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...
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...
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...
Tony Dinh's...
Jan 2021: I got a $500K acquisition offer!
...and other updates in January 2022 from me
a year ago
...and other updates in January 2022 from me
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 37
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...
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.
mtlynch.io
What I've Been Doing Since Quitting My Job
I worked as a software engineer for Google from 2014 to 2018. On February 1st, I quit my job and...
over a year ago
I worked as a software engineer for Google from 2014 to 2018. On February 1st, I quit my job and formed my own single-person software company.
That was four months ago, so I thought I’d share an update on how things are going.
What’s it like not having a job? That’s the most...
mtlynch.io
Installing Jellyfin on TrueNAS Core
I always run into issues installing Jellyfin on TrueNAS core. I fix them, and then I forget a few...
a year ago
I always run into issues installing Jellyfin on TrueNAS core. I fix them, and then I forget a few months later, so these are just my notes to myself of how to install Jellyfin on TrueNAS core.
Instructions Install based on these...
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.
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
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
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
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...
Tony Dinh's...
May 2023: I sold my 2 years old business for only $128K
Everything about the Black Magic's acquisition + May 2023 updates
a year ago
Everything about the Black Magic's acquisition + May 2023 updates
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...
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...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 11
Highlights Two of my blog posts reached the front page of Hacker News. I may have finally discovered...
over a year ago
Highlights Two of my blog posts reached the front page of Hacker News. I may have finally discovered a way to scale my keto site profitably. I’m putting Portfolio Rebalancer on the backburner due to lack of traction. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like...
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
How to Hire a Cartoonist to Make Your Blog Less Boring
I had just completed a passionate blog post.
Too passionate, maybe, as I had written over 8,000...
over a year ago
I had just completed a passionate blog post.
Too passionate, maybe, as I had written over 8,000 words. That’s 1000x longer than the average Buzzfeed article. Worse, it was a giant wall of text with nary a visual element to break it up aside from some screenshots and a few tables....
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
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.
Max Rozen
Demystifying useEffect's clean-up function
useEffect's clean-up function can be pretty confusing, especially if you're still trying to think in...
over a year ago
useEffect's clean-up function can be pretty confusing, especially if you're still trying to think in lifecycle methods. Let's clarify the clean-up function in this article.
Tony Dinh's...
Dec 2022 updates and happy new year!
Hello everyone! It's Tony again with another monthly updates.
a year ago
Hello everyone! It's Tony again with another monthly updates.
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
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.
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...
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...
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
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
Protecting your React routes
React apps send their code directly to users, so you might be a little confused about how React...
over a year ago
React apps send their code directly to users, so you might be a little confused about how React 'guards' routes from unauthorised viewing. This article explains how.
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
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,...
Val Sopi
What is leadership?
<p>With so much going on in the world and information traveling faster than ever before in the human...
over a year ago
<p>With so much going on in the world and information traveling faster than ever before in the human existence, it's easy to lose track of the basics.</p>
<p>Feeling overwhelmed is a result of our values, thoughts, being challenged.</p>
<p>The first response is naturally to...
👋 Hello, I'm...
Work-n-travel: A practical guide for staying productive while exploring the world.
...
a year ago
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...
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
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...
mtlynch.io
Notes from PyGotham 2019
Overview This past weekend, PyGotham invited me to speak at their annual conference in Manhattan. In...
over a year ago
Overview This past weekend, PyGotham invited me to speak at their annual conference in Manhattan. In an effort to maximize the benefit I get from the event, I’ve prepared notes that capture what I learned by attending. I’m sharing them in hopes that it might be interesting or...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 3
Marketing week? More like reliability week
a year ago
Marketing week? More like reliability week
High Signal
500,000 users per month after quitting his developer job
Today's interview is with Ruurtjan, a Dutch founder whose two sites get 500,000 users a month....
a year ago
Today's interview is with Ruurtjan, a Dutch founder whose two sites get 500,000 users a month. Ruurtjan quit his job to go all in on his business
Max Prilutskiy
How we're using email on a custom domain for $0/mo
Google has announced yet another price increase for Google Workspace. Here's what we've done to...
9 months ago
Google has announced yet another price increase for Google Workspace. Here's what we've done to avoid paying anything at all.
mtlynch.io
Rough Experiments with Llamafile and LLaVA 1.5
I read Simon Willison’s post about using Llamafile to experiment with open-source chatbots / LLMs....
a year ago
I read Simon Willison’s post about using Llamafile to experiment with open-source chatbots / LLMs. He made it sound so easy, so I decided to try it out.
One of my longtime hobby projects is WanderJest, a site for finding live comedy. One of the challenges of that site is that the...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 40
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...
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.
mtlynch.io
Experimenting with Lllama 3 via Ollama
I saw that Meta released the Llama 3 AI model, and people seem excited about it, so I decided to...
8 months ago
I saw that Meta released the Llama 3 AI model, and people seem excited about it, so I decided to give it a try.
I don’t have much experience running open-source AI models, and I didn’t see a lot of documentation about how to run them. I tinkered with it for a few hours and got...
