Tweets

@levelsio Is Microsoft getting better.... or is Google getting worse?

Great post by @ScottHYoung:

"In most pursuits, success is a mixture of breakthroughs and build-ups."

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/01/06/stamina/

@adamwathan try cleaning the lint off your vga connector

@taylorotwell i dig the brutalist version of vapor. 👍

Loved this interview with @csallen and @taylorotwell, because it illustrates the point well:

Your first step isn’t to generate good ideas.

Your first step is to find a good market.

“Most innovation comes where money is already flowing. Same stuff, just done better.”

https://www.saastr.com/about-70-of-saas-unicorns-are-new-versions-of-existing-categories-of-software/

Entrepreneurs need to follow the money:

“Where is it already being spent, and how can I get a piece of it?”

I think this is why @Basecamp’s Shape Up process is resonating with me.

I’m realizing how little planning and thinking I did about the work BEFORE starting the work.

https://twitter.com/do_ozgen/status/1167899546426343432?s=21

Many product ideas are attractive because they seem like an improvement on the status quo.

But they’re missing a crucial ingredient: there’s no demand for them.

Just because there’s a “better way” doesn’t mean people will want it.

How you approach software architecture matters!

Great talk today by @ktrajchevska at #laracon! 🙌

"@adamwathan on @IndieHackers: How to Make $2.5MM as a Solo Founder"

https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/098-adam-wathan-of-refactoring-ui

If you're bootstrapping a software company, and you'd rather be a solopreneur than have a co-founder, then getting funding from someone like @earnestcapital, @tinyseedfund, or @indievc might be a good option to help you hire someone instead.

This performance anxiety can cloud your judgment.

When you’re worried about “what will my audience think?” it’s harder to evaluate your business clearly, and make smart choices.

It’s like trying to solve a complex math problem, while thousands of people look over your shoulder.

Products have unintended uses.

I most frequently use the @AppleTV Remote app to check on a movie my kids are watching, and see how much time is left.

“I think co-founders should agree on most things.” – @jasonfried on @zenfounder’s podcast. 👌

Typically, we start our funnels at "number of visitors" but in reality the funnel looks like this:

Total market > Visitors > Trials

Your "market to visitor" conversion rate will be lower than you think.

"How can I convince my boss to buy this app?"

For a lot of B2B apps, adoption comes from the grassroots.

This means you have to empower employees to try your product covertly so that they can prove that it works BEFORE they take it to the boss.

Doing some Rails dev: updating @transistorfm's pricing https://www.pscp.tv/w/b4-TlDM4NTU1MXwxZGpHWHBqb3piTkdanM6HZ3FbeluN3X-to_H7TPJsi3x3vKeEdRrFvdE-4NQ=

Do low paying customers churn and complain more? https://www.pscp.tv/w/b4TNQDM4NTU1MXwxT3lLQXB3Z2prYXhiOdZUXTsvP9MKJVwbMYOlLBV0sQ5puEau-miWUFfHetI=

@JamesClear Things you shouldn't bring up at parties:

1. Religion
2. Politics
3. Parenting philosophies

"I would pass a law against private jets, because they enable you to get around a certain reality. They hollow you out from the inside."

https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/abigail-disney-has-more-money-than-shell-ever-spend.html

@taylorotwell is laravel self-aware now

Do live chat tools (like Intercom) actually decrease conversions? 📉

I'd love to see someone re-run this A/B test that @LarsLofgren ran in 2015.

http://larslofgren.com/growth/how-live-chat-tools-impact-conversions

You want more than product-market fit.

https://justinjackson.ca/want

This Spotify deal could also increase the total number of podcast listeners.

Currently, only about 48 million 🇺🇸 residents listen to podcasts weekly.

Spotify has 87 million paying subscribers, and 191 million active users.

@sbyrnes @hunterwalk i have 4.

can confirm: insanity.

If I could have MacOs on different hardware, I would do it in a second.

Largely:

- I wish I had more options for a desktop PC that I could configure and upgrade myself.
- I wish I had a viable upgrade option for my 2013 MBP.

@adamwathan @steveschoger It's 2018 and we're still trying to fit digital stuff on pretend pieces of paper.

Your ability to get paid to do creative work is dependent on two factors:

1. Who you're serving
2. How big of an impact you're making in their lives

Platforms like @Patreon, @podiadotcom, @plasso_hq are all built for solo-creators.

But what about partners?

The profile pages, payouts, and accounts are all built for individuals doing their own thing.

I want to see more options for collaborators!

Such a useful exercise for gaining perspective:

https://twitter.com/triketora/status/1007172669580693505

Just published 👉 "Don't sell to new startups"

On @IndieHackers:
@mijustin/don-t-sell-to-new-startups-6baee01427" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.indiehackers.com/@mijustin/don-t-sell-to-new-startups-6baee01427

⚡️ WordPress productivity hack:

I regularly update http://justinjackson.ca/now.

