Tweets

🎯

https://twitter.com/McPizza0/status/1638989370253537280

This is @arvidkahl's 200th episode! 🥳

I'd love to know what you think.

Listen to the whole thing here:
https://tbf.fm/episodes/200-justin-jackson-bootstrapping-transistor-fm-on-open-standards

"Each of us is only here so long. We can only work on so many things. We can spend our time, energy and resources in only so many ways. How are you going to use these limited resources?
​
To me, the answer is to make things that matter to people, that help people." – @RyanHoliday

It looks like Revin (the Stripe-based Merchant of Record we talked about on @buildyoursaas) is shutting down? https://twitter.com/teamrevin/status/1636314314490429440

Nice tactic for indie hackers. 👍 https://twitter.com/zackgilbert/status/1636063509036269568

Over my life I've worked for:

- a non-profit
- my own retail biz
- my own events biz
- my own consulting biz
- my own digital courses biz
- multiple startups
- my own SaaS (with @jonbuda)

Nothing has given me (or our team) the quality of life that SaaS has.

@vishal_viitor @taylorotwell @LaraconIN This needs to happen at every @LaraconUS now. 🤣

@BryanBarletta @stripe @PaddleHQ @lmsqueezy Global sales tax compliance. 😰

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/nobody-in-saas-wants-to-talk-about-this

Basically what I want is a “VideoGPT”

Similar to how you can ask ChatGPT to "summarize this 2000 word essay into three paragraphs"

But instead I want to ask the AI to "summarize this 10 minute video into a 60 second clip I can use as a Reel"

At the buffet of life,
we don't need to fill our plate
with every opportunity
that comes our way.
If you leave some space,
you'll feel better.
hara hachi bu.

This dynamic makes it difficult to give entrepreneurial advice: so much of a given founder's success depends on the culmination of all their life experience, resources, skills, etc.

What do y'all here think about this?

🗣️ "The Creator Economy Was Way Overblown" by @Kantrowitz, https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-creator-economy-was-way-overblown

"People only have time to consume so much. So you have to be the best in any given space." – @austin_rief

Say "yes" to the little things that help you grow and make progress in your life.

Too many podcasters are putting hours of work into a show that just isn't compelling for the listener.

Choose a topic, format, tone, and production style that resonates with listeners. 🎯

🎯 https://twitter.com/girdley/status/1605976720846135296

This case study is interesting. 👀

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1605687833561550848

💰 Money-making idea: "shout-outs"

The most successful way I've seen newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube channels make money is by giving monthly supporters/patrons a "shout-out."

Take, for example, the @SoftwareSocPod supporter program:

https://softwaresocial.dev/supporters

As remote workers, we can live anywhere. We're often drawn to towns with unique character, culture, and charm.

Most of that character is provided by Main Street cafes, restaurants, boutiques, and shops.

The unique patina of our cities won't survive unless we support it. ✊

@CasJam StackOverflow had to block ChatGPT answers because "the answers which ChatGPT produces have a high rate of being incorrect."

Even worse: "they typically look like they might be good, and the answers are very easy to produce."

https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/421831/temporary-policy-chatgpt-is-banned

@hankgreen A long line of discounts https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1589491028276674561

Here's our current About page for @TransistorFM:
https://transistor.fm/about/

(Definitely feels like it could be improved!)

@DCoulbourne @calebporzio so much good stuff in this episode!

✅ dev salaries
✅ hiring / job search strategy
✅ JavaScript drama
✅ metaverse is ded, now we do servers

https://overcast.fm/+pVpuZ2qVE

Yup.

We can imagine any conversion rate we'd like, but reality can be quite a bit more disappointing. 😆

https://twitter.com/lizmhermann/status/1592360160571576321

It's my #Twitterversary! I have been on Twitter for 14 years, since 29 Oct 2008 (via @twi_age).

As @MKBHD says: "The internet runs on ads."

90% of Twitter's revenue is ads.

If this story is true, Twitter's ad revenue is about to evaporate.

https://twitter.com/sarafischer/status/1590825690802233344

Mastodon has a feature for posts called "Content Warnings."

Mike explains:

"So much of our world is overwhelming, and feed presentation can bombard our nervous systems with triggers. CWs give people time and space to engage with that they have the resources to engage with."

