💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$12 via Payhip-Stripe due to $3 20% upgrade discount)...thanks Ryan!
💵 Sold yet another single license testimonial slider Carrd plugin (US$15 via Payhip-Paypal)...thanks Ryan
Got my first upsell purchase! After more than 1 month implementing it...
Day 829 - Sunday mornings - https://golifelog.com/posts/sunday-mornings-1681004664747
It's been a while since I wrote about Sundays. It's still my favourite day for waking up early.
I wake. Wash up. Push buttons for my double espresso. And sit down and immerse into a sea of calmness. The quiet stillness is mind-stopping. I slow down. I see the first light coming through the horizon. The dark violets giving way to glacier blues and whisky orange. The flames of yellow breaks through clouds. So still, even the birds are still asleep.
I hit play on my [Soundcloud playlist](https://on.soundcloud.com/Gnedo). The ambient chillstep lends a deeper, immersive atmosphere. To savour and to soak in. It sharpens my mind, brings me to the present. Nothing like music that helps me come back to the moment.
I wish time would stop here. I could live in this moment forever. In fact, sometimes I think this is all I'm looking for in life. All I live for. Just fleeting moments when everything feels whole and complete. When I'm not needed nor expected to be anything. Where there's nowhere to go, nothing to achieve. When my entire universe is calm and collected.
A sacred hour.
A sacred space.
Sunday mornings.
I wake. Wash up. Push buttons for my double espresso. And sit down and immerse into a sea of calmness. The quiet stillness is mind-stopping. I slow down. I see the first light coming through the horizon. The dark violets giving way to glacier blues and whisky orange. The flames of yellow breaks through clouds. So still, even the birds are still asleep.
I hit play on my [Soundcloud playlist](https://on.soundcloud.com/Gnedo). The ambient chillstep lends a deeper, immersive atmosphere. To savour and to soak in. It sharpens my mind, brings me to the present. Nothing like music that helps me come back to the moment.
I wish time would stop here. I could live in this moment forever. In fact, sometimes I think this is all I'm looking for in life. All I live for. Just fleeting moments when everything feels whole and complete. When I'm not needed nor expected to be anything. Where there's nowhere to go, nothing to achieve. When my entire universe is calm and collected.
A sacred hour.
A sacred space.
Sunday mornings.
Code from scratch the first version of side snackbar Markdown editor on local
🚧 Work-in-progress for side project weekend:
Coding from scratch a side Markdown editor for my daily writing app golifelog.com
INB4: "Why reinvent, why not just install a package?"
Because I love a challenge 🤣
Because it's a passion project I can do wtf I want 🙃
Coding from scratch a side Markdown editor for my daily writing app golifelog.com
INB4: "Why reinvent, why not just install a package?"
Because I love a challenge 🤣
Because it's a passion project I can do wtf I want 🙃
Day 828 - 1000 different & beautiful things in your 1 wild & precious life - https://golifelog.com/posts/1000-different-and-beautiful-things-in-your-1-wild-and-precious-life-1680960250621
"Twitter is saying 1 thing in 1000 ways."
Sorry, hard NO. That's boring af.
Instead, let's normalise saying the 1000 different and beautiful things happening in your 1 wild and precious life.
Do that, & I'd follow you in a heartbeat.
Because no one can compete with being you. And being you means embracing all the facets of who you are, what you do. You don't need to come up with original content. You = originality.
Because we're not one thing, even if the gurus all say it's good to be known for one thing. They say, people are lazy, they just want to pigeonhole you into one box. It's easier for them to recall you as the "____ guy". I call bullshit. If we just spend a few more seconds thinking deeper about anyone we know—friends or family—we will effortlessly realise they are so much more beyond the one thing we tend to label them by.
Because we contain multitudes. We are complex creatures. We're not uni-dimensional. Most of the time, we can be multi-dimensional if we get out of our own way and just let it reveal itself. There's 1000 different and beautiful things happening in our 1 wild and precious live. But we've tuned out of them, and got numb. So many creators say, I have nothing interesting to share! That's exactly it. We lost touch with our multitudes. We just need to look harder, and get accustomed to seeing them all over again, and it'll get easier. It's true, I was skeptical, but tried and now I can see interesting things happening where I used to not notice them.
Only machines try to say 1 thing in 1000 ways. In the age of AI, don't compete with machines by being a machine.
Compete by being utterly and imperfectly human. By being you.
Sorry, hard NO. That's boring af.
Instead, let's normalise saying the 1000 different and beautiful things happening in your 1 wild and precious life.
Do that, & I'd follow you in a heartbeat.
