Tweets

If you're a bank, and you only let me download the last 3 months of transactions...

I strongly dislike you.

Let's be honest here: the kids who win that award for "perfect attendance" should give that trophy to their parents.

Have a product? You should only be listening to one group:

Folks who are paying you money.

Every else's opinion doesn't matter.

Posted a new project to Product Hunt today:

https://www.producthunt.com/tech/marketing-for-developers-video-tutorials

“How do I get people to care about my app?”

Ask yourself:

1. Are people highly motivated to solve this problem?
2. Where are they looking?

20 years ago today I was wishing I could afford a CD burner.

Don’t turn teenaged trick-or-treaters away. This is the one night of the year you get to have a positive interaction with them. Be kind!

Sweet! Love hearing about people who found @marketingdevs on @ProductHunt Books:

Big day.

http://devmarketing.xyz/

Thanks to everyone who's already picked up a copy - your support means a lot to me!

When everyone else is doing the same thing, why not take a risk and stand out?

https://twitter.com/alby/status/649336898108936193

Home from #xoxofest.

I no longer have to impress people in Portland, so I shaved my beard.

Yes.

I think Slack unwittingly created the largest consumer social network of 2015.

Hey Twitter,

Are you looking for a way to quickly increase your bottom line?

Then PLEASE let me purchase inactive usernames. I'd pay $100.

Just finished the draft for a technical chapter on properly setting up @Segment tracking on your site. Pumped! 👊

http://justinjackson.ca/marketingfordevelopers

Create your own online course with WordPress and @gumroad:

http://buff.ly/1AsMxGm

"I was the top hunt on Product Hunt. My friend thought I'd make $10-$20k. I actually made $450."

http://buff.ly/1EYZ4Bw

Found users who will pay for your product? That's just Step 1. Here's the real test: can you economically acquire new customers every month?

Free business idea for @Microsoft:

Pre-configured Minecraft PC laptops for kids.

Market: parents who are tired of overheating MacBooks.

An ordered list of what I've eaten since Xmas day:

1. Pie
2. Pie
3. Pie
4. Pie
5. Pie
6. Turkey leftovers
7. Pie

Like @nathanbarry, I launched a (small) product on Friday:
https://gum.co/landingpage/betalevels
Tiny launches rock!
#24HourProduct

Makers > Haters

Debates that kill software projects:

“Sass or Less?”
“Which testing framework should we use?”
"Bootstrap or roll our own CSS?"

Any others?

Feeling hopeless? Overloaded? Stuck?

You’re probably working on a project that’s too big.

Break that sucker down into something smaller.

Keep reminding yourself:

“It’s not about me; it’s about making the user more awesome."

Most B2B apps should have a section of their marketing site dedicated to "What the boss wants to know".

Speak to the cheque writers!

Quit waiting for your "big break".

Instead, start working on the "slow grind".

"If you don't set aside time to work on interesting things, you'll never get to them." - @jasonfried

It’s like someone bought the pub and ruined it, but there’s no better bar, so we stay here because it’s all we’ve got.

Ed Bradley: "You wrote 'Blowing in the Wind' in 10 minutes. Where did that come from?"

Bob Dylan: "It just came from... that wellspring of creativity. I don't know how I got to write those songs. Those early songs were like almost magically written."

EB: "You don't think you…

Just got home from a long trip and this is how my 15 year-old welcomed me back.

I sent out a draft of an upcoming blog post about “how our capacity for Fluid Intelligence declines in our 40s.”

Surprised by how many people have responded!

“This hits hard; I’m feeling that slow decline. I don’t have boundless energy anymore. So hard to learn anything new.”

2/ A while back, I talked about the "pipeline problem:"

• Bootcamps teach JS, React, Next.js
• Not many juniors are learning Rails/Laravel
• Rails/Laravels shops want experienced devs
• But we're not cultivating new talent

This cycle hurts the Laravel/Rails ecosystems.