@toomaime @levelsio @Shpigford @elonmusk 🎯 this.

Why turn me into a cartoon (a “known elon hater”)?

Let’s discuss the ideas! Let’s explore the nuance in different topics, openly.

We’re all more three-dimensional than simple labels (“Elon lover/hater”)

This is what AI-generated podcasts will sound like in the future

(when only AIs are listening)

@GeoffTRoberts That’s the other thing: these aren’t even “our” taxes!

These are sales taxes for customers, not us as the vendor!

Governments are outsourcing all the hard work + costs to businesses.

Just wrote this all down as a blog post (remember those?)

"AI-driven content is a nightmare"

👉 https://justinjackson.ca/ai-nightmare

In the old world, a creator like @jackconte puts tons of time + money into a YT video. He gets $100 for the effort, but at least he's rewarded with "followers."

In the new AI-driven world, you make a viral video and get no followers. People follow the algorithm, not the creator.

"If recommendation media is all about making AI-informed recommendations, the platform with the most computing power wins." – @mignano (talking to @nbashaw)

A future where we're all addicted to AI-driven content, where the algorithm is owned by Meta, Google, Amazon? No thanks.

I hijacked this question, but I think it's important:

"Video can be a valuable podcast promotion tool. However, the trend toward 'YouTube as a podcast platform' does concern me."

RSS gives us freedom. ✊

https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/xciarj/comment/io6d8pl/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

cc @PodcastindexOrg

@Clew_less @itsSoundCarrot @BryanBarletta I've wanted to write on this for a while, so I just tested all of the different apps and podcast search engines:

https://transistor.fm/podcast-search/

The @ApplePodcasts team put on a nice reception at Elm & Good.

Got to meet up with @stephenrobles (@appleinsider podcast!)

@benjihyam This is what we do at @TransistorFM. 😊

I have a 15% off coupon for folks who follow me here:

http://transistor.fm/justin

It's funny how nervous I was flying to Chicago to meet @jonbuda to launch @TransistorFM.

"You and I knew each other, but not nearly as much as we know each other now."

Thanks to @chasewreeves for introducing us at @xoxo!

🎧 Full episode: https://share.transistor.fm/s/aed24420

@PodcastMovement @TransistorFM Paging PM veterans @arithisandthat @AlbanBrooke @webby2001 @BryanBarletta @JamesCridland @misener @iamjeremyenns

I would love your tips. 🙏

@jmckinven Nice! My wife and I really enjoy paddle boarding. We got out 4 days in a row this week!

Good opportunities emerge out of the fabric of your life.

You weave the fabric over decades.

Find diverse threads, weave them into your life, and you'll be presented with diverse opportunities in the future.

@yongfook I identify with this completely!

More happiness, confidence, freedom, and calm.

(And unlike what some have suggested, the feeling doesn’t go away)

I still have personal problems/hardships. But having this foundation of calm and freedom is really incredible.

I really enjoyed this chat between @AliAbdaal and @fortelabs.

Tiago has an unconventional perspective on “productivity advice” that I found helpful.

https://overcast.fm/+23-cFYbHE

Whelp. I guess Elon didn’t care about free speech *that* much.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/08/musk-deal-sec/

Your pricing will largely be determined by:

- the market category you’re in
- what your competitors are charging
- how new/well-known your brand is
- your product/service’s features
- the sales volume + margins you need to be profitable

https://justinjackson.ca/charge-more

Back at @SilverStarBike today! #vernonbc

Vital thread for indie SaaS startups:

https://twitter.com/patticus/status/1534541513564332032

Hundreds of SpaceX employees sign open letter stating “that Musk’s behavior in recent weeks had become a source of embarrassment and a distraction for the company.”

https://apple.news/AQFB8bU1lQLybs42FopYWVQ

@charlierward @arvidkahl 🎯 YES

https://justinjackson.ca/good-ideas

Folks who owned a Palm Pilot (🙋‍♂️) in the late 90s were already wishing it could also be their phone.

When BlackBerry did it, it released all that (pre-existing) pent-up demand.

Customer demand is often below the surface, and just needs to be unearthed.

@spencerfry This looks great. Congrats to the team on launching this! 🎉

I bought @KHayhoe’s book on a whim, when I was feeling particularly depressed about the climate crisis.

