Indie Year - Issue #2
Hey there,
It has been a while since my last email, I already broke my promise of doing one of these newsletters per month ๐
But there has been a LOT going on. Let's go in order.
Unreadit
Me and my pal Fabrizio made and launched this new service in just a couple of weeks. It's called Unreadit and features a series of weekly newsletters that give you the best Reddit content of the week on a variety of topics.
My favorite newsletters so far:
Right now this is making -50$/month (notice the "-" before the "50" ๐ฌ). The plan is to start selling ads very soon and start making ๐ฐ
Thanks to the successful launch on Product Hunt we now have almost 2000 unique subscribers.
Boxy Suite
We completely rewrote the account management system (the one you use to manage your account after you subscribe) and added some features to reduce our churn like offering discounts and trial extensions tactically to people unsubscribing. We have seen mixed results.
We also introduced team pricing (still no one has bought it though ๐คฆโโ๏ธ), but on the bright side we now have around ten Googlers using our apps. Thatโs super-cool.
Another cool thing is that our content strategy with the Boxy Suite blog is finally starting to pay off. A post I wrote went viral and we have seen more visits to the site than the day we launched it, thatโs great especially if we understand how to repeat this success.
We also launched an offer on AppSumo, offering Boxy Suite for 70% off lifetime. Also here we have seen mixed results, lots of people complaining even if we discounted the products by 70%. Itโs true that the lower the price tag the more people complain. One thing is clear from this launch: people canโt live without Chrome extensions (most of the comments and concerns were about this) especially power users and we need to support them to move Boxy Suite to the next level.
But how do you support Chrome extensions in the apps if they are based on Safari? Rewrite in Electron maybe? This seems so wrong after we went around saying our apps are super lightweight. I am still confused about what to do and welcome your input.
All in all this AppSumo thing has been a learning experience because we were exposed to a completely different audience. We expected to make tens of thousands. We will likely make thousands, which is not bad. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
We also went all in with sponsorships, starting with a couple of newsletters and the Accidental Tech Podcast. The sponsorship is still ongoing so I don't have any results to share.
Personal Blog
I started writing on my blog again, here are the latest posts:
I am getting into the habit of writing and liking it more and more. It's liberating ๐
Traveling
In a couple of weeks we will begin a month of traveling around SE Asia, starting with Vietnam
๐ป๐ณ Phรบ Quแปc
๐ป๐ณ Ho Chi Minh
๐ฒ๐พ Kuala Lumpur
๐ฎ๐ฉ Bali
๐ธ๐ฌ Singapore
I hope to post a recap and some pictures in the next issue.
If you have recommendations or happen to be traveling there too just reply to this email ๐
What I am Reading
I started reading fiction again, with a great book I stumbled upon thanks to @viticci. It's called Red Rising and it's a science fiction novel about Mars and the new society that's born there. I am hooked and have almost finished this book after just a few of days.
It has been a pleasure talking with you, dear Internet friend. As always if you have comments or questions hit that reply button.
Go out there and make something awesome.
Until next time,
Francesco