Design, Business, Life
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The past year and a half has been quite a journey. I’ve gone from starting to learn iPhone design, to quitting my full time job and focusing on an application full-time. All while teaching myself to program in Objective-C with no prior programming experience. OneVoice is a iPhone/iPad application that gives a voice to…
Last year I did a year in review post, so by doing it again this year I am turning it into a tradition. This is more for me (to see my own progress) than it is for you, but I hope you can learn something as well. If you want to read last years you […]
A few months ago I wrote about the difficulty of self-funding a rapidly growing startup. If you haven’t read that yet, go and do that now. I’ll wait. Here’s the quick timeline: JAN 2013 — Started on the idea for ConvertKit JUN 2013 — Reached $2,000 a month in recurring revenue (MRR). SEP 2014 — Revenue declines to…
I recently heard a story about a friend-of-a-friend who had a decent consulting career. Instead of leveraging his skills to make as much money as possible, he took a different approach. Each year he would accept consulting projects starting in January. His skills were in demand and so he was able to work extended…
If you’ve been reading this blog for a few years, you know the journey I’ve gone through: In October 2011 I left a startup job (making $60,000/year) to freelance and build and sell products. 2012 was an amazing year where I built this blog, wrote two books, and doubled my income. So what happened in […]
“If you grow too fast it can kill the business.” After spending years fighting for even a tiny bit of growth, ConvertKit was now facing a totally different kind of problem: more growth than we could support. In October, November, and December we were averaging growing 40% per month. Recurring revenue went from $25,000…
Let me start by warning you: This is a long post. I want to take you through the process of writing and designing the ConvertKit sales page. As you’ll see, I had a huge amount of help from Amy Hoy. Throughout the process she gave great advice on copywriting that I’d like to share here. […]
When starting a new business project, how do you decide what to produce? The common thing you hear is that an idea is necessary to start. I know a lot of wannabe entrepreneurs who are constantly trying to come up with their next big idea. They think great ideas are not only hard to come […]
There are ways that your software as a service web application can make more money today. They aren’t complicated or revolutionary, but instead are practical ideas that you should consider implementing right now. Before we jump in you should take a moment to check out my latest book on designing web applications. It…
Do you work on web applications? Then you’d probably learn a lot from my new book, Designing Web Applications. A few years ago I had no idea a day like last Wednesday was even possible. After all, everyone I knew worked jobs that paid a modest yearly salary. My wealthier friends made closer to $250/day […]
My last two projects, both books, have been insanely successful. Selling more than $80,000 worth in just over 3 months. The connections I’ve made, marketing lessons learned, and financial freedom I now have make a huge difference. There is only one problem: those were all one time sales. Note: Do you design software?…
It's not that you set out to create a poorly designed product, but lots of mistakes—big or small—along the way left you with an interface that does its job, but is painful to use.