This article is originally posted here.
From idea to first sales and growth strategies.
Here I’m going to share my experience on crea...
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My problem is that I don't really have a problem. :-)
So I don't have a clearly identifiable personal problem that I could solve with an "app". Otherwise I would probably have developed it already.
But a steady and predictable income of 1300 per month, yeah that would be a dream.
If you have a handful of friends in a particular industry, or if there is something you are really passionate about, you could always ask what their pain points are. E.g, maybe you have three or four friends that are parts store managers. Call them up! Ask them to tell you what is most frustrating about the software they're using. You might get nothing, or you might get ideas and beta testers at the same time.
Ah, but I forgot to mention that since a couple of months I work with some people who are knowledgeable in a particular "industry" and have a real problem to solve. So I'm now indeed working on a 'real' problem! Even though it's not "my own" problem.
Perfect!
Lesson 1: Start with a great base
Lesson 2: Domain knowledge
Lesson 3: Think aesthetics
Lower prices is not always the way to go
Yeah. No. Everyone hates those. Today you have the moolah, tomorrow you're out of luck. Once subscription runs out - you're also out of your tools.
Any
developercraftsman worth their salt knows that. I like to own my tools. Not perpetually pay for them. Support or not, I don't care.Agree with this, although the subscription model also makes things more affordable for a lot of people.
The issue I would have is: when your subscription runs out, do you get your data back? Subscriptions on Adobe CC, for example, don't have this issue, because you save your files to your hard drive anyway. But all these online-only services have the issue of losing access when your subscription runs out - or when the service just randomly shuts down one day without warning.
Adobe blocked Venezuela - suddenly all these subscriptions became worthless. Which pretty much confirms that corps can make whatever excuse they can to shut your subscription down, money or not.
This is really awesome! Very inspiring and having any sort of passive income is really great (I used to live off of it from stuff I made 10 years ago, but that slowly died down a couple of years ago).
Will try the 60-day trial and if I like it I'll purchase it, big fan of Markdown here.
Quick question, if you may answer, did you use
contenteditablefor the editor itself?I am using it for a small Markdown Tables Editor I am writing as for fun as a React-Redux hooks project and it is quite tough to use. If you have any recommendation do let me know. I will be reading your blog and hopefully one day following your footsteps into selling a Saas.
Thanks for sharing your input. Cheers from Taiwan~ 🍻
That editor is really cool! I've bookmarked it in case I require a markdown table one day (I haven't as yet, but one of my project ideas may actually require MD tables)!
Thanks! I'll be improving it every week, so make sure to check back regularly and let me know if you have any suggestions :)
I heavily disagree with this. If it worked for you, fantastic; however, some of the criticism you may receive is valid and should be addressed. For instance, data storage and trust - your users need to know their data will be safe, and you need to discuss with those offering this criticism about how you're planning to keep their data secure. Why? Others may see these interactions and instead of thinking "he's just another dev who doesn't care about people's data", they'll think "wow, this app is great AND keeps my information safe", which in turn generates more users and more customer trust (a very important thing). If companies started ignoring criticisms, their products would begin to fall drastically in popularity.
Again, if it works for you then great. "Ignorance is bliss" and all that. But I don't think this is good advice. I, for one, would be concerned about the privacy and data security (or data longevity) of your application, seeing as you've totally ignored the public-facing comments regarding this, but this might not turn someone else away so take what you will.
I didn't intend to sound mean throughout this - I think it's fantastic that you've built this and you've done a great job with it!
Well, questioning about security is not a criticism as it is regarding privacy concern.
About Inkdrop, it is answered on the documentation here and the forum.
What I mean criticisms is the comments something like "Is it subscription? Big no, Goodbye."
It's time wasting to convince all people who are also not willing to change their mind.
Some people complain because they just want to complain to someone about something.
You don't have to please everyone.
Thank you for a well written article. I'm inspired to keep working on my personal project. I look forward to future posts!
@craftzdog very inspirational, nice looking landing page, keep up the good work.
Outstanding job mate
Often i think of a problem, and a solution exists.
There's plenty of electron apps that let you write and sync notes in markdown, bear, notion, etc...
What about inkdrop is different from those? How did you identify things you could do to separate yourself from the pack.
I don't feel like pitching that my app is better than other apps because it all depends on your personal preference.
If you couldn't find any difference between other apps, then it will not solve your itch.
For example:
The latter is Inkdrop.
It's a collection of my preference.
That's it.
I'd like to thank you for writing this article. I've been trying to achieve this for 2 years straight. This article has motivated me to try harder to overcome my existing problems and work to achieve something as successful and beautiful as inkdrop.
Not interesting to me as it do not have all the features I use with markdown and also with Org mode of emacs.
plus payed service and its worse then some other apps out there like boostnote.
However if you think that for you the project is positive and as you have some users using it feel free to pursue it and develop further. I personally prefer other editors.
Well done! :)
I'm learning design thinking in my university. I'll consult your article as an example of "real-life application."
Very inspiring, thanks for sharing this!
Congrats on your success and sticking with your idea and plan from start to finish. Really useful advice for any startup, thank you.
Outstanding job @craftzdog , well written.
Nice article, thanks for sharing. Also congrats for the great work!
Well done. App looks nice, same with the site. It is a crowded market, so it’s impressive you carved this much out of it from a paid standpoint. I hope this keeps growing for you.
The paper mention "last year (2016)", is the post that old ? What's the current update ?
Yes, it is a cross-posting of my past blog article as I mentioned first.
Great! Thanks for sharing!
@craftzdog I follow your blog since a long time. I like your mindset, very inspirational.
Big up for your solo dev life, well done !!
Thank you, mirko!!
Hi, one question... In relation with the Stripe integration... Did you setup a company? Or could you integrate Stripe with a personal bank account?
I am looking for you public blog repository 🖊️
Thanks so much for sharing this. It's great to see a success story and how you managed to achieve it. Best of luck to you and much more to accomplish!
A very inspiring read. Thank you Takuya!
Wow, this is amazing, thanks for sharing it with us!
In the second paragraph you wrote:
Do you mean 2019?