April 2024 - Coding, Marketing, and Travels
Highlights from a busy month including user-driven feature additions, a successful Hacker News post, financial breakdown, and marketing insights
It's been a hectic month, including about five flights, and it looks like the next one will be just as busy. Still, I wanted to share a quick update with you all.
🚀 Shipping in April
In April, I worked on several user-requested features & bug fixes. Major requests included: WebP support, compression history, support for the H.265 codec, and an opt-out for anonymous analytics.
I appreciated working on these tasks because they were what my users needed. This brought more satisfaction compared to working on something that's based on my assumptions.
I'm also in the process of adding free tools to the CompressX landing page. So far, three tools have been added, and more are on the way.
🗞️ Hacker News Highlight
On the 10th of April, I shared CompressX’s story on Hacker News. Despite the platform's reputation for harsh criticism, I decided to go ahead. What was there to lose?
To my surprise, the post performed quite well. Not only did it spark many comments and incite interesting discussions about the app, but one debate in particular focused on the visual differences of software across various platforms: macOS, Windows, and Electron.
Remarkably, the post also drove around $1,000 in sales for that week.
🤑 April Stats & Financial
This month, my analytics usage went up which led to higher costs with Vercel and Telemetry Deck as I needed to upgrade my plans.
I also bought a new domain, mov2mp4.com, which links back to compressx.app.
As for GitHub Copilot, I found it wasn't useful in my Xcode coding sessions, so I stopped using it. It didn't speed up my work, also the Copilot for Xcode didn't work well. Therefore, I decided to put it aside. Currently, TypingMind is my go-to coding assistant.
Operating Costs:
Vercel: $34
TelemetryDeck: €19
Domain: $10.46
GitHub Copilot: $10
SalesPopup: $29
Revenue: $2,682.34
Payouts: $2,366.38
Net Revenue: $2,259.08
📚 Continue to learn marketing
A couple of weeks ago, I had a consultation with Ilias Ism. He walked me through an audit of compressx.app, offering insights on possible improvements to attract more visitors. This brief call was extremely valuable, especially his sharing of SEO expertise.
Following the session, I drew up a clear plan to upgrade compressx.app. To boost traffic and improve visibility on Google Search, I've created and added new free tools to my landing page. Big-time indie hackers like Tibo for Typeframes, Dan Kulkov for FounderPal, and Tim for Pally have had success with similar approaches.
I've also signed up for FounderPal to discover more marketing strategies. My focus should shift towards serious marketing study instead of aimless exploration without action.
Sure, marketing is tough, but it's also an exciting ride, let’s conquer this together 💪
🎉 Affiliate Sales Success
My affiliate program has started yielding results. My first affiliated sale came via Toolfolio, a SaaS directory. As of today, 14 partners have joined my affiliate program, leading to 6 sales.
The journey from visitor to paid customer is quite challenging, and even harder through affiliate partners. Perhaps the landing page is lacking the necessary appeal, or it's not effectively demonstrating the product's value to visitors. Nevertheless, what I can do, and will continue doing, is making improvements and experimenting with new strategies.
🏝️Travelling highlight
I took a brief trip to Kuala Lumpur later in the month. Being rather familiar with the city due to its cultural and culinary similarities to Singapore (my current base), it felt like a home away from home...but at a lower cost! But you know what? - the nasi lemak tasted even better than I expected.
What surprised me was the new requirement of a $50 visa fee for each entry into the country. (Does anyone else have the same issue?)
And did I mention how incredibly delicious the nasi lemak was?
👋 That’s all for April
Subscribe for more updates, and let's continue to grow together!
— Hieu