Then, that content gets automatically piped into my homepage and newsletter page.

(No more pasting content into multiple pages!)

This is the plugin I'm using to do it: https://wordpress.org/plugins/insert-pages/

Going over my slides for my talk at #microconf.

Here’s my talk from last year:
https://youtu.be/WKokJTrGiQM

Talking about product Validation this year. What should I *make sure* I cover?

One of my favorite things about Des is he’s constantly thinking about how people *actually use software.*

https://twitter.com/destraynor/status/979043150789410816

Current argument between me and my 12 year old son:

“The Dark Crystal is the scariest movie of all time.”

“Um, Dad, you’re a joke.”

"How willing is the customer to give you money for your product?"

☝️ the only validation that really matters.

Insanely helpful if you're looking to create a course in 2018:

https://www.podia.com/guides/how-to-create-an-online-course

Yes. It's scary to build in public, but the worst thing that could happen is you could fail in public. 😉

Reading @nathanbarry's year in review (it's good, go check it out).

One interesting bit is how quickly book + course revenue disappears when you're not actively working / launching it.

You can't make a living off *every* niche. Some are just too small.

Your niche should be narrowly defined, but sizeable in numbers.

(This is why Laravel is such a fantastic niche. It's for PHP devs who want a Rails-like framework. Pretty narrow definition, but a huge market).

I need this reminder every so often. Keep going! Don't stand still.

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/849662809491226624

Just launched: a landing page cheat sheet PDF (for software developers).

https://devmarketing.xyz/landing-page-cheat-sheet/

One of the best ways to find new business opportunities is to ask:

“Where are people already spending their money?”

My first @IndieHackers article was just published! 🙌

"Build what people want, not what they need"

@mijustin/build-what-people-want-not-what-they-need-a75d034ada" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.indiehackers.com/@mijustin/build-what-people-want-not-what-they-need-a75d034ada

Commodore VIC-20. #firstcomputer

Had an amazing retreat in Colorado with these guys. 🏔

They did a great job of encouraging and challenging me! 👌

“Trickle-down workaholism in startups” by @dhh https://m.signalvnoise.com/trickle-down-workaholism-in-startups-a90ceac76426?source=twitterShare-a02dd1574d08-1496183347

Just got CashNotify from @bastienpetit and I ❤️ it.

Stripe notifications (from multiple accounts!) on my Mac. 🙌

https://cashnotify.com/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mijustin

People use products for one reason only: to make their lives better.

Announcement: I'm re-launching my mailing list!

"Indie – stories, lessons, and inspiration for independent makers"

https://justinjackson.ca/indie/

After that last tweet storm ⛈ I decided to turn it into a blog post:

"Why most product ideas aren't that good"

https://justinjackson.ca/ideas/

How to build a product:
- build trust with an audience
- listen to their struggles
- solve ☝️
Congrats @uibreakfast!
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/tiny-reminder

This still blows my mind.

$100,000 🇺🇸

turns into

$135,480 🇨🇦

Steve Jobs was good at:

- finding an up-trending behavior
- identifying the gaps
- making stuff that gave us progress within existing trend

So thankful for all the customers who have supported my work. 🙌

A special thanks to everyone who bought something this weekend. 💯

The biggest threat to creativity is getting too comfortable.

Everybody's so focused on solving their own problems they're missing the huge opportunities to help others.

There's only one person who can give you the permission you need to be an entrepreneur:

the customer.

I love where I live.

I “make my own stuff” so I don’t have to leave. #vernonbc

https://instagram.com/mijustin

Dear Apple,

Quit autocorrecting me to "ducking." I never mean ducking for ducks sake

I don't need a calendar that gives me a wussy "push notification."

I need event reminders that slap me in the face.

Product marketing:

The emotional appeal gets them in the door. 🚪
The product's quality gets them to stay for coffee. ☕️

Wow. I've had inbox zero for the last 5 days. Amazing how much it frees up your mental space when there aren't emails just hanging around.

“Dad, how come the poor people don’t just get a job?”

(Worried that my 8 year old has been secretly attending Trump rallies)

How to create better web pages:

1. Make words the focus of every page
2. Focus on one idea per page
3. Don't manipulate scrolling (please)

5 year old son: "Dad, do you sing Frozen songs at work?"

Me: "Umm, no, I don't."

Son: "WELL THEN DON'T SING THEM AT HOME!!!"

How to build an audience:

Find ONE person in your community that needs help.

Help them.

Be SO good, they tell their friends.

Websites still have the same problem they've always had:

Writing good, consistent content that people care about is hard.

This cancellation flow is one of the worst dark patterns I’ve seen.

You have to click six times(!!?) to confirm you want to cancel your subscription.

(They could just send you to that last screen, but they’ve deliberately made it harder)

I heard about @TangleNews on a podcast.