Because no one can compete with being you. And being you means embracing all the facets of who you are, what you do. You don't need to come up with original content. You = originality.
Because we're not one thing, even if the gurus all say it's good to be known for one thing. They say, people are lazy, they just want to pigeonhole you into one box. It's easier for them to recall you as the "____ guy". I call bullshit. If we just spend a few more seconds thinking deeper about anyone we know—friends or family—we will effortlessly realise they are so much more beyond the one thing we tend to label them by.
Because we contain multitudes. We are complex creatures. We're not uni-dimensional. Most of the time, we can be multi-dimensional if we get out of our own way and just let it reveal itself. There's 1000 different and beautiful things happening in our 1 wild and precious live. But we've tuned out of them, and got numb. So many creators say, I have nothing interesting to share! That's exactly it. We lost touch with our multitudes. We just need to look harder, and get accustomed to seeing them all over again, and it'll get easier. It's true, I was skeptical, but tried and now I can see interesting things happening where I used to not notice them.
Only machines try to say 1 thing in 1000 ways. In the age of AI, don't compete with machines by being a machine.
Compete by being utterly and imperfectly human. By being you.
Helped Carrd user with strikethrough text issue (setting red color line-through for black text), and implemented it for myself!
Created IFTTT applet to automate posting tweets from Twitter to Mastodon - as backup and hedge against deplatformisation
Call with potential philanthropic client for possible design sprint gig! (post-dated from yesterday)
Day 827 - Twitter algo tips - https://golifelog.com/posts/twitter-algo-tips-1680850572027
I've been reading threads about the Twitter algorithm which recently went open source. Just to gather up the tips and hacks:
*Caveat: The algo gets updated often, so this might only be a snapshot in time. And take the boosts and weights not as definite results but more as probabilities as the algo is multi-layered and complex. It behaves more like a symphony:*
- Follower:following ratio matters. Ideal is 0.6, where you follow less than 60% of the number of followers you have. But don't rush to unfollow a lot of people quickly, as that kind of behaviour resembles a bot and could get you shadowbanned.
- A tweet decays at a rate of 50% every 6 hours. (Side note: That's why I retweet it every 6h to bump it up and also to show it to folks in different timezones. It's inclusive as folks follow you to see your tweets, and timezones might make it less accessible to them. But might add noise if you RT too much, so do it with care.).
- The algorithm will show more of your tweets if you have a high TweepCred. If your TweepCred is less than 65, the algo will consider up to 3 of your tweets. If your TweepCred is more than 65, the 3-tweet limit is lifted. What TweepCred entails and how it's calculated is still not clear. This aligns with experience where tweeting anything more than 3 per day isn't as effective.
- Tweepcred is also based on the quality of users you interact with. Interact with low quality accounts with bad follower/following ratios and are marked as spam/nsfw/bots/toxic, you get penalized.
- Your account is clustered into a group with other similar profiles. This clustering helps extend your tweet reach beyond your followers to other similar people. Tweets won't do as well if you post “out of network” content, outside your cluster. That's why the advice Twitter is saying 1 thing 1000 ways. Repeating on your niche works (but boring).
- Using keywords in your tweets matter. Because Twitter uses the same algo as Google (PageRank).
- Multiplier boosts:
- Likes (30x)
- RTs (20x)
- Replies (1x) - getting likes + RTs boost more than getting replies
- Trusted circle (3x)
- Adding images/video (2x)
- Tweeting in English
- Follows
- Trending topics (1.1x) - trends, media, news
- Twitter Blue (2-4x)
- Ending tweets with a question mark
- Obvious but worth mentioning: Getting blocked, muted, abuse/spam reports, unfollows would lower your visibility score. Unfollows are only kept on server for past 90 days to prevent permanent shadowbanning.
- Negative feedback like "Show less often", block or mute (-74x)
- Report tweet clicked (-369x)
- The tweets someone sees in the For You feed is based on the probability that they will:
- like/RT the tweet
- click the tweet and reply
- stay for 2+ minutes
- check the account's profile
- Posting these in your tweets also lowers the reach of that tweet:
- only URLs
- no words
- misspelling, making up words, unknown language
- name only
- multiple hashtags
- tweet gets categorised as misinformation or blacklisted
- The myth is verified now: Links gets marked as spam if they are considered "non-news or non-media" links. But this doesn't mean your tweet won't go viral. If engagement on it is high because the link is relevant to the viral content, the tweet can still do well. It just starts off with a handicap.
- Blocking, muting others too much too often might also lower your algo ranking. Not too sure how true this is though. Still rumour level.