“Always bet on yourself, but don’t bet against what’s valuable (family, health, etc).” – @ThePrimeagen

#laracon

👏👏👏 @calebporzio on stage at @LaraconUS

#laracon

How would you fix LinkedIn?

If it’s been 2+ years, and you’re not seeing traction, something isn’t right.

Early on, you can evaluate your idea's potential by looking at:

▪How many people respond
▪How enthusiastically they respond https://twitter.com/socodemaker/status/1817877263389454722

@mrossana Really love a busy downtown.

Here are a few businesses I started since high school: rave promoter, wedding DJ, web developer, camp videographer, snowboard shop, fundraising software...

I just published a new video on YouTube where I talk about my journey as an entrepreneur and how I got where I am today.

Feeling completely inadequate about my hangers after listening to @MostlyTechPod

This is so well done.

It’s worth watching Jay’s video just to see how a creator at the top of his game runs content production and his business.

Mind blown. 🤯 https://twitter.com/jayclouse/status/1778388584073949694

@aarondfrancis This is sweet. @TransistorFM is using @DeepgramAI under the hood as well. 👍

This reminds me that I've been doing something similar with Transistor: using our transcription engine to transcribe guest podcasts I'm on and videos I'm uploading to YouTube.

@aarondfrancis @framedtweets @nearcyan Nice! This is the quote that keeps me going. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1168618809126555648

On the Pathless Path podcast, @p_millerd asked me:

"What is a calm company?"

Seems to be lots of folks talking about @ClickHouseDB lately.

https://x.com/baptistejamin/status/1755599333452550224?s=46&t=xyX4ISH1y8eo0WCgQ-duKw

I just heard @stympy and @heyjoshwood talking about it on the @FounderQuest podcast too (to replace their Elasticsearch cluster): "10x faster search results."

What makes you to stop listening to a podcast episode? 🤔 https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1753488850150986038

Apple should put a bed next to the Pro Max display at its stores, so people can test whether they can hold onto it without it falling on their face. 😅

This should be required listening for SaaS teams:

"Solve problems that matter. Do what is necessary to solve the problem, and then stop."

Great conversation by @lackera, @DCoulbourne and @johnrudolphdrex (@ThunkDev).

https://lnkfi.re/xofEJe

Good ideas are often:

- nuanced, require critical thinking
- not sexy/attractive/desirable
- not communicated in a format that can "go viral" (podcasts, long-form articles, books, research papers)

Bad ideas often sound good, are bite-sized, and appeal to the worst parts of our…

It’s wild that it’s December 28th and there’s no snow anywhere in town.

#vernonbc

🎯 Success is compounding effort over time. https://twitter.com/jayclouse/status/1736800175706783975

More and more of my interactions with ChatGPT are starting to feel like this:

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

@FullStackEU I’ve heard from several people that founding a small tech company in the UK is significantly easier (culturally and administratively).

Would love to hear from more indie hackers in Great Britain: what’s been your experience? https://twitter.com/rosiesherry/status/1718738735716557170

Still on the train! Loving the train life! 😄

“Hey! Everybody excited about data indexing?”

<big cheers from the @FullStackEU crowd>

“That was a bigger reaction than I was expecting.” – @warsh33p

#fseu23

Demonstrating your product in public is a great catalyst for product improvement.

Making YouTube videos for @TransistorFM helps me become aware of UX issues that need to be fixed, and opportunities for new features.

(Livestreaming accomplishes this too)

The @TransistorFM is on our annual team retreat in Nashville.

Anything we should see/do while we’re in town?

Last night on the lake

@businessbarista That’s 1% of Apple’s annual revenue.

I haven’t had “Day 5 podcast episode downloads” exceed 200 in a long time. 👀

Wonder if we can break 250 today for the latest @buildyoursaas episode with Paul Jarvis.🤞

People say it’s one of their favorite eps of the year. (Even my wife listened and liked it!)