Reading it has been a huge encouragement for me.

She knows her science, but she also understands psychology (and how to get people onboard). 💯

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08BZW2BQG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

A lot of my content ideas come from questions being asked on Reddit.

For example, here someone was having low mic volume problems in Riverside.

So I recorded a quick video response that I also made public on @TransistorFM's YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/HQwX_6RkyaY

BTW – @sherrywalling is an amazing resource on mental health for founders. If you're not following her already, you should be!

Listen to @Patticus' whole story about building @ProfitWell, and selling to @PaddleHQ here:

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/patrick-campbell-why-profitwell-sold-to-paddle-for-200m

@mattwensing 8 people walking into a bar is a perfect example of "market pull" 😄

@arvidkahl your idea of “it not being a ladder to wealth creation, but more of a web” reminded me of @SachaGreif’s article:

@sachagreif/the-spiderweb-strategy-12ebd2f35595" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://medium.com/@sachagreif/the-spiderweb-strategy-12ebd2f35595

Also: how is there no emoji for a vinyl record?

@aarondfrancis @dvassallo That said, you definitely have to be “in motion” (doing stuff, trying some experiments, learning) to catch good waves.

Another thought: this is why marketing tactics that work for one company often don’t work at another.

If your product has a different demand curve than another product, you won’t get the same results. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1522665700589924352

I'm exploring how "averages" (the mean) are often misunderstood/misapplied in society & business.

Does anyone have more resources like this piece by @eric_luellen?
https://towardsdatascience.com/why-averages-are-often-wrong-1ff08e409a5b

Anything else I should be thinking about?

The problem with tech "disruption" is that it disrupts the lives of regular working people, without giving them any of the upsides.

I'm specifically looking for a way to track:

visits --> trials --> paid

(And which content/referrers lead to those conversions)

I’m curious about this as well. https://twitter.com/iamtomelliot/status/1515108614742151169

@JustinSaaS Yes! The primary objective should be "the good life."

https://justinjackson.ca/the-good-life

The devastation and destruction by Putin’s army on innocent people is so cruel. 💔🇺🇦

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/04/why-did-they-do-this-to-us-buchas-survivors-come-out-of-hiding?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

@venikunche For clarity (and SEO!) I'd love to see the keywords "job board" in your H1:

@corinnpope When your brand is new, use your homepage's H1 to explicitly describe what your software is/does!

Use google search query suggestions to inform this.

This will also improve your SEO.

@Swizec I would change your H1 from a question ("Want to become a true senior engineer?") to a definitive action ("Learn how to become a Senior Engineer").

I would also add an H2 that describes more of the reasons people want to become senior engineers.

@CADbloke This social image doesn’t tell me much about the product.

Create something in @canva + @smartmockups that quickly tells me what the product does.

(Bonus if the image includes someone actually using the product)

Enhance

To increase your product's mindshare:

1. Create prompts for users to share their experience
2. Amplify users who recommend your product on social
3. Reach out to bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters (affiliate deals)
4. Sponsorships + ads
5. Share your journey
6. Improve SEO

🎯

(You might be able to copy Linktree’s features, but you can’t easily duplicate their brand recognition and mindshare) https://twitter.com/mbuckbee/status/1505887212830924800

One of the nice things about starting small, and bootstrapping, was it gave us time to define our values *before* we got successful.

If you're curious about the values we use to steer our company, they're here:

https://github.com/TransistorFM/handbook/blob/master/values.md

Instead of saying "Running a business is really hard," ask "What would it look like if this was easy? Calm? Profitable?"

Some types of businesses will be hard to run, no matter what.

But there are other business opportunities that provide incredible life-giving margins.

Method 3: observe what people buy in Slack

If you're a part of community Slacks, or you've been invited to a company Slack as a consultant, observe whenever there's a purchasing decision:

- What are they thinking about buying?
- How do they evaluate the purchase?

Indie makers: fish where the fish are.

Don’t double down on an idea that won’t attract a steady stream of customers.

https://justinjackson.ca/fish

@jdnoc @DescriptApp I just learned how to do that second part in Descript as well!

In Descript:
- add image background
- add “fancy captions”
- add waveform + progress bar

Many would-be founders choose a spot they want to fish from, and start casting.