Sources:
1. https://twitter.com/IgorBrigadir/status/1641953684564201472
2. https://twitter.com/IgorBrigadir/status/1641945231636545536
3. https://twitter.com/sterlingcrispin/status/1641888492627083264
4. https://twitter.com/sterlingcrispin/status/1641922257470595072
5. https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1641914923826462721
6. https://twitter.com/steventey/status/1641892397440450560
7. https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1641925407468404739
8. https://twitter.com/petergyang/status/1642004729390858241
9. https://twitter.com/aakashg0/status/1641976943141699584
10. https://twitter.com/contentkuba/status/1642128038866321408
11. https://steventey.com/blog/twitter-algorithm
*What other Twitter algo tips did you see?*
*Caveat: The algo gets updated often, so this might only be a snapshot in time. And take the boosts and weights not as definite results but more as probabilities as the algo is multi-layered and complex. It behaves more like a symphony:*
- Follower:following ratio matters. Ideal is 0.6, where you follow less than 60% of the number of followers you have. But don't rush to unfollow a lot of people quickly, as that kind of behaviour resembles a bot and could get you shadowbanned.
- A tweet decays at a rate of 50% every 6 hours. (Side note: That's why I retweet it every 6h to bump it up and also to show it to folks in different timezones. It's inclusive as folks follow you to see your tweets, and timezones might make it less accessible to them. But might add noise if you RT too much, so do it with care.).
- The algorithm will show more of your tweets if you have a high TweepCred. If your TweepCred is less than 65, the algo will consider up to 3 of your tweets. If your TweepCred is more than 65, the 3-tweet limit is lifted. What TweepCred entails and how it's calculated is still not clear. This aligns with experience where tweeting anything more than 3 per day isn't as effective.
- Tweepcred is also based on the quality of users you interact with. Interact with low quality accounts with bad follower/following ratios and are marked as spam/nsfw/bots/toxic, you get penalized.
- Your account is clustered into a group with other similar profiles. This clustering helps extend your tweet reach beyond your followers to other similar people. Tweets won't do as well if you post “out of network” content, outside your cluster. That's why the advice Twitter is saying 1 thing 1000 ways. Repeating on your niche works (but boring).
- Using keywords in your tweets matter. Because Twitter uses the same algo as Google (PageRank).
- Multiplier boosts:
- Likes (30x)
- RTs (20x)
- Replies (1x) - getting likes + RTs boost more than getting replies
- Trusted circle (3x)
- Adding images/video (2x)
- Tweeting in English
- Follows
- Trending topics (1.1x) - trends, media, news
- Twitter Blue (2-4x)
- Ending tweets with a question mark
- Obvious but worth mentioning: Getting blocked, muted, abuse/spam reports, unfollows would lower your visibility score. Unfollows are only kept on server for past 90 days to prevent permanent shadowbanning.
- Negative feedback like "Show less often", block or mute (-74x)
- Report tweet clicked (-369x)
- The tweets someone sees in the For You feed is based on the probability that they will:
- like/RT the tweet
- click the tweet and reply
- stay for 2+ minutes
- check the account's profile
- Posting these in your tweets also lowers the reach of that tweet:
- only URLs
- no words
- misspelling, making up words, unknown language
- name only
- multiple hashtags
- tweet gets categorised as misinformation or blacklisted
- The myth is verified now: Links gets marked as spam if they are considered "non-news or non-media" links. But this doesn't mean your tweet won't go viral. If engagement on it is high because the link is relevant to the viral content, the tweet can still do well. It just starts off with a handicap.
- Blocking, muting others too much too often might also lower your algo ranking. Not too sure how true this is though. Still rumour level.
Sources:
1. https://twitter.com/IgorBrigadir/status/1641953684564201472
2. https://twitter.com/IgorBrigadir/status/1641945231636545536
3. https://twitter.com/sterlingcrispin/status/1641888492627083264
4. https://twitter.com/sterlingcrispin/status/1641922257470595072
5. https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1641914923826462721
6. https://twitter.com/steventey/status/1641892397440450560
7. https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1641925407468404739
8. https://twitter.com/petergyang/status/1642004729390858241
9. https://twitter.com/aakashg0/status/1641976943141699584
10. https://twitter.com/contentkuba/status/1642128038866321408
11. https://steventey.com/blog/twitter-algorithm
*What other Twitter algo tips did you see?*
Fixed bug in passwordsection.carrd.co plugin where prompt dialog box kept triggering and prevented user from going back in browser history
Fixed body padding bug in accordion FAQ plugin accordionfaqs.carrd.co
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15 via Payhip-Stripe)...thanks kathryn!
