the Internet.

About

Because there was no static website generator, git, github, markdown editor combo that had the workflow that I needed.