First "Hello, World" post on Substack!
https://jasonleow.substack.com/p/hello-world
Started a Substack newsletter to document my indie solopreneur journey building these products
https://jasonleow.substack.com/
Day 687 - Small bets within a small bet - https://golifelog.com/posts/small-bets-within-a-small-bet-1668726989965
Crazy hypothesis about why my Carrd plugins project clicked:
It’s a small bet project containing many smaller bets within.
It’s started as a side project, a small bet within my portfolio of products. Though I’m now putting more focus into it, I still consider it a side project, a small bet. Within that project itself, I’m making many plugins to sell, each a small bet in its own right. This is where it gets meta – many small bets within a small bet.
Maybe that’s the secret! I get to push out many bets within the project, and test which one works better, which one doesn’t, and make more plugins that work well. For example, because of the success of my free accordion plugin, I made another one in a different design. Likewise for the paid navbar plugin – I made a simple version, it sold well, then based on feedback, I created a separate upgraded version the meganavbar plugin.
The versatility from having many small bets within the Carrd plugins projects also gives me more opportunities to share links to them in online Carrd communities, because they solve different problems and painpoints. My indie twin @ayushtweetshere like to say, “Put more buy buttons on the internet.” So I went to count all the buy buttons for my most successful project so far… There’s THIRTY FOUR of them! So there’s a bit of in-built virality to them.
But of course, not all plugins work well though. Some are too niche, too specialised to have widespread appeal, like the video button plugin. So not everything works, but all in a day of work when it comes to using the diversified small bets approach – expect wins and fails. But the great thing about that is - the wins and fails are small. I don’t spend more than a few days making each plugin. Most of them are done in 1-2 day. In fact the work that takes longer (and less enjoyable) are the tutorials I have to create for each paid plugin.
It’s so interesting to analyse this project, how it has it’s own path that’s not similar to common best practices in indie hacking.
Perhaps that’s the key.
That it finds its own way.
It’s a small bet project containing many smaller bets within.
It’s started as a side project, a small bet within my portfolio of products. Though I’m now putting more focus into it, I still consider it a side project, a small bet. Within that project itself, I’m making many plugins to sell, each a small bet in its own right. This is where it gets meta – many small bets within a small bet.
Maybe that’s the secret! I get to push out many bets within the project, and test which one works better, which one doesn’t, and make more plugins that work well. For example, because of the success of my free accordion plugin, I made another one in a different design. Likewise for the paid navbar plugin – I made a simple version, it sold well, then based on feedback, I created a separate upgraded version the meganavbar plugin.
The versatility from having many small bets within the Carrd plugins projects also gives me more opportunities to share links to them in online Carrd communities, because they solve different problems and painpoints. My indie twin @ayushtweetshere like to say, “Put more buy buttons on the internet.” So I went to count all the buy buttons for my most successful project so far… There’s THIRTY FOUR of them! So there’s a bit of in-built virality to them.
But of course, not all plugins work well though. Some are too niche, too specialised to have widespread appeal, like the video button plugin. So not everything works, but all in a day of work when it comes to using the diversified small bets approach – expect wins and fails. But the great thing about that is - the wins and fails are small. I don’t spend more than a few days making each plugin. Most of them are done in 1-2 day. In fact the work that takes longer (and less enjoyable) are the tutorials I have to create for each paid plugin.
It’s so interesting to analyse this project, how it has it’s own path that’s not similar to common best practices in indie hacking.
Perhaps that’s the key.
That it finds its own way.
💵 Sold yet another single license testimonial slider Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Oliver!
Day 686 - Good day - https://golifelog.com/posts/good-day-1668639554707
Yesterday was a good day.
I had 4 sales of my Carrd plugins. I never get 4 in a day, that’s why it’s a good day.
I attended my first in-person conference in a long time.
I got to see and try out new technology (yes that Boston robotics dog).
I had a great steak lunch with my 2 design mates.
There were free flat whites all round at the conference.
