InboxStash

You buy apps often? I'm curious on the process.

Ha. Well that’s a silly typo 🤦‍♂️. You’re first to pick it up

Thanks.

It’s a validating feeling (if that’s even a phrase!)

Hopefully it will continue to get you some subscribers under the new owners

Cheers. The number isn’t very big so nothing to get excited about 😁

Thanks. Liked you real and imaginary responsibilities of a founder article - shared in my other newsletter yesterday. I’ll link you on twitter

Thanks. I have some ideas to get working on.

Got a few things to dive into and see if there's a market that's willing to pay. In the newsletter space.

Thanks!

Thanks Harry.

Yeah... I'd been thinking about comments and it's there waiting to be turned on. Wasn't sure if people would be that bothered about leaving comments - i always think that empty comments looks a bit depressing on a blog or ecommerce site! Maybe I just implement and see what happens.

The second point is also a good one. I've had the question of what to put on the front page since I started building. I just went with the whole list and the filters more as a placeholder. I like your idea. And could work well in a newsletter itself (which ironically I've not yet created for this!)

Thanks for the ideas!

Thank you . I hope so too :)

Hey. Thanks. It's a good suggestion and funnily enough Startup Resources is also my site 😂

Actually, it's where I figured out that I'd be able to do a lot more customization in Wordpress to do something like this one.

My thoughts on how to present the front page are still not fully formed.

The logic right now is that everything is there and it's a quick filter to see everything you want. As opposed to having to click through to another page to see your category of interest and then go back to find the next one you might want.

But, I see how the dropdown can also be unfriendly, especially on mobile.

So maybe I take this page https://inboxstash.com/collection/ and get some nice icons on each and put it up front with a short featured or latest list.

I used Beaver Builder and Beaver Themer to create the "theme" (on top of the beaver child theme which is just a basic layout but easy to get all the main customizations done).

Needed to do a bit of custom CSS and html to get the list looking how I wanted it.

I used PODs for the custom post type and custom fields. It integrates easily into Beaver Builder modules. I believe it's overkill for what I did and there are simpler ways of doing this (CPT UI and ACF is another way) but it doesn't impact performance and I used that before to do the custom posts on Startup Resources.

Relevanssi for improving the standard wordpress search function and FacetWP for the filter.

Finally I used WPGridbuilder for the category grid on the link I shared above. Frustratingly, Beaver doesn't have a module for this so my options were to code something (too slow) or use a plug in. I already had a spare license and it plays nicely with the theme.

That's it I think.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Hey. Thanks!

I see where you're coming from with with linking to the content of each newsletter. I've asked for anyone who submits their newsletter to include a link to their archive (if they have a public one). You can see on a lot of newsletter pages there's a link to their archive.

On being overwhelmed in your inbox, I'd suggest looking at the Stoop app. I moved all my newsletter subscriptions there so they're in a dedicated place and not mixed in with emails I really have to action. I'm finding it a good experience. But I don't think much to their discovery part. It's ok, but mine is (going to be) better 😀

Thanks. And definitely keep pushing. Something I've learnt is when you put something into the world, even if half finished, it opens doors, starts conversations and leads to new ideas.

Answers to your questions...

1. My decision was to build something I wanted and had seen a few conversations around that others wanted something similar. I just kept to the bare minimum to get the job done - a simple platform for newsletter creators to list their newsletters and a place for people to find newsletters by browsing categories or searching.

I still don't know what the front page is going to look like - I just put the list with filters as a placeholder because I wanted to see what other people thought first. There are other functions that would be cool but will take time to include so they can wait until I find it other people think it's useful too.

2. The ones I added, I didn't ask. And that's no problem - I'm helping people find them which is good for them. Same as google doesn't ask if you want to appear in search.

Thanks. Can do a lot more than I thought in Wordpress. And not so difficult.

Thanks!

I have plenty to add but right now I'm mostly getting newsletter owners submitting their newsletters. I'm adding these manually one by one but it could be more automated if it becomes unmanageable (zapier + an import tool)

Thanks!

Thanks 🙏

Thanks. Was the quickest way I knew how to get something done. If this proves popular then I'll have to figure out a better platform. But for now this works.

Monetization ... it's not been a focus. I wanted to see if it can work as a useful resource and get some steady traffic from social and search etc etc. If it does, then it's a kind of platform and people will (likely) pay to be featured.

There's also some other ideas floating around my head.