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,...
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
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 21
I was young, and needed to ship...
3 months ago
I was young, and needed to ship...
Val Sopi
I'm done making
<p><em><strong>UPDATE:</strong> This post got such a great response that it inspired me to start...
over a year ago
<p><em><strong>UPDATE:</strong> This post got such a great response that it inspired me to start playing and building <a href="https://claritask.com">Claritask</a> while documenting it out in the open</em></p>
<p>—</p>
<p>I'm going to let you in on a great secret.</p>
<p>Do you...
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.
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Community Edition (Nov 2021)
Hey everyone 👋 Here’s a powerful quote to kick us off into the Thanksgiving week: “Gratitude...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Here’s a powerful quote to kick us off into the Thanksgiving week: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.” - Melody Beattie I’m grateful for many things this year including my son’s birth
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...
Grow With Less
64 Weak Words and Flabby Expressions That Clog up Your Writing
Weak words are everywhere.
Like ants invading your home in summer, they slip through the cracks and...
over a year ago
Weak words are everywhere.
Like ants invading your home in summer, they slip through the cracks and slowly distract your reader.
They turn fascinating ideas into never-ending articles people can’t wait to run away from.
Worse, they undermine you and make you sound...
Max Rozen
Managing your Node.js installation
If you're finding yourself manually installing different versions of Node, you need to know there's...
over a year ago
If you're finding yourself manually installing different versions of Node, you need to know there's a *much* better way.
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...
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.
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
Dominik Sobe's...
The Six Best Practices for launching on Product Hunt in 2021
over a year ago
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
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
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
Zestful: Month 5
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Zestful Month 5:...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Zestful Month 5: Launched, but Still No Customers
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 9
On cleaning up the shop.
a year ago
Tony Dinh's...
July 2023: $6K MRR – getting back on recurring revenue
small updates from me in July 2023
a year ago
small updates from me in July 2023
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
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...
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.
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!
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...
Build In Public...
Start here ⤵️
Hey everyone 👋 Welcome to the Build In Public Hub , a beginner-friendly newsletter to help you go...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Welcome to the Build In Public Hub , a beginner-friendly newsletter to help you go from zero to pro in the art of building in public. Curated & created with love ❤️ by The ‘Build In Public’ Guy → KP Starting Jan 2023, this newsletter will have a combination of:
Dominik Sobe's...
First, second, wait—third customer
over a year ago
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
TinyPilot: Build a KVM Over IP for Under $100
TinyPilot is my inexpensive, open-source device for controlling computers remotely. It works even...
over a year ago
TinyPilot is my inexpensive, open-source device for controlling computers remotely. It works even before the operating system boots, so I use TinyPilot to install new OSes and debug boot failures on my bare metal homelab servers.
This post details my experience creating TinyPilot...
👋 Hello, I'm...
Bootstrapping to €600k MRR and getting killed by Shopify. The story of Checkout X.
...
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...)
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Louis Pereira
Lessons from building AudioPen to 600+ paid users to clinching #1 on Product Hunt
a year ago
Lessons from building AudioPen to 600+ paid users to clinching #1 on Product Hunt
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...
Build In Public...
Build In Public: Spotlight Edition (Andrew Barry)
Hey everyone 👋 Hope you had a great week. In today’s edition, I wanted to feature Andrew Barry....
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Hope you had a great week. In today’s edition, I wanted to feature Andrew Barry. Andrew’s a friend/creator/former colleague that you may already be familiar with on Twitter. I’ve admired his work from afar and always enjoy conversing with him on topics of...
Build In Public...
Meet Turf
Imagine having a Swiss Army Knife for your community use cases
5 months ago
Imagine having a Swiss Army Knife for your community use cases
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...
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
Understanding Integration Testing in React
Moving from Enzyme to React Testing Library is rough. You can't do a lot of things you used to, and...
over a year ago
Moving from Enzyme to React Testing Library is rough. You can't do a lot of things you used to, and there are new best practices. Let's learn them!
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.
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...
Grow With Less
This 20-Minute On-Page SEO Checklist Could Save Your Rankings
What’s the worst thing that could happen to your blog?
For many bloggers, the answer is getting...
over a year ago
What’s the worst thing that could happen to your blog?
For many bloggers, the answer is getting blacklisted by Google and seeing all their organic traffic vanish overnight.
And a common way this happens is when Google realizes your blog is infected before you do and simply...
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
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...
mtlynch.io
How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human (Part One)
Lately, I’ve been reading articles about best practices for code reviews. I notice that these...
over a year ago
Lately, I’ve been reading articles about best practices for code reviews. I notice that these articles focus on finding bugs to the exclusion of almost every other component of a review. Communicating issues you discover in a constructive and professional way? Irrelevant! Just...
Tony Dinh's...
Late promotion update
Hi everyone!
2 weeks ago
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...
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....