💵 Sold yet another single license mobile navbar Carrd plugin (US$15 via Payhip-Stripe)...thanks tatiana!
Day 826 - Blue tick is here! - https://golifelog.com/posts/blue-tick-is-here-1680767721605
Got my blue tick on Twitter today. Applied on Apr 1st, got it on Apr 6th.
They say there's a 4x boost if in same network, 2x boost if not in same network. (Not sure what "in network" means though...)
Quite looking forward to seeing how it goes!
Some Twitter folks might not share my excitement. I've seen tweets where they claim they don't care, that it's about the people, these hacks are stupid, etc.
Just to be real here: I started on Twitter for the marketing, but stayed for the people. I'm on Twitter for the people and ideas. Chatting and learning from fellow indies had been the best part and most enjoyable. But I won't deny that getting some follower growth is also pretty motivating.
I mean like, come on, we all recognise having an audience is a great asset to any indie hacker, especially if you're trying to monetize. Let's not feign moral higher ground and say it doesn't matter. It does matter. Trying to say it doesn't frankly comes across as disingenous, being contrarian for its own sake. A rebel without a cause. Maybe "It doesn't matter" is sometimes a reflex against *how* people grow an audience, especially those using shady tactics. But if we can engage authentically and also use what we learned about the algo ethically and mindfully, why not both right?
It's not mutually exclusive.
Blue tick—or Twitter itself—is just a tool. It's *how* you use the tool that matters.
I'm all for responsible use and happy growth.
They say there's a 4x boost if in same network, 2x boost if not in same network. (Not sure what "in network" means though...)
Quite looking forward to seeing how it goes!
Some Twitter folks might not share my excitement. I've seen tweets where they claim they don't care, that it's about the people, these hacks are stupid, etc.
Just to be real here: I started on Twitter for the marketing, but stayed for the people. I'm on Twitter for the people and ideas. Chatting and learning from fellow indies had been the best part and most enjoyable. But I won't deny that getting some follower growth is also pretty motivating.
I mean like, come on, we all recognise having an audience is a great asset to any indie hacker, especially if you're trying to monetize. Let's not feign moral higher ground and say it doesn't matter. It does matter. Trying to say it doesn't frankly comes across as disingenous, being contrarian for its own sake. A rebel without a cause. Maybe "It doesn't matter" is sometimes a reflex against *how* people grow an audience, especially those using shady tactics. But if we can engage authentically and also use what we learned about the algo ethically and mindfully, why not both right?
It's not mutually exclusive.
Blue tick—or Twitter itself—is just a tool. It's *how* you use the tool that matters.
I'm all for responsible use and happy growth.
Facilitated 2 meetings for entire morning with client depts to set up upcoming design projects for the year
Google page rank progress: Occupied SEVEN out of 10 results on the first page of Google for "carrd plugins" - yaay! 🎉
The only problem is... I never did any SEO work 😅
How do I make it replicable if I don't know how it happened...? 😓
How do I make it replicable if I don't know how it happened...? 😓
Day 825 - You only have freedom if you use it - https://golifelog.com/posts/you-only-have-freedom-if-you-use-it-1680658639922
For me, being an indie solopreneur was about the freedom to decide today is an off day and I'm going cycling at the beach with my wife and kiddo.
But I rarely ever exercise that freedom.
Glad I finally did yesterday.
The grind is sometimes so all-consuming. There's always something to do. Something to fire-fight. Something to improve on. The work is never truly done done. I mean... I love it. I enjoy the work. It feeds me, mind, body and spirit. But I always like to say, any virture brought to extremes turns into vice.
If I had a freedom but I never exercised it, never used it to my benefit nor enjoyed it, then do I truly have that freedom? If I'm always holding myself back from taking that freedom, for whatever good or bad reasons, is that freedom truly mine?
> If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
I think no. It's just an impression of freedom. A mirage. But we're shackled by other chains that holds us back from drinking from it.
I only have real freedom of or from something if I actually exercise it.
When I live it out.
Like yesterday.
But I rarely ever exercise that freedom.
Glad I finally did yesterday.
The grind is sometimes so all-consuming. There's always something to do. Something to fire-fight. Something to improve on. The work is never truly done done. I mean... I love it. I enjoy the work. It feeds me, mind, body and spirit. But I always like to say, any virture brought to extremes turns into vice.
If I had a freedom but I never exercised it, never used it to my benefit nor enjoyed it, then do I truly have that freedom? If I'm always holding myself back from taking that freedom, for whatever good or bad reasons, is that freedom truly mine?