I meet many familiar faces for the first time - people I worked with remotely for the past 3 years but had never seen face-to-face.
It was a lot of fun at work that I’ve not had in some time.
I just finished well for my non-profit consulting project, and in discussion with more work next year.
I’m working on a smaller gig right now working with a client team whom I really enjoyed working with.
New leads are coming in for my consulting for next year. A tender bid for a government Ministry project. A link up with another. An adjunct lecturing opportunity for next year.
I’m finishing up my consulting for the year, and can’t wait to get back to coding. In fact I’ve already started building a markdown preview mode and a rich text editor for Lifelog.
Got a Black Friday deal for Carrd plugins coming up next week.
It was a good day. A good week. A good past few months.
Things are looking up. Rounding off in a nice way for the year…
And I am truly grateful.
I had 4 sales of my Carrd plugins. I never get 4 in a day, that’s why it’s a good day.
I attended my first in-person conference in a long time.
I got to see and try out new technology (yes that Boston robotics dog).
I had a great steak lunch with my 2 design mates.
There were free flat whites all round at the conference.
I meet many familiar faces for the first time - people I worked with remotely for the past 3 years but had never seen face-to-face.
It was a lot of fun at work that I’ve not had in some time.
I just finished well for my non-profit consulting project, and in discussion with more work next year.
I’m working on a smaller gig right now working with a client team whom I really enjoyed working with.
New leads are coming in for my consulting for next year. A tender bid for a government Ministry project. A link up with another. An adjunct lecturing opportunity for next year.
I’m finishing up my consulting for the year, and can’t wait to get back to coding. In fact I’ve already started building a markdown preview mode and a rich text editor for Lifelog.
Got a Black Friday deal for Carrd plugins coming up next week.
It was a good day. A good week. A good past few months.
Things are looking up. Rounding off in a nice way for the year…
And I am truly grateful.
Received 1 coffee (US$5.45) from patron
💵 Sold yet another single license mega navbar Carrd plugin (US$25)...thanks Meghan!
💵 Sold yet another single license testimonial slider Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Jerome!
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Meghan!
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Zachary!
Attended GeBiz ITQ briefing for potential upcoming project
Day 685 - Good old customer service - https://golifelog.com/posts/good-old-customer-service-1668553231977
Something I’m doing for my Carrd plugins business that I found super refreshing:
Just help people with expecting any returns.
Just good old customer service.
Just being giving to a fault.
No fancy mind tricks.
No lame shortcuts.
No growth hacks.
Just old school basics.
People like it. I love it. Win-win.
It’s amazing how old school basics like this are so simple, effective and fundamental, yet mostly ignored as advice. Everyone’s wants the shortcut, the silver bullet, the elevator pitch. Just being helpful? Nah boooring.
It’s also a great reminder for myself – this was how I started building my first businesses, and this was how I enjoyed it, worked with it, succeeded with it. Nothing has to change. Just because I create products now, not services, doesn’t mean the old ways are outdated and the new hacks are better. It doesn’t have to. Products now are just a single touchpoint in the entire chain of touchpoints that a customer experience. An experience which also includes services.
In the end, people buy products but like dealing with people. And a pleasant exchange, a helpful reply, a delightful outcome, are critical parts of that.
Sometimes, that's all you need for a good business.
Just help people with expecting any returns.
Just good old customer service.
Just being giving to a fault.
No fancy mind tricks.
No lame shortcuts.
No growth hacks.
Just old school basics.
People like it. I love it. Win-win.
It’s amazing how old school basics like this are so simple, effective and fundamental, yet mostly ignored as advice. Everyone’s wants the shortcut, the silver bullet, the elevator pitch. Just being helpful? Nah boooring.
It’s also a great reminder for myself – this was how I started building my first businesses, and this was how I enjoyed it, worked with it, succeeded with it. Nothing has to change. Just because I create products now, not services, doesn’t mean the old ways are outdated and the new hacks are better. It doesn’t have to. Products now are just a single touchpoint in the entire chain of touchpoints that a customer experience. An experience which also includes services.