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
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
Go Programming Blueprints by Mat Ryer
I’m a fan of Mat Ryer’s work, and his blog posts have had a significant impact on the way I program...
a year ago
I’m a fan of Mat Ryer’s work, and his blog posts have had a significant impact on the way I program in Go. I found the book hit or miss. Some chapters were fascinating and taught me valuable Go lessons, while others felt boring and got too bogged down in the minutiae of...
Tony Dinh's...
Another 6-figure exit, and the future
I sold Xnapper, here is a quick update about the acquisition details
9 months ago
I sold Xnapper, here is a quick update about the acquisition details
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!
Grow With Less
How to Overcome Information Overload and Make Real Progress with Your Business
Being a solopreneur is exhausting.
You wake up in the morning, check your emails and find dozens of...
over a year ago
Being a solopreneur is exhausting.
You wake up in the morning, check your emails and find dozens of new strategies waiting for you.
Double your subscribers with this new pop-up!
Use this little-known copywriting trick to get 32% more signups!
How this simple tool helped me get...
mtlynch.io
What I Learned About Upwork from a Bumbling Scammer
For years, I’ve hired freelancers through a site called Upwork. The site attracts many different...
over a year ago
For years, I’ve hired freelancers through a site called Upwork. The site attracts many different professionals, so I’ve used it to find everything from cartoonists to software developers to copy editors. Some were great, some were disastrous, but none of them had ever tried to...
mtlynch.io
My Fourth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Four years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own self-funded software...
over a year ago
Four years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own self-funded software company.
For the first few years, all of my businesses flopped. They all operated at a loss, and none of them earned more than a few hundred dollars per month in revenue.
Halfway through...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 1
On marketing, and shipping a CLI
a year ago
On marketing, and shipping a CLI
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...
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 😄
mtlynch.io
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
I had a mixed reaction to this book. Some of Ibram X. Kendi’s ideas felt novel and compelling. It...
over a year ago
I had a mixed reaction to this book. Some of Ibram X. Kendi’s ideas felt novel and compelling. It broadened my perspective in thinking about race. And there’s a lot of historical discussion of race and slavery that covered details I don’t remember from school. At the same time, I...
mtlynch.io
Strong Towns
I found it eye-opening in terms of understanding how municipal governments work in practice and how...
10 months ago
I found it eye-opening in terms of understanding how municipal governments work in practice and how perverse incentives lead to poor community outcomes. It had a huge impact on the way that I think about where to live and what policies I support in local government.
This book...
mtlynch.io
Running Sia on a Synology NAS via Docker
Overview Sia is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network for buying and selling computer storage space....
over a year ago
Overview Sia is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network for buying and selling computer storage space. If you have extra storage space, Sia allows you to sell it to others who want to store their files on the Sia cloud network.
Hosting a Sia server on your personal laptop or...
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?
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.
Val Sopi
blogstatic numbers for November
<p>Coming from <a href="https://valsopi.com/blogstatic-numbers-october-2022">October</a>, November...
over a year ago
<p>Coming from <a href="https://valsopi.com/blogstatic-numbers-october-2022">October</a>, November was again another solid month.<a href="https://valsopi.com/blogstatic-numbers-october-2022"></a></p>
<table><tbody><tr><td><b>blogstatic</b></td><td><b>October...
Tony Dinh's...
Apr 2023: I sold Black Magic
And other updates in April 2023
a year ago
And other updates in April 2023
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...
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.
Build In Public...
What's your north star while building in public? 🔭⭐️
Hey folks, Recently, I gave a workshop on “BUILDING IN PUBLIC” at On Deck and shared insights,...
over a year ago
Hey folks, Recently, I gave a workshop on “BUILDING IN PUBLIC” at On Deck and shared insights, lessons, war stories and essentially opened up all my playbooks on the topic. The talk seemed to have resonated deeply with many fellows and I was grateful and delighted. Some of them...
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.
High Signal
10 stoic quotes for entrepreneurs
Stoic quotes can be a great comfort to you, especially if you are an entrepreneur. Building a...
10 months ago
Stoic quotes can be a great comfort to you, especially if you are an entrepreneur. Building a business is hard work so it's important to build resilience. That's where stoicism comes in! Stoicism is not about being an emotion-less robot but more about not letting your
Max Rozen
How to write semantic HTML
Writing semantic HTML markup is one of the first steps to writing accessible websites. Let's learn...
over a year ago
Writing semantic HTML markup is one of the first steps to writing accessible websites. Let's learn how to get started!
mtlynch.io
A Beginner's Guide to Mining Siacoin
This guide is out of date.
This post describes mining Sia with a desktop graphics card (GPU), but...
over a year ago
This guide is out of date.
This post describes mining Sia with a desktop graphics card (GPU), but custom mining hardware is now available for Sia. The custom hardware has made Sia GPU mining non-viable. This guide will still work, but you may never reach payout, even with a...
mtlynch.io
Building a Homelab VM Server
Note: This article describes a VM build in 2017.
For the 2020 version, see, “Building a Homelab VM...
over a year ago
Note: This article describes a VM build in 2017.
