January 2024 Highlights: Celebrating $3000 in Revenue, Exciting New Features Unveiled & More!
January 2024 Highlights: Celebrating $3000 in Revenue, Exciting New Features Unveiled & More!
Hello everyone! It's Hieu again with my monthly updates.
Business updates
In January, my primary focus was on CompressX, which continues into February.
Product Hunt Launch
On January 4th, I launched CompressX on Product Hunt, where it achieved the 🥈#2 Product of the Day.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported the launch! 💛
I've compiled a report detailing my launch process, including preparation strategies and how to build an audience for support. You can access it here.
This wasn't my first experience launching a product on Product Hunt. One thing I really love is how much feedback and support I get from the community. It's super helpful because it shows me what's missing or what people actually want in the product, which can be pretty different from what I initially thought. If you're in the process of launching or planning to launch a product, don't hesitate to send me a direct message. I'm here to support your journey.
CompressX New Releases
This month, CompressX rolled out two major updates, introducing a suite of exciting features. Here are some of the highlights:
Image compression
GIF conversion
Batch processing
Real-time display of compression progress
Following these updates, CompressX experienced a notable surge in daily usage, nearly matching the levels seen when the app was initially launched as a free download on 𝕏. I believe the introduction of batch processing and the ability to see compression progress in real time were highly anticipated. As soon as these updates went live, a lot of users updated their app to get a hold of the new features.
Revenue and expenses
CompressX helped me earn $3,320.51 in January with 177 orders and 9 refunds. Below is the detailed breakdown of January:
Domain fee: $15.16
Vercel Pro plan: $20
1000.tools listing: $1
Lemon Squeezy email marketing: $60
Stickers printing for iOSConfSG: $37
Revenue before tax & fee: $3,320.51
Lemon Squeezy payouts: $2,076.01
Net profit: $1,942.85
Lemon Squeezy processes payouts twice a month, meaning orders from the latter half of January will be paid out in February. This timing complicates the calculation of precise net profits for January if I want to include all orders from that month in the January report. As a result, while Lemon Squeezy reported $3,276.33 in revenue for January, only $2,076.01 has been paid out so far. Therefore, I've decided to align with their payout schedule for simplicity.
#BuildInPublic
Building in public means sharing everything - your lessons, learnings, successes, and failures - openly. It's about adding your own story and journey to the community, and sometimes, the community gives back in amazing ways. For instance, Alohe generously shared his design for a new CompressX app icon with me. His concept cleverly features the 'X' being compressed, perfectly capturing the essence of "CompressX" in a creative way.
Then there's Kacper, who completely transformed the hero section of the compressx.app landing page. I was so impressed by the professional look and feel of his design that I decided to bring it to life. After sharing the updated landing page on 𝕏, I received a lot of valuable feedback. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do and let me know your thoughts.
I Printed Some Stickers
In an effort to spread the love for CompressX far and wide, I created some cool stickers and shared them with everyone at iOSConfSG. I really hope everyone likes them! I've kept a few pieces with me, so they travel wherever I go. If you happen to spot me out and about, don't hesitate to come over and say hi—I'd be more than happy to give you a sticker (or two).
Personal growth
𝕏
This month, my main platform was 𝕏, where my account surpassed 3,000 followers. This achievement is a personal reminder of the importance of continuing to build and share publicly.
On January 18th, Notion introduced the Notion Calendar, a revamped version originally known as the Cron calendar. Despite the popularity of the Cron app icon, Notion opted for a new design for the Notion Calendar icon. While the new icon isn't bad, there's a clear preference for the original Cron design among users. This scenario provided me with a perfect opportunity to reintroduce my IconX app, which I developed last November. The post took off, garnering over 133K impressions and leading to approximately 300 downloads. Some might think I was just lucky, but I think I brought myself into a position that allowed me to be lucky, as well said Sebastian Röhl. Had I not built IconX, I would have missed out on this viral moment.
Engineering blog
In the previous issue, I talked about the utility of deep linking within SwiftUI apps. It's an incredibly useful method for directly accessing specific screens in your app. I've penned a blog post detailing the basic setup required to implement deep linking. Feel free to check it out here.
iOS Conf SG
iOS Conf SG is the largest gathering of iOS and Apple developers in Southeast Asia. I got to hang out with some seriously cool iOS devs from all over the world and ended up making a bunch of new friends.
Day one was a blast, especially the SwiftData workshop by Paul Hudson. For anyone diving into SwiftUI, SwiftData is a total game-changer. It’s like CoreData's got your back but without all the headache-inducing bits.
The conference was jam-packed with awesome talks over two days, covering everything from iOS and tvOS development to embedded systems and even some inspirational side stories. If you wanna catch up on what went down, all the talks are up on the conference site at https://www.iosconf.sg/
Going to conferences isn't just about soaking up new knowledge; it's also about the people you meet along the way. Back in my uni days in Vietnam, I never missed an iOS conference. Those talks didn't just fill my head with ideas; they solidified my dream of becoming an iOS developer. Paul Hudson nailed it when he said, "Everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to teach." I'm holding onto the hope that, one day, I'll be the one up there on stage, passing on what I've learned to others.
Learnings
Here are some cool tips and tricks I stumbled upon and definitely think you should check out:
Tired of updating your copyright footer every year? Minh-Phuc Tran shares a genius way to set it and forget it. Don't miss out on this life hack
Did you know you can add an “Install” button for your app directly on the 𝕏 timeline, making it super easy for users to download your app from the App Store or Play Store? See how AMANi pulled it off
Ever do something fun or quirky at an Apple Store? Here's something to try on your next visit
I learned that SwiftUI View’s body is marked with @MainActor, so it’s safe to use Task in the Button’s action because the system will make sure UI will be updated in the main thread. Also, here’s a cool way to write async button in SwiftUI, shared by Sean Robinson.
When you're sending out emails about product updates, here's a smart tip: always ask for testimonials. I picked up this valuable advice from Marie Ng
Florian Vates shared his tips to replicate a Figma animation curve 1:1 in Swift
That’s all for this month
Did you embark on any exciting projects or learn something new? Share your highlights with me too. Let's inspire each other as we dive into February!
Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter and see you all next month!
— Hieu