Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 1
On marketing, and shipping a CLI
a year ago
On marketing, and shipping a CLI
Val Sopi
Financial Update: February 2023
<p>In January, I managed to pay myself $500 for the first time — from my Saas making — since...
a year ago
<p>In January, I managed to pay myself $500 for the first time — from my Saas making — since setting sail on <a href="https://valsopi.com/setting-sail">my journey to financial freedom</a>.</p><p>The plan is to keep paying myself at least $500 each month going forward, hoping...
Val Sopi
High productivity in a workday
<p>On a given workday, you only have a few hours at your disposal to create.</p>
<p>Commit to...
over a year ago
<p>On a given workday, you only have a few hours at your disposal to create.</p>
<p>Commit to relaxed focused work in two blocks of 3-hours each.</p>
<p>Take a 1-hour break in between. Meditating 11 minutes. Walking the rest.</p>
<p>Drink plenty of water. Coffee and...
I Have No Idea What...
Rejected from YCombinator
and how I’m using their feedback to change my approach
over a year ago
and how I’m using their feedback to change my approach
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 6
Highlights TinyPilot had another record-breaking month, with $15k in revenue. I sold $1.1k in...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot had another record-breaking month, with $15k in revenue. I sold $1.1k in pre-orders for my first ever video course. My attempt to slow down sales ended up doing the opposite. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
Tony Dinh's...
Why I run Black Friday deals (things I learned)
I also curated 300+ Black Friday deals for you
a year ago
I also curated 300+ Black Friday deals for you
mtlynch.io
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
I bought this book hoping for lessons to apply to my business, manufacturing and selling physical...
over a year ago
I bought this book hoping for lessons to apply to my business, manufacturing and selling physical products. I didn’t find many business insights, but it was still an engaging and funny story.
Max Rozen
2018: Reflections on trying to start an internet business
A review post on what I've done this year in terms of trying to start an Internet business
over a year ago
A review post on what I've done this year in terms of trying to start an Internet business
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 8
Building a new feature in a couple of weeks.
a year ago
Building a new feature in a couple of weeks.
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 4
Highlights I found ways to procrastinate writing my book. I had fun fuzz testing open-source...
2 weeks ago
Highlights I found ways to procrastinate writing my book. I had fun fuzz testing open-source projects. I picked out components for a new high-end desktop computer for software development. Goal grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I...
Max Rozen
How the React Hooks ESLint plugin saved me hours debugging useEffect
useEffect is great for fetching and rendering data, but are you using it correctly? There's an...
over a year ago
useEffect is great for fetching and rendering data, but are you using it correctly? There's an eslint plugin to check!
mtlynch.io
My Feedback about Hello Base
The cryptocurrency language barrier There’s an unforunate language barrier among technologists right...
2 weeks ago
The cryptocurrency language barrier There’s an unforunate language barrier among technologists right now.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are excited about the ecosystem and what’s going on in crypto-world right now. They’re trying to bring new people in, but they’re often so...
Tony Dinh's...
Nov 2022 updates: learning new skills
Indie updates, B2B vs B2C, Black Friday, surfing, skimboarding, hardware.
over a year ago
Indie updates, B2B vs B2C, Black Friday, surfing, skimboarding, hardware.
Val Sopi
On the first page of Hacker News with Subsection
<p><i><a href="https://subsection.io/" target="_blank">Subsection</a> is an app that helps create...
over a year ago
<p><i><a href="https://subsection.io/" target="_blank">Subsection</a> is an app that helps create support docs, such as user guides, knowledge bases, documentation, and changelogs. </i></p><p><i>Below I describe the launch of Subsection of <a...
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Community Edition (Oct 2021)
Hey everyone 👋 Let’s open this newsletter with a powerful quote ⬇️ Luck surface area. Aka...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Let’s open this newsletter with a powerful quote ⬇️ Luck surface area. Aka serendipity. Aka helping relevant and like-minded people find you through your content. That’s what building in public is all about. With that said, get ready for October’s community...
Grow With Less
7 Dangerous Meta Description Mistakes That Are Ruining Your CTR
I have some bad news.
Writing great content, building quality backlinks and having catchy blog post...
over a year ago
I have some bad news.
Writing great content, building quality backlinks and having catchy blog post titles is not enough.
You could have all this and still get very little traffic.
Why?
Because you need people to choose your article over competing articles in the search...
Build In Public...
What if you could edit like Spielberg? 🎥
Meet Eddie AI—your new editing partner ready to bring cinematic flair to every cut!
2 months ago
Meet Eddie AI—your new editing partner ready to bring cinematic flair to every cut!
Grow With Less
How to Use Haro to Build Backlinks from the World's Best Websites
You know you need backlinks
You may even have tried broken link building, the skyscraper technique,...
over a year ago
You know you need backlinks
You may even have tried broken link building, the skyscraper technique, and other link building tactics but they made you feel desperate.You don’t want to send hundreds of emails, you just want to build backlinks.
You are in the right place.
I love...
Tony Dinh's...
Making $22K in 7 days: the story
and other updates from me in Mar 2023
a year ago
and other updates from me in Mar 2023
High Signal
Making $6k from a baby AI photo generator
Ever wondered, "Is there an AI to see how your baby looks?" Well you're not alone! OurBabyAI is an...
a year ago
Ever wondered, "Is there an AI to see how your baby looks?" Well you're not alone! OurBabyAI is an app that shows how your future baby may look.
Scott DeLong
My Predictions For The Future Of Content Sites (And How To Navigate Them)
With the rise of artificial intelligence and content being mostly commodotized, what's the future...
a year ago
With the rise of artificial intelligence and content being mostly commodotized, what's the future look like for websites? Let's predict it.
The post My Predictions For The Future Of Content Sites (And How To Navigate Them) appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Val Sopi
The Benefits of NOT Being Online
<p>Hey, you probably know me as the founder of <a href="https://claritask.com/">Claritask</a> or as...
over a year ago
<p>Hey, you probably know me as the founder of <a href="https://claritask.com/">Claritask</a> or as a Podcaster where I nakedly talk about my <a href="https://bootstrapping-saas.transistor.fm/">Bootstrapping Saas</a> journey.</p>
<p>Since early this summer I took a sabbatical...
Max Rozen
Lessons from my third year running a SaaS
I've run this business for three years now, and I'm only just now starting to *get it*.
10 months ago
I've run this business for three years now, and I'm only just now starting to *get it*.
mtlynch.io
Educational Products: Month 2
Highlights I learned a few techniques that make it easier for me to record videos for my course....
4 months ago
Highlights I learned a few techniques that make it easier for me to record videos for my course. I’ve decided I don’t need to use a Merchant of Record service. I’ve integrated htmx into my standard toolkit for making web applications. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
Tony Dinh's...
Oct 2021 Updates: Vietnam, DevUtils 1.12, and Magic Sidebar ✨
👋 Hello everyone, it’s Tony again. Lots of things happened in October 2021. I released DevUtils...
over a year ago
👋 Hello everyone, it’s Tony again. Lots of things happened in October 2021. I released DevUtils 1.12, worked on a new exciting feature for Black Magic, moved back to Vietnam, and other small updates. Just want to say this quickly: Thank you all so much for following my journey!...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 3
Highlights TinyPilot generated $3,800 in revenue with zero marketing. I went from zero to a...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot generated $3,800 in revenue with zero marketing. I went from zero to a complete, custom manufactured product in 26 days. I’m still struggling to manage my inventory. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I...
mtlynch.io
I Regret My $46k Website Redesign
Two years ago, I created a website for my business. By combining my terrible design skills with a...
over a year ago
Two years ago, I created a website for my business. By combining my terrible design skills with a decent-looking template, I created a site that looked okay. I told myself that if the business took off, I’d hire a real designer to make it look professional.
TinyPilot website,...
Val Sopi
Work less
<p>A friend recently boasted how they're working 15 hour days. To which I replied with a concerning...
over a year ago
<p>A friend recently boasted how they're working 15 hour days. To which I replied with a concerning "Why?" and was met with a distant look.</p>
<p>My friend thought I'd metaphorically pat him on the back.</p>
<p>I didn't. No surprise there.</p>
<p>Supposedly the industry he's in...
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Announcements Edition 🚀
Hey everyone, It’s been a while since I sent a new edition of this newsletter. There’s a good reason...
over a year ago
Hey everyone, It’s been a while since I sent a new edition of this newsletter. There’s a good reason behind my delay. Let me share what I’m up to via a string of fun announcements today. Let’s get to it. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I launched something fun for the larger founder ecosystem...
Grow With Less
The unexpected end of the slow, ramp of death
6 months ago, I had just finished creating my first SaaS: the French Together app.
My goal was...
over a year ago
6 months ago, I had just finished creating my first SaaS: the French Together app.
My goal was simple: launch it and reach $20k MRR.
Writing this, I can’t help but laugh.
$20k MRR for a first SaaS? Really?
Only 2 types of people would set such an ambitious goal:
Someone who never...
mtlynch.io
Takeaways from Charles Marohn's "Escaping the Housing Trap"
Last week, I stumbled upon a reddit post announcing that the author, Charles Marohn, was giving a...
a month ago
Last week, I stumbled upon a reddit post announcing that the author, Charles Marohn, was giving a free talk near my town the next morning. Marohn is the author of Strong Towns, one of my favorite books of the last few years. So, my wife and I attended the talk and enjoyed it.
The...
I Have No Idea What...
A Summary of My Learnings On How To Find Startup Ideas
I’ve been searching for new startup ideas and problem areas to tackle. It’s quite difficult to do,...
over a year ago
I’ve been searching for new startup ideas and problem areas to tackle. It’s quite difficult to do, especially when you begin adding constraints to the criteria such as “Am I excited about this problem space?”. The internet is filled with helpful ways to come up with startup ideas...
Max Rozen
Fixing Race Conditions in React with useEffect
If you're using useEffect to fetch data, chances are you've either run into a race condition, or...
over a year ago
If you're using useEffect to fetch data, chances are you've either run into a race condition, or have one without realising it. Let's learn how to fix them in this article.
I Have No Idea What...