In the end, people buy products but like dealing with people. And a pleasant exchange, a helpful reply, a delightful outcome, are critical parts of that.
Sometimes, that's all you need for a good business.
💵 Sold yet another single license testimonial slider Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Lorena!
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Carlos!
Attending my first in-person conference in years! Govtech’s STACK 2020 developer conference
Day 684 - Hoarding is good - https://golifelog.com/posts/hoarding-is-good-1668466201806
I’m probably weird for doing this… but I like keep my projects alive forever. But always felt peer influenced to abandon it in order to “focus”. If the costs on your attention is zero, do you need to kill it? If the financial costs and effort for maintenance or tech support is low to zero, I just keep them on. Because you’ll never know if the growth opportunity can come later. Sometimes the product failed because it was before its time. Maybe at a later time, the market or something about it will trend and it will get successful then.
I’ve personally experienced this twice.
The Grant Hunt bot was a social impact project I made early on in my indie journey. It’s a directory of local social impact grants that non-profits can search on to find grants to fund their social good programmes. I made it, it didn’t quite get popular or viral, and then I just left it alone for a few years, no coding, no marketing it. Then later when the pandemic arrived, a philanthropic funder wanted to fund it to be updated to the latest grants so that non-profits can benefit during that time of crisis. If I had killed it early, I wouldn’t have had that chance to revive it for the pandemic!
The other project was Sheet2Bio. Truth is, Sheet2bio was like the third iteration of an idea. It started with me making a Carrd plugin that pulled data from a Google Sheet to display some data and charts. I left it there after making it for fun. Then after talking to a friend in F&B, that evolved into Restobio, a bio link contact page for the F&B industry. Restaurants could update their Google Sheet easily that then updates the contact bio link page to share important links to their website, order page and social media pages. I built out 1 bio link page for 1 local restaurant. But I wasn’t from the F&B industry, so I didn’t know how to market or grow it, so it went cold. But I kept it alive and left it alone. Finally, early this year I had an idea to make a Google Sheet version of the personal bio link page, and launched it. Got many users, and 1-2 paid ones. Wasn’t a great success, but it fared better after 3 pivots! Who knows what the next iteration will bring!
So moral of the story:
Hoarding is good.
Hoard your projects, if costs are low. Let it lie low and wait for the ripe opportunity to pounce back to life.
They say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. But you can’t take the shot if you killed it too early.
I’ve personally experienced this twice.
The Grant Hunt bot was a social impact project I made early on in my indie journey. It’s a directory of local social impact grants that non-profits can search on to find grants to fund their social good programmes. I made it, it didn’t quite get popular or viral, and then I just left it alone for a few years, no coding, no marketing it. Then later when the pandemic arrived, a philanthropic funder wanted to fund it to be updated to the latest grants so that non-profits can benefit during that time of crisis. If I had killed it early, I wouldn’t have had that chance to revive it for the pandemic!
The other project was Sheet2Bio. Truth is, Sheet2bio was like the third iteration of an idea. It started with me making a Carrd plugin that pulled data from a Google Sheet to display some data and charts. I left it there after making it for fun. Then after talking to a friend in F&B, that evolved into Restobio, a bio link contact page for the F&B industry. Restaurants could update their Google Sheet easily that then updates the contact bio link page to share important links to their website, order page and social media pages. I built out 1 bio link page for 1 local restaurant. But I wasn’t from the F&B industry, so I didn’t know how to market or grow it, so it went cold. But I kept it alive and left it alone. Finally, early this year I had an idea to make a Google Sheet version of the personal bio link page, and launched it. Got many users, and 1-2 paid ones. Wasn’t a great success, but it fared better after 3 pivots! Who knows what the next iteration will bring!
So moral of the story:
Hoarding is good.
Hoard your projects, if costs are low. Let it lie low and wait for the ripe opportunity to pounce back to life.
