February 2024: $5K revenue, upcoming interview with Starter Story
Also in this issue: why I introduced new pricing plan, and my experience listing CompressX on SaaS directories
Hi, everyone 👋 It’s Hieu again 😸
Let’s kick off this issue with a small celebration: CompressX has hit $5K in total revenue. It took two challenging months to achieve this milestone, thanks to tireless effort and dedication. It’s a step towards the larger goals we're setting for CompressX's future.
New pricing plans
Early this month, I rolled out a new pricing plan for CompressX. The Personal plan, priced at $19, grants access to all features on a single device. Meanwhile, the Standard plan, starting at $29, extends app usage to two devices. The intention behind this pricing structure was to encourage more people to opt for the Standard plan, offering a cost-effective solution for individuals with two devices (myself included) by saving 50%. However, the outcome differed from my expectations. In February, only 15% of the total licenses sold by CompressX were for the Standard plan.
By updating the pricing, I wanted to fix a problem we had with CompressX: no way to control who uses the app. Before, anyone could share the app with others, and I wouldn't know. Now, to continue using the app, users must activate it with a license key upon purchase. This helps me keep track of who's using the app and stops it from being shared with just anyone.
Listing on SaaS directories
This month, I experimented with listing CompressX on a few SaaS directories to see if these platforms could drive more traffic to the site. Here is a summary of the visitor traffic from each directory and the associated costs:
alternativeto.net: 74 visitors - free
reddit.com: 62 visitors - 5 licenses for giveaways
allonce.co: 17 visitors - free
indieappsales.com: 7 visitors - discount code
makerpeak.com: 6 visitors - $5.99
1payments.tools: 6 visitors - free
1000.tools: 5 visitors - $5.99
primeindies.com: 5 visitors - free
indietool.io: 2 visitors - free
Unfortunately, I’m unable to track the conversion rate of each source. Based on these results, I plan to discontinue investing in directories with low performance and seek out higher-traffic directories for listing CompressX. Additionally, I invested $99 to hire a freelancer to list CompressX on 179 different startup directories. While the immediate impact of this investment is unclear, I am hopeful it will yield some backlinks to improve SEO. Understanding that SEO is a long-term endeavor, that doesn't show immediate results, I'm eager to learn more about it. My knowledge in SEO is quite limited, so any insights or experiences you could share in the comments below would be immensely valuable.
Revenue and expenses
In Feb, my expenses were quite significant, totaling $190.98, which is nearly 13% of the revenue. Despite this, CompressX maintained a substantial margin, with a net profit of $1,205.58. Here's a breakdown of the costs and earnings:
1000.tools: $5.99
MakerPeak: $5.99
Freelancer fee: $99
Lemon Squeezy Email Marketing: $60
Vercel: $20
Revenue: $1,575.08
Payouts: $1,396.56
Net profit: $1,205.58
Considering the high expenditure this month, I'm looking into ways to reduce costs. A significant fixed monthly expense is the Lemon Squeezy Email Marketing plan, which caters to over 5,000 subscribers across all my products. This large subscriber base primarily stems from the period when CompressX was offered for free. However, the actual number of daily/monthly active users is considerably lower. To lower the email marketing costs, I plan to remove these inactive subscribers from the list.
I believe that investing strategically in advertising or marketing could significantly boost traffic and sales. Therefore, I plan to allocate my budget wisely this month. If you have any recommendations on effective marketing channels or strategies I should explore, I'd greatly appreciate your input.
Interview with Starter Story
Following my application to Starter Story, I've been approached for a feature interview. The interview process is conducted in written form; I received a set of questions to respond to. Currently, my responses are under review. Stay alert, and I'll provide the latest updates in next month's newsletter.
👋 That's all for now
March into a fantastic month ahead!
— Hieu