Hobbes’ Post

Ⓐ little story about the long tail for the indie maker. Last year, I was looking for a tool to grab screenshots for a hobby project —posting windguru screenshots on @ventryweather. You can't just grab a windguru link as it's dynamically generated, requiring a tool to get the image. That's when I came across Dmytro Krasun's ScreenshotOne. Even though I knew there were other tools out there, I decided to give it a try because I support indie makers over YC or VC backed firms. And it worked brilliantly; I stuck with the free plan for a whole year, and it met all my needs perfectly. But, I’m sure Dmytro was wondering if I’d ever upgrade. Then, something interesting happened. At sensorpro.eu, our customers started asking for a way to save their newsletters as images or PDFs. We used to point them to a Chrome extension, but it didn't have storage, which was a problem because our customers wanted us to host their images and PDFs. That's when I thought of ScreenshotOne. I knew it worked, so we decided to use it for this new need. And it works well. If you’re looking for a way to save your newsletters or anything else as an image or PDF, head over to sensorpro.eu/png and check it out, you don't need an account. So what's the lesson for indie makers? 1 Conversions can take more than a 7 day trial, so stop doing that weird thing. 2 Don't be discouraged if users don't convert immediately. Long-term value and word-of-mouth can lead to conversions down the line. 3 Make sure your tool can adapt, you never know how a user might end up needing your service in ways you didn’t anticipate.

In the past 5 weeks, I've been in a sprint working tirelessly on a project called Fllow which is currently in progress, Fllow is an e-commerce and link-in-bio platform designed for creators to sell their digital products, online courses, and memberships, and create email lists. You can check it out at https://www.fllow.store/ Due to this intense focus, I haven't been posting content recently. However, I have good news and bad news: - The good news is I'm back to creating and sharing my content. - The bad news is I came back with full force and the disturbance is gonna be on a different level. Brace up to get amazing content on software development where I'll be sharing insightful tutorials, expert tips, and practical advice to help you master the art of coding. Whether you're a beginner taking your first steps in programming or an experienced developer looking to level up your skills, you'll find a wealth of knowledge and inspiration here. Additionally, we offer comprehensive web and app development services. We turn your ideas into software solutions through full-stack development. Stay tuned for more updates and valuable content #WebDevelopment #AppDevelopment #FullStackDevelopment #SoftwareDevelopment #TechSolutions #Ecommerce #DigitalProducts #OnlineCourses #TechInnovation #Programming #Coding #TechEntrepreneur #Startup #TechCommunity #BusinessGrowth

Did anyone else notice their Duolingo app icon change recently? Such a simple thing, yet so many people are talking about it! The sad wrinkled face of Duo prompted those who are inactive on the app to go take a lesson, just so they stopped hurting the owl’s feelings. And for users liked me on a 629 streak (yes I’m totally unapologetically bragging here), were left wondering what we could do to make the bird happy again! Bravo to the marketing team at Duolingo behind this genius move 👏 What a great way to get audiences talking about a brand! #marketing101 #appmarketing #marketinghacks #campaignmarketing

Such a simple, yet effective gesture made a big impact on the company. This is one of the many examples of why marketing is so important.

As a Duolinguo user, the change of the application icon definitely caught my attention at some point, but keeping it like that for a while doesn't seem to be a smart move. Changing it back to normal after some activity would be my obvious thought. I am not an expert on this topic, but from users comments it seems keeping it is generating the actual opposite effect, however the company reports it as a success for getting other users back to use the app. A real question I have is, do you think it makes sense to discourage a bit your loyal users in exchange of getting some former users back? I think it is an interesting experiment for application designers / developers that is usually validated by A/B tests.

The Notion has a cultish appeal among start-ups. It has become a darling of creative professionals, students, and freelancers worldwide. This is my favorite app for three years in a row. If you don’t use it already, you should start now. In the meantime, read how the Notion story went down till now 👇 #notion #businessstories #billiondollarstories

Who else noticed Duo feeling all the feelings this week? Animation and the illustrated assets we design for it--especially characters--have the power to engage an audience's feelings, relate to our experiences, and move people to meaningful actions. Duolingo's app icon update is yet another example of how embracing a 360° multi-platform illustration and animation strategy can elevate a brand's customer engagements.

At first glance, this is a minor change. But it solves the problem of returning users well😎 Good job! 👏💚 Learn more in the original post 👇

🚀 RELEASE TIME 🚀 We finally released Parlai to the world, here's a 90 second video explaining how it works 🔥 High-level pitch? Parlai is like a foreign friend who will help you become fluent. You write on WhatsApp, practice daily, send voice messages, get corrections, play games, and much more. 4 Reasons why should you care: 🚀 1. According to our early users, Parlai is the best AI language-learning app right now 💬 2. It's on WhatsApp. No apps. No installs. It meets you directly where you are, every day 😎 3. Parlai is not another Duolingo, instead it is the perfect compliment to Duolingo. You can finally put that long streak to practice! 💜 4. Hand-made. Nina and I have spent the last 5 months building this just for you. No big corps behind us, just two passionate entrepreneurs Check our website and try it out 🔥 -> parlai.app

How does one build Farcaster Cast Actions? What's the mental model? What do you do? Having worked with the top projects on Farcaster here's how! I think about Cast Actions like a context button on a post. But they can also be used as quick access to your tools. If you have something the user wants to check every once in a while it's fastet to let them do it from wherever they are in the app via Cast Action that returns a Frame. But it could also be used to enhance interactions by adding context of the social media post and the one who posted it! Do you want to build on Farcaster? Catch the rocket ship? Comment "Farcaster"