Every day, they look at a big story from the perspectives of both left & right news sources.

At the end, @Ike_Saul gives his nuanced take.

In this partisan climate, having someone looking at both sides of a story is refreshing!

Ok. What are y’all actually carrying in your pockets on a normal day?

For me:

- Left pocket: phone
- Right pocket: keys, chapstick, AirPods
- Back pocket: wallet

Now on the @LaraconUS stage, @kapehe_ok sharing her story: “Building your village.”

#laracon

New video: here's how to automatically email your @ConvertKit newsletter every time you publish a new podcast episode on @TransistorFM.

(Using the magic of RSS-to-email! ✨)

This is my son’s mini fridge.

How many stickers do you recognize?

Seriously, I love this.

It inspired @joshuaanderton and me to take this philosophy to the @TransistorFM website! 💪

We're going to look for spots where it needs a new coat of paint (updated content, updated graphics, better styling, a fresh headline, etc.) https://twitter.com/calebporzio/status/1749078484842913894

So far, this has been my experience with @OpenAI's new custom GPT thing.

- Ask it a question
- It shows "Searching my knowledge" for ~5 minutes
- It errors out

I couldn’t believe it when a college kid in my town synthesized my voice using AI (with just 30 seconds of source material from YouTube).

Could you produce an entire podcast this way?

The new episode of @podcastindnews is out now:

https://podcastindustry.org/episodes/can-you-use-an-ai-voice-generator-to-create-an-entire-podcast-episode

$44 billion is so much money. https://twitter.com/tracedominguez/status/1684255942890905600

People who hire people:

What are some things you think job seekers should know that would improve their chances?

Makin' some @laravelphp

(with the help of a trusty AI assistant 🙏)

Did you grow up outside of North America?

I’m curious: how big of a role did Disney movies play in your childhood?

Here's the most recent camera / lighting experiment.

We're temporarily using patio lights to test this background effect.

📷 Camera: @CanonUSA M50 MKII
🔭 Lens: @Sigma_Photo 16 mm
☀️ Key light: @AputureLighting Amaran 100x S
🟣 Purple lights: @Philips_lights WiZ A21

Before you build a product, you want to see some evidence of demand.

Essentially, you need to know:

"Is there a strong desire by a group of people for this product to exist?"

Curious: what are the last 3 items you ordered from Amazon?

A classic human estimating mistake:

"If only 1% of those people do X then we'll get Y!"

(And one of my all-time favorite @sivers' posts)

https://sive.rs/1pct

If you're hosting multiple (separate) podcasts on something like Simplecast, you could save a lot of money by migrating everything to @TransistorFM.

(We've had some folks save $1,800 / year)

Host unlimited podcasts on one account, starting at $19/month:

https://transistor.fm/features/host-multiple-podcasts-on-the-same-account/

Pretty spicy marketing from Telus right now. 🌶️

(Canada's other major wireless + internet provider, Rogers, has had massive nationwide outages yesterday and today)

I'd like to buy a turntable.

Which one should I get?

@TransistorFM Make business decisions that optimize for the life you want.

What was the best PC game of 1989?

@Shpigford I'd suggest this kit:
#packages" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/#packages

🎙️ Shure MV7 (USB)
🦾 Blue Compass boom arm

Free SaaS idea:

Twitter backup/mirroring tool.

Back up all my tweets daily, and publish on Vercel, GH Pages, etc.

Similar to what @davidhemphill is doing here http://tweets.davidhemphill.com/ with the (no longer maintained) TweetNest utility: https://github.com/graulund/tweetnest

The most challenging part about making real-life decisions is there’s no A/B testing.

@Shpigford @intercom @maybe We've been using @crisp_im for live chat + KB at @TransistorFM and they've been awesome.

Incredibly generous pricing and the app has been reliable + performant.

Excited to see more indie podcasters try this out! 🥳

Now in Beta™: dynamic audio insertion (including mid-roll ads)

Demo here: https://youtu.be/3eyMnxBnw40

“How do I get more traffic for my product site?”

The best thing you can do is build a product that people are already searching for.

You can’t magically motivate thousands of people to start caring about your category.

Choose a category that already has search traffic!

I have a few friends who were running their own businesses and then decided to take jobs at @automattic.

By all accounts, they are way less stressed, and are enjoying life and work more. 👍

Automattic pays them well, and gives them lots of flexibility.

Libsyn: Est. 2004
ConvertKit: Est. 2013

Libsyn has about 12.05% of the paid podcast hosting market.
ConvertKit has 0.34% of the email newsletter market.

Libsyn's ARR is $25 million.
ConvertKit's ARR is $29 million!

The market you're in determines most of your growth potential.

"How do you get that circular video overlay on your screencasts / livestreams?"

☝️ I get asked this all the time. 😄

Recorded a quick tutorial video for you. 👍