It's worth pointing out that it's an Alexa 300k site already (prior to this HN post's effect), which is some objective evidence that author is skilled at building a site and/or community.
I launched a paid community in one month
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Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#12When first visiting bloggingfordevs site, it looks, to me, like an infomercial. I'm not immediately convinced I need to give you my email address in order to gain some personal value. That's not to say it wouldn't possibly be a great experience if I did so - it's just that, from my initial impressions, it doesn't seem particularly unique and valuable. But hey, if it's working and growing, congrats!
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#13The story sounds quite impressive. Also the post itself, its writing and visual style, are surprisingly well executed. OP must be working 24/7.
So, I don't want to be that guy but every time I had disclosed my secret sauce in the past, e.g. how my recent venture sky-rocketed, I disclosed it when the growth was over, never, really never, before. Why should I hand out my treasure map which was months of work to everyone?
However, the author wrote that she wants to reach 20K and this will be still a challenge and so she seems quite credible but still, reading this post took some time and I am not sure if it was well invested. I feels like the typical r/entrepreneur post how-I-made-x-in-y-weeks but, again, much better executed.
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#14The story sounds quite impressive. Also the post itself, its writing and visual style, are surprisingly well executed. OP must be working 24/7. So, I don't want to be that guy but every time I had disclosed my secret sauce in the past, e.g. how my recent venture sky-rocketed, I disclosed it when the growth was over , never, really never, before. Why should I hand out my treasure map which was months of work to everyo…
Hey there! OP here.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm trying this "build in public" thing which is more transparent than feels natural to most people.
Who knows where it'll go, but I think it's cool and useful to see people's "early work", not only a final polished result.
So, trying to contribute some of that stuff myself!
That said, I'm not sure where I wrote I want to reach 20K? I don't foresee reaching that in terms of either revenue or subscribers in the near future.
Thanks for reading, even if you aren't sure about it. Was there a part you think was redundant or it was just a bit long-winded?
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#15When first visiting bloggingfordevs site, it looks, to me, like an infomercial. I'm not immediately convinced I need to give you my email address in order to gain some personal value. That's not to say it wouldn't possibly be a great experience if I did so - it's just that, from my initial impressions, it doesn't seem particularly unique and valuable. But hey, if it's working and growing, congrats!
Hey there! Thanks for your feedback, that's really interesting because most people have told me they like the conversational style of my writing.
No worries if you're not into it, just curious what felt "infomercially" to you. Is it that the email form is kind of immediate? I changed that recently before launching on product hunt -- it used to just be a paragraph and two input fields.
Thanks for checking it out in any case :)
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#16About 20 years ago I was coming across a website called something like filthyrichguy.com (I can't remember the exact name). This site described how rich the guy owning this site was and how you could become rich too. How? By just buying his book, of course. I was mesmerized by this site and it's audacious design for a solid hour or two. I searched around the web for more information and ended up in this circle jerk o…
I think I can give you my perspective here, since I am part of Monica's community. I started blogging late this summer and quickly found how hard it is to write and be read. As an engineer I of course started researching how to increase my readership and I ended up down the infinite sewer hole of content marketing and "how to game search engines" aka SEO. (If you want to understand why the web looks like this and why…
How much have you spent so far?
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#17About 20 years ago I was coming across a website called something like filthyrichguy.com (I can't remember the exact name). This site described how rich the guy owning this site was and how you could become rich too. How? By just buying his book, of course. I was mesmerized by this site and it's audacious design for a solid hour or two. I searched around the web for more information and ended up in this circle jerk o…
Perhaps iwillteachyoutoberich.com is what you’re thinking of? The author has an entire huge industry around this idea.
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#18The story sounds quite impressive. Also the post itself, its writing and visual style, are surprisingly well executed. OP must be working 24/7. So, I don't want to be that guy but every time I had disclosed my secret sauce in the past, e.g. how my recent venture sky-rocketed, I disclosed it when the growth was over , never, really never, before. Why should I hand out my treasure map which was months of work to everyo…
There's plenty of room for communities out there. Being willing to share your secret sauce doesn't necessarily ensure you have direct competitors, it means you are establishing a foundation that others can build on. And it means others may contribute to your efforts.
It's a little like open source software. It's pretty unlikely that every SaaS provider needs to write their own DB and gain a competitive advantage that way. Why not work together to maintain one?
Communities like these then succeed a little more based on their own merits and what they add beyond the table stakes instead of just happening to get the right combination together at the right time.
I help run a community myself, but I'm tired of doing so for getting back very little of what I give. This post has given me some ideas on how to continue my journey a little more sustainably.
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#19After a brief skim through, Monica's content looks awesome. I subscribed and will be looking forward to her emails!
Re: I launched a paid community in one month
#20About 20 years ago I was coming across a website called something like filthyrichguy.com (I can't remember the exact name). This site described how rich the guy owning this site was and how you could become rich too. How? By just buying his book, of course. I was mesmerized by this site and it's audacious design for a solid hour or two. I searched around the web for more information and ended up in this circle jerk o…
I think I can give you my perspective here, since I am part of Monica's community. I started blogging late this summer and quickly found how hard it is to write and be read. As an engineer I of course started researching how to increase my readership and I ended up down the infinite sewer hole of content marketing and "how to game search engines" aka SEO. (If you want to understand why the web looks like this and why…
>infinite sewer hole of content marketing
I'd just point out that things like Backblaze's drive reliability blogs are absolutely content marketing. There's plenty of low-rent clickbait out there but there's also good material that is ultimately being created and paid for for marketing purposes. (And SEO isn't all black hat. For example, if you're writing about some hot topic, you probably want to mention it in the title and not take forever to get to it in the article.)