Fund A Maker
A curated newsletter of awesome indie products and makers
I recently crossed over the 150 subscribers this week for fundamaker.com, and I couldn't be happier. I've seen consistent growth and engagement throughout and I wanted to share a couple stats with everyone!
- Average open rate for newsletter: 65% +
- Unsubscribes: 1
- Monthly unique visits: 720
- Revenue: $5 (Buy me coffee)
In three weeks I've seen tons of growth and am super happy with the progress so far.
I'm now focussing on what's next.
I've started a Google Sheet to gather a list of makers and products, that I plan to use as the foundation for the Fund a Maker V2 website.
If your product isn't on the list, please feel free to add it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cSvWOUGfrG-IE14TDeojz6UCNcV_xoSwxXTrIPvEZoE/
I'm also looking for ideas and suggestions around what the future fundamaker.com platform should look like. Please share your craziest ideas in the comments below, I'd love to hear them!
It's been just over a week since I came up with the idea to launch fundamaker.com - a newsletter to help promote and support indie makers and their awesome products!
In that time, I've shipped the first edition of the newsletter and have since doubled the number of subscribers, which has been totally amazing to watch happen!
I've also been seeing a steady stream of requests to be featured in the newsletter, which is really exciting.
All of this suggests to me that there is a real need for additional support for the maker / solo founder community and I'm already thinking of a couple new ways that we could better help makers get early traction for their ideas and products.
If you have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to let me know!
-
3
Love the idea and definitely in full support of it but I have to suggest maybe reformatting your wall of love. It's just too much text and looks super messy (I instantly look away and don't bother reading). Maybe throw in a quote slider and just cycle through different quotes?
Also, do you plan to monetize this?
-
1
Thanks for the feedback here! I'll definitely look at better ways to represent the "wall of love".
I don't have any immediate plans to monetize. My focus at the moment is adding value to the community and building relationships.
That said, I'm open to ideas from you all here, and I do have some ideas / plans to take this to the next level once we have a little more traction.
Once again, thanks for sharing your thoughts! 🙏
-
-
3
How did you promote the newsletter?
-
2
Hi Gásten, I haven't really promoted it. I've talked about it on Twitter and here on Indie Hackers, and it seems to have resonated with folks. Other than that, I haven't done any additional promotion. Do you have any suggestions? I'm certainly open to ideas 😊
-
1
Haha not really. I wrote an article and I'm now going to share the tool on forums and places where my users would hangout. If that works, I'll make sure to post it here.
-
-
-
2
Landing page looks good. However, I couldn't find any details for product submission until I scrolled to bottom. It would be better if you add another section (may be under tweets) for product submission and a hint (scrolling link?) at top.
-
1
Nice suggestion! Thanks for sharing :)
-
-
2
Just signed up now! Good luck with the newsletter.
-
2
Just signed up for your newsletter. Will give it try!
-
1
Awesome, welcome to the family!
-
-
2
This is cool @jjbuildit . What have you used to build the page? Or have you built it from scratch? I really like the tones and outlook of it.
-
2
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
-
1
Agreed and thank you. Many products and communities have started that way, and so I'm really looking for direction from everyone. I'd love to hear if you have any ideas or suggestions!
-
-
2
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
I'm so excited 🎉
Less than a week after coming up with the concept for the Fund A Maker newsletter I've sent out my first email to almost 40 subscribers. I couldn't be happier with how the first edition turned out, and I'm looking forward to continuing to grow, while promoting awesome makers and their products.
If you missed out on the first newsletter, don't forget to sign up here: http://fundamaker.com
You can also read the newsletter in your browser here if you like: https://mailchi.mp/1f5f78faa665/funding-your-idea-with-a-tweet-lma-v2-and-coworkto
-
3
@jjbuildit this is such a great idea. Being a maker myself, I'd like to know how do you select the featured makers.
-
2
Hey Monik, I'm glad you like it. You can submit a maker or product for consideration here: https://fundamaker.com/#submissions
That said, I think it would be good idea for me to create some submission criteria. Thanks for this feedback!
-
I'm soft launching fundamaker.com today! You can go and sign up on the website now!
Feel free to leave me any feedback or suggestions in the comments!
Our mission is to surface and highlight awesome indie products and makers. Let's support the maker community by buying their products instead of products from large corporate machines!
A little history: After coming up with the idea for Fund A Maker Friday, and then sharing this it on Twitter and Indie Hackers, I received a lot of great feedback about what an awesome initiative it is.
So I decided to turn it into a newsletter and fundamaker.com was born!
-
3
Love this. I signed up and submitted PenSignal.com. I hope to hear back
-
1
Thanks so much!
-
-
2
Looks interesting. I have signed up :)
How come you chose Friday to send the email?
-
1
Thanks for signing up! TBH it was kinda arbitrary. Friday rhymes with Fund. So FundAMakerFriday kinda worked. I know that Friday isn't actually the best day to send out mailers though so might change that in future! 😁
-
-
2
Love this idea! I was creeping in Makerlog Telegram reading about you building this yesterday, was thinking to myself 'how kind is that idea!' :D
-
1
Thanks Diana! That is lovely to hear! 😁 Let me know if you have an feedback or thoughts!
-
-
1
I saw this beautiful project grow on Twitter! Super exciting and congratulations on the launch 🎉🎉🎉
-
1
Thanks Joulse! I really appreciate your kind words! 🙇🏻♂️
-
11 Comments
You didn't sell idea enough on the homepage. I have no idea about what it is and why should I sign up. Maybe adding additional page explaining the process in details with some fancy graphics would help.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!
What are your plans for v2? Already curious with what coming in next version. Added my product.
I have a couple ideas but nothing set in stone yet, I'm looking for feedback and suggestions! So far I have three concepts I'm considering:
Definitely open to ideas though!
Cool concept. I’ve added my product. Thanks!
That's great news! Let me know if you have any questions!
This is a bit how ProductHunt started! I really like the twist. It's definitely a good space to be in. Have you considered building out a webpage to allow makers to create a profile like Patreon?
Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I'm definitely considering building out some kind of platform like that. I'm considering a couple different models right now, so thanks for that suggestion and confirmation I might be on the right path here 👍
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
Thanks, I'd be happy have a chat sometime!
Great work.
Out of interest, which audience would you say are the early adopters of this?
Maybe you can get more project to sign up by posting on startupschool they have over 10k projects for this year class.