For the 2020 version, see, “Building a Homelab VM Server (2020 Edition).”
Overview I do the bulk of my home development work in virtual machines (VMs). My main desktop PC is a Windows 10 machine, so I had always run my VMs from...
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...
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...
mtlynch.io
Building My First Homelab Server Rack
Seven years ago, I built my first home server. It made my software development work faster and more...
8 months ago
Seven years ago, I built my first home server. It made my software development work faster and more enjoyable, so I’ve gotten more into the home server scene. I built a custom storage server, another development server, and a dedicated firewall.
At some point, my wife gently...
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...
Val Sopi
The Waiting Room
<p>Growing up I was always told to work hard, wait my turn, and good things will...
7 months ago
<p>Growing up I was always told to work hard, wait my turn, and good things will happen.</p><p>However, I've been the most successful when I didn't wait.</p><p>The "waiting room" is the worst place to be in. </p><p>You're at the mercy of someone else letting you...
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...
I Have No Idea What...
6 pricing A/B tests I’ve run (and which ones worked)
How pricing experiments helped me reach $6,000 MRR
a year ago
How pricing experiments helped me reach $6,000 MRR
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...
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...
mtlynch.io
Hiring: Freelance Blog Illustrator
I’m a blogger, and I often commission custom illustrations for my blog posts like this one:
An...
7 months ago
I’m a blogger, and I often commission custom illustrations for my blog posts like this one:
An example of an illustration I commissioned for the blog, part of my year-in-review series
The blog’s previous illustrator was the awesome Loraine Yow, who worked with me for six years....
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...
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
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...
High Signal
$200k from selling Google Sheets tutorials
Andrew Kamphey is a creator who has made $200k from teaching people how to use Google Sheets over...
a year ago
Andrew Kamphey is a creator who has made $200k from teaching people how to use Google Sheets over the past three years. Think 'Miss Excel' but he's a beardy guy who doesn't dance in his videos. In this interview Andrew shares his marketing wins,
Max Rozen
Examples of large production-grade, open-source React apps
All of the to-do apps are great for starting to learn React, but what about real-life? Let's see...
over a year ago
All of the to-do apps are great for starting to learn React, but what about real-life? Let's see what real production React apps are like.
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...
mtlynch.io
Why does a extraneous build step make my Zig app 10x faster?
For the past few months, I’ve been curious about two technologies: the Zig programming language and...
9 months ago
For the past few months, I’ve been curious about two technologies: the Zig programming language and Ethereum cryptocurrency. To learn more about both, I’ve been using Zig to write a bytecode interpreter for the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Zig is a great language for performance...
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
OnlineOrNot Diaries 20
Dipping my toe in enterprise sales
8 months ago
Dipping my toe in enterprise sales
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 4
Highlights TinyPilot hit $10k in revenue. That’s a record high for me and exceeds my total revenue...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot hit $10k in revenue. That’s a record high for me and exceeds my total revenue for all of 2019. I interviewed several IT consultants and business owners about what TinyPilot features would be useful to them. I tested several new marketing channels and realized...
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.
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...
Val Sopi
Focusing on progress, not the goal
<p><span style="font-size: 21px;">Rion, my 11-year-old son, plays tennis.</span></p><p>He first set...
a year ago
<p><span style="font-size: 21px;">Rion, my 11-year-old son, plays tennis.</span></p><p>He first set foot on a tennis court when he was 18 months or so. His cousin was practicing back then, so he would tag along with his aunt to the tennis courts.</p><figure class="none"><img...
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...
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
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...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part Three - Rehabilitation
I love refactoring. Nothing satisfies me more than untangling spaghetti code to reveal its...
over a year ago
I love refactoring. Nothing satisfies me more than untangling spaghetti code to reveal its underlying logic in a clear, intuitive way.
I’ve learned that refactoring requires diligence. In my younger and more reckless days, I would rush into a legacy codebase and tear apart the...
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...
Val Sopi
Going steady
<p>blogstatic has been going well. Better than any other app I've ever ran. Not sure what it is....
over a year ago
<p>blogstatic has been going well. Better than any other app I've ever ran. Not sure what it is. Could be that my experience over the years has caused for me to cover all the usual pitfalls, so everything looks good to the new client: from the marketing website all the way to the...
Scott DeLong
AI-Integrated Search: The Latest Way Big Tech Is Stealing From And Crushing Small Businesses
It's Big Tech's latest way to steal the hard work of publishers, and there's nothing you can do...
a year ago
It's Big Tech's latest way to steal the hard work of publishers, and there's nothing you can do about it except adapt.
The post AI-Integrated Search: The Latest Way Big Tech Is Stealing From And Crushing Small Businesses appeared first on Scott DeLong.
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
Failed Attempts to Install NixOS on the Raspberry Pi 4
In creating the tutorial, “Installing NixOS on Raspberry Pi 4,” I ran into a ton of paths that...
a year ago
In creating the tutorial, “Installing NixOS on Raspberry Pi 4,” I ran into a ton of paths that didn’t work.
