mytribe.sh
Make friends online
I saw that users didn't seem to have a high bar to chat with other ppl. They didn't put too many interests. But they DID want to chat with real people.
So:
they all chat with me first. I'm their first connection
they have to upgrade to get new connections
let's see if users will pay to connect with random strangers online.....
I got a connection for one user. It was rough, a user was looking for people to play chess with. I wasn't able to get the other person onto the site because it was sketchy to reach out and say, "hey come connect w user on my site"
Anyway, I don't want to waste time optimizing for this case because, of like 50 signups, I only had one person genuinely try to use the site.... maybe that's not horrible not sure
next steps:
drive more users
connect more instantly by sending automated first message.
longer onboarding.... what are they looking for?
I want to learn why these ppl are signing up. If NOTHING resonated, I'd get zero sign ups, but I got about 50.
I want to learn what I might build over the holidays and put behind a paywall.
Funnel:
sign up (check)
engage (fail)
pay (not there yet)
Focus is now on social aspect. Overcoming social anxiety & getting out there to meet new people. Am testing different messaging & products
They might not lead anywhere, but I'm now able to get new sign-ups for about $0.02 each. I expect a very low conversion rate, but I did set up 2 product tiers & direct chat to learn more about each individual user & their intent.
Key thing now I think is to determine who is finding my site and what made them click. If I can solve this, I think I'm on to something.
my approach now is in 2 parts:
send people to page with ads (broken)
with the cold outreach, to not be as spammy, I'm going to create real events on the website and invite people to them. they'll be free. I'll work out a business model later.
I need help with 1.... anybody know google ads? After 2 days there are still 0 impressions :(
Already in the past few days I've had to urge to jump ship. I'd think of ideas that, for one reason or another, sounded better than the Morocco idea.
The reality is that the Morocco idea was maybe a few steps away from what I could realistically do now. I spent a few hours trying to find the right people online, and it was hard to find anybody with a real "problem". Ads were around $3 per click, so putting up ads seemed like a waste.
So I challenged myself: keep the same vision (helping people travel authentically), but don't veer off the course entirely.
So instead of connecting with travel agents, users can connect with other travelers or expats. CPC is order of magnitude lower, easy to find these people online (reddit, FB, lots of people "looking to socialize")
I cold messaged 2 people & set up ads. spent 1 hour reworking the website - goal is to get people to put their interests and their email address....that's all.
will see what happens.
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next goal is to cold message a few more people. seems pointless to pick a number...I had read somebody recommend 30 people per day and expect most people to say "no". 30 seems like a lot for one day - maybe not if I can get a pattern down.
Here I am again, starting another project & not knowing what to do once I launch. I took some time to think and reflect after the last one (https://www.indiehackers.com/product/clickhoverhighlight). Turns out, I didn't really care too much for the product itself. Recently watched a video of Sam Altman saying that the most important feature a founder can have is motivation.... I lost motivation for that project when things started getting tough.
So I started to ask myself: what do I already do well? what do I think about all the time? what would I work on and use even if nobody else cared for a very long time?
My answer: travel.
boring, I know. Like every other person out there. but it's true that it's all I think about, and increasingly so. It took me 34 years to see 35 countries. Now I'm 35, and I've seen 45. The trend is in my favor.
So I started very selfishly: what I can build for myself in this space? Well, turns out I've been tracking my travels here for many years now: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e4SHyVdbqaFyunqHUm2hkC_VxEQh57MwxKDEGZ8wPO8/edit?gid=0#gid=0. I also love looking at heatmaps of my travels, based on my photos. I thought I'd make a travel tracker.
But there isn't much value add here, I think. I think that nobody wants to upload their travels to some random guys website, for a very long time at least.
I decided to go more niche. There's one place that I keep going back to, many times per year, on any occasion I can: Morocco.
Browsing keywords on google and bing keyword tools, I found that there's a small but growing trend of search for family travel to Morocco (900% yoy for some keywords), and BAM, I thought I'd start there. Wrote a few blog posts on my site and slapped a chat right on the website for people to talk to agents in Morocco, leaning into the whole family aspect. I DO have quite a few contacts in Morocco by now, and I figured I'd start offering help for free to see where it leads.
That's where I'm at right now. I hope I can stay motivated and can't wait to see how far I can take this in one year. If anybody out there made it this far, what next steps would you take if you were me?
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Tomorrow: I will reach out to 1 or 2 travel bloggers for a chat to hear their story. I think a big part of making this happen will be generating page views and getting those visitors to stick / come back. I will also continue to work on my content.
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