I Have No Idea What I’m Doing: Introduction
In this blog “I have no idea what I’m doing” I’ll be chronicling the progress and discoveries I make...
over a year ago
In this blog “I have no idea what I’m doing” I’ll be chronicling the progress and discoveries I make as I build a startup for the first time. The name of this blog comes from a talk in 2015 by former Facebook engineer Graham Lee. In his talk, he admits that although at the time...
Val Sopi
One year since "setting sail"
<p><i>For context, read <a href="https://valsopi.com/setting-sail">this article</a>...
a year ago
<p><i>For context, read <a href="https://valsopi.com/setting-sail">this article</a> first.</i></p><p><i>TLDR: A year ago, I took out a loan and went all–in pursuing my financial freedom. The words below are an update a year on the day.</i></p><hr><h2>Poetically...
mtlynch.io
Why Good Developers Write Bad Unit Tests
Congratulations! You’ve finally written so many lines of code that you can afford a beach house. You...
over a year ago
Congratulations! You’ve finally written so many lines of code that you can afford a beach house. You hire Peter Keating, an architect world-famous for his skyscrapers, who assures you that he has brilliant plans for your beachfront property.
Months later, you arrive at the grand...
mtlynch.io
I Sold TinyPilot, My First Successful Business
My first two years as a bootstrapped founder went poorly. I could barely find any paying customers,...
6 months ago
My first two years as a bootstrapped founder went poorly. I could barely find any paying customers, and all of my businesses lost money. I began questioning my decision to quit my cushy Google job.
In mid-2020, yet another of my businesses had flopped, and it was only kind of...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 38
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs seven other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this...
Tony Dinh's...
My new product on Product Hunt today
Not the usual monthly update, just a small update about Xnapper - my latest product
over a year ago
Not the usual monthly update, just a small update about Xnapper - my latest product
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 9
On cleaning up the shop.
a year ago
Max Rozen
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 2 - Deploying to a real...
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 2 - Let's get this running...
over a year ago
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 2 - Let's get this running in production
Tony Dinh's...
Sep 2022: I'm on Indie Hackers Podcast!
Also in September: $12K MRR, built a small new app, SEO, and other updates...
over a year ago
Also in September: $12K MRR, built a small new app, SEO, and other updates...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 19
Refactoring the business entity, thoughts on marketing and building
9 months ago
Refactoring the business entity, thoughts on marketing and building
Tony Dinh's...
2023 Recap
I turn 30, built a new app, and other updates in December 2023
12 months ago
I turn 30, built a new app, and other updates in December 2023
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 3
Highlights I’m finding it easier to balance my time as a new father. I moped about two of my blog...
a month ago
Highlights I’m finding it easier to balance my time as a new father. I moped about two of my blog posts doing poorly, and then they did well. I experimented with a stacked diff workflow for software development and liked it except for git’s weaknesses. Goal grades At the start of...
mtlynch.io
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Like all Gladwell books, Outliers does an excellent job of building an engaging narrative out of...
over a year ago
Like all Gladwell books, Outliers does an excellent job of building an engaging narrative out of topics that the average person might otherwise find inaccessible. His exploration into the causes of airline crashes was especially fascinating.
While it provides a nice collection of...
Val Sopi
A fresh new start: Investing in myself towards financial freedom and sharing my personal and...
<p>
<i>This is the first of many updates in the <a...
over a year ago
<p>
<i>This is the first of many updates in the <a href="https://valsopi.com/financial-freedom">Financial Freedom</a> series, where I hold myself publicly accountable for my big challenge ahead!</i>
</p>
<p>
<i><b>TLDR:</b> Towards the end of this article,...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 5
Highlights TinyPilot revenue grew 20% to $12k. I released a new high-end model of TinyPilot. I...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot revenue grew 20% to $12k. I released a new high-end model of TinyPilot. I launched my first ever paid course. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those goals:
Release a high-end version of...
mtlynch.io
Use a Nix Flake without Adding it to Git
When I work in my own repositories these days, I always add a Nix flake to the repo so that I can...
11 months ago
When I work in my own repositories these days, I always add a Nix flake to the repo so that I can spin up a working development environment on any system with a single command.
What do I do when I’m working in someone else’s repo and they don’t want to adopt Nix flakes?
Normally,...
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Four - Working with Writers
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers (this section) Part Five - Terminating Writers You can’t judge a writer’s skill accurately until they...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 24
Highlights TinyPilot reached an all-time high of $74k in revenue. I’m trying to figure out the best...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot reached an all-time high of $74k in revenue. I’m trying to figure out the best approach to software licensing. I’m still searching for a web framework I can love. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part One - Resuscitation
When I arrived on the scene, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
I saw formerly active, cheerful Python...
over a year ago
When I arrived on the scene, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
I saw formerly active, cheerful Python classes in a sorry state of atrophy, having gone years without exercise. Functions at all levels of abstraction were crammed together inhumanely under the label utils. I tried to read...
Val Sopi
Summer 2023 finances
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1680156076036030464" target="_blank">Monthly tweet...
a year ago
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1680156076036030464" target="_blank">Monthly tweet update</a></p><p>Looking back at the tough June, I thought I should clear up a few things as the much better July is almost over.</p><ul><li><b>🫣 Bummer:</b> June tanked with...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 18
Highlights I’ve launched a new TinyPilot product and debuted a new logo. TinyPilot’s revenue...
over a year ago
Highlights I’ve launched a new TinyPilot product and debuted a new logo. TinyPilot’s revenue finished the year strong at $55k for December. I’ve learned to manage design projects more aggressively. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
mtlynch.io
Running NixOS on Proxmox
One of the stumbling blocks I ran into when trying out NixOS was that I couldn’t run it under...
a year ago
One of the stumbling blocks I ran into when trying out NixOS was that I couldn’t run it under Proxmox, my preferred virtual machine server.
Through some trial and error, I figured out how to install NixOS as a Proxmox container.
Download the NixOS container image First, download...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 22-25: It’s A Growth Hacker’s Paradise
Growing and monetizing the email list is what these weeks were all about. Plus, things I would do...
a year ago
Growing and monetizing the email list is what these weeks were all about. Plus, things I would do differently.
The post Weeks 22-25: It’s A Growth Hacker’s Paradise appeared first on Scott DeLong.
mtlynch.io
Reset Month
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am...
6 months ago
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am taking some time to figure out my next project.
Retrospectives will hopefully resume in a month or two!
High Signal
Newsletter that make money in 2024
Newsletters are a great way to make money. The humble email list can be monetized through...
10 months ago
Newsletters are a great way to make money. The humble email list can be monetized through advertising or if you have a seriously big value proposition, paid subscriptions.
Most email platforms give generous free plans so you don't have to pay anything for your first 1,000-2500...
High Signal
How to make a $200k a year business - Mike Cardona interview
Mike Cardona is a solo founder who has managed to build a $200k online business by specialising in...
a year ago
Mike Cardona is a solo founder who has managed to build a $200k online business by specialising in automation content and consulting
Val Sopi
Quitting when I sense “the grind”
<p>One change I’ve made recently in my product making process is that I stop as soon as I sense that...
over a year ago
<p>One change I’ve made recently in my product making process is that I stop as soon as I sense that I am “pushing it”.</p>
<p>I quit immediately.</p>
<p>Right there and then.</p>
<p>If I don’t feel fresh, my work will look stale.</p>
<p>I hit more “in the zone” states this...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 44
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
9 months ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 14
Back to regular programming.
a year ago
Back to regular programming.
Val Sopi
A Successful Product Hunt Launch
<p>blogstatic's <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/products/blogstatic#blogstatic"...
5 months ago
<p>blogstatic's <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/products/blogstatic#blogstatic" target="_blank">first PH launch</a> (documented <a href="https://valsopi.com/launching-on-product-hunt">here</a>) was in December of 2022, three months after the <a...
Val Sopi
Year in review: 2021
<p>
I had a solid year compared to the shit-storm 2020 had brought on.</p>
<p>Back in January...
over a year ago
<p>
I had a solid year compared to the shit-storm 2020 had brought on.</p>
<p>Back in January 2021, I had made a pact with myself that I would be more mindful about my time and the things I would get myself into throughout the year (personally and...
Tony Dinh's...
Jan 2022 updates: 4K MRR, new release, new features, new learnings
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 In January 2022, I released a new DevUtils version, added a lot of...
over a year ago
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 In January 2022, I released a new DevUtils version, added a lot of features for Black Magic, reached $4K MRR, and learned a ton! Here comes the monthly update! Hope you like it! 🧩 New DevUtils release: 1.13 The latest release of DevUtils comes...
mtlynch.io
Sia-Minio Integration Postmortem
One of the best things I learned from working at Google is the practice of blame-free postmortems....
over a year ago
One of the best things I learned from working at Google is the practice of blame-free postmortems. When something goes wrong, you wait until the dust settles, then write a report analyzing what happened. The report explains how the problem occurred and defines concrete steps the...
Val Sopi
blogstatic numbers for October
<p>I announced the new blogstatic pricing ($19/year) and launched the <a...
over a year ago
<p>I announced the new blogstatic pricing ($19/year) and launched the <a href="https://blogstatic.io/blog/rebrand">new website</a> on October 11th.</p>
<p>As I was considering the new pricing and the pros and cons, I wrote this in my daily business journal:</p>
<figure><img...
Max Rozen
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 1 - Server-side Rendering,...
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 1 - Server-side Rendering,...
over a year ago
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 1 - Server-side Rendering, Serverlessly!
mtlynch.io
Installing NixOS on Raspberry Pi 4
Nix is a tool that allows you to define your software environment from code. Nix has several...
a year ago
Nix is a tool that allows you to define your software environment from code. Nix has several components to it, and one of the most interesting to me is NixOS, which lets you use Nix tooling to define your entire OS configuration using plaintext files.
I only recently started...
Val Sopi
Launching on Product Hunt
<p>
<b>Diary entries, aka Table of contents</b>
</p>
<ul>
<li><a...
over a year ago
<p>
<b>Diary entries, aka Table of contents</b>
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#wednesday7">Wednesday, Dec 7</a></li>
<li><a href="#thursday8">Thursday, Dec 8</a></li>
<li><a href="#thursday8">Friday, Dec 9</a></li>
<li><a href="#monday12">Monday, Dec 12</a></li>
...
mtlynch.io
How I Tricked Myself into Shipping Too Late
Many software founders fail for a simple reason: they ship too late. They spend years developing a...
over a year ago
Many software founders fail for a simple reason: they ship too late. They spend years developing a product in a vacuum only to see it crumble the first time a real customer touches it.