They say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. But you can’t take the shot if you killed it too early.
Helped client do synthesis
Day 683 - Be lazy - https://golifelog.com/posts/be-lazy-1668377468316
I lazed through the entire Sunday morning yesterday in bed, just chillaxing and watching Youtube videos. My wife and kid were away at her mum’s. It was chilly from the rain. I snuggled up in bed, under a toasty blanket, just consuming cheap entertainment.
Lame, I know.
What a super unproductive way to spend a nice Sunday. And probably unhealthy too – so much screen time and cheap dopamine.
But I enjoyed it immensely. I realised I’ve not done that since… I can’t even remember the last time I had the time and space to do that. I’ve not given myself the permission to just be lazy for so long. Even on my day off, I’m working, caring, fulfilling obligations and responsibilities. For the past 3 years.
I need more of this.
It’s not about chillaxing in bed watching Youtube. It’s not about being entertained, nor the content being consumed. It’s not about being alone.
It’s about giving myself permission to just be lazy. GUILT-FREE permission.
So much of my stress is wrapped up in my roles and duties. Letting myself off the hook for a day or half, is one of the best ways to decompress and manage those stress levels.
Be lazy.
Lame, I know.
What a super unproductive way to spend a nice Sunday. And probably unhealthy too – so much screen time and cheap dopamine.
But I enjoyed it immensely. I realised I’ve not done that since… I can’t even remember the last time I had the time and space to do that. I’ve not given myself the permission to just be lazy for so long. Even on my day off, I’m working, caring, fulfilling obligations and responsibilities. For the past 3 years.
I need more of this.
It’s not about chillaxing in bed watching Youtube. It’s not about being entertained, nor the content being consumed. It’s not about being alone.
It’s about giving myself permission to just be lazy. GUILT-FREE permission.
So much of my stress is wrapped up in my roles and duties. Letting myself off the hook for a day or half, is one of the best ways to decompress and manage those stress levels.
Be lazy.
Completed ideation slide deck
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Nina!
Day 682 - Restarting from zero - https://golifelog.com/posts/restarting-from-zero-1668326266345
"Big companies and repeat entrepreneurs struggle to go from zero to one because they refuse to restart at zero." – [@naval](https://twitter.com/naval/status/1578435113766961153)
This is something I've been musing over, something I feel I want when it comes to my indie solopreneur journey.
*What does it truly feel like to restart from zero?*
- Spending the past 3 months away from building my products gave some perspective. I guess this is the kind of detox that helps you restart. Maybe 3 months isn't enough to actually go all the way back to zero, but too much and I fear I might forget altogether.
- To read other advice, tips and hacks on the internet and go, "We'll try and see" instead of lapping it up like a puppy dog. Healthy skepticism.
- To get disapproval and negative opinions from others—peers, friends, even folks you look up to—and not flinch. Same healthy skepticism.
- To have beginner's mind and ask "Why not?" instead of "No that's not how it's usually done." I kept thinking back at a decade ago when I just started and I was just making things up, improvising as I went. I want to go back full circle, to that blank slate.
- Not having assumptions that I know anything at all, and not having expectations that things will happen how I envision it.
- A state of relaxed focus, a kind of flow state, where I not too tight in my focus, yet also loose enough to look up and about, to see other opportunities popping up. Even relaxed enough to go for stroll online or offline to flaneur and wander.
Restarting from zero, now.
This is something I've been musing over, something I feel I want when it comes to my indie solopreneur journey.
*What does it truly feel like to restart from zero?*
- Spending the past 3 months away from building my products gave some perspective. I guess this is the kind of detox that helps you restart. Maybe 3 months isn't enough to actually go all the way back to zero, but too much and I fear I might forget altogether.
- To read other advice, tips and hacks on the internet and go, "We'll try and see" instead of lapping it up like a puppy dog. Healthy skepticism.
- To get disapproval and negative opinions from others—peers, friends, even folks you look up to—and not flinch. Same healthy skepticism.
