Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

September 2021: Income Report & Retrospective

A transparent look at how I generated $8,949 in revenue from my indie product portfolio in September 2021.

Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra

Overall, this was an interesting read, but I found it hard to apply the lessons to my product. The book contains compelling case studies and ideas from the field of meta-learning, but most of the ideas were either too theoretical or too specific to large companies.

TinyPilot: Month 15

Highlights

  • TinyPilot had its highest-revenue month ever.
  • One of TinyPilot’s competitors raised $800k almost overnight.
  • I’m working with a design firm to improve TinyPilot’s brand and website.

Goal grades

At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those goals:

Publish a sample chapter of Refactoring English

  • Result: Made progress but didn’t publish a chapter
  • Grade: D

TinyPilot got busy enough again that I didn’t have much time to write this month. Sadly, I’m going to put the book on hold indefinitely since TinyPilot still needs my full attention.

August 2021: Income Report & Retrospective

A transparent look at how I generated $10,352 in revenue from my indie projects in August 2021.

TinyPilot: Month 14

Highlights

  • A redesign of TinyPilot’s website seems to have increased sales.
  • TinyPilot now has a European distributor.
  • After three years, I’ve earned back my investment in Zestful (and I might sell it).
  • I’m still ruthlessly delegating every task I can.

Goal grades

At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those goals:

Help TinyPilot’s EU distributor achieve his first sale

  • Result: The distributor made his first sale on September 6th
  • Grade: B

I was hoping we’d earn the first sale within August, which unfortunately didn’t happen. Still, we got a sale within 10 days of launching the EU site.