Knowledge Products

Hey PH, I'm Marc, Indie Hacker, and I build startups from Bali. I suck at marketing. Here is a breakdown of how I grew my gamified habit tracker to $124 MRR (~$250 monthly revenue) using engineering-as-marketing. --- - January 2022: I got fired a month ago. $10k left in my bank account. I'm bored. So I code a free habit tracker with a Github-like grid for completion. - February 2022: I build the app in public on Twitter. I have 30 followers and like my own posts. But I get valuable feedback. People ask for confetti. I add confetti - March 2022: The habit tracker has about 50 users, and only one is active. It's me... The real problem showed up: How to motivate people to get 1% better every day? I remembered how I spent 14 hours a day playing Word of Warcraft... I decided to gamify the habit tracker. - April 2022: I rebuild the app and add tons of game-like features: daily quests, random loots, and a leaderboard. The game part is $9/mo with a 7-day free trial. I launch on Hacker News, just to see. The post is banned (I asked friends to upvote, shame on me ) I relaunched on Hacker News, just to see. The post goes viral. 11k visitors, 1000 signups, and $270 revenue later, my wife and I open the champagne - May-August 2022: I'm a builder, I love adding new features and buying domains. What they tell you NOT to do in startup books. I cleared levels #1 (users are willing to pay for the game) and #2 (users are ~3x more consistent) So how do I pass level #3 (marketing)? Engineering-as-marketing: I build and launch free mini-apps to promote the habit tracker. - Books Calculator (https://bookscalculator.com/ ): How many books can you read in a year? - 50 Hacks (https://50hacks.co/ ): Top 50 productivity hacks chosen by the internet and you - Buddy Crush (https://buddycrush.co/ ): Crush your habits with friends - Decision Game (http://www.decisiongame.co/ ): Improve your decision-making skills with a run/catch game It's fun and easy to get traffic for these mini-apps. They all got at least 10k visitors when launching (55k in 24h for 50 Hacks ). - September 2022: 90% of users of the gamified habit tracker don't show up after 24 hours. Ouch... I redesign the onboarding flow to show the value upfront (before creating an account). Try it, it's fun! (https://habitsgarden.com/welcome) The app crosses $1000 in total revenue and my Twitter is growing. --- My 2 cents: - Don't think too much - Every app can be built in 72 hours, don't overengineer it - Build in public on Twitter, the Indie Hackers community is awesome I like to live dangerously, so I'm launching my startup on Product Hunt right now (https://www.producthunt.com/post... ) 24 hours before my birthday Thanks for reading until here and best of luck with your projects!

Here is the story. 1 Why have we built it? User acquisition is not just hard. It's backbreaking. - Cold outreach gets 1 reply leave me alone - Audience building takes forever - Twitter ads burn $500 and get 0% ROI - SEO article gets only 20 views Your product doesn't get enough attention. Even though it's better than the competitors Let s change it. 2 How does it help? Supercharge your user acquisition game with newsletter sponsorships. Find them easily with Sponsor This Newsletter. Airtable list of 100+ newsletters ready to promote your product Hand-picked and filtered for Startup Founders, Creators, and Agency owners Duplicatable and downloadable database One-time payment & Lifetime access 0% fee on your sponsorships Sell your product without selling . 3 What s inside? We spent 100+ hours finding newsletters you can rely on. They are active and ready to promote your product. Here are key stats you should care about. Average subscribers 5030 Median ad price $70 Average Open Rate 44% Average CTR 6% Open for cross-promotion 91% Open for affiliate marketing 73% Get your product in front of hundred thousand eyes That s it! Here's the link to our Launch Page https://www.producthunt.com/post... We would love to hear your honest feedback on Sponsor This Newsletter. What do you like about it? What should we improve?

We all know that choosing the perfect tagline is a big piece of a PH launch success. But 60 characters is really short so we need to select each words very carefully. Reply with : 1)Your tagline 2)Not sure what to have? ask in comment to the PH community to choose 3)Your favorite tagline from other PH products Let others discover your catchy tagline and your favorites ones !