> If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
I think no. It's just an impression of freedom. A mirage. But we're shackled by other chains that holds us back from drinking from it.
I only have real freedom of or from something if I actually exercise it.
When I live it out.
Like yesterday.
For me, being indie was about the freedom to decide today is an off day and I'm going cycling at the beach with my wife and kiddo. But I rarely ever exercise that freedom. Glad I finally did today
Jason Leow
Author
Remember Road Safety Park? I used to come here back in primary school. The place had definitely seen some wear and tear these days, but it's open to public…still fun for kids.
Got tired of procrastinating on launching my new plugins, so kicked myself to putting it up on my site at the very least... all EIGHT of them
All them plugins:
1. Animated gradient buttons
2. Interactive background
3. Text popup modal
4. Autoplay on mobile
5. Password protection
6. Carousel slider
7. Logo carousel
8. Dark mode freemium
1. Animated gradient buttons
2. Interactive background
3. Text popup modal
4. Autoplay on mobile
5. Password protection
6. Carousel slider
7. Logo carousel
8. Dark mode freemium
Day 824 - What moves the needle for my Carrd plugins - https://golifelog.com/posts/what-moves-the-needle-for-my-carrd-plugins-1680594287441
I'm doing a lot for my Carrd plugins project, but not all truly move the needle. Here's me writing down everything I'm doing and experimenting with for the project, for sake of my own clarity:
- Creating free and useful plugins based on questions that Carrd users ask.
- Launching/posting plugins on Reddit, Facebook, Telegram, Substack, email, Twitter, Indie Hackers, Discord, my own site.
- Referral revenue from users signing up for Carrd using my referral code via my free plugins.
- Seller revenue from free plugins where users pay a honorary fee, or for the paid Carrd templates.
- Writing tutorials for my paid plugins.
- Occasional guest posts on other Carrd sites, like starrt.co/blog
- Adding my plugins to sales pages on Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy and Payhip.
- Sponsored ads on indie newsletters, Carrd-related websites and Gumroad pages.
- Great, human-powered support for my plugins, giving till it hurts.
- Actively contributing, helping and answering questions for free on Reddit, Facebook, Telegram, Substack, email, Twitter, Indie Hackers, Discord, my own site.
- Maintaining and refining my site, e.g. recently added animated gradient buy buttons
- Maintaining and updating plugins when it breaks
What truly moves the needle:
- Free plugins, and posting them on social media channels
- Opportunities where helping someone with a question led to sharing my plugins
Just two items out of the whole laundry list.
I mean, that's not to say that everything else is useless and can be discarded. It's all part of a funnel, and probably hard to be 100% certain that they are useless. Some are more top of funnel, creating awareness. The free plugins happen to have conversion results that are easier to observe. But it does help in clarifying priorities and weightages.
That if I'm busy, strapped for time and had to choose (as an indie parent is), at least I know which one I should work on.
Priorities priorities priorities.
- Creating free and useful plugins based on questions that Carrd users ask.
- Launching/posting plugins on Reddit, Facebook, Telegram, Substack, email, Twitter, Indie Hackers, Discord, my own site.
- Referral revenue from users signing up for Carrd using my referral code via my free plugins.
- Seller revenue from free plugins where users pay a honorary fee, or for the paid Carrd templates.
- Writing tutorials for my paid plugins.
- Occasional guest posts on other Carrd sites, like starrt.co/blog
- Adding my plugins to sales pages on Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy and Payhip.
- Sponsored ads on indie newsletters, Carrd-related websites and Gumroad pages.
- Great, human-powered support for my plugins, giving till it hurts.
- Actively contributing, helping and answering questions for free on Reddit, Facebook, Telegram, Substack, email, Twitter, Indie Hackers, Discord, my own site.
- Maintaining and refining my site, e.g. recently added animated gradient buy buttons
- Maintaining and updating plugins when it breaks
What truly moves the needle:
- Free plugins, and posting them on social media channels
- Opportunities where helping someone with a question led to sharing my plugins
Just two items out of the whole laundry list.
I mean, that's not to say that everything else is useless and can be discarded. It's all part of a funnel, and probably hard to be 100% certain that they are useless. Some are more top of funnel, creating awareness. The free plugins happen to have conversion results that are easier to observe. But it does help in clarifying priorities and weightages.
That if I'm busy, strapped for time and had to choose (as an indie parent is), at least I know which one I should work on.
Priorities priorities priorities.
Made and added new Twitter banner to Plugins profile page
