dogger.io
Docker services and tools for indie hackers
Making it easier to host indie projects in Docker. Making it simpler to test features before they go out.
Despite my product being a dev product, I instantly got a paid customer through AppSumo after the deal going live, despite it being private, and despite me not sharing it with anyone.
That's very strange, but apparently normal. I've talked to several others on Twitter experiencing the same.
It seems that although it's privately listed, people are finding it via scripts or something similar.
I just hope people don't refund, which they actually have 2 months to do. I also hope that people leave good reviews!
I have been delaying this forever, and I am happy that I have finally managed to get it done.
I'm a developer, not a writer or a lawyer. It's tough on my soul. However, I am happy with the result.
The terms are written in usual garbled lawyer-text, but the privacy policy has been written in a user-friendly manner for the user, making it clear how we handle a user's privacy.
I'm quite happy with the result!
I got approved for AppSumo as I detailed in a recent post, but wasn't sure if the last steps would be worth it.
I was spending way too much time on other features, but thanks to all the Indie Hackers who replied to that post, I am now convinced that it's worth it, and fully focused on it.
The deadline for closing the deal is this Friday. Before then, I need to implement a coupon system with a UI, a dedicated AppSumo page, and documentation for my on-prem solution, which will be the deal that I am selling.
Wish me luck! I hope I can make it.
Just a few days ago, I wrote about how Portainer became my first paying customer. Now, something new and exciting happened.
Not only did they reply to a tweet about my product on their Twitter (3k followers) saying that they love it, they also wrote a testimonial for the product.
It can be found on the website, but I'll list it here as well.
Pull Dog is a real time saver. Instead of pulling and testing each branch during review manually, Pull Dog already has everything ready for us directly in each pull request.
Wow. Just wow! A big project like Portainer (2.1 billion downloads, 15k stars on GitHub) said that about my product, and paid for the service!
I am starstruck. Someone pinch me.
This morning I woke up to a lovely surprise. The Portainer project, downloaded 2 billion times and having 15k stars on GitHub, is using my GitHub app Pull Dog 馃コ
This is absolutely amazing. I've launched numerous startups since I was 19, but none of them has ever succeeded. I thought I was doomed to be a failure.
One customer obviously isn't enough, but it's still a big win for me.
Now I guess I need to rinse and repeat, and find more customers. Luckily, the more people that use my product, the more exposure and marketing it gets.
And since Portainer is such a large project, their I'm hoping their continued use of the product will expand the customer base 馃槑
Pull Dog's full feature set has now been documented on the website at https://dogger.io/documentation.
I have around 1 new Pull Dog user installing the app per day, but only a few of those enabling it for a repository. I have long feared that lack of documentation might have been a possible cause, so it is nice to have it done.
It's powered by Gatsby, so it is still blazing fast just like all the other pages on Dogger.
To make my product a bit more trustworthy, I decided to open-source all of it. I was very paranoid about doing this but decided to do it anyway.
"My precious!"
I think a common bias for most Indie Hackers (including myself) is to think that people will steal the idea if it is open-sourced. I choose to believe this is not the case, and I also believe that an open-source project will move much faster, and be more trusted.
Besides, if a copy-cat wanted to break the license and the law to start their own business using my idea, they would have to catch up with the pace of the community contributing to it.
This was inspired heavily by Plausible!
Check it out
The new project has been moved to the Dogger organization on GitHub, here: https://github.com/dogger
I have just completed the on-site blog for Dogger. The purpose of this is SEO since my current SEO page rank is 0 馃槖
I have copied my Medium articles into this blog and configured the canonical URL of the Medium articles to point to the blog. This will ensure the content is not registered as a duplicate within search engines and passes some of the SEO juice to my domain.
The blog can be found here: https://dogger.io/blog
It is very basic at the moment but it will improve over time.
The next step will be to work on documentation. This will use the same Markdown-based formatting, so it should be fairly simple.
I've had a few days of relaxing (my birthday included). Now it's time to get back on track.
Payment system updates
The Portainer project (currently evaluating my product) seems to want to pay for the product but asked for an extended trial (until the end of the month) since they are in a code freeze right now. That's fine by me - it gives me some time to make a few adjustments to the payment system.
Before, each product purchased on Dogger or via Pull Dog was a separate Stripe subscription. Now I've unified everything, so a single subscription contains all the products you have, with prorated upgrades and downgrades.
Code privacy
I am working on an update that allows me to guarantee the privacy of my customer's code while using Pull Dog or Dogger, despite the servers being hosted on my own AWS account. This is done using AWS Lightsail keypairs and a clever way of using temporary IAM users.
This also makes it easier for Pull Dog to compete with competitors.
Finalizing the landing page
While Pull Dog has been in focus, Dogger has been almost entirely gone from the administration panel and the landing page. It's time for the Dogger hosting product to come back, with the new revamped design.
Creating an on-site blog
After consulting a few SEO specialists, I am making my own blog on the site itself, but then I'll set up my Medium posts to forward the SEO juice to that blog (while still not being penalized for duplication).
Open-sourcing
I have decided to open source Dogger and Pull Dog, but that isn't first priority. Once again, this will increase trust, and also make it easier to compete with competitors.
Documentation
I need a documentation section for all the parts of my products. They are quite capable of all kinds of features, but a product is only as good as its documentation.
My landing page was not explaining my business concept well enough, so I decided to scrap it and go from the existing "MVP-look" to a more professional look.
I am very satisfied with the result, but it currently only contains a section for the Pull Dog pull request product - the Docker hosting section will be implemented soon.
Exciting times!
Oh, and tomorrow, Portainer (a 14k star GitHub project) will have used Pull Dog for a week and will leave feedback as well. I hope it'll be positive, and potentially even lead to the first paying customer!