September 2024 wrap-up

jasonleow • 30 Sept 2024 •
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For September, I wanted to go lightly, even when things got serious. To stop stomping loudly trying to change things. And just have some faith things will turn out the way it’s meant to be.

I think I mostly achieved it.

Shipped two fun products, without any expectations or targets. One went super viral on Twitter. And for the first time, still not sure if I want to get serious with it, and definitely not wanting to make it into a life mission…

Casually started a podcast using AI, had fun, created new assets for products.

Finally feeling calmer and more settled, into juggling 4 jobs.

Let loose and bought + ate $300 worth of mooncakes. I might need a diet now but a nice yearly indulgence.

To top it off, went on a short family trip across the border.

In August, I had a normal, boring month where I didn’t feel like I’m drowning. In September, I had a boring month sprinkled with some fun and living.

A month where I didn’t feel like I’m drowning.
A month where things were not overwhelming.
A month where a nicer future felt in reach.

Couldn’t ask for more.

SEPTEMBER 2024 METRICS

– Revenue:

Current MRR: $107
One-off revenue: $4740
Consulting/Training: $780
Total revenue: $5627
Total costs = $333
Total profit: $5294
Profit margin: 94%

– Jason’s Plugins For Carrd

Total revenue from Carrd: $3062.40
Sold 15 plugins at $345 revenue. Sold 2 mobile navbars, 5 testimonial sliders, 5 mega navbars, 1 listing with filters, 1 video button, 1 randomizer.
$1220.40 in affiliate income from Carrd. Affiliate income = Referral ($1189.80) and Seller ($30.60) program. Substantial bump in referral fees this month, just like last month. Usually it’s between $600-800… what happened??
Made $1500 from work done for managing @Carrd X account.
Launched another plugin for custom icons.
Definitely picking up momentum for Carrd plugins!
Reinvested $107 revenue back into product in sponsorship ads. Started on new $10/m sponsorship ad on @CesarHawke’s templatesfor.carrd.co site
Telegram Carrd group at 166 members.
Substack subscribers at 240.

– Outsprint design consultancy

Stupidly forgot about S$4k worth of invoices, but resolved it. But the incident prompted reflection about alignment to this work, that my heart’s no longer in this work.
Completed a 1-day online training workshop for SP, ~ S$1000.
Thankful for the stable stream of gigs every month this year… but my heart’s no longer in it, and the Universe seems to be trying to kick me out of it with increasingly worse opportunities… I think it’s time to wind down this business… Might stop taking on gigs and instead rather take on web dev gigs instead!

– Lifelog

MRR stable at $107/month.
No new subscriptions nor cancellations.
New features shipped:
- The @mention notification feature on both markdown and rich text editors
- The @mention dropdown popup on both markdown and rich text editors (but not deployed yet for rich text editor)
Still thinking about a paid SaaS (inspired by Writebook from Once.com) where it helps aspiring book authors to stop procrastinating and publish their own books on the web for in a simple, browsable online book format, no publisher required.
Lifelog chat group at 28 members.

– Indie solopreneur build in public journey

Continued freelancing as frontend developer at 1 local startup. Made US$1675 this month.
Decided to slowly look out for 1 more fractional web dev gig for Jan 2025 at least, to replace my income stream from design thinking.
Didn’t do much PHP, SQLite nor use my $5 VPS from Digital Ocean. Next: PHP API authentication. Won’t give up yet on my dream tech stack. BUT I might suddenly need PHP for Profile Photo Editor now, for user accounts and auth!
Went super viral with my casual tweet about Profile Photo Editor. 1.3M impressions!
Twitter analytics:

– Lists Kit

Zero new sales. Revenue = $0.
Continued adding 1 new item a day and affiliate links for Directory Starters - now at 90 listings. I think it’ll be ready soon once it hits 100.
Next steps: Conduct keyword research to know which long tail keywords to build SEO pages for - sign up to Ahrefs/SEMrush? Must follow the plan here.
Switching to Lemon Squeezy for affiliate program.
Sadly, not able to unlock a repeatable, reliable distribution channel yet. The directories are useful but not repeatable.

– Tech for good

Made a retro-nostalgic app for ICQ](https://jasonleow.com/icq) just for fun.
Made Profile Photo Editor and it went super viral on Twitter! Was inspired by a LinkedIn post but ironically the crickets on LinkedIn for the app. Now thinking if I should build it out more…

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