- To have beginner's mind and ask "Why not?" instead of "No that's not how it's usually done." I kept thinking back at a decade ago when I just started and I was just making things up, improvising as I went. I want to go back full circle, to that blank slate.
- Not having assumptions that I know anything at all, and not having expectations that things will happen how I envision it.
- A state of relaxed focus, a kind of flow state, where I not too tight in my focus, yet also loose enough to look up and about, to see other opportunities popping up. Even relaxed enough to go for stroll online or offline to flaneur and wander.
Restarting from zero, now.
Added 2 extra new features (show videos from Facebook, Vimeo) to the video button plugin based on a customer enquiry.. now let's hope he buys!
URL: https://videobutton.carrd.co/
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Richard!
[💸 REFUNDED due to buying wrong plugin] 💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15)...thanks Sally!
Day 681 - Deploy straight to production - https://golifelog.com/posts/deploy-straight-to-production-1668235729994
One of the ‘secrets’ to @levelsio’s productivity is how he git commits straight to production with CMD+D:
"I commit with CMD+Enter git shortcut, no commit messages, straight to production. When I am coding I might be committing 3 times per minute or more etc. Uptime 99.99% no issues. I’m a bit different though 😅 This isn’t advice"
That resonated because that’s what I want to do too. I remember when I was coding Sheet2Bio, I enjoyed the process so much because I could play with code on Codepen, then edit the code directly in Github web and commit directly to production with a click of a button (Netlify takes care of everything). None of that nonsense of logging into Heroku, firing up terminal, writing a commit note, waiting for code to bundle while praying that nothing breaks, deploying to a staging site, and then repeat everything for production. All even if it’s just a single line of code, or a random style change.
That whole process is a barrier to constantly improving and working on my projects, like Lifelog. Whereas for Sheet2Bio when I was building it I was committing multiple times per day, because it’s all just HTML, CSS and Javascript!
I think Sheet2Bio opened up my eyes to what I prefer when it comes to coding my own products, even if that’s not considered industry best practice. @levelsio own self-taught approach resonated because it showed how it’s possible to build products that way.
With serverless and edge computing becoming more mainstream and convenient, I can imagine this approach to be easy to adopt.
Is it possible to build secure, performant SaaS using HTML, CSS and vanilla Javascript? No Javascript frameworks, no bundles, no npm. No installing of special software just to start coding, or to deploy. Everything goes to Github, and something like Netlify or Cloudflare will continuously deploy on a code commit.
Can’t wait to experiment more in this!
"I commit with CMD+Enter git shortcut, no commit messages, straight to production. When I am coding I might be committing 3 times per minute or more etc. Uptime 99.99% no issues. I’m a bit different though 😅 This isn’t advice"
That resonated because that’s what I want to do too. I remember when I was coding Sheet2Bio, I enjoyed the process so much because I could play with code on Codepen, then edit the code directly in Github web and commit directly to production with a click of a button (Netlify takes care of everything). None of that nonsense of logging into Heroku, firing up terminal, writing a commit note, waiting for code to bundle while praying that nothing breaks, deploying to a staging site, and then repeat everything for production. All even if it’s just a single line of code, or a random style change.
That whole process is a barrier to constantly improving and working on my projects, like Lifelog. Whereas for Sheet2Bio when I was building it I was committing multiple times per day, because it’s all just HTML, CSS and Javascript!
I think Sheet2Bio opened up my eyes to what I prefer when it comes to coding my own products, even if that’s not considered industry best practice. @levelsio own self-taught approach resonated because it showed how it’s possible to build products that way.
With serverless and edge computing becoming more mainstream and convenient, I can imagine this approach to be easy to adopt.
Is it possible to build secure, performant SaaS using HTML, CSS and vanilla Javascript? No Javascript frameworks, no bundles, no npm. No installing of special software just to start coding, or to deploy. Everything goes to Github, and something like Netlify or Cloudflare will continuously deploy on a code commit.
Can’t wait to experiment more in this!