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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
51
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
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
67
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...
Grow With Less
4 Simple Strategies I Use to Never Run out of Article Ideas Want to know a secret? I never run out of article ideas. In fact, my main struggle is usually...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
Want to know a secret? I never run out of article ideas. In fact, my main struggle is usually choosing between a myriad of topics I would love to write about. You may think it’s because I’m very creative but the simple truth is that I simply use 4 simple strategies that guarantee...
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
49
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...
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
51
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...
Grow With Less
Minimalist Seo: How to Save Time and Ditch the Overwhelm What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best...
over a year ago
51
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...
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
46
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
Is It Keto: Month 6 Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits plateaued in February, but that still represents progress....
over a year ago
66
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...
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
82
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
My First Year as a Solo Developer On February 1st, 2018, I quit my job as a software engineer at Google to start my own single-person...
over a year ago
80
over a year ago
On February 1st, 2018, I quit my job as a software engineer at Google to start my own single-person software company. It’s exactly one year later, so it feels like an apt time to reflect on how that decision affected my finances, lifestyle, and happiness. How I made and spent...
Grow With Less
The Best Headline A/B Testing Tools (And Why You May Not Want to Use Them) What if you could bring 28% more visitors to your blog and get 75% more shares just by rewriting...
over a year ago
47
over a year ago
What if you could bring 28% more visitors to your blog and get 75% more shares just by rewriting your blog post titles? That’s exactly what content marketing agency Priceonomics did. And today, I would like to show you how you can do it too by reviewing the main AB testing...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 4 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Is It Keto Month 4: My...
over a year ago
74
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Is It Keto Month 4: My First Dollar of Revenue
Max Rozen
The books I read in 2018 A list of books I read in 2018
over a year ago
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
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
76
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
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
76
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
Is It Keto: Month 3 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Is It Keto Month 3:...
over a year ago
88
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Is It Keto Month 3: Returning to a Site that Grew without Me
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
103
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...
mtlynch.io
Why Good Developers Write Bad Unit Tests Congratulations! You’ve finally written so many lines of code that you can afford a beach house. You...
over a year ago
93
over a year ago
Congratulations! You’ve finally written so many lines of code that you can afford a beach house. You hire Peter Keating, an architect world-famous for his skyscrapers, who assures you that he has brilliant plans for your beachfront property. Months later, you arrive at the grand...
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
48
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...
Grow With Less
Journorequest: The Little-Known Twitter Hashtag That Will Help You Get Quality Backlinks If you have ever tried to do outreach to build backlinks, you know how frustrating the process can...
over a year ago
44
over a year ago
If you have ever tried to do outreach to build backlinks, you know how frustrating the process can be. You spend hours looking for the right people to reach out to, crafting your outreach emails and finally send them, already picturing yourself receiving a ton of quality...
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
78
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
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
75
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....
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
112
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
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
76
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...
Max Rozen
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 3 - Let's build a GraphQL... Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 3 - Let's build a GraphQL...
over a year ago
Max Rozen
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 2 - Deploying to a real... Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 2 - Let's get this running...
over a year ago
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
mtlynch.io
Zestful: Month 5 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 5:...
over a year ago
73
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 5: Launched, but Still No Customers
mtlynch.io
Happy City by Charles Montgomery Given how much urban design affects our lives, it’s surprising how little we think about and...
over a year ago
78
over a year ago
Given how much urban design affects our lives, it’s surprising how little we think about and participate in it. This book was eye-opening in terms of the way I look at cities and how its inhabitants interact with them. I took for granted the idea that cities should be friendly to...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part Two - Stabilization In this post, I demonstrate how to retrofit automated tests onto an untested legacy library. This is...
over a year ago
74
over a year ago
In this post, I demonstrate how to retrofit automated tests onto an untested legacy library. This is part two of a three-part series about how I resurrected ingredient-phrase-tagger, a library that uses machine learning to parse cooking ingredients (e.g., “2 cups milk”) into...
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
62
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...
mtlynch.io
Zestful: Month 4 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 4:...
over a year ago
101
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 4: Shipping Too Late
Max Rozen
How to handle server-side rendering in React Getting server-side rendering to work in React is quite a hassle if you don't know what you're...
over a year ago
43
over a year ago
Getting server-side rendering to work in React is quite a hassle if you don't know what you're doing. Let's make it easier.
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
83
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
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
66
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
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
69
over a year ago
For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present. Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that. The first two years Two years in, I loved Google. When the annual...
mtlynch.io
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
58
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....
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
64
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...
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
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
mtlynch.io
The Perils of Outsourcing Your MVP A few months ago, I had a brilliant idea for a website. Then, I had an even brillianter idea: build...
over a year ago
79
over a year ago
A few months ago, I had a brilliant idea for a website. Then, I had an even brillianter idea: build the website, but outsource all the work. Every great website starts with an MVP: the minimum viable product. It demonstrates the idea in its simplest form to test whether anyone is...
mtlynch.io
KetoHub: Month 2 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: KetoHub Month 2
over a year ago
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
75
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
How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human (Part Two) This is the second half of my article about how to communicate well and avoid pitfalls in code...
over a year ago
71
over a year ago
This is the second half of my article about how to communicate well and avoid pitfalls in code reviews. Here, I focus on techniques to bring your code review to a successful close while avoiding ugly conflict. I laid the groundwork in Part One, so I recommend starting there. If...
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
64
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...
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
46
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...
mtlynch.io
Create Your Own Low-Cost Cloud Storage App with Sia and Nextcloud In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to set up your own cloud storage web app, similar to...
over a year ago
62
over a year ago
In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to set up your own cloud storage web app, similar to Dropbox or Google Drive, but with substantially lower costs. This solution provides cloud storage at ~$0.60 per TB/month. By comparison, the same storage would cost $8.25 per month on...
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
87
over a year ago
A year in blogging I started this blog in May of last year. I don’t mean to brag, but by last April, after less than a year of blogging, I was pulling in upwards of 20 visitors per day, several of whom were not spam bots. That number reached as high as 50 visitors on days when I...
mtlynch.io
GreenPiThumb: A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot Introduction This is the story of GreenPiThumb: a gardening bot that automatically waters...
over a year ago
66
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...