Day 115 - Money Maketh Masterplan https://golifelog.com/posts/money-maketh-masterplan-1619337087498
The missus and I did a review of our finances yesterday, and things aren’t looking good.
COVID had hit hard. Freelance gigs aren’t coming in. The runway from savings is getting alarmingly shorter by the month. And my products aren’t living up to hopes (yet).
In short, things will get ugly fast in the next few months if I don’t hustle differently to feed the fam.
It’s a humbling—almost humiliating—moment in my indie hacker journey. I hate it, but I now have little choice but to find work which I generally avoided if I can help it. I can no longer help it…
So fuelled by wartime urgency, I woke at 4am this morning to compile a Money Maketh Masterplan, to get our finances healthy again till the time my products catch up.
COVID had hit hard. Freelance gigs aren’t coming in. The runway from savings is getting alarmingly shorter by the month. And my products aren’t living up to hopes (yet).
In short, things will get ugly fast in the next few months if I don’t hustle differently to feed the fam.
It’s a humbling—almost humiliating—moment in my indie hacker journey. I hate it, but I now have little choice but to find work which I generally avoided if I can help it. I can no longer help it…
So fuelled by wartime urgency, I woke at 4am this morning to compile a Money Maketh Masterplan, to get our finances healthy again till the time my products catch up.
Crunch time: Sent out calls for help for gigs/projects to personal network
Runway is shortening. Still gotta feed the fam. Open to doing anything now really:
- Got a training course confirmed. $3k in July.
- Got 2 tentative gigs in pipeline from peers. We'll see.
- Working on a JAMstack web design project now for an ex-boss #sweetjamsites
- Got a training course confirmed. $3k in July.
- Got 2 tentative gigs in pipeline from peers. We'll see.
- Working on a JAMstack web design project now for an ex-boss #sweetjamsites
🤬 Renewed domain privacy for $12 for visualaid.sg
Why do I need to pay for it when it's FREE on Namecheap???
Created JAMstack website MVP for NGO in Singapore - Integral Singapore https://integralsingapore.netlify.app/
🤑 Received S$30 payment for Boosted ad from Sweet Life Asia
Day 114 - The Lindy effect and monetization https://golifelog.com/posts/the-lindy-effect-and-monetization-1619248876664
What do one do when self-doubt starts creeping in?
My goal to get to a sustainable MRR had been pretty long. A few years probably, just fiddling with different products and trying to find product-market fit. And the longer I take, the more self-doubt grows.
"The Lindy Effect for startups: The longer you go without shipping product, the more likely you will never ship product." ~ @naval
Naval’s spin on startups—and hence also indie hackers—is painfully spot on. It does feel like the longer I go without some form of successful monetization, the more like I will never reach it.
I have no solutions or answers at this point. Just writing to vent and make sense. Would love to hear any advice.
My goal to get to a sustainable MRR had been pretty long. A few years probably, just fiddling with different products and trying to find product-market fit. And the longer I take, the more self-doubt grows.
"The Lindy Effect for startups: The longer you go without shipping product, the more likely you will never ship product." ~ @naval
Naval’s spin on startups—and hence also indie hackers—is painfully spot on. It does feel like the longer I go without some form of successful monetization, the more like I will never reach it.
I have no solutions or answers at this point. Just writing to vent and make sense. Would love to hear any advice.
My advice would be to try to solve a problem that people care about and talk about it. At the initial stages focus shouldn't be on revenue but on disproving your idea. Which is why the focus is on building an mvp and shipping as soon as possible
Reposted latest keto ice cream post on Facebook, Telegram
Repost to compare between a post with this snazzy designed image vs just a link previously
Tried out typeshare.co made by @samjshore and converted an old Lifelog post to a beautiful shareable image for Twitter
Restarted Facebook ad for my social impact project and updated the ad
Updated the ad:
• show faces in photo
• shorter copy, ending before “Read more..”
• snappier copy “...in 60s”
Previous v1 to v2 campaign managed to get cost per click from $0.67 to $0.43. And that's just a 2week campaign for v2 versus many months on v1!
Fingers crossed on performance for v3. Will find out in 2 weeks.
• show faces in photo
• shorter copy, ending before “Read more..”
• snappier copy “...in 60s”
Previous v1 to v2 campaign managed to get cost per click from $0.67 to $0.43. And that's just a 2week campaign for v2 versus many months on v1!
Fingers crossed on performance for v3. Will find out in 2 weeks.
Cancelled my Headlime account, finished up my credits by AI-generating content for tagline, headline, ads, blog ideas for my active products
Day 113 - Accumulate assets, not responsibilities https://golifelog.com/posts/accumulate-assets-not-responsibilities-1619166536594
Asset = Anything tangible I can build once, sell twice (or more)
Responsibility = Any time or effort that I sell for a profit
I should really be spending more time on accumulating assets, not responsibilities.
Responsibility = Any time or effort that I sell for a profit
I should really be spending more time on accumulating assets, not responsibilities.