It’s better to go where the fish are:

“The 80/20 rule usually applies to fish location in rivers. That is, 80 percent of the fish are located in about 20 percent of the river.” – @ScoutLifeMag

CAT? 😸

(C#, Alpine, Tailwind) https://twitter.com/rskopecek/status/1502066181984899073

Benedicte Raae: @raae

I've been following Benedicte's journey on the @SlowSteadyPod (and in the MegaMaker slack), and I've just started following her on Twitter as well.

She's a web-developer-turned-indie-hacker, and is working on POW, a privacy-first menstrual cycle journal.

Lesley: @lesley_pizza

I really admire Lesley's tenacity. She's bootstrapping @NewsletterGlue, and she's focused on moving forward, one step at a time.

Her blog is great as well: https://lesley.pizza/

Companies like @automattic, @TransistorFM, @wildbit, etc.. have realized that empowering team members to choose how they work produces better results (and happier people).

Do work in a way that energizes you. Structure your work in a way that is additive to your life.

For folks saying "Rogan doesn't have that much influence over his listeners."

The entire rationale for podcast ads (read by hosts like Rogan) is that they have an unusual amount of influence on their listeners. They recommend products and people buy.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/08/13/podcast-advertising-for-dtc-marketers-why-it-works-and-how-to-get-started/?sh=5c1ad1a93d43

The antidote isn’t “more Rogan,” it’s:

- good science, that employs a process of rigorous review by experts (in discipline, cross-discipline)
- good reporting from multiple institutions. If you read multiple sources (BBC, NYT, WP, WSJ, etc) you should get a good sense of reality

Also:

85% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/embarrassment-for-the-industry-not-all-truckers-support-the-freedom-convoy-1.5757952

I just re-did the intro for my "How to start a podcast" video.

I think the new one is better?

Anything else I should change?

New intro 👉

@benedictevans Yes! The concept of decentralization and community ownership appeals to me, but ultimately whoever owns the Means of Distribution wins.

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1476287719177265152

One big problem for indie creators on centralized platforms like YouTube is they can’t easily bring their audience with them if they leave.

With RSS, you can forward your feed to a different hosting platform, and subscribers automatically get redirected to your new feed.

Getting ready to write my 2021 year-in-review.

Here’s last year’s: https://justinjackson.ca/2020-review

Anything in particular you’d like to see me cover this year?

I know this template is "the right way" to do homepages...

But I'm not convinced it works as intended.

Anytime I've done user testing on marketing pages, people just read the headline and make a split second decision: "is this what I'm looking for?"

https://twitter.com/JDomanPipe/status/1471167049774911504

We create new things out of old things.

We weave new tapestries from old threads we've been collecting for years.

Blank Google Sheets template: #gid=0" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tQqxDTf9LBsd_1w_LX8NnlIfa5HQl5xU-7EYHkx5cGw/copy#gid=0

Last one:

"And, I can't stop singing hymns... or DC Talk songs."

Crypto boosters labeling critics as "cynical losers" is an ad hominem play.

(put down the people with concerns; don't respond to their concerns directly)

"The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty." – @GretaThunberg

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330692442_Shift_the_focus_from_the_super-poor_to_the_super-rich

I'm not suggesting that we all need to cut out flying completely.

As @rutherdan says:

"Frequent flyers probably need to modify their behavior. But if you fly 1-2 times per year, you probably shouldn’t worry too much about boarding a plane."

https://theicct.org/blog/staff/should-you-be-ashamed-flying-probably-not

Again, I hate that this is true.

I want to fly; and at this point, I'd love to fly *more*.

I'd love to travel more so I can see friends in the USA more often, go to more conferences, take my family on more tropical vacations.

For email, I generally start in the morning, and process it throughout the day (reply / archive / delete) until I get down to very little in my inbox.

So, for me, the time I'm most receptive to reading an email newsletter is late afternoon or evening.

Just me?

@chadkoh I think the business world is waking up to the idea that filling the team with specialists/hyper-focused individuals isn't always best.

More teams need to hire folks with "range" (as @DavidEpstein outlined in his book).

Podcasting, community, writing, and Twitter have all turned into pretty good marketing channels for me.

But when I started in 2008, I had a very small audience.

Over time I gradually built up each channel.

The traction I have now is just years of “accumulated growth.”