The Indie Hackers podcast features many such stories. The show’s stated mission is to help...
Dominik Sobe's...
Next Milestone: HelpKit hit $2000 MRR
over a year ago
High Signal
Black Friday 2023 deals for entrepreneurs
Here's a list of some of the best Black Friday discounts for entrepreneurs and developers. This page...
a year ago
Here's a list of some of the best Black Friday discounts for entrepreneurs and developers. This page contains affiliate links.
Courses
Grow and Monetize your Newsletter - 60% off
Monetize Your Newsletter - 60% off
Grow Your Newsletter - 60% off
WesBos - Beginner JavaScript -...
Grow With Less
Do Headline Analyzers Work? A Data-Driven Answer
Headline analyzers are a popular way to come up with great headlines and try to predict their...
over a year ago
Headline analyzers are a popular way to come up with great headlines and try to predict their effectiveness.
All you need to do is write your headline and the tool will give it a score telling you how effective it’s likely to be.
But can these free headline analyzers accurately...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 15
Heading back into the arena. We are so back.
a year ago
Heading back into the arena. We are so back.
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 18
Starting the year by cleaning up even more
11 months ago
Starting the year by cleaning up even more
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 21
I was young, and needed to ship...
3 months ago
I was young, and needed to ship...
mtlynch.io
Using Nix to Fuzz Test a PDF Parser (Part Two)
This is the second half of a post about using Nix to automate a fuzz testing workflow.
At this...
2 months ago
This is the second half of a post about using Nix to automate a fuzz testing workflow.
At this point, I can run honggfuzz against pdftotext, but it takes a bit of manual effort to get things started. I promised in part one that I’d get all of the installation and fuzzing down to...
Tony Dinh's...
Aug 2022: One year since I quit my job
Reached $10K MRR, launched Xnapper (#1 of the week), went on Indie Hackers podcast (😱), and other...
over a year ago
Reached $10K MRR, launched Xnapper (#1 of the week), went on Indie Hackers podcast (😱), and other updates in Aug 2022...
Tony Dinh's...
March 2022: $5,316 MRR and my journey to 30K followers
Hello everyone! 👋 I’m happy to share that this newsletter has now reached 2,000 subscribers. Yay!...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! 👋 I’m happy to share that this newsletter has now reached 2,000 subscribers. Yay! 🥳 I’m very grateful to have your support, and I hope what I shared here has been helpful for you! Let’s dig in. Here is what happened in March 2022. 📊 Reached $5K MRR, but it's...
Max Rozen
Getting your own good enough laptop for under $500
I recently bought a cheap, used Thinkpad T480, replaced a bunch of parts. Some folks were asking how...
a year ago
I recently bought a cheap, used Thinkpad T480, replaced a bunch of parts. Some folks were asking how they could do the same thing, so I figured I'd write about it
Max Rozen
Deploying Node and React Shopify apps on Vercel
Shopify's tutorial is awesome for getting started, but doesn't let you deploy onto Vercel. In this...
over a year ago
Shopify's tutorial is awesome for getting started, but doesn't let you deploy onto Vercel. In this article, I'll show you how.
Tony Dinh's...
Oct 2023: side project, interview on Indie Hackers
Going viral, my thoughts, and updates from me in October 2023.
a year ago
Going viral, my thoughts, and updates from me in October 2023.
Tony Dinh's...
Feb 2023 updates: Twitter API, ChatGPT API, Hackaigon.
It was a such a short month!
a year ago
It was a such a short month!
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 32
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
Creating a Nix Workflow to Fuzz netconsd
Recently, when I’m having trouble sleeping, I look for software to fuzz test.
Earlier this week, I...
a month ago
Recently, when I’m having trouble sleeping, I look for software to fuzz test.
Earlier this week, I thought back to Fady Othman’s post “Meta Bug Bounty — Fuzzing ’netconsd’ for fun and profit.” It’s a good tutorial about fuzzing code exhaustively.
Like most fuzzing blog posts, I...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 6
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits plateaued in February, but that still represents progress....
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits plateaued in February, but that still represents progress. Revenues fell substantially and missed targets for the month. I’m going to shelve the project unless I achieve my targets for March. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I laid out...
High Signal
The best no-code newsletters for founders to read
Want to find the best no-code newsletters for learning about what you can build without coding? You...
a year ago
Want to find the best no-code newsletters for learning about what you can build without coding? You came to the right place!
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Community Edition #1 (Aug 2021)
Hey everyone 👋 Build In Public is no more just a hot trend, it’s a movement. Thousands of founders,...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Build In Public is no more just a hot trend, it’s a movement. Thousands of founders, creators, and builders are embracing the principles and building in public especially on Twitter. On that note, get ready for a quick community round-up highlighting launches and...
Tony Dinh's...
TypingMind is live
It's my first product launch of the year!
a year ago
It's my first product launch of the year!
Val Sopi
On using time
<p>One thing I've gotten really good at over the years is using time in terms of how it affects my...
a year ago
<p>One thing I've gotten really good at over the years is using time in terms of how it affects my product-making process.</p><p>Back in the day, when I was greener, I used to rush things, not just for the sake of rushing to get them out of the door — but I would get to...
Max Rozen
How do you use resolve.alias in webpack?
Want to stop webpack from including multiple versions of the same package in your bundle? It only...
over a year ago
Want to stop webpack from including multiple versions of the same package in your bundle? It only takes a couple of lines of code.
mtlynch.io
On Migrating from Cypress to Playwright
Cypress is an open-source tool for testing web applications end-to-end. I first saw Gleb Bahmutov...
over a year ago
Cypress is an open-source tool for testing web applications end-to-end. I first saw Gleb Bahmutov demo Cypress at a 2018 web dev meetup in New York, and I was blown away.
I’ve been using Cypress since I saw it demoed at a dev meetup in 2018.
Before discovering Cypress, I had...
mtlynch.io
Delete the Timestamps from your Static Blog
I build this blog using Hugo, a popular static site generator.
The way Hugo works is that when I...
a month ago
I build this blog using Hugo, a popular static site generator.
The way Hugo works is that when I create a new blog post, Hugo generates a default template that looks like this:
--- title: "My New Post" date: 2024-11-16T20:33:09-04:00 --- The boilerplate for the post contains a...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 42
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
11 months ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Tony Dinh's...
It's the exciting time of the year!
This is not the monthly update, just a quick announcement 😄
over a year ago
This is not the monthly update, just a quick announcement 😄
Scott DeLong
Weeks 35-39: A $526 Day and a Breakthrough
Domination through iteration. Be sure to continue adapting and maximize your current audience rather...
a year ago
Domination through iteration. Be sure to continue adapting and maximize your current audience rather than chase more pageviews.
The post Weeks 35-39: A $526 Day and a Breakthrough appeared first on Scott DeLong.
mtlynch.io
About
Michael Lynch is a developer and blogger. He graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a BS in...
over a year ago
Michael Lynch is a developer and blogger. He graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a BS in Computer Science. He has worked as a software engineer at Microsoft and Google and as a security engineer at NCC Group.
Michael is available for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, and...
Max Rozen
What it means to not test implementation details in React
Most guides to testing React these days preach: 'Test functionality, not implementation details'....
over a year ago
Most guides to testing React these days preach: 'Test functionality, not implementation details'. This article explains what that means, and how to do it.
Grow With Less
A 10-Minute Guide to Finding Low Competition, High Traffic Keywords
You may have heard of unicorn keywords: low competition, high volume keywords.
Some say they are...
over a year ago
You may have heard of unicorn keywords: low competition, high volume keywords.
Some say they are extinct. Others say they are so plentiful in some niches that any blog can easily rank without backlinks.
As often, the truth lies somewhere in between.
One thing is for certain...
mtlynch.io
Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself
For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It...
over a year ago
For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present.
Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that.
The first two years Two years in, I loved Google.
When the annual...
mtlynch.io
Questions to ask a potential 3PL vendor
Over the past six months, I’ve been transitioning the fulfillment processes at my e-commerce...
a year ago
Over the past six months, I’ve been transitioning the fulfillment processes at my e-commerce business to a third-party logistics (3PL) vendor.
I didn’t know anything about 3PLs before starting this process, so there were a lot of things I didn’t know to ask about. Here are the...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 44-47: The end is near
As this challenge comes to an end, it feels good to be at a point where I'm about as immune as...
a year ago
As this challenge comes to an end, it feels good to be at a point where I'm about as immune as possible to looming threats
The post Weeks 44-47: The end is near appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Val Sopi
What a year!
<p>One of the things I'm most proud of in 2022 was that I stuck to some personal habits like going...
a year ago
<p>One of the things I'm most proud of in 2022 was that I stuck to some personal habits like going to the gym, eating well, and meditating.</p>
<p>I believe these habits helped me get more in tune with myself and get the confidence necessary to take bold steps, like taking out a...
Max Rozen
Indiehacking: a review of my 3rd year
A review of my third year of trying to start an internet business.
over a year ago
A review of my third year of trying to start an internet business.
Max Rozen
Why you should use functional components + Hooks over class components in React
If you find yourself asking whether to use functional components with Hooks over class components,...
over a year ago
If you find yourself asking whether to use functional components with Hooks over class components, you'll find a lot of outdated information out there. Let's settle this once and for all in this article.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 2
Highlights I paused TinyPilot sales to address a design problem. I’m manufacturing a custom USB...
over a year ago
Highlights I paused TinyPilot sales to address a design problem. I’m manufacturing a custom USB power connector for TinyPilot. Revenue across all my projects was among my strongest ever, at $3.6k total. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
mtlynch.io
My Fifth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Five years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software...
a year ago
Five years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software company.
For the first few years, all of my businesses flopped. None of them earned more than a few hundred dollars per month in revenue, and they all had negative profits.
Halfway...
mtlynch.io
Notes from PyTexas 2019
Overview This past weekend, PyTexas invited me to speak at their annual conference in Austin,...
over a year ago
Overview This past weekend, PyTexas invited me to speak at their annual conference in Austin, Texas.