🔬 New content marketing experiment: Scheduled a week of "writing prompt for the day" for @golifelog Twitter acc
Daily writing prompts are pretty popular on Google search. Let's find out if this works on Twitter!
Back posting a older Lifelog post on Twitter, about "Discipline equals freedom" https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1385175819962642432
...as a way to increase distribution and test if posting on my personal acc helps with more traffic => conversion
Published what's probably the last of this series of writing productivity threads on Twitter - "Writing tools/apps to supercharge your daily writing habit"
https://twitter.com/golifelog/status/1385147633438629893
New experiments:
- designed custom image using Unsplash photo for 1st tweet
- this thread was all about @mentioning other Twitter accounts (which are the tools) - read that I should @mention sparingly, but did the complete opposite to experiment
- added a new CTA, to ask people to follow
- tweaked the final CTA tweet to ask for RT to be relevant to what thread is about
- total of 3 CTAs at the end - is it too much?
New experiments:
- designed custom image using Unsplash photo for 1st tweet
- this thread was all about @mentioning other Twitter accounts (which are the tools) - read that I should @mention sparingly, but did the complete opposite to experiment
- added a new CTA, to ask people to follow
- tweaked the final CTA tweet to ask for RT to be relevant to what thread is about
- total of 3 CTAs at the end - is it too much?
Day 112 - Things I'll keep https://golifelog.com/posts/things-ill-keep-1619078489039
The Start. Stop. More. Less. Keep. framework:
What do you want to start doing?
What do you want to stop doing?
What do you want more of (and you currently have)?
What do you want less of (but still want to keep)?
What do you want to keep as is?
I like the addition of “keep” - so often there’s many good things we fail to recognise we have, so that question helps with practice of gratitude.
Question to reflect on: What would I keep in my work and life right now as is?
What do you want to start doing?
What do you want to stop doing?
What do you want more of (and you currently have)?
What do you want less of (but still want to keep)?
What do you want to keep as is?
I like the addition of “keep” - so often there’s many good things we fail to recognise we have, so that question helps with practice of gratitude.
Question to reflect on: What would I keep in my work and life right now as is?
Renewed domain for
Renewed domain for
Renewed domain for
Transferred 12 free Carrd templates out - they really love them templates!
Wrote draft thread on "best writing tools/apps" - ready to publish
Published my Lifelog post of the day as a thread on Twitter https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1384812375740620805
Trying to publish more #learninpublic content on my personal Twitter account. The content is there anyway, I write daily on Lifelog, so why not publish? Gives me a chance to also share a Lifelog link and get more marketing juice out of what's personal writing. Takes some time though (~20min) to summarize and re-format, so that's some effort.
An experiment in progress...
An experiment in progress...
Published another minimum viable content thread about "Creating a work space for daily writing"
https://twitter.com/golifelog/status/1384800181808365570
Experiments:
• Snazzy Unsplash image to anchor the 1st tweet
• Thanked the reader at end
• Applied new format: 1-liner opening, 3 bullet pts (each one longer than the previous), then CTA
Experiments:
• Snazzy Unsplash image to anchor the 1st tweet
• Thanked the reader at end
• Applied new format: 1-liner opening, 3 bullet pts (each one longer than the previous), then CTA
Day 111 - Growth as doing fewer things https://golifelog.com/posts/growth-as-doing-fewer-things-1618990034923
What if real personal growth meant less, not more? Via negativa is... a simple and elegant rule of thumb – that less is more, addition by subtraction, on what not to do.
Things I would still love to eliminate:
• Mon-Fri work week - want to go 100% async, go out on weekdays, work on weekends.
• Sitting down to work - too sedentary, bad for health. Would be great if work can be done without necessarily sitting down in front of a computer, or even needing a computer!
• Less-than-liveable revenue on indie hacker products - $5k MRR is the goal
• Feeling like I need to work - financial freedom will ensure that I work when I want to work
• Zoom calls - let’s just do a good old fashioned phone call shall we?
It’s an interesting exercise to write down this second list of stuff I want to eliminate. Discovered new things I can experiment with, to learn and try (like #2)!
Things I would still love to eliminate:
• Mon-Fri work week - want to go 100% async, go out on weekdays, work on weekends.
• Sitting down to work - too sedentary, bad for health. Would be great if work can be done without necessarily sitting down in front of a computer, or even needing a computer!
• Less-than-liveable revenue on indie hacker products - $5k MRR is the goal
• Feeling like I need to work - financial freedom will ensure that I work when I want to work
• Zoom calls - let’s just do a good old fashioned phone call shall we?
It’s an interesting exercise to write down this second list of stuff I want to eliminate. Discovered new things I can experiment with, to learn and try (like #2)!
💵💵 Got 2 new $10/m subscribers this week! Thanks @juanfrank77 and @tao
📈 Total one-off revenue: $600
📊 MRR: $60
Does this mean all the marketing is working?! 🧐
📊 MRR: $60
Does this mean all the marketing is working?! 🧐