News & Thoughts #6

Hey everyone 👋

Here we are, in February already.

Are you hard on yourself, if you miss a goal? I missed sending this newsletter in January, and yes, it bothered me. I wanted to send an issue at least monthly in 2023, and here I am missing the first month. I’m determined not to be hard on myself, but to keep trying instead.

The good news is, I was very busy in January. Which means there's plenty to mention...

Moving to Beehiiv

Yes, this newsletter has a new home. Revue was shut down by Twitter and I spent the Christmas holidays migrating everything over to Beehiiv. Hopefully the overall experience will improve, and I intend to use it as an opportunity to grow the content too.

Gumroad milestone

Do you remember your first internet-earned $? Since 2020 I've been running a Gumroad store of indie products, and I reached a milestone of $5k recently. Did you purchase anything from me? If you did, I’m truly grateful for the support, and the learnings I’ve gained along the way.

Selling (another) side project

I sold another side project. Last week I pitched my project Maker Demos at the NoCode Sale – an interesting concept event to help makers free up time by selling small projects they have on the go, garage sale style. I ended up with lots of interest, and settled on one buyer who sounded a good fit. That makes 3x 3-figure exits for me – good practice, but I want to aim higher.

Personal branding tip

Here's a little personal brand-building tip: Promote your Twitter profile to your side projects’ visitors. I’ll bet you promote your side projects to your Twitter followers, so why not the other way around? Here's an easy way you can do that.

AI generated art

Yes yes, AI talk is all around at the moment, I know. Some of it I just can’t get excited about, but some is really interesting and hints at a new era for the creative industries. For example, these fashion illustrations (see below) by a friend really caught my eye (his newsletter is worth a follow too).

Twitter search tool

I want to give a shoutout to a tool I use, made by an indie founder. Birdspotter is an automated Twitter search tool and really handy for keyword monitoring. Perfect for business leads, engagement opportunities, or just general research.

Coaching sessions

I really enjoy helping and teaching others, so I’ve started offering 1:1 coaching sessions for founders and solopreneurs, as an aside to my freelance design + Webflow services. These can be for discussing anything I can help with, but mostly focussed on design, no-code and prototyping.

OK, that’s it for now. I'm aiming for more regular updates (wish me luck!) from here on.

Thanks for reading.

Mark

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