It was a fun trip, and I learned a lot. It was also expensive, both financially and in terms of time. I’m taking these notes partly to share what I learned and partly to help me...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 12
Highlights I added 88 new programmatically-generated articles to Is It Keto. With 100k monthly...
over a year ago
Highlights I added 88 new programmatically-generated articles to Is It Keto. With 100k monthly pageviews, it’s time to explore new ways of working with Is It Keto’s audience. I created a KVM over IP device that requires <$100 in hardware. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
Grow With Less
4 Simple Strategies I Use to Never Run out of Article Ideas
Want to know a secret?
I never run out of article ideas.
In fact, my main struggle is usually...
over a year ago
Want to know a secret?
I never run out of article ideas.
In fact, my main struggle is usually choosing between a myriad of topics I would love to write about.
You may think it’s because I’m very creative but the simple truth is that I simply use 4 simple strategies that guarantee...
Max Rozen
How to choose a median result when running Google Lighthouse multiple times
Running Google Lighthouse five times will half the variability of your test results. So how do you...
over a year ago
Running Google Lighthouse five times will half the variability of your test results. So how do you figure out which run is the median?
Grow With Less
The Do's and Don'ts of Finding Your Blog Niche
There is a lot of bad advice when it comes to finding a blog niche.
“Write about your...
over a year ago
There is a lot of bad advice when it comes to finding a blog niche.
“Write about your passion.”
“Choose the most profitable niche.”
“Don’t choose a crowded niche.”
This advice is well-intentioned but ignores key psychological principles and causes many bloggers to give up...
High Signal
Sailing the world while building startups
James and his partner Danielle have an enviable working set-up - they live and work on a sailing...
10 months ago
James and his partner Danielle have an enviable working set-up - they live and work on a sailing boat!
mtlynch.io
Run a Simple Go Web Service on NixOS
I have a few toy utility apps that I run 24/7 on cloud infrastructure. One example is PicoShare, a...
2 weeks ago
I have a few toy utility apps that I run 24/7 on cloud infrastructure. One example is PicoShare, a simple web app that makes it easy for me to share files with friends and teammates.
There are several convenience apps I would run if it were easy to run them constantly. But...
mtlynch.io
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
The Goal is an attempt to reevaluate business management from first principles. The book explains...
over a year ago
The Goal is an attempt to reevaluate business management from first principles. The book explains Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, which states that in any business, the sole determinant of output is the bottleneck resource. To grow, a business has to identify its bottlenecks...
Max Rozen
Guidelines to improve your React folder structure
People often say to 'move files around until it feels right', but what does 'right' even mean? Let's...
over a year ago
People often say to 'move files around until it feels right', but what does 'right' even mean? Let's learn in this article.
Tony Dinh's...
$322 → $2K MRR in 60 days by building in public
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 Today is a special day. I want to share with you all this post I...
over a year ago
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 Today is a special day. I want to share with you all this post I originally posted on Indie Hackers, but I think you all will also be interested! It’s a long post about my journey growing Black Magic to $2K MRR in the last 2 months.
High Signal
$30k a month from a bootstrapped B2C company
Thankbox is a successful B2C bootstrapped website created by Valentin Hinov which is now doing...
6 months ago
Thankbox is a successful B2C bootstrapped website created by Valentin Hinov which is now doing $30-35k a month.
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 23
Working with big systems all day can slow you down.
a week ago
Working with big systems all day can slow you down.
Max Rozen
How do you make relay-compiler run automatically?
Getting tired of running the relay-compiler every time you change your GraphQL schema/resolvers?...
over a year ago
Getting tired of running the relay-compiler every time you change your GraphQL schema/resolvers? There's a plugin in webpack for that!
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 9
Highlights I plan to open TinyPilot’s first real office next month. TinyPilot’s revenues continue to...
over a year ago
Highlights I plan to open TinyPilot’s first real office next month. TinyPilot’s revenues continue to plummet, but I’m learning to accept it. I’m inching ever closer to the freedom to take short vacations. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
Max Rozen
How I became a React developer
On how I left a 'prestigious' consulting job to start from scratch as a React developer
over a year ago
On how I left a 'prestigious' consulting job to start from scratch as a React developer
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 7
Highlights TinyPilot achieved astonishing growth in revenue, jumping from $15k in December to $42k...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot achieved astonishing growth in revenue, jumping from $15k in December to $42k in January. Most of TinyPilot’s sales came from a single positive YouTube review. TinyPilot is experiencing growing pains as I scramble to meet demand. Goal Grades At the start of...
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Community Edition (Sep 2021)
Hey everyone 👋 Let’s open this edition with a powerful quote: On that note, get ready for...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Let’s open this edition with a powerful quote: On that note, get ready for September’s round-up highlighting key launches and wins from founders, makers, and creators in the #buildinpublic community. Without further ado, let’s get rolling.
mtlynch.io
My Second Year as a Solo Developer
Two years ago, I quit my developer job at Google to build my own software business. A year later, I...
over a year ago
Two years ago, I quit my developer job at Google to build my own software business. A year later, I posted an update about my finances, happiness, and lessons learned. Today marks the end of my second year, so it’s time for another update.
How I made and spent money Metric 2018...
Val Sopi
Where is blogstatic now?
<p>blogstatic is growing slowly at around 20% month-to-month.</p>
<p>Currently, it's hovering at...
a year ago
<p>blogstatic is growing slowly at around 20% month-to-month.</p>
<p>Currently, it's hovering at ~$700/month in revenue.</p>
<p>Since pricing is currently "yearly" only, each month starts from zero.</p>
<p>It will be interesting come October 2023 when the first yearly upgrades...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 5
In which I doubled my conversion rate without trying too hard.
a year ago
In which I doubled my conversion rate without trying too hard.
mtlynch.io
Noah Bragg's First Stoke Fire Livestream
I’ve been interested in Ethereum the past year, especially the Base ecosystem. The problem is that...
3 months ago
I’ve been interested in Ethereum the past year, especially the Base ecosystem. The problem is that after hours of reading about Base, I still don’t get what Base is.
Every few months, I check back in on the Base website’s developer section to see if there’s a path to building on...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Marie Martens
Lessons from building Tally.so from 0 to $40k MRR all in public
a year ago
Lessons from building Tally.so from 0 to $40k MRR all in public
mtlynch.io
Testing Ansible Web App Roles with Selenium
Overview Ansible is an excellent tool for deploying web apps. Ansible allows us to define web apps...
over a year ago
Overview Ansible is an excellent tool for deploying web apps. Ansible allows us to define web apps in terms of the different “roles” that compose our web app (e.g. web server, database server, application server). As our roles and the interactions between them become more...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part Two - Stabilization
In this post, I demonstrate how to retrofit automated tests onto an untested legacy library.
This is...
over a year ago
In this post, I demonstrate how to retrofit automated tests onto an untested legacy library.
This is part two of a three-part series about how I resurrected ingredient-phrase-tagger, a library that uses machine learning to parse cooking ingredients (e.g., “2 cups milk”) into...
Grow With Less
The Overwhelmed Business Owner's Guide to SEO
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best...
over a year ago
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best friend Dave are the only people reading them?
That’s the question I asked myself 7 years ago after writing dozens of articles for my new blog French Together.
I followed 10,000...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 19-21: Fortunately, I Wasn’t Lying
Incentive-based lead generation is a game changer and record days continue to become the new normal....
a year ago
Incentive-based lead generation is a game changer and record days continue to become the new normal. But it's not all good.
The post Weeks 19-21: Fortunately, I Wasn’t Lying appeared first on Scott DeLong.
mtlynch.io
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
As a big fan of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, I was interested in this...
over a year ago
As a big fan of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, I was interested in this book. 70 years after it was published, I still see people recommending it, so I had high hopes.
Sadly, the book fell short of my expectations. When I read How to Win Friends and...
mtlynch.io
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
A quick, practical guide to interviewing customers during the early stages of a new product idea.
I...
over a year ago
A quick, practical guide to interviewing customers during the early stages of a new product idea.
I expected basic advice about how you shouldn’t ask customers leading questions, but Fitzpatrick goes much more in-depth. The book made me recognize weaknesses in my approach to...
mtlynch.io
Update: Stripe's Response Regarding User Tracking
Last week, I published a blog post describing how Stripe recorded visitor behavior on their...
over a year ago
Last week, I published a blog post describing how Stripe recorded visitor behavior on their customers’ websites. In short, Stripe’s JavaScript library collected information about URLs users visited and telemetry about their mouse movements, even when the site never displayed any...
I Have No Idea What...
The Problem With Slack
In deciding what startup to start, I’ve been thinking about what problem space I want to tackle. An...
over a year ago
In deciding what startup to start, I’ve been thinking about what problem space I want to tackle. An area that’s drawing my attention is team communication and collaboration, especially for knowledge workers. This is for several reasons: With the trend towards distributed/hybrid...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 40-43: A $5k Month and Billion Dollar Idea
The second to the last update is focused and short. I have just one goal: convert subscribers into...
a year ago
The second to the last update is focused and short. I have just one goal: convert subscribers into paying customers.
The post Weeks 40-43: A $5k Month and Billion Dollar Idea appeared first on Scott DeLong.
mtlynch.io
Deploying Syncthing on a Fly.io Cloud Server
I recently discovered Syncthing, an open-source tool for syncing files across multiple...
a year ago
I recently discovered Syncthing, an open-source tool for syncing files across multiple machines.
Setting up Syncthing on my personal devices was easy, but I went on an interesting journey deploying it to a cloud server.
Why run Syncthing in the cloud? Syncthing synchronizes files...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto - Month 10
Highlights I sold my first meal plan on Is It Keto. I then tried five different experiments for...
over a year ago
Highlights I sold my first meal plan on Is It Keto. I then tried five different experiments for increasing sales. Is It Keto’s revenue dropped for the month as I redirected resources toward its failing meal plans. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
High Signal
The Ultimate Guide to Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful concept in marketing. It's the idea that as consumers, we are influenced...
6 months ago
Social proof is a powerful concept in marketing. It's the idea that as consumers, we are influenced by what others do, especially people we admire. If you have ever seen a website mention its number of users, a review from a customer, or company logos, you've
mtlynch.io
My Eight-Year Quest to Digitize 45 Videotapes (Part One)
For the last eight years, I’ve carried around this box of videotapes through four different...
over a year ago
For the last eight years, I’ve carried around this box of videotapes through four different apartments and one house. They’re family home videos from my childhood.