Paul Jarvis (@usefathom, Company of One) and I used to hang out every week, but we hadn't done a call in years.

Last week, we made it happen.

We recorded it so you could all listen in. Lots of folks have DM'd us about it. 👍

Here's a little preview:

Watched this tonight with my 13 year old, and it was great!

Highly recommended.

“Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game.”

https://app.primevideo.com/detail?gti=amzn1.dv.gti.1855d3e8-c703-49df-9bce-345665a21b9c&territory=CA&ref_=share_ios_movie&r=web

@asmartbear Start a “customer case studies” podcast!

It’s perfect, because you get to talk about their journey, why they chose your product, how they use it, and what they wish was better.

🤔 Is it bad if your product is the cheapest?

"One way to get people's attention with a new SaaS is to be more affordable than the incumbents."

Here's a clip from the @buildyoursaas episode with @TimLeland.

(Includes case studies: @ajlkn & @carrd, @mjwhansen & @Geocodio)

@dagorenouf @logologydesign Sending you and @LucieBaratte all the ❤️ in the world.

There's no shame in moving on! Quitting something that isn’t working gives you the space to find something that will work. 💪

Health and relationships first, everything else is secondary.

1. You have a strong financial engine or significant savings (full-time job)

2. Your spouse understands the risks, costs, and tradeoffs and is 100% onboard.

3. You have a strong sense of boundaries (and maintain them).

4. Your mental + physical health is good.

Anything else?

Green grass and blue skies

Trying to get in the practice of sending my email newsletter:

https://justinjackson.ck.page/posts/what-is-bluesky

Wrote about:

- Bluesky (are people leaving twitter?)
- Hiring @joshuaanderton at @TransistorFM
- How we're building a YouTube studio
- Good links (including @asmartbear's latest)

I'm reading Tim's book right now, and this first section is incredibly compelling.

It's a great metaphor that helps orient where we are in human history, and why this moment in time is particularly important. https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1636095952887881732

When it comes to building a new business, I like @richardbranson's approach:

"When we start a business from scratch, we put our toe in the water. If the water doesn't feel too cold, then we start building it slowly. But if it doesn't feel right, we knock it on the head pretty…

💯 "Pumping the brakes on artificial intelligence could be the best thing we ever do for humanity."

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23621198/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-openai-existential-risk-china-ai-safety-technology

Has anyone built an app that will automatically backfill my Mastodon toots with a backup of my tweets?

(Copy the tweet to Mastodon with the correct date and time)

I don't want my Mastodon followers to get inundated, but I'd love to transpose all my tweets.

I'm also confused why so many companies are moving to raise prices now.

During a recession, aren't customers trying to reduce expenses?

Why give folks a reason to leave?

Isn't it better to keep your prices the same and attract more customers looking to save money?

Many people see fame as a way to get to success:

"I need to be Twitter famous for this business to succeed."

While having an audience can help, I think we should avoid fame.

The relationship between fame and success is not 1:1.

(And there are lots of downsides to fame)

"Keep your powder dry, plant seeds during recessions, harvest them during the upswing."

@CorbettBarr's new newsletter is really great.

https://www.corbettbarr.com/p/the-coming-recession-glass-half-full

I just added guest credits to the entire back-catalog of the @buildyoursaas podcast and can't believe how many people have been on the show!

Having the podcast was a huge benefit while we were building @TransistorFM: we got advice from so many smart people. 💯

The creator/platform relationship is weird:

- We give them free content
- We drive people to the platform ("Watch me on YouTube," "Check out my Soundcloud")
- Our content and reach are ultimately governed by algorithms designed to benefit the platform

If I accidentally tip over my water bottle the water isn't "wasted," it goes into the soil.

Why worry about the water I no longer have? (Better to enjoy the water still in my bottle).

The same is true with money.

