Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#1

Post by devrsi0n » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:11 AM UTC

Hi HN, I’m an indie hacker who quit my job as a software engineer at Microsoft in early October to start my own business. Like many others, I really like Apple Notes. I got inspired by https://montaigne.io, a service that creates websites, blogs, or portfolios using Apple Notes. I liked the idea, but the websites looked too plain for me. So, the first product I shipped after quitting is https://quotion.co – a website that turns your Apple Notes into beautiful blogs. The best part? You get custom domain, customizable branding and web analytics for free, while Montaigne charges $12 per month. I hope Quotion will be as helpful to you as it has been for me. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

Qing

Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs
quotion.co

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#2

Post by mrweasel » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 11:57 AM UTC

Isn't your pricing a little of? The free offer seems really good, but the $29 to "just" remove branding feels really high, if you don't need to other stuff in that bundle, especially compared to the $12 as montaigne.io.

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#3

Post by devrsi0n » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:10 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #2

Isn't your pricing a little of? The free offer seems really good, but the $29 to "just" remove branding feels really high, if you don't need to other stuff in that bundle, especially compared to the $12 as montaigne.io.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm reconsidering the pricing as well. 29 might be too high compare to our current feature set, maybe $19 fair enough?

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#4

Post by jarym » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

This looks pretty nice. Not sure how large the market will be (whether it will be enough to sustain your needs, etc.).

With the right integrations this could be a nice alternative to Medium/Substack. I'm a really occasional blogger though so I don't think I'd ever pay $29/month. I sense it might be easier to charge for things that can be monetised by your user base (e.g. if people want newsletters, paid subscribers, maybe subscriber-only content, etc.)

Good luck with it!

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#5

Post by devrsi0n » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:41 PM UTC

jarym wrote: post #4

This looks pretty nice. Not sure how large the market will be (whether it will be enough to sustain your needs, etc.). With the right integrations this could be a nice alternative to Medium/Substack. I'm a really occasional blogger though so I don't think I'd ever pay $29/month. I sense it might be easier to charge for things that can be monetised by your user base (e.g. if people want newsletters, paid subscribers,…

Thank you for the feedback; it means a lot to me. As you mentioned, Medium/Substack is indeed my ultimate target. But for now, my focus is on ensuring the service is stable and feature-rich. Regarding the pricing, I agree that it may have been a bit overpriced compared to the current feature set. I've just reduced the Pro plan to $19 per month and the Enterprise plan from $199 to $99. I intend to maintain this pricing for early adopters while continuing to add more features, hope it makes sense.

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#6

Post by devrsi0n » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:43 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #2

Isn't your pricing a little of? The free offer seems really good, but the $29 to "just" remove branding feels really high, if you don't need to other stuff in that bundle, especially compared to the $12 as montaigne.io.

Hi mrweasel, I've just reduced the Pro plan to $19 per month and the Enterprise plan from $199 to $99. Does this make sense to you? Will you consider it if you need to build a blog site?

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#7

Post by mrweasel » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:46 PM UTC

devrsi0n wrote: post #3

mrweasel wrote: post #2

Isn't your pricing a little of? The free offer seems really good, but the $29 to "just" remove branding feels really high, if you don't need to other stuff in that bundle, especially compared to the $12 as montaigne.io.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm reconsidering the pricing as well. 29 might be too high compare to our current feature set, maybe $19 fair enough?

My concern was more that you'll have more people who would like to pay to remove the branding, compared to how many people would need the Pro plan, but you have offering for those customers.

If you just want to remove the branding, I view it a $19/$29 subscription for something that's worth maybe $1 - $2.

Maybe also add an explanation as to what a site is, because I can't tell what the difference between a site and a domain is.

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#8

Post by howmayiannoyyou » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:50 PM UTC

I really like this. I think the pricing is too high so I won't be using it, but really love the concept.

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#9

Post by devrsi0n » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:53 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #7

devrsi0n wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm reconsidering the pricing as well. 29 might be too high compare to our current feature set, maybe $19 fair enough?

My concern was more that you'll have more people who would like to pay to remove the branding, compared to how many people would need the Pro plan, but you have offering for those customers. If you just want to remove the branding, I view it a $19/$29 subscription for something that's worth maybe $1 - $2. Maybe also add an explanation as to what a site is, because I can't tell what the difference between a site and a…

Thanks, removing branding with $2 looks like exactly what montaigne is providing. Fair enough, I need to reconsider the pricing model for Free plan.

Re: Show HN: A Website to Turn Your Apple Notes into Blogs

#10

Post by mrweasel » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 12:55 PM UTC

devrsi0n wrote: post #6

mrweasel wrote: post #2

Isn't your pricing a little of? The free offer seems really good, but the $29 to "just" remove branding feels really high, if you don't need to other stuff in that bundle, especially compared to the $12 as montaigne.io.

Hi mrweasel, I've just reduced the Pro plan to $19 per month and the Enterprise plan from $199 to $99. Does this make sense to you? Will you consider it if you need to build a blog site?

I still think the $19 is really expensive, because I don't see a need for it. The bundling 10 domains is rather weird. It's something I'd love for an email provider, but for a blog I'd just get two subscriptions if I need two sites.

Honestly... I'd consider it, but realistically I'd never get around to it, and maybe be slightly afraid that now my blog is trapped in Apple Notes and getting it would be horrible to migrate if your site was to shut down.