After 600+ hours of work, I finally digitized and organized them well enough to throw away the original tapes....
Val Sopi
Hello world
<p>I started toying with the web circa 2000. Since then, I have always wanted to have my own space...
over a year ago
<p>I started toying with the web circa 2000. Since then, I have always wanted to have my own space where I can spit out my thoughts, unfiltered, on my very own domain.</p>
<p>I was able to start a personal blog several times, but then got sidetracked.</p>
<p>I aim to keep this...
I Have No Idea What...
Starting Over
Abandoning the idea of building a Slack Alternative
over a year ago
Abandoning the idea of building a Slack Alternative
Max Rozen
Apollo vs Relay Modern: An unbiased look at which GraphQL client to use
If you're building an app using GraphQL, picking a client to use can be hard. Apollo? Relay? Urql?...
over a year ago
If you're building an app using GraphQL, picking a client to use can be hard. Apollo? Relay? Urql? Let's look into some options.
Max Rozen
How to style react-select with styled-components or emotion
Styling react-select can be annoying. Here's a quick guide on how to do it with popular CSS-in-JS...
over a year ago
Styling react-select can be annoying. Here's a quick guide on how to do it with popular CSS-in-JS libraries.
mtlynch.io
How Litestream Eliminated My Database Server for $0.03/month
Here’s a riddle. My web app keeps all of its data in a SQL database. I can spontaneously tear it...
over a year ago
Here’s a riddle. My web app keeps all of its data in a SQL database. I can spontaneously tear it down, deploy the code to a different hosting platform, and the app will still serve all the same data. Running my app in production costs $0.03 per month.
How is this possible?
That’s...
Dominik Sobe's...
HelpKit reached $1000 MRR!
over a year ago
Tony Dinh's...
Just two things
Hello everyone! Tony here 👋 This is not a typical monthly update, I just want to quickly let you...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! Tony here 👋 This is not a typical monthly update, I just want to quickly let you know about 2 important things I’m working on that are time-sensitive! 1. DevUtils Black Friday Deal: 30% OFF Once a year, I run a promotion for DevUtils on Black Friday and Cyber...
mtlynch.io
Reset Month
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am...
5 months ago
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am taking some time to figure out my next project.
Retrospectives will resume in July.
mtlynch.io
What Got Done - Month 3
Highlights I’m shelving What Got Done, as customers seem uninterested in the idea. Zestful has...
over a year ago
Highlights I’m shelving What Got Done, as customers seem uninterested in the idea. Zestful has become my greatest challenge in not sweating the small stuff. Is It Keto continues growing in the background, with a 22% increase in revenue and a 35% rise in traffic. Goal Grades...
mtlynch.io
Happy City by Charles Montgomery
Given how much urban design affects our lives, it’s surprising how little we think about and...
over a year ago
Given how much urban design affects our lives, it’s surprising how little we think about and participate in it. This book was eye-opening in terms of the way I look at cities and how its inhabitants interact with them.
I took for granted the idea that cities should be friendly to...
Dominik Sobe's...
The reason I got hooked on being an Indiehacker
a year ago
High Signal
The ultimate guide to bootstrapping a business
Bootstrapping a business has come back into fashion lately, especially as investment from venture...
11 months ago
Bootstrapping a business has come back into fashion lately, especially as investment from venture capitalists is drying up and people want to increase their income due to the cost of living crisis. This article will teach you everything you need to know about bootstrapping a...
Max Rozen
Prefetch your Google Fonts for Performance Gains in Gatsby
Self-hosting your Google Fonts can save your customers around 3-400ms per page load. There's a...
over a year ago
Self-hosting your Google Fonts can save your customers around 3-400ms per page load. There's a Gatsby plugin that makes it super easy.
Tony Dinh's...
February 2022 updates – 6 months milestone
Hello everyone! It’s me again – Tony 👋 Time flies! February 2022 marks the 6 months milestone of me...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! It’s me again – Tony 👋 Time flies! February 2022 marks the 6 months milestone of me going indie hacking full time! 🥳 In this issue, I’ll share my regular updates from February and some thoughts on the first 6 months of my journey. Let’s go!
mtlynch.io
Eliminating Distractions from Social Media, Email, and StackOverflow
You open Gmail to write a note to your friend. Before you begin, you notice that you’ve received six...
over a year ago
You open Gmail to write a note to your friend. Before you begin, you notice that you’ve received six new messages. It pains you to leave emails unopened, so you read them immediately. Two hours later, you realize that you never wrote that note to your friend.
This happened to me...
Max Rozen
Automatically testing for accessibility (a11y) issues with jest-axe
Automatically test your code for accessibility issues in the same way you catch bugs with jest-axe.
over a year ago
Automatically test your code for accessibility issues in the same way you catch bugs with jest-axe.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 39
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
High Signal
Selling Unicorn Platform for $800k
I was thrilled to see recently Alex Isora make $800k by selling Unicorn Platform, a website builder,...
a year ago
I was thrilled to see recently Alex Isora make $800k by selling Unicorn Platform, a website builder, as I previously interviewed him about learning to code without a CS degree. Alex has stayed on at Mars, the company which has acquired him and unlike a lot of founders, will stay
High Signal
Making a living from no-code
Katt Risen is a no-code founder and the creator of the No-Code Exits newsletter and co-creator of...
6 months ago
Katt Risen is a no-code founder and the creator of the No-Code Exits newsletter and co-creator of Build the Keyword
Grow With Less
A Quick and Easy Win for the New Year (and an Important Check)
2020 is finally over (thank God.)
Which means it’s time for some New Year cleaning.
You may have...
over a year ago
2020 is finally over (thank God.)
Which means it’s time for some New Year cleaning.
You may have articles or copyright notices that reference previous years.
Now is the perfect time to update these and make sure they say “2021” and not “2020” or even “2019.”
To find pages...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto - Month 9
Highlights After six months of consistent gains of ~30% in revenue and traffic, Is It Keto’s growth...
over a year ago
Highlights After six months of consistent gains of ~30% in revenue and traffic, Is It Keto’s growth finally flattened out. I’m preparing to sell premium meal plans on Is It Keto. I’m ready to make bigger bets on my businesses. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare...
mtlynch.io
KetoHub: Month 2
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
KetoHub Month 2
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
KetoHub Month 2
I Have No Idea What...
A New Project: Remote Rocketship 🚀
In my last post, I talked about how I going about searching for a new idea to work on. I’ve now...
over a year ago
In my last post, I talked about how I going about searching for a new idea to work on. I’ve now landed on Remote Rocketship, a job board for remote roles. In this post, I’ll talk about how I got there, what I’ve been up to and how I’m thinking about moving forward.
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description (this section) Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers A clear, concise job description shows candidates that you’re...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 35
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs seven other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this...
Tony Dinh's...
Nov 2024: My first million!
$1M in annual revenue, B2B sales, SOC 2, resellers, grow team, and other updates in November 2024.
a month ago
$1M in annual revenue, B2B sales, SOC 2, resellers, grow team, and other updates in November 2024.
Max Rozen
Introducing PerfBeacon - Continuously Measure Site Speed via API or Schedule
PerfBeacon was a wrapper around Google Lighthouse that lets you continuously measure your site's...
over a year ago
PerfBeacon was a wrapper around Google Lighthouse that lets you continuously measure your site's performance via API, or a schedule
Max Rozen
What is the difference between style-loader and mini-css-extract-plugin?
Looking to optimise your webpack config? Understanding the difference between style-loader and...
over a year ago
Looking to optimise your webpack config? Understanding the difference between style-loader and mini-css-extract-plugin can help you speed up your page loads.
Tony Dinh's...
April 2022: High churn, reached $6K MRR, and other updates.
Hello everyone! Welcome 150 new subscribers since my last issue. I’m glad to have you here! 👋 Here...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! Welcome 150 new subscribers since my last issue. I’m glad to have you here! 👋 Here is a quick update from me in April 2022. This should make a nice thumbnail for this page! 😁 🔻 Suffered from high churn In early April, Black Magic observed
Dominik Sobe's...
Early marketing efforts showing results
over a year ago
Tony Dinh's...
July 2022: Aftermath of a viral tweet
I gained 1,500 new users, but how many will convert? And other updates in July 2022...
over a year ago
I gained 1,500 new users, but how many will convert? And other updates in July 2022...
mtlynch.io
Takeaways from Cory Zue's May 2023 Livecoding Session
My friend Cory Zue has been publishing his live coding sessions, so I decided to watch one and...
a year ago
My friend Cory Zue has been publishing his live coding sessions, so I decided to watch one and record my notes.
My background vs. Cory’s I’ve read a lot of Cory’s blog. We’re both Python developers, but he specializes in Django, whereas I’ve always worked with thinner frameworks...
High Signal
Joining a startup as a co-founder
Today's interview is with Iron Brands (he's Dutch, that is his actual name), who joined a privacy...
10 months ago
Today's interview is with Iron Brands (he's Dutch, that is his actual name), who joined a privacy analytics startups as a co-founder after it had already launched. We talked about how he met the original founder of Simple Analytics, how they negotiated the new ownership...
mtlynch.io
Pursuing a Business I'll Love
Highlights Zestful had its biggest month ever, with $3,936 in revenue. Is It Keto also had its best...
over a year ago
Highlights Zestful had its biggest month ever, with $3,936 in revenue. Is It Keto also had its best month ever, at $393 in revenue. After lots of research and customer interviews, I gave up on my idea for creating sheet metal software. I published my first version of an app for...
Grow With Less
A Bittersweet First Blog Income Report
The internet is full of success stories and my 6-figures language-learning blog French Together...
over a year ago
The internet is full of success stories and my 6-figures language-learning blog French Together could be considered one of them
But things don’t always go as planned and every business experiences ups and downs.
April was definitely in the down category for me and that’s great...
Grow With Less
Is Your Article's Date Destroying Your Rankings?
Having a recent date associated with your article could be the difference between a page 1 ranking...
over a year ago
Having a recent date associated with your article could be the difference between a page 1 ranking and a page 5 ranking.
This means that you should not only keep your content up-to-date but also make sure that Google knows it’s up-to-date.
