BLANQ

Custom url shortener, branded links, link routing, analytics

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January 30, 2021 Released Search, Domain and 404 link redirection

I released a few major updates to the product today.

  1. Search - You can now search links in the dashboard. Enter some letters and hit the submit button to get a list of matching links within your portfolio.

  2. You can now configure default redirection links for your custom domains configured in the platform. When someone visits your domain, our app will redirect the user to this link.

  3. Similar to the above one but for 404 links for your domain.

Also integrated Headway changelog in the dashboard to announce latest releases and bug fixes.

Visit Link: https://blanq.io

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November 2, 2020 Launched Link Routing

I am excited to announce the launch of Flows - a link routing feature that lets you create multiple links for the same short URL.

This allows you to target your audience based on Country, Language, Device, and Platform.

You can create upto 5 different flows per short URL.

Also, redesigned the dashboard, changed the link creation flows, and updated the website.

The entire process took about 1 month to build I am happy to finally release it to production.

Link: https://blanq.io

Blog post: https://blog.blanq.io/how-does-a-flow-link-routing-work/

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August 29, 2020 100 users!

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Finally hit the 100 users mark today thanks to 40 odd users signing up after launching on Product Hunt.

Unfortunately, lost the only paying customer - I am not sure why. But nevertheless, things are looking very bright. People have been emailing me about the product and showering appreciation. I have also doubled down my effort on marketing and outreach.

I am pretty confident about the product and hopefully, things turn green soon.

15 Comments

  1. 2

    Have you emailed and asked the churned customer why they churned?

    1. 1

      They have not replied to any of my mails or tweets since the beginning. It is impossible to reach them unfortunately.

  2. 1

    Congrats! Nothing beats the user telling you of appreciation by hands! What kind of marketing are you thinking of implementing now that it's post Product Hunt?

    1. 2

      I have started to write more on the blog, reach out to existing users, try out twitter marketing and be more active in communities.

      I also plan to run ads at some point.

      1. 1

        Cool. Best of luck!

  3. 1

    Congratulations on this first milestone! Cheers to the next 100. :)

  4. 1

    Congrats! This is super interesting, what kind of people or businesses are shortening links so frequently that they could need up to 5000 shortened per month?

    1. 1

      5000 is the total and not per month.

      1. 1

        Oh, what kind of people or businesses are shortening a total of up to 5000 links?

        1. 1

          People with digital marketing background, marketing agencies and startups

  5. 1

    Well you've got your 101st customer.

    1. 1

      Cool! Thanks, would love to hear your feedback.

  6. 1

    Congrats !! Dont worry you will get more paying customers!

    1. 1

      I am hopeful :)

August 25, 2020 Launched on Product Hunt

I launched Blanq on Product Hunt today!

After working on this for a few months over the weekends on this side project I am finally confident to release it on product hunt. I created it because I envisioned a cleaner, reliable and easily manageable URL shortener.

Link : https://www.producthunt.com/posts/blanq

Kindly check out and offer your support.

2 Comments

  1. 1

    I just saw you website. Awsome man.
    Keep it up.

August 22, 2020 Created first Youtube video to demo

Created a brand new account on Youtube and uploaded the very first video that demonstrates the dashboard and major features of the platform.

Link: https://youtu.be/-5YQUusE42g

I will use this video as part of Product Hunt launch and will hopefully be good enough to explain the service.

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August 12, 2020 Reached 50 users🎉

Two months after the launch of Blanq, it now has 50 users using the service including 1 paying customer.

The service has redirected about 15000 times in a short span of time and has a new blog as well!

Next set of plans include upgrading infrastructure to handle possible future growth and introducing new set of features that customers are demanding.

Do read my blog post as well: https://blanq.io/3-principles-of-growth

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August 3, 2020 10000 redirects and counting!

Blanq has now redirected more than ten thousand redirects since it went live last month.

In a week's time, it went up from 5000 to 10000 largely due to a single paid customer using the service to share with millions of followers on social media.

The service has held up good with uptime of 100%. With this growth, I have plans to scale up my infrastructure and add a couple more interesting features in the dashboard.

I predict the next milestone of 20 thousand will be reached in less than a week. Hoping for the best!

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July 28, 2020 Got my first paying customer! 🎉

1 month after the launch, Blanq has its first paying subscriber!

The customer is a large cycling team who has been using my application for their marketing needs on an everyday basis.

Link shortening is a booming sector I believe, and paired with custom domains, is extremely powerful. I will now need to double down my effort in ensuring stability and security.

As for future plans, I have interesting features in the pipeline including UTM builder, A/B testing, and Password protected links and other small features.

I plan to reinvest the money earned back into the business - most likely a managed database or a monitoring tool. But, will definitely take my time out to celebrate this incredible milestone!

Link: [https://blanq.io] (https://blanq.io)

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July 20, 2020 Introduced new plans and updated pricing

Blanq now has 2 new paid plans: Starter and Standard with additional benefits and limits.

Details:
https://blanq.io/pricing.html.

The free plan has also been improved to include additional custom domains.

The paid plans start at $19/month with Standard plan being $29/month.

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July 8, 2020 Doubled my user count to 30 in last 15 days

The list includes 2 large cycling teams and a small startup that has been using the service daily. Serving almost 300 redirects every day.

Most of the large organizations have been using email and not Google login for signing up which is interesting. Custom domains also seem to be the favorite with almost all users adding their domains to shorten and track links.

Fixed a few major bugs during the beta phase and improved the features based on feedback. Rollbar been has been very useful in tracking errors and bugs.

Next up in Blanq is to introduce new plans and improve the privacy page.

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About

Blanq is a custom URL or a link shortener that lets you add custom domains to shorten and track links. It features link management, analytics, reports and more.