@levelsio I think we should question:

- how would we truly assess "most famous & most achieved"
- whether "most famous & most achieved" is the best representation for most entrepreneurs
- whether opinions on Musk are correlated to a country's respect for entrepreneurship

So many situations where this is true:

“Second mouse gets the cheese.”

🐁 🪤
🐁 🧀

@AndrewAskins @_rchase_ I cosign on this.

Most therapists are well positioned/trained to help founders process business/work challenges as well as personal issues.

@jamesrsowers @seo_testing @DescriptApp @TransistorFM I love:

📊 @usefathom
📆 @savvycal
🖥 @monosnap
📹 @ZipMessage
📝 @heyreform
🎙 @DescriptApp
✉️ @userlist

(And, http://Transistor.fm, of course)

It’s not just celebrities: many of us Indie Hackers and startup founders, have influence.

We get new customers from Twitter, our blog, our podcast, etc. This is a form of influence that we need to take responsibility for.

We need to be conscientious in what we say and do.

Evening stroll

The episode with @Patticus is out now! 🎉

https://overcast.fm/+MBmUOkQ6M

Yesterday I made a video about how we're preparing to launch something brand new on @producthunt:

https://youtu.be/XJqCmqdUIzI

(There are a few tricks in here you might not know about)

@valsopi With Transistor, Jon and I worked 3-4 hours a day (on the side) until we hit about $10k.

Definitely easier with two people. 👍

@natalienagele @cnagele @postmarkapp @dmarcdigests @ActiveCampaign @Wildbit @peoplefirstjobs You two have always been folks I looked up to. The way you lead your team has been an inspiration for me and many others.

Congrats on this new stage of the journey!

Does anyone have a good system for tracking web analytics and recurring SaaS revenue?

Is there a way to do this in @usefathom yet?

(I would prefer to not use Mixpanel or GA) https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1428094117746135042

"Just play the hits, man"

"Stay in your lane dude"

<Cold email outreach>

"Wow! We're getting 10% more leads."

But here's what you're not seeing:

- You're being reported for spam way more often
- Your sender reputation is being affected
- People are talking poorly about your brand on social media

I once had an entire Zoom call with @jsonperl and @jonbuda with this same chipmunk voice problem, and they didn't tell me until the end! 🤣

(And it was a serious call where I was apologizing for something I did! 😬)

To learn more about doing customer interviews, read these books:

📕 "The Mom Test" by @robfitz

📗 "@DeployEmpathy" by @mjwhansen

Method 1: interviews

Interview a bunch of people you'd love to have as customers. Ask them:

- "What was the last software subscription you paid for?"
- "What's one product you're currently using that you're not happy with?"
- "What alternatives have you considered?"

This attack on Ukraine is devastating.

“Kyiv’s mayor is both filled with pride over his citizens’ spirit and anxious about how long they can hold out.

He confirmed that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child.”

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-europe-e9cd115540b398be26dfcaf472ec1621

Fans of “free thinkers” like Elon, Rogan, etc are heavily influenced by what they say.

They don’t see Rogan as “just a comedian,” they seem him as a leader, guru, expert in current events.

Ironically, these “free thinkers” are influencing how their fans think.

A helpful distinction from @MichaelKempa1:

"We need to be very clear on the difference between a protest and an illegal occupation."

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2000247363674

#OttawaOccupation

How do you know if you’re going in the right direction?

1. Be clear about what you want: “I don’t want a boss. I want to earn $250k/year.”
2. Be a clear about *why* you want those things: “More freedom to be there for my family. Less financial stress.”
3. Define your values. https://twitter.com/lx_xlyo00/status/1479913555524653056

Don’t feel sorry for Elon:

- Yes, he’s paying $11 billion in taxes for exercising his TSLA stock options
- But, if he had exercised his options as they vested, his taxes would be $599 million
- Elon is paying 1736.7% more tax than he needed to, *because of his own decisions*

Christmas show at @CaravanFarm in #vernonbc tonight 🎄