April 2024 wrap-up

For April, I wanted to come up with an idea for a new product that I can start building in May.

I’ve been researching and thinking through:

• Boring businesses
• Google rereleases
• Open source ideas
• Build what’s missing on a fast-growing platform
• Micro-SaaS

Loads of ideas. I have a few but not decided on which yet:

• Revive Sheet2Bio. Grow through SEO.
• Build a Carrd FAQs info product
• Add new coaching sprint package to Outsprint, refresh site
• Build side project ideas SleepHack.Ing Museum.SG, Keyboard.SG, InclusiveDesign.SG, Career Conversation Cards
• Continue building Carrd plugins. In fact, triple down on building more than 12 this year.
• Continue growing Lists Kit through SEO and pSEO.
• A Telegram chat bot using Groq’s Llama3

I don’t want to over-think it, so got to decide soon.

Onwards to May!
 

APRIL 2024 METRICS

– Revenue:

• Current MRR: $127
• One-off revenue: $1290
• Total revenue: $1417
• Total costs = $344
• Total profit: $1073
• Profit margin: 75.7%
   

– Plugins For Carrd

• Total revenue: $1193.20
• Sold 11 plugins at $270 revenue. Sold 3 mobile navbars, 1 testimonial slider, 4 mega navbars, 1 randomizer, 2 dark mode pro.
• $923.20 in affiliate income from Carrd. Affiliate income = Referral ($826) and Seller ($97.20) program.
• Changed X account type to professional, and set up Google Business Profile to optimize for brand search but without backlink, based on advice of SEO backlink guru @philkellr
• Reinvested $92 revenue back into product in sponsorship ads.
• Telegram Carrd group at 120+ members.
• Substack subscribers at 178.
• Got a small side gig to manage @Carrd’s X account - US$1500/m for 2h/day Monday-Friday.
   

– Outsprint design consultancy

• Completed coaching project worth S$9k with non-profit client.
• Finished design thinking coaching workshops worth $6k in fees with DSG for a gov ministry.
• Didn’t get the role of Lead/Senior Lead, User Insights & Service Design, SGN, EDB Singapore. But might be a good thing.
• Applied for Deputy Directory position at CoCreate Lab, MSF.
• Applied for Lead, DigiTech at Changi Airport Group.
   

– Lifelog

• MRR at $127/month.
• Got 1 new trial user on $10/m plan… thanks for subscribing @poppacalypse!
• No new features this month.
• Lifelog chat group at 27 members.
   

– Indie solopreneur build in public journey

• Restarted on Twitter Premium, and also subscribed to elonmusk as an algo experiment. But super busy with consulting so didn’t spend much time on X and couldn’t tell if Premium made any difference (probably negligible). Only fun thing was being able to long tweet again.
• Hit 100 days of commits!
• Passed 500 days streak on WIP!
• Declared taxes. Realised that income from indie products for 2023 = $16k (compared to $6k in 2022)! 😯🎉
• But cold hard truth is… I’m struggling.
   

– Lists Kit

• Sold yet another discounted Premium license (US$197 US$97) for Lists Kit boilerplate… thanks lotushj1!
• Added 1 new item a day between the 3 directories - SaaS Starters, Commit365 and Directory Starters.
   

Keto List Singapore

• Added Watchdog by Ben Katz, an AI chat moderator to Keto List Telegram group. Definitely helping catching lots of spam!

Tech for good

• Tried Github’s Flat Data (that uses GH Actions) for uvindex.sg but didn’t work as too inconsistent.
• Spent hours trying to fix domain issues with Vodien which randomly took down my uvindex.sg and museum.sg domains. Domain now all fixed but not after some big complaint on social media and Trustpilot.
• Had an energizing, passionate 2.5h discussion with NHB folks about a new upcoming museum - as part of volunteering for the Digital Advisory Panel. Also attending the ground-breaking ceremony in May.

No updates this month for:
– Sheet2Bio
– Sleep hackers club Telegram chat group
– Sleep biohacking
– Health
– KeyboardSG
– Career Conversation Cards
– Mind My Millions

Onwards!