I’ve collected them here for the sake of saving others time retrying the same steps.
The standard NixOS aarch64 image doesn’t work When I checked the NixOS download page, I...
Val Sopi
Quitting is for the naive
<p>Pop culture glorifies quitting. I have done it. There's nothing glorious about it. Having your...
over a year ago
<p>Pop culture glorifies quitting. I have done it. There's nothing glorious about it. Having your savings dwindle fast is no fun. Time is relative. You have no idea how fast it flies when you need it the most. Especially when you have no contacts in the industry nor an audience....
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...
Build In Public...
Building In Public 101
Here's a crash course on the rising trend of building in public
a year ago
Here's a crash course on the rising trend of building in public
Val Sopi
Get Lucky
<iframe src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/eb7cbb63" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0"...
over a year ago
<iframe src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/eb7cbb63" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" seamless="true" style="width:100%; height:180px;"></iframe>
<p>In the past year or so, I’ve been thinking about Luck a lot — in terms of how a chain of random events can...
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 to implement a Higher-order component in React with TypeScript
You probably know how to implement a HoC, but do you know how to write types for one?
over a year ago
You probably know how to implement a HoC, but do you know how to write types for one?
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 34
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...
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...
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
Is It Keto: Month 7
Highlights Is It Keto’s visits reached a record high of 11k pageviews. Revenues reached a record...
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s visits reached a record high of 11k pageviews. Revenues reached a record high of $40.84 in affiliate income. Despite this, Is It Keto didn’t satisfy its critical goals, so I’m putting it on the backburner. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I laid out...
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...
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...
mtlynch.io
Deep Work by Cal Newport
This was my favorite book of 2018. It profoundly impacted the way I approach my work and organize my...
over a year ago
This was my favorite book of 2018. It profoundly impacted the way I approach my work and organize my time. After reading it, I find it easier to maintain concentration and to prioritize important tasks. It was also the final push I needed to un-addict myself from social media.
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...
Dominik Sobe's...
Just crossed 10 paying customers
over a year ago
Grow With Less
Journorequest, Snowmaker and 20 other Link Building Strategies That Work Great in 2022
Creating awesome content is not enough.
If you want traffic, you need to build high-quality...
over a year ago
Creating awesome content is not enough.
If you want traffic, you need to build high-quality backlinks. But how do you do that?
There are hundreds of articles listing the best link building strategies but the reality is that you don’t need 100 strategies that make you feel pushy...
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...
High Signal
Making $10k a month from a French learning app
Most founders dream of making $10,000 in monthly revenue. One founder who has made that dream a...
a year ago
Most founders dream of making $10,000 in monthly revenue. One founder who has made that dream a reality is Benjamin Houy
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.
Dominik Sobe's...
What a roller coaster ride
over a year ago
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
How to Republish or Adapt this Content
All original writing and images on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0...
11 months ago
All original writing and images on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
That means you can republish the content or adapt it as long as you honor the license.
What you’re allowed to do Republish the content in any medium or...
mtlynch.io
Import from a URL in Nix
I’m still a Nix beginner, and one thing I couldn’t figure out until recently was how to keep parts...
a year ago
I’m still a Nix beginner, and one thing I couldn’t figure out until recently was how to keep parts of my configuration.nix file under source control.
My goal I’d like for my Nix configuration files to be modular and reusable, so depending on the system or flake, I can pull in...
Max Rozen
Starting a Cloudflare Worker from scratch
We don't need no fancy tooling!
a year ago
We don't need no fancy tooling!
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.
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
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
Stripe is Silently Recording Your Movements On its Customers' Websites
Among startups and tech companies, Stripe seems to be the near-universal favorite for payment...
over a year ago
Among startups and tech companies, Stripe seems to be the near-universal favorite for payment processing. When I needed paid subscription functionality for my new web app, Stripe felt like the natural choice. After integration, however, I discovered that Stripe’s official...
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 17
Highlights TinyPilot’s sales jumped to $57k, and it might be sustainable. I’m just about to launch...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot’s sales jumped to $57k, and it might be sustainable. I’m just about to launch TinyPilot’s new product and branding. I reduced Google Cloud Platform fees by 90% on my side projects. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
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...
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...
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.
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...
Val Sopi
What it's like to make and launch a product, for me.
<p>I've been making Saas products since 2013. My very first product was a project management tool...
over a year ago
<p>I've been making Saas products since 2013. My very first product was a project management tool that included invoicing, time-tracking, and a plethora of other functions.</p>
<p>The idea was to be better than others at cheaper prices. Whatever "better" and "cheaper"...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Noah Bragg
Lessons from building and growing Potion to its acquisition all in public
a year ago
Lessons from building and growing Potion to its acquisition all in public
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.
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...
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...
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.
Dominik Sobe's...
Travel hard, work harder or: on being a digital nomad
a year ago
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 25
Highlights My blog post about redesigning the TinyPilot website became my second most popular...
over a year ago
Highlights My blog post about redesigning the TinyPilot website became my second most popular article of all time I’m exploring ways to preserve more knowledge on my blog I’ve lowered TinyPilot’s prices in an effort to reduce inventory Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
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.
