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Nik Spyratos
@nikspyratos
Welcome! Keen to see the progress with Referlog.
Not a huge blocker, but there do seem to be some cases out there where getting a .com will improve reach & conversion. Levels demonstrated this with remoteok a few years ago.
IMO, do as Marc says, or try and find a different name you can use for the .com (even if it's a new app name)
Just jumped in to reading about RemoteOK, good reference!
I'm at the app-name-decision phase of a would-be project right now, so easy to change, which is what drove the question. I have my original ideas but the .coms are all gone or are premium, but I'm able to be flexible at this stage
So many good recommendations here. One of my favourites from SetApp that I've since bought a standalone licence is Clop - it will auto-compress media files in a specified directory.
Oh wow! It is great! Especially for my site haha. Thanks!!
Second Carrd - you can hook it up to Stripe for payments by default IIRC, else some custom embed with another provider will work just fine.
If the JS-less way Thomas mentions doesn't work for you, look into Alpine: alpinejs.dev/
Very lightweight library, so it's great for this.
A good example is that I used a landing page called Landwind for #toyboxforlaravel , which was Flowbite based, but with a tiny bit of effort I converted it to only use Alpine.
Nice. I use Petite Vue instead as it is a little smaller and the core is Vue so any problems have a google answer haha.
Been realising 4-6 and 12 the hard way in the last year.
Burned out at a job in 2022, haven't been able to give a damn about anyone's company since. And for me my peak output is heavily tied to how much I care. Still searching for something close to a job I can stick around in for a while for some stability, for now.
IHing is one potential solution I'm pursuing right now, albeit slowly with so much going on in life.
FF user, but these are on Chrome too:
Dark Reader (set to inverted mode so only sites you want are given dark mode
Stylus (with Catpuccin theme for as many sites as it works on)
+1 for Refined Github
SponsorBlock to get rid of sponsor segments in YT vids
Unhook for Youtube to remove the more addictive parts of YT
uBlock Origin (for as long as that's still around on Chrome in a usable format)
Reddit Enhancement Suite (of course only relevant if you use the old reddit design)
Mastodon4 Redirect - you set your home Mastodon server, and all other Mastodon links will redirect to the equivalent link to your server. Solves the annoyance of having to re-search for people you want to follow on the Fediverse
It helps to not have other obligations such as cash flow (debt & cost of living), demanding relationships (kids, cling partners), community work. If there's then only two things - day work and project work - it makes it easier to focus.
For me at least, the biggest obligation you have to get rid of as many cash flow problems as possible. This is not just to give you more "runway", but also because it gives you a lot of lifestyle flexibility to put more time into passion projects.
E.g. Imagine you earned exactly 100% of your lifestyle costs. If you could reduce those costs to 50%, this would now mean you can transition to half-time work (likely freelancing) and spend the rest of your time on your projects.
Unfortunately I've only realised this lesson after buying an apartment and car, the former of which I'm struggling to sell.
Good point, thanks @nikspyratos
I have been skipping some of that, but I will pay attention and be more mindful about that. I'm married, no kids, so it's not my biggest struggle, mostly I'm exhausted after work or my mind is still on work things.
Consider setting a specific time block each week for work. eg: Wednesday from 9-11pm and Saturday from 11-3pm. That way, you see it coming, can prep energy accordingly, and setup related activites like food prep, wife going out with her friends, etc.
"How long is a piece of string"?
Each project and client is different.
If current prices are tied to time, consider value based pricing. Look into Jonathan Stark's content around it and try to structure you work around it.
A good read is also Developer Hegemony.
Your value proposition needs to become the outcomes of software, not the software itself.
I've only been doing project/value based pricing till now. But recently, I've been thinking about opening a cheaper freelance thing for makers cause most won't be able to afford 10k/month. But unsure about what range makers are comfortable with.
Like @nikspyratos said, you should read Stark’s stuff. What a maker wants to pay you depends on the value you bring.
I have a page getting hella traffic with good conversions but 50% of users get an error and can’t buy? I’ll pay you a bunch to fix that for me.
I have a product with zero users and low interest? Giving you even 10 bucks feels like a lot.
To give a more concrete example: I have a bunch of problems on my blog that I’d really love to fix but it isn’t worth my time. Would love to pay someone to do it for me, but there isn’t nearly enough work to even begin talking about a /month price.