Mood to Movie viral launch
“At the very beginning of the journey, when I just got started and had zero experience, I launched Mood to Movie on Hacker News. And within a few hours, the post went viral. It got 5,000 visitors at the beginning, and I didn't know, but it was the spark of something way bigger.”
Habits Garden monetization milestone
“A few months later, I replicated the exact same formula for my habit tracker called Habits Garden. And the post went viral again, hitting the front page of Hacker News. And this time, the app was monetized, so I made a couple hundred dollars and also reached 100 MRR within just a few days.”
viral headline formula
“I have a simple formula I use pretty much all the time. I start with 'I made' to be personal, then I include the product with, if possible, a tech word like a Next.js boilerplate. And then I tell the outcome, like to ship startups faster or to automate all the boring stuff.”
personal indie developer branding
“You are not a faceless corporation trying to make more money. You are a cool developer building cool apps in your bedroom or after your 9-to-5, and you want to showcase that.”
asking for upvotes mistake
“The second mistake, and probably the most common one— I actually made it and my post got banned— is to ask for upvotes.”
crafting a viral headline
“Instead of asking for support, spend more time crafting your headline, because this is how your post can go viral.”
post reach and control
“There is very little you can do to influence the reach of your post, so make sure you craft a good headline, post it and move on.”
gamified habit tracker positioning
“My habit tracker called Habits Garden is just a simple habit tracker, but the fact that there are some game features like leaderboards and competing with friends, I use the word gamified. I gamified a habit tracker to fight procrastination, and thanks to that, the post went viral and gets well over 10,000 visitors.”
Hacker News post promotion process
“First, your post will be shown in the /shownew subcategory. It's a mandatory place every new post has to go through, and if it gets a couple of upvotes, then it will go to the /show category. I suspect there is a moderator that checks the quality of those posts.”
Hacker News content resharing
“There are tons of other platforms that feed off Hacker News content. And when they see top performing posts, they will usually reshare the content later. And so occasionally I would see my app Mood to Movie being reshared on other platforms, in TikTok, newsletters, and other tech aggregators. And sometimes even in languages I don't understand.”
Hacker News upvote policy
“Unlike other platforms like Product Hunt where you can ask friends and family to support you, on Hacker News it's against their policies. And I'm pretty sure that moderators have access to some more data than we have.”
making money online independently
“It's a wonderful feeling to make money on the internet with my own little creation.”