Tony Dinh's...
My entire marketing strategy (+ December 2021 updates)
Hello everyone! This is Tony 👋 Hello Hacker News! For context, this post is the latest issue of my...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! This is Tony 👋 Hello Hacker News! For context, this post is the latest issue of my monthly newsletter where I share the progress building BlackMagic.so & DevUtils.app. Check my previous issues to see more details about the products and my journey. Cheers!
Build In Public...
Build In Public: Spotlight Edition (Nate Washington)
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week,...
over a year ago
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week, I interview one prolific creator or founder and unpack insights, strategies, and actionable advice from their story that can be helpful in your own journey.
mtlynch.io
The Making of Prince of Persia by Jordan Mechner
This book follows the author of the hit 90s computer game Prince of Persia through the game’s...
over a year ago
This book follows the author of the hit 90s computer game Prince of Persia through the game’s development, release, and several years after. The book consists of diary entries that author Jordan Mechner wrote during that time, with margin notes and accompanying photos and...
Max Rozen
Fetching Data in React with useEffect
If you're confused about side-effects and pure functions, it can be hard to understand useEffect....
over a year ago
If you're confused about side-effects and pure functions, it can be hard to understand useEffect. Let's learn them both, to fetch data with useEffect.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 8
Highlights TinyPilots revenues dropped for the first time in six months. TinyPilot finished the...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilots revenues dropped for the first time in six months. TinyPilot finished the month with $33k in revenue, a 21% drop from January. One of the critical TinyPilot parts I need suddenly disappeared from vendors. Delegating work to others is paradoxically leaving me...
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...
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...
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 45
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
8 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 $80-110k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Max Rozen
Guidelines for Deploying React
These days there are a heck of a lot of options for deploying React. It can be a bit overwhelming....
over a year ago
These days there are a heck of a lot of options for deploying React. It can be a bit overwhelming. This article simplifies your choices.
👋 Hello, I'm...
The real reasons why your boss wants you back in the office
a year ago
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.
mtlynch.io
ArchiveBox is Super Cool
Have you ever used archive.org’s Internet Wayback Machine? It’s a free tool that’s been archiving...
11 months ago
Have you ever used archive.org’s Internet Wayback Machine? It’s a free tool that’s been archiving the web since 1996. So, if you want to see what Google looked like in 1999, they’ve got it.
Internet Archive capture of Google from April 22, 1999
ArchiveBox is like your own,...
Val Sopi
The downsides of building in public
<p>I first started "building in public" back in 2017.</p>
<p>Not sure if the term existed back...
a year ago
<p>I first started "building in public" back in 2017.</p>
<p>Not sure if the term existed back then, but I started talking about my newest product at the time (Claritask), which I ended up <a href="https://bootstrapping-saas.transistor.fm/episodes/claritask-sold"...
mtlynch.io
Aardvark'd: The Fog Creek Documentary, 18 Years Later
In 2005, Joel Spolsky’s software company, Fog Creek, filmed a documentary about their summer...
a year ago
In 2005, Joel Spolsky’s software company, Fog Creek, filmed a documentary about their summer internship program. The film is called Aardvark’d: 12 Weeks with Geeks, and it follows four college interns as they design, implement, and launch a completely new software product.
That’s...
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
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...
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...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Khe Hy
Lessons from building RadReads and helping over 40,000 professionals in public
a year ago
Lessons from building RadReads and helping over 40,000 professionals in public
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...
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 -...
Max Rozen
A Guide to Commonly Used React Component Libraries
There are a *lot* of React Component libraries to choose from. This guide attempts to put them all...
over a year ago
There are a *lot* of React Component libraries to choose from. This guide attempts to put them all on one page.
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...
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...
Dominik Sobe's...
Next Milestone: HelpKit hit $2000 MRR
over a year ago
mtlynch.io
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Nonviolent Communication describes a communication style centered around sharing vulnerability and...
over a year ago
Nonviolent Communication describes a communication style centered around sharing vulnerability and offering empathy. One of its biggest strengths is in how it highlights common patterns of lazy communication that exclude personal feelings or critical thinking. I also found its...
Tony Dinh's...
Get SOC 2 certified as an indie hacker
All the details about the process and the cost of getting SOC 2
4 months ago
All the details about the process and the cost of getting SOC 2
High Signal
Productized service businesses - the ultimate guide
Productized services are growing rapidly in popularity. For founders, they offer a way to make a six...
a year ago
Productized services are growing rapidly in popularity. For founders, they offer a way to make a six figure salary relatively quickly. For companies, it means paying top talent without the downsides of hiring an employee like paying for a recruiter, paying extra taxes etc.
...
mtlynch.io
Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra
Overall, this was an interesting read, but I found it hard to apply the lessons to my product. The...
over a year ago
Overall, this was an interesting read, but I found it hard to apply the lessons to my product. The book contains compelling case studies and ideas from the field of meta-learning, but most of the ideas were either too theoretical or too specific to large companies.