This article will show you how to find...
mtlynch.io
Back Up Encrypted ZFS Data without Unlocking It
I recently built my first home TrueNAS server. I use it to store the bulk of my personal and work...
over a year ago
I recently built my first home TrueNAS server. I use it to store the bulk of my personal and work data, so I’ve been learning how to make the most of TrueNAS and its filesystem, ZFS.
Today, I want to tell you about backing up encrypted data.
My homelab TrueNAS server
One of the...
mtlynch.io
GreenPiThumb: A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot
Introduction This is the story of GreenPiThumb: a gardening bot that automatically waters...
over a year ago
Introduction This is the story of GreenPiThumb: a gardening bot that automatically waters houseplants, but also sometimes kills them.
The story begins about a year ago, when I was struck by a sudden desire to own a houseplant. A plant would look nice, supply me with much needed...
mtlynch.io
Want to Buy Is It Keto?
I’m looking for someone to take over my old content website, Is It Keto.
Is It Keto is for sale
I...
5 months ago
I’m looking for someone to take over my old content website, Is It Keto.
Is It Keto is for sale
I worked on the site on and off between 2019 and 2020, but I no longer have time for it, so it’s just been neglected for the past several years. Still, it consistently earns $1-2k/yr...
mtlynch.io
KetoHub Update: Month 3
In early October, I launched a new website, KetoHub, a recipe aggregator for keto meals. Each month,...
over a year ago
In early October, I launched a new website, KetoHub, a recipe aggregator for keto meals. Each month, I’ve evaluated the site’s progress to decide how it’s doing and what areas need improvement.
I’m doing my evaluation of December publicly. Here’s what was good, bad, and learnable...
👋 Hello, I'm...
The real reasons why your boss wants you back in the office
a year ago
Grow With Less
The 27 tools I use to grow my online business
People often ask me what tools I use to build and grow French Together so I thought I would put...
over a year ago
People often ask me what tools I use to build and grow French Together so I thought I would put together a list of my favorites.
These are not necessarily the best and trendiest tools, some may even be considered old-fasshioned. But they are the tools that help me build and grow...
Val Sopi
Year 2300
<p><i>From all that is currently happening to us, I want to believe that we’re at the dawn of a new...
5 months ago
<p><i>From all that is currently happening to us, I want to believe that we’re at the dawn of a new era </i>✊</p><hr><p>I am predicting year 2300 to be the one when we’re living the progressive dreams of today.<br></p><p>By then we have reached a new...
mtlynch.io
Automatically Deploying ClipBucket with Ansible
Overview ClipBucket is an open source video hosting platform, similar in functionality to YouTube or...
over a year ago
Overview ClipBucket is an open source video hosting platform, similar in functionality to YouTube or Vimeo. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to deploy ClipBucket to a server using the configuration management tool, Ansible.
tl; dr - Just Install ClipBucket I don’t care about...
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: A Guide for Small Businesses
If you write original content for your business, you know how quickly it drains your time and mental...
over a year ago
If you write original content for your business, you know how quickly it drains your time and mental energy. It’s extremely challenging to write articles or blog posts that readers find engaging, clear, and eloquent.
You may have considered hiring a freelance writer, but it’s...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 29
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Build In Public...
Metal detector for hidden revenue 💰👀🔎
Meet Lasso, an AI-driven sales prospecting tool that'll help you find the B2B prospects your sales...
a month ago
Meet Lasso, an AI-driven sales prospecting tool that'll help you find the B2B prospects your sales team is overlooking.
mtlynch.io
End-to-End Testing Web Apps: The Painless Way
Okay, I know you’re skeptical. Other guides have promised you painless web app tests only to reveal...
over a year ago
Okay, I know you’re skeptical. Other guides have promised you painless web app tests only to reveal that their solution requires some hyper-specific tech stack or a paid third-party service. I won’t do that to you.
This guide provides a straightforward and flexible template for...
Val Sopi
Giving blogstatic a real chance
<p>I have never really given blogstatic a real chance to succeed.</p>
<p><b>Up to now, I've said a...
over a year ago
<p>I have never really given blogstatic a real chance to succeed.</p>
<p><b>Up to now, I've said a version of any of the following.</b></p>
<ul><li>"It's a side project..."</li><li>"I did it in ~30 hours..."</li><li>"It's growing slowly without much marketing..."</li></ul>
<p>And...
Max Rozen
Books every developer should read
Whether you want to start a career as a developer, or have been a developer for 20 years, you should...
over a year ago
Whether you want to start a career as a developer, or have been a developer for 20 years, you should check out these books.
mtlynch.io
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Before reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I thought of it as the canonical cliché...
over a year ago
Before reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I thought of it as the canonical cliché self-help book. But as the saying goes, clichés become clichés because they’re true. The book’s insightfulness surprised me, and I found many of its ideas useful in my everyday...
mtlynch.io
My Sixth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Six years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software...
10 months ago
Six years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software company.
For the first few years, all of my businesses flopped. The best of them earned a few hundred dollars per month in revenue, but none were profitable.
Halfway through my third...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 3
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 3:...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 3: Returning to a Site that Grew without Me
Val Sopi
Things I love about blogstatic
<p>blogstatic had another above $1K month.</p>
<p>$1,208.38 to be exact.</p>
<p>This was the third...
a year ago
<p>blogstatic had another above $1K month.</p>
<p>$1,208.38 to be exact.</p>
<p>This was the third +$1K month overall, since <a href="https://valsopi.com/blogstatic-chance">rebranding</a> back in 2022.</p>
<figure><img...
👋 Hello, I'm...
Why I started consulting, why you should too, and why you need to be your own customer!...
a year ago
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 12
Highlights I’m struggling to get unstuck in two areas that have stalled for months: hardware...
over a year ago
Highlights I’m struggling to get unstuck in two areas that have stalled for months: hardware development and hiring. I’m partnering with a distributor in Germany to begin selling TinyPilot within the EU. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 1
Highlights My wife and I became parents. I realized that caring for a newborn takes more time than I...
3 months ago
Highlights My wife and I became parents. I realized that caring for a newborn takes more time than I expected. I’m unsure what to do with my partially-finished Hacker News course. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did...
mtlynch.io
Per-Project Development Environments with Nix
Nix is a broad product with a steep learning curve. It’s capable of everything from installing a...
a year ago
Nix is a broad product with a steep learning curve. It’s capable of everything from installing a single package to managing every file and application on your OS.
One useful thing you can do with Nix, even as a complete beginner, is manage your dev environments.
Nix lets me have...
High Signal
$270k ARR from a Notion form app
Julien Nahum caught my attention on Twitter by pulling in $22k MRR with his Notion form app, Notion...
a year ago
Julien Nahum caught my attention on Twitter by pulling in $22k MRR with his Notion form app, Notion Forms. Back in August he was at $10k MRR
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part One - Finding Writers
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers (this section) Part Two - Creating a...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers (this section) Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers There are thousands of working freelance writers in the...
mtlynch.io
An Unsuccessful Experiment with Nemotron
A few weeks ago, NVIDIA released Nemotron, a large language model that they derived from Meta’s...
a month ago
A few weeks ago, NVIDIA released Nemotron, a large language model that they derived from Meta’s Llama 3.1 70B.
NVIDIA claimed at release that Nemotron outperformed GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet on certain benchmarks. That was exciting news, as my experience with self-hostable AI...
High Signal
How Allison monetizes her programmatic SEO knowledge
Allison Seboldt is the founder of PageFactory, a service which helps websites grow their content and...
a year ago
Allison Seboldt is the founder of PageFactory, a service which helps websites grow their content and reach with programmatic SEO.
Grow With Less
Minimalist Seo: How to Save Time and Ditch the Overwhelm
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best...
over a year ago
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best friend Dave are the only people reading them?
That’s the question I asked myself 7 years ago after writing dozens of articles for my new blog French Together.
I followed 10,000...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 5
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits continued to grow rapidly. Revenues increased substantially from...
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits continued to grow rapidly. Revenues increased substantially from the previous month but missed targets for January. I figured out an easy and inexpensive way to attract users via Twitter. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I laid out some...
Val Sopi
Marching into March
<p>February was yet another month with unexpected expenses on top of my planned budget of -2500....
a year ago
<p>February was yet another month with unexpected expenses on top of my planned budget of -2500. They were again family related.</p><p>The lesson here is that my personal budget is way too tight without much margin for any unexpected expenses, especially with two growing kids and...
Tony Dinh's...
Oct 2022 updates: I will write a book!
Also in October: Speak at JOM Launch Asia 2022, and the thing about Elon Musk.
over a year ago
Also in October: Speak at JOM Launch Asia 2022, and the thing about Elon Musk.
👋 Hello, I'm...
Want to save your nation? Get rid of poor people!
a year ago
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 13
I tried building a monolith.
a year ago
I tried building a monolith.
Max Rozen
2023: Focusing on a single product pays off
The first year where I managed to keep my focus entirely on a single project.
a year ago
The first year where I managed to keep my focus entirely on a single project.
Dominik Sobe's...
I tried the "Coding for Marketing" growth hack and the results are...
over a year ago
Grow With Less
Don't Trust Keyword Difficulty Scores (Do This Instead)
Keyword difficulty or SEO difficulty is the likelihood of ranking for a keyword. And the way most...
over a year ago
Keyword difficulty or SEO difficulty is the likelihood of ranking for a keyword. And the way most bloggers estimate it is dangerous.
They use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Keysearch, or SEMrush and rely on their keyword difficulty scores to tell how easy ranking for a keyword should...
mtlynch.io
How to Grow Quickly and Never Turn a Profit
Early last year, I launched a nutrition site called Is It Keto. From November 2018 until March 2019,...
over a year ago
Early last year, I launched a nutrition site called Is It Keto. From November 2018 until March 2019, the site was my full-time focus. Every month, visitors increased by 50% to 150%, an exhilarating growth rate that far outpaced any of my previous projects.
