· bulletin  · 12 min read

Level Up: Bulletin No. 4

Fourth bulletin is here! How I pick tweets, Monthly learnings - March is when my momentum died, April Fools Tweets you missed, xz backdoor and what it means to Open Source, etc..

Fourth bulletin is here! How I pick tweets, Monthly learnings - March is when my momentum died, April Fools Tweets you missed, xz backdoor and what it means to Open Source, etc..

Monthly Bulletin Template

Hello, readers!

Welcome to the 4th bulletin of Level Up Newsletter! 👏

If you get this in your inbox, please consider this as my token of gratitude. You are one of the first 40 people who subscribed in this newsletter.

Thank for your support! 🙏

This monthly bulletin contains:

  1. Monthly learnings: I killed my momentum this March.
  2. Weekly curated tech news - Featuring XZ Backdoor
  3. Handpicked tweets from the tech community
  4. BONUS: April Fools tweets you missed
  5. NEW: How I handpick tweets for my bulletins

ICYMI: Welcome to the first bulletin of Level Up Newsletter!

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Monthly learnings: I killed my momentum this March.

March is a dull month.

Stepping back

I took a step back to reflect on my work for the past 3-6 months, and contemplate my plans moving forward.

With little revenue due to me quitting my 9-5 and taking less freelance work, it is clear as day that I need to shift focus to increase my runway. Doing so will enable me to continue doing my side hustles, like recaps.fyi, this newsletter, levelup.news, and many more..

Momentum

This step back came to an expense though: My momentum.

But that’s okay, since I’ve done a lot for the past 6 months.

I started building my Twitter presence seven months ago, in September 2023.

~1800 followers later, I started building in public in January 2024.

Recognizing the momentum because of the good reception I got, I then introduced recaps.fyi days later.

Traffic is great. Conversions? Nah.

Since then, I experimented with different content formats, leveraged twitter as my main distribution channel, and got tremendous traffic to recaps.fyi, peaking this February at ~400 unique visitors.

but,

  • There are zero to no usage of the preview tool
  • Waitlist numbers did not change (stuck at 15)
  • Waitlist people are mostly friends
  • People who used the preview tool are friends as well

This is where I realized this is getting longer than I expected and I can’t always drive traffic from Twitter alone. I can’t always post about recaps.fyi every single day, or every single chance I get. My audience will get fatigued and it’s bad for my Twitter account, which is doing pretty well at ~2.5k followers and getting at least half of my audience who sees my post (impressions).

As bad as the waitlist conversions are, there are learnings of course, and here they are:

1. The product is just weak. It needs a stronger value prop, which solves a pain point.

An example is: Recapping campaigns is cool, but what if I tell you that you can also do marketing materials with recaps.fyi?

This will be determined as I continue reaching out to people.

2. Address user friction. What I’ve seen from PostHog analytics is that people usually stop right before CTA. Maybe they are not convinced?

One thing I noticed is the rules are tight. Why? Because the use cases are very specific. Product Hunt launches, Twitter posts, you can only use recaps.fyi after you made the launch or post.

Maybe, these use cases only works if the value prop is strong enough for people to follow the “rules”

Else, it just adds to friction. It’s just a very limited use case, and a very complicated process for someone to bother dealing with.

An example of addressing this is: Broadening the possible use cases by removing the tight rules. By inciting a user’s creativity, it will spark interest.

A template by default, should be used in a variety of use cases. A Product Hunt launch needs promo materials before, during, and after the launch. So why limit the tool on “after” scenarios?

Of course, these assumptions will also be determined as I continue reaching out to people.

3. Maybe the product is too half-baked that people choose stay away from it until it’s polished

The lack of usage of the preview tool shows it. So maybe that’s the case. But the waitlist is not moving, so is either a value prop or a landing page issue.

Maybe I shipped too early. Doing so made me neglect a fundamental aspect in shipping software: Quality.

4. Landing page needs improvement.

The landing page has two CTAs: Try the beta on the hero and Subscribe to the waitlist as a floating button. Majority of people clicked on Try the beta. Subscribe to the waitlist should never be a floating button. It should have the same hierarchy as Try the beta.

Also, majority of feedback I get on the landing page is removing the SOON cards.

5. Broaden my distribution by reaching out communities on LinkedIn and Facebook.

My only goal at this point is to find people who will help me shape the value prop of recaps.fyi

This is the only step I need fuel 1. and 2.

Part of it is polishing what we have now 3. Transition the product from a half-baked beta to a product that is flexible enough to:

  1. Customize video outputs
  2. Authenticate users
  3. Service payments

I am also working on polishing the Product Hunt and Twitter post templates.

Revamping the landing page copy and design as well 4. and leave recaps.fyi as is until it’s ready for another momentum.

And move on to other projects and endeavors.

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Weekly curated tech news - Featuring XZ Backdoor

The biggest news of the week is The XZ Backdoor. What does it mean for Open Source Software? First, XZ is an open-source lossless compression utility that comes pre-installed in major Linux distributions and other UNIX-like operating systems.

Reading this, we can now imply the possible impact of a backdoor on XZ.

For more details, read:

BONUS: Infographic from Ars Technica

image

Infographic from Ars Technica

Let’s proceed on AI news:

Handpicked tweets from the tech community

Looks like AI-generated songs are getting better

A phone deck that transforms your phone into a cute robot

Cloudflare or Vercel? A very interesting thread.

Still from the same thread, with Vercel team suggesting optimizations

A very interesting question from Li

A quick tip on ideation

Google search tips from Serg, maker of Larafast

A daily reminder to quote your own posts

Growth tips from Li

Business Rules for Founders

Anyone using GIPHY? Pretty much everyone it seems like 🤯

What is your biggest motivation?

On pricing your services

A solid tip from Tim

BONUS: The 2024 MAD (Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data) Landscape (credits to FirstMark)

BONUS: April Fools tweets you missed

Enjoy!

NEW: How I handpick tweets for my bulletins

Featured Product: 500k.agency is your practical guide in building Solo Dev Agencies. Use code MICROLAUNCH for 20% off your purchase. 🚀

Head to 500k.agency to learn more. 🚀

Alright, we are done with our bulletin today.

If you managed to arrive at this point, thank you for reading all throughout.

See you in the next bulletin,

Raymel

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