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
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...
mtlynch.io
Fixing Memory Exhaustion Bugs in My Golang Web App
Earlier this year, I created an open-source app called PicoShare. It’s a simple Golang web app for...
over a year ago
Earlier this year, I created an open-source app called PicoShare. It’s a simple Golang web app for sharing files. I use it to send files that are too large to be email attachments, but I don’t want the recipient to deal with Dropbox or Google Drive.
A few months ago, I started...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Joshua Xu
Lessons from building HeyGen from 0 to $1m ARR in 7 months
a year ago
Lessons from building HeyGen from 0 to $1m ARR in 7 months
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
Grow With Less
The Best Way to Come up with Catchy Blog Post Titles
Copywriting legend David Ogilvy once said that “on the average, five times as many people read the...
over a year ago
Copywriting legend David Ogilvy once said that “on the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
That’s great news because it means a great blog post title has...
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
Automated Prosper Investing with ProsperBot
Overview I started investing in peer to peer lending in 2014 through a site called Prosper. I...
over a year ago
Overview I started investing in peer to peer lending in 2014 through a site called Prosper. I thought peer to peer lending was a neat idea and could potentially earn lucrative returns.
When I began, I chose each of my loan investments manually, but over time, I have automated...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 13
I tried building a monolith.
a year ago
I tried building a monolith.
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
mtlynch.io
Massachusetts Residents Can Sue Online Merchants for Spam
Last week, I saw an interesting article on the /r/legaladvice subreddit. An e-commerce business...
2 months ago
Last week, I saw an interesting article on the /r/legaladvice subreddit. An e-commerce business owner was complaining that a customer was suing because the merchant had been sending the customer promotional emails for years that the customer never agreed to. The author deleted...
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....
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
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...
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
TinyPilot: Month 20
Highlights I hired TinyPilot’s first support engineer. I learned that hiring a support engineer is...
over a year ago
Highlights I hired TinyPilot’s first support engineer. I learned that hiring a support engineer is even harder than I expected. I’m evaluating platforms for paying international contractors. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how...
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
WanderJest: Month 1
Highlights Three businesses agreed to form affiliate partnerships with WanderJest. Two of my blog...
over a year ago
Highlights Three businesses agreed to form affiliate partnerships with WanderJest. Two of my blog posts reached the front page of Hacker News. Is It Keto earned its all-time-highest monthly revenue, doubling its previous record. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare...
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
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...
mtlynch.io
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The book contains many interesting examples of common biases and logical fallacies, but it’s buried...
over a year ago
The book contains many interesting examples of common biases and logical fallacies, but it’s buried in a lot of bluster and fluff about how smart the author is. While it was likely groundbreaking when it was published in 2004, its ideas have since permeated into the mainstream....
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...
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...
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
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 14
Back to regular programming.
a year ago
Back to regular programming.
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...
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...
Max Rozen
How to resolve 'X defined in resolvers, but not in schema' with babel-plugin-inline-import
Showing how to resolve the dreaded 'Query.X defined in resolvers, but not in schema' issue when your...
over a year ago
Showing how to resolve the dreaded 'Query.X defined in resolvers, but not in schema' issue when your X is **definitely** defined in both
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
Build In Public...
How Twitter helped me with the 1st ever BUILD IN PUBLIC NFT 💎
Happy Friday everyone, Below is the story of: how I found an artist to collaborate and mint my 1st...
over a year ago
Happy Friday everyone, Below is the story of: how I found an artist to collaborate and mint my 1st ever NFT project on the theme of “build in public” how it all came together on Twitter DMs how we plan to auction/sell it to a thoughtful buyer how we intend to donate all the...
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
Tony Dinh's...
Jun 2022 updates, $100K ARR, reflections, and a screenshot app!
Hello everyone 👋 It’s Tony again with another monthly update! 😄Thanks for reading Tony Dinh’s...
over a year ago
Hello everyone 👋 It’s Tony again with another monthly update! 😄Thanks for reading Tony Dinh’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Phu Yen Province, Vietnam Welcome 313 new subscribers since my last issue! 👋 If you are new here: My name is...
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...
Build In Public...
Build In Public: Spotlight Edition (Prakash Chandran) ⭐️
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week,...
over a year ago
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week, I interview one prolific creator or founder and unpack insights and actionable advice from their story that can be helpful in your own journey. In today’s edition, I wanted to...
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...
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...
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
What Got Done - Month 2
Highlights What Got Done received 32 new user sign-ups (growth of about 5x since May) Zestful may be...
over a year ago
Highlights What Got Done received 32 new user sign-ups (growth of about 5x since May) Zestful may be rising from the dead, with four new inbound customer inquiries. Is It Keto earned $184, and Zestful earned $26, making it my highest revenue month since quitting my job. Goal...