There was only one...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 2
In which I ship a CLI (for real this time), and improve a few things
a year ago
In which I ship a CLI (for real this time), and improve a few things
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 14
Highlights A redesign of TinyPilot’s website seems to have increased sales. TinyPilot now has a...
over a year ago
Highlights A redesign of TinyPilot’s website seems to have increased sales. TinyPilot now has a European distributor. After three years, I’ve earned back my investment in Zestful (and I might sell it). I’m still ruthlessly delegating every task I can. Goal Grades At the start of...
mtlynch.io
WanderJest: Month 2
Highlights I’m betting big on a publicity campaign that’s at risk of failing spectacularly....
over a year ago
Highlights I’m betting big on a publicity campaign that’s at risk of failing spectacularly. WanderJest finally earned its first dollar of revenue, but in a way that is definitely unsustainable. Poor work habits have left me with the most stress I’ve felt in a year. Goal Grades At...
mtlynch.io
Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling
I wish that I had found this book nine years ago. It taught me a great deal about choosing the right...
over a year ago
I wish that I had found this book nine years ago. It taught me a great deal about choosing the right product to build and the advantages of targeting small niches. The author makes compelling points about the importance of marketing and small founders’ common pitfall of treating...
Grow With Less
Journorequest: The Little-Known Twitter Hashtag That Will Help You Get Quality Backlinks
If you have ever tried to do outreach to build backlinks, you know how frustrating the process can...
over a year ago
If you have ever tried to do outreach to build backlinks, you know how frustrating the process can be.
You spend hours looking for the right people to reach out to, crafting your outreach emails and finally send them, already picturing yourself receiving a ton of quality...
Max Rozen
A Walkthrough of migrating MaxRozen.com from Gatsby to Next.js
I recently migrated MaxRozen.com from Gatsby to Next.js, in this article I'll detail the steps it...
over a year ago
I recently migrated MaxRozen.com from Gatsby to Next.js, in this article I'll detail the steps it took.
mtlynch.io
A Follow-Up and Space Duck
The response to yesterday’s post about leaving Google has been unexpected and overwhelming.
It was...
over a year ago
The response to yesterday’s post about leaving Google has been unexpected and overwhelming.
It was extremely gratifying to hear that my story resonated with so many people. Hundreds of readers from a variety of industries all across the globe have written me to tell me how they...
Dominik Sobe's...
What a roller coaster ride
over a year ago
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 7
In which I pay for people to check out OnlineOrNot to test my landing pages.
a year ago
In which I pay for people to check out OnlineOrNot to test my landing pages.
Build In Public...
I just announced an AI accelerator program
Full story on my latest role at Paddle, the new AI program, and what it means for you
8 months ago
Full story on my latest role at Paddle, the new AI program, and what it means for you
Max Rozen
Keeping your sites fast with regular performance tests
You pride yourself on delivering fast websites to your clients, but do the websites stay fast as the...
over a year ago
You pride yourself on delivering fast websites to your clients, but do the websites stay fast as the months go by?
Grow With Less
9 Inspiring Examples of Successful Blogs (And How They Got There)
Looking at blog income reports from popular blogs, you could think that the only way to make money...
over a year ago
Looking at blog income reports from popular blogs, you could think that the only way to make money blogging is to blog about blogging.
Luckily, you would be mistaken.
The reality is that there are successful blogs in all kinds of niches. You simply hear more about the make money...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 26-30: We’re On A Collision Course
It's almost poetic that the Internet is shifting at exactly the time I'm doing a challenge to prove...
a year ago
It's almost poetic that the Internet is shifting at exactly the time I'm doing a challenge to prove what works - and how to overcome change.
The post Weeks 26-30: We’re On A Collision Course appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Scott DeLong
Weeks 31-34: Banned
Sometimes business can be boring and sometimes you see set backs, but this is where you...
a year ago
Sometimes business can be boring and sometimes you see set backs, but this is where you perservere.
The post Weeks 31-34: Banned appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Dominik Sobe's...
What I learned bootstrapping 8+ software products
3 weeks ago
Dominik Sobe's...
Travel hard, work harder or: on being a digital nomad
a year ago
Tony Dinh's...
Help me win the Golden Kitty Awards 2022?
(just a quick announcement...)
a year ago
(just a quick announcement...)
High Signal
Making thousands from a German learning online community
Rónán is the founder of Deutsch Gym, an online community for learning German. He's making thousands...
a year ago
Rónán is the founder of Deutsch Gym, an online community for learning German. He's making thousands in revenue from his startup which he made after moving to Berlin and wanting to improve his German language skills. Read on for his tips on making a
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 6
A new monitoring service for OnlineOrNot, and new learnings for my pricing page.
a year ago
A new monitoring service for OnlineOrNot, and new learnings for my pricing page.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 27
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
How I Hired a Freelance Editor for My Blog
A year in blogging I started this blog in May of last year. I don’t mean to brag, but by last April,...
over a year ago
A year in blogging I started this blog in May of last year. I don’t mean to brag, but by last April, after less than a year of blogging, I was pulling in upwards of 20 visitors per day, several of whom were not spam bots. That number reached as high as 50 visitors on days when I...
mtlynch.io
Key Mime Pi: Turn Your Raspberry Pi into a Remote Keyboard
Recent versions of the Raspberry Pi support USB on-the-go (USB OTG), which allows them to...
over a year ago
Recent versions of the Raspberry Pi support USB on-the-go (USB OTG), which allows them to impersonate USB devices such as keyboards, thumb drives, and microphones. To take advantage of this, I made an open-source web app that turns my Pi into a fake keyboard. I call it Key Mime...
High Signal
Making $6k MRR from a Notion website builder
Noah Bragg is the founder of Potion, a website builder based on Notion. It lets you simply publish a...
a year ago
Noah Bragg is the founder of Potion, a website builder based on Notion. It lets you simply publish a website straight from Notion without any coding skills! Noah has done a great job growing Potion to $6k MRR. I interviewed him about how he created Potion, his best marketing...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Michelle Marcelline
Immigrating from Indonesia to the US and building Typedream in public
a year ago
Immigrating from Indonesia to the US and building Typedream in public
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 16
On content marketing, starting a YouTube channel, and improving status pages
a year ago
On content marketing, starting a YouTube channel, and improving status pages
Max Rozen
How do you use variables in the HTML webpack outputs?
Looking to inject variables from CI into the HTML your webpack build outputs? It's relatively simple...
over a year ago
Looking to inject variables from CI into the HTML your webpack build outputs? It's relatively simple to do.
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Erwin
Lessons from building Tailscan in public to $500 MRR
a year ago
Lessons from building Tailscan in public to $500 MRR
Max Rozen
The Definitive Guide to Commonly Used Words in React
Do some words in React have you scratching your head? Ref? Stateless component? Let's learn some...
over a year ago
Do some words in React have you scratching your head? Ref? Stateless component? Let's learn some words!
Grow With Less
I was living the dream, then my dream collapsed
Everything was going great.
My blog French Together had just hit 357k monthly visitors, the French...
over a year ago
Everything was going great.
My blog French Together had just hit 357k monthly visitors, the French Together course had exceeded $300k in sales.
Then COVID happened.
My traffic slowly started to decrease, conversions got worse.
I ignored it at first, I guess I was in denial. I...
mtlynch.io
Using Zig to Unit Test a C Application
Zig is a new, independently developed low-level programming language. It’s a modern reimagining of C...
a year ago
Zig is a new, independently developed low-level programming language. It’s a modern reimagining of C that attempts to retain C’s performance while embracing improvements from the last 30 years of tooling and language design.
Zig makes calling into C code easier than any other...
Max Rozen
The books I read in 2018
A list of books I read in 2018
over a year ago
A list of books I read in 2018
Max Rozen
@forge/api: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading ‘fetch’)
How to fix a cannot read properties of undefined error in Forge
over a year ago
How to fix a cannot read properties of undefined error in Forge
Dominik Sobe's...
Feedback, acquisition offer and the journey to product-market fit
over a year ago
mtlynch.io
Zestful: Month 4
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Zestful Month 4:...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Zestful Month 4: Shipping Too Late
👋 Hello, I'm...
Why I’m leaving the Shopify Apps business
a year ago
Val Sopi
The incredible March 2024
<p>March was an absolutely insane month for <a href="https://blogstatic.io/">blogstatic.io</a>. The...
8 months ago
<p>March was an absolutely insane month for <a href="https://blogstatic.io/">blogstatic.io</a>. The majority of this spike I can attribute to the <a href="https://blogstatic.io/blog/pricing-2024">price change announcement on March 1st</a> and customers were rushing to lock in...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 4
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 4: My...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 4: My First Dollar of Revenue
Max Rozen
Using Tailwind CSS with React and CSS-in-JS
If you're already using a CSS-in-JS library, trying out Tailwind CSS with your existing app might be...
over a year ago
If you're already using a CSS-in-JS library, trying out Tailwind CSS with your existing app might be much easier than you think.
mtlynch.io
Staying Motivated by Sending Status Updates to Nobody
At my last job, status meetings with my manager were outstandingly efficient. He never ran me...
over a year ago
At my last job, status meetings with my manager were outstandingly efficient. He never ran me through the typical drill of listing list off everything I did since our last meeting. Instead, we jumped right to the meaty topics of career growth, team development, and challenging...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 10
Highlights TinyPilot has its first official office space. I tried a marketing experiment that...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot has its first official office space. I tried a marketing experiment that flopped. Designing IT infrastructure for a new office is fun. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those...
Grow With Less
9 Real Examples of SEO Titles (And Why They Work)
You just finished writing an amazing article and can’t wait to share it with the world.
But first,...
over a year ago
You just finished writing an amazing article and can’t wait to share it with the world.
But first, you need to come up with a great SEO title. The kind of SEO title that’ll not only help you rank in Google but also make people excited to read your article.
Following the advice I...
👋 Hello, I'm...
The dead horse framework: How to evaluate the potential of a startup.
a year ago
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 43
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
10 months ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
I'm Still Confused About Base
A year ago, I listented to an interview with Jesse Pollak on an episode of Into the Bytecode.
Jesse...
3 months ago
A year ago, I listented to an interview with Jesse Pollak on an episode of Into the Bytecode.
Jesse works for Coinbase, and he noticed that lots of developers building apps on top of Ethereum were solving the same problems over and over again. He started a project at Coinbase to...
Val Sopi
Punctuality Above All
<p>Here's a quick rundown about the article. For more read on below.</p>
<iframe width="400"...
over a year ago
<p>Here's a quick rundown about the article. For more read on below.</p>
<iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qn_jAtoDieY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>//</p>
<p>There are these two small restaurants close to one another...
mtlynch.io
I'm Probably Procrastinating
Highlights A change to Zestful’s website boosted it to the front page of Google results within days....
over a year ago
Highlights A change to Zestful’s website boosted it to the front page of Google results within days. I’m going to try to make a better version of a decades’ old application for managing machine shops. I’m doing lots of coding to avoid talking to customers. Goal Grades At the...
mtlynch.io
An Unexpected Reset Month
Highlights My loved ones and I are safe and healthy. WanderJest is on hiatus due to the nationwide...
over a year ago
Highlights My loved ones and I are safe and healthy. WanderJest is on hiatus due to the nationwide shutdown. I’m working on a product to help investors rebalance their portfolios. COVID-19 and me Obviously, the most relevant thing to happen in the last month has been the global...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 23
Highlights The TinyPilot website redesign is finally done. I’ve learned to make Debian packages, and...
over a year ago
Highlights The TinyPilot website redesign is finally done. I’ve learned to make Debian packages, and it’s surprisingly simple. I’ve given up on Vue and frontend frameworks in general. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did...
Grow With Less
How to Get Interviewed (Even If You Are Not Well-Known in Your Niche)
When people talk about interview link building, they mostly talk about expert interviews, you...
over a year ago
When people talk about interview link building, they mostly talk about expert interviews, you interview experts on your blog in the hope that they will then share your interview and link to it.
But doing the opposite also works. If you have interesting hobbies or any kind of...
Max Rozen
On replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a Thinkpad T480
In which you probably wonder, but ...why?
a year ago
In which you probably wonder, but ...why?
High Signal
Is Ruby on Rails dead in 2024? No!
Ruby on Rails, or 'Rails' for short, is a framework for making websites with the programming...
10 months ago
Ruby on Rails, or 'Rails' for short, is a framework for making websites with the programming language Ruby. The idea behind it is to simplify how programmers create websites and it caused a storm amongst developers when it was released in August 2004 by software engineer David...
Grow With Less
10 Proven Meta Descriptions Templates Top Blogs Use to Get More Clicks
I face the same problem every time I need to write a meta description.
I have no idea where to...
over a year ago
I face the same problem every time I need to write a meta description.
I have no idea where to start.
Should I first mention the problem the article is solving? Should I use a call-to-action? Is it bad to repeat what I already wrote in the headline?
To find out, I analyzed...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 13
Highlights TinyPilot’s EU distributor is on track to begin sales by the end of August. I’ve freed up...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot’s EU distributor is on track to begin sales by the end of August. I’ve freed up time by delegating responsibilities to my teammates. I miraculously became unstuck on two tasks that have been blocking work for months. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
mtlynch.io
How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human (Part Two)
This is the second half of my article about how to communicate well and avoid pitfalls in code...
over a year ago
This is the second half of my article about how to communicate well and avoid pitfalls in code reviews. Here, I focus on techniques to bring your code review to a successful close while avoiding ugly conflict.
I laid the groundwork in Part One, so I recommend starting there. If...
Max Rozen
How to handle server-side rendering in React
Getting server-side rendering to work in React is quite a hassle if you don't know what you're...
over a year ago
Getting server-side rendering to work in React is quite a hassle if you don't know what you're doing. Let's make it easier.
High Signal
Building a mentor marketplace to 20,000 users
Mentorcruise is an impressive mentor marketplace which has grown to 20,000 users.
a year ago
Mentorcruise is an impressive mentor marketplace which has grown to 20,000 users.
Val Sopi
The Word that guides my year
<p>Sort of without fail and unplanned, every year in December, I usually think of a word that I want...
over a year ago
<p>Sort of without fail and unplanned, every year in December, I usually think of a word that I want to live by the upcoming year.</p>
<p>Depending on what kind of year I have had, the Word for the upcoming one should represent the practical step ahead for...
mtlynch.io
Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business
Jason Cohen’s 2013 Microconf talk, Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business with Jason Cohen, is...
a year ago
Jason Cohen’s 2013 Microconf talk, Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business with Jason Cohen, is one of the most valuable resources I’ve found for bootstrapped founders. I watched it for the first time in 2020, and I’ve revisited it repeatedly since then.
If you’re new to the...
High Signal
Making $12k from podcasts - James McKinven interview
James McKinven is an entrepreneur who has succeeded in making money from podcasts - no easy feat. He...
a year ago
James McKinven is an entrepreneur who has succeeded in making money from podcasts - no easy feat. He earns money by editing podcasts for companies
mtlynch.io
Retrofitting Apps for Cloud Storage with Zero Code Changes
I recently installed a media sharing app to one of my servers. It was simple to install, but it hid...
over a year ago
I recently installed a media sharing app to one of my servers. It was simple to install, but it hid a dastardly trap for long-term maintenance.
Every time a user uploaded a file, the web app saved it to the local filesystem. If I ever blew away the server and rebuilt it, I’d have...
mtlynch.io
Adventures in Outsourcing: Cooking with TaskRabbit
Overview For the past few years, I’ve been outsourcing tasks from my daily life whenever possible. I...
over a year ago
Overview For the past few years, I’ve been outsourcing tasks from my daily life whenever possible. I tend to be more limited in time than money, so if paying $30 can save me an hour, I consider that a good deal.
I recently started experimenting with the keto diet, which focuses...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 15
Highlights TinyPilot had its highest-revenue month ever. One of TinyPilot’s competitors raised $800k...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot had its highest-revenue month ever. One of TinyPilot’s competitors raised $800k almost overnight. I’m working with a design firm to improve TinyPilot’s brand and website. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s...
mtlynch.io
A Survey of Applicant Tracking Systems for Bootstrapped Businesses
I’m a bootstrapped founder of a six-person company, and I spent this week testing different tools...
over a year ago
I’m a bootstrapped founder of a six-person company, and I spent this week testing different tools for hiring candidates.
This post summarizes my experience with the applicant tracking systems (ATS) I found and how well they serve small, bootstrapped businesses.
Note: This isn’t...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 48-52: My Final Update
It's been fun (kinda). Here's where it ended up and where I'm going next.
The post Weeks 48-52: My...
a year ago
It's been fun (kinda). Here's where it ended up and where I'm going next.
The post Weeks 48-52: My Final Update appeared first on Scott DeLong.
mtlynch.io
Configure a Git Shell Prompt Under Nix
I recently read Julia Evans’ latest zine about git, and one of her tips was to configure your...
5 months ago
I recently read Julia Evans’ latest zine about git, and one of her tips was to configure your terminal shell prompt to show the git status.
Julia’s terminal prompt looks like this:
~/work/homepage (main) $ main is Julia’s current git branch. When she’s in the middle of a git...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 11
Highlights Despite $30k in monthly revenue, TinyPilot barely covers costs. I’m exploring options to...
over a year ago
Highlights Despite $30k in monthly revenue, TinyPilot barely covers costs. I’m exploring options to get big companies to pay more for TinyPilot. I need to come to terms with the fact that managing people is a real job. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 31
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Val Sopi
Runway extended by an Angel
<p>
About a month ago, on September 1st, I made a big leap: I stopped my consulting work...
over a year ago
<p>
About a month ago, on September 1st, I made a big leap: I stopped my consulting work for the 3rd time to chase my SaaS dreams.</p>
<p>
Up to September, I supported my SaaS making with consulting and contract work. Which wasn't an ideal setup for making...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Marko Saric
Lessons from building Plausible Analytics to $1.2m ARR in public
a year ago
Lessons from building Plausible Analytics to $1.2m ARR in public
mtlynch.io
Using Nix to Fuzz Test a PDF Parser (Part One)
Fuzz testing is a technique for automatically uncovering bugs in software. The problem is that it’s...
2 months ago
Fuzz testing is a technique for automatically uncovering bugs in software. The problem is that it’s a pain to set up. Read any fuzz testing tutorial, and the first task is an hour of building tools from source and chasing down dependencies upon dependencies.
I recently found that...
mtlynch.io
Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
This book was thoroughly underwhelming. Dozens of people have recommended it to me in the past...
over a year ago
This book was thoroughly underwhelming. Dozens of people have recommended it to me in the past couple of years, and I don’t understand the hype. It has some insightful ideas, but they’re buried under questionable advice and poor writing.
Max Rozen
How code splitting can make your React app load significantly faster
Chances are, your React app's bundle is much, much larger than it needs to be.
over a year ago
Chances are, your React app's bundle is much, much larger than it needs to be.
High Signal
Making $1m ARR with social media scheduling
Davis is the co-founder of OneUp, a tool for scheduling social media posts across a range of...
11 months ago
Davis is the co-founder of OneUp, a tool for scheduling social media posts across a range of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and many more. The business is now doing over $1m in annual revenue! Davis joined me for an interview about joining the...
Tony Dinh's...
April 2024 updates, new product!
Traveled to Bali and Sydney, some updates on Typing Mind, and a new product.
7 months ago
Traveled to Bali and Sydney, some updates on Typing Mind, and a new product.
Dominik Sobe's...
Just crossed 10 paying customers
over a year ago
mtlynch.io
What Got Done - Month 1
Highlights I launched my task journaling app, but it hasn’t attracted many users. Interviewing...
over a year ago
Highlights I launched my task journaling app, but it hasn’t attracted many users. Interviewing potential customers gave me a good idea for my next project. I earned $107 from Is It Keto and $123 from Zestful without working on either. Goal Grades Publish a minimum viable product...
Grow With Less
A Day in the Life of a Full-Time Blogger
Search “blogger working” in Google Image and you will see thousands of smiling bloggers working on...
over a year ago
Search “blogger working” in Google Image and you will see thousands of smiling bloggers working on their laptop while drinking coffee in a trendy coffee shop.
And while these things can definitely be part of a blogger’s day, they are only the visible part of the iceberg.
Blogging...
Max Rozen
Understanding when to use useMemo
If you've just learned what useCallback is, you might be wondering why on earth useMemo exists, and...
over a year ago
If you've just learned what useCallback is, you might be wondering why on earth useMemo exists, and why we don't use it everywhere.
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Three - Screening Candidates
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates (this section) Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers Screening writing candidates requires you to make decisions...