High Signal
Starting a successful business at 50 - Devan shares his tips
Ever thought if 50 is too old to start your own business? Devan is proof it's not. He was 50 when he...
a year ago
Ever thought if 50 is too old to start your own business? Devan is proof it's not. He was 50 when he created his startup and at 56 years old, he has made a million-dollar business!
Can you tell us about HR Partner and your achievements?
HR Partner
Dominik Sobe's...
The reason I got hooked on being an Indiehacker
a year ago
mtlynch.io
Recovery Month
Highlights Is It Keto’s revenue doubled to $82.44 with zero effort on my part. My task journaling...
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s revenue doubled to $82.44 with zero effort on my part. My task journaling app is almost ready for publication. I’ve begun setting up meetings with potential customers about my next project ideas. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I gave up on Is It...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 28
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...
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!
Tony Dinh's...
My solopreneur story: zero to $45K/mo in 2 years
Today is exactly 2 years since I quit my job and become a full-time indie hacker.
a year ago
Today is exactly 2 years since I quit my job and become a full-time indie hacker.
Dominik Sobe's...
You want everything at once – me too
11 months ago
Build In Public...
Your New Brainstorming Buddy 🧠💡
Meet Scrintal, a new canvas that's like a playground for your mind.
2 months ago
Meet Scrintal, a new canvas that's like a playground for your mind.
mtlynch.io
My First Impressions of Nix
Nix is a tool for configuring software environments according to source files. I’ve been hearing...
a year ago
Nix is a tool for configuring software environments according to source files. I’ve been hearing more and more about Nix on Hacker News and Twitter. The idea of it appeals to me, so I’ve been tinkering with it over the past few weeks.
My history with infrastructure as code Ten...
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...
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...
Dominik Sobe's...
Lessons from a “failed” Product Hunt launch
over a year ago
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
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
My Eight-Year Quest to Digitize 45 Videotapes (Part Two)
In part one, I described my arduous journey to capture my old home movies in digital format and...
over a year ago
In part one, I described my arduous journey to capture my old home movies in digital format and divide them into individual scenes. After processing all the clips, I wanted the experience of exploring them to be as simple as looking up clips on YouTube. Because these videos are...
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...
mtlynch.io
Building a Budget Homelab NAS Server (2022 Edition)
This year, I decided to build my first ever home storage server. It’s a 32 TB system that stores my...
over a year ago
This year, I decided to build my first ever home storage server. It’s a 32 TB system that stores my personal and business data using open-source software.
The server itself cost $531, and I bought four disks for $732, bringing the total cost to $1,263. It’s similar in price to...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 33
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
TinyPilot: Month 26
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...
Grow With Less
Here Is What a Disappointing Experiment Taught Me About Headline A/B Testing
After reading about the huge conversion boosts many bloggers got after A/B testing their headlines,...
over a year ago
After reading about the huge conversion boosts many bloggers got after A/B testing their headlines, I assumed A/B testing the headlines of 73 articles I have published on my language learning blog French Together would be a no brainer.
I could already picture myself writing a...
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....
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...
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.
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*.
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
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.
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.
Grow With Less
Statistics That Prove Blogging Is Not Dead Yet
Is blogging dead?
That’s a question thousands of people ask every day.
I was curious to know the...
over a year ago
Is blogging dead?
That’s a question thousands of people ask every day.
I was curious to know the answer so I looked for statistics
Let’s settle the debate once and for all!
Is blogging dead? Let’s look at trends! According to Google Trends, “blogging” peaked between 2004 and...
Build In Public...
🚨 Announcement Alert 🚨 I'm dropping a mega Twitter resource on BUILD IN PUBLIC
Hey everyone, Some of you know my story but if I have to summarize the last 3 years in 10 bullets of...
over a year ago
Hey everyone, Some of you know my story but if I have to summarize the last 3 years in 10 bullets of inflection points, here’s how it would look like: Jan 2018, I was a nobody in startups, stuck in a dead-end corporate job due to visa challenges Oct 2018, read a book called...
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...
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...
Grow With Less
How to Write a SEO Title Google and Your Visitors Love
Writing a SEO title (also called page title or Google title) is considered difficult because you are...
over a year ago
Writing a SEO title (also called page title or Google title) is considered difficult because you are writing for 3 main audiences.
Visitors coming from search engines.
Search engines.
Visitors from social media.
And writing a SEO title that ranks high on Google and gets shared on...
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
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
GUIs are Antisocial
Last week, I was listening to the CoRecursive podcast interview with PowerShell’s lead architect,...
5 months ago
Last week, I was listening to the CoRecursive podcast interview with PowerShell’s lead architect, Jeffrey Snover.
One moment in that interview has been stuck in my head the whole week is when Snover argues that graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are inherently “antisocial”:
I...
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 1
Highlights This is my highest revenue month ever, at $9.8k across all of my projects. Tiny Pilot had...
over a year ago
Highlights This is my highest revenue month ever, at $9.8k across all of my projects. Tiny Pilot had the biggest first month of anything I’ve ever launched, at 52 sales and $8.7k in revenue. The sudden surge in customers also made it one of my highest-stress months since going...
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...
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