2024 bootstrapping journal
This was a journal I kept for 90 days while building a bootstrapped, indie software product with the goal of eventually making it into a business. I did this as a means of reflection and to share what it’s like for anyone thinking of doing the same. To see what happened after these 90 days, take a look at my blog. I will post future updates there.
- Day 90: Concluding my work journal
- Day 89: Marketing Dashify Search
- Day 88: Inspired by Record Club
- Day 87: Easy to measure
- Day 86: Can the feature be found in Google?
- Day 85: Redoing Dashify Pro update code
- Day 84: WordPress.org screenshots and authentication error
- Day 83: Cleaning up the code for Dashify Search
- Day 82: Making money from ads versus purchases
- Day 81: 4th of July holiday
- Day 80: Searching for WooCommerce orders by ID
- Day 79: The plan for July
- Day 78: June reflection as a bootstrapped founder
- Day 77: Marketing by helping
- Day 76: Dashify has 100 users!
- Day 75: The first major Dashify Pro feature
- Day 74: Got distracted
- Day 73: Dashify website updates
- Day 72: Restoring functionality complete
- Day 71: Wrapping up restoring functionality and a bug fix
- Day 70: Dashify has 90 users and its first paying customer!
- Day 69: Restoring functionality, continued
- Day 68: Restoring functionality that Dashify removed
- Day 67: Understanding WordPress to fix a tricky bug
- Day 66: Another work journal catch up day
- Day 65: Dashify has 80 users!
- Day 64: Search and bulk actions improvements
- Day 63: Planting seeds and chatbot dangers
- Day 62: Catching up on the work journal
- Day 61: Dashify Pro is live
- Day 60: Final day before Dashify Pro launch
- Day 59: So close to launching Dashify Pro
- Day 58: Dashify has 70 users!
- Day 57: Why I chose to not use Freemius
- Day 56: Tempted to work
- Day 55: License key activation edge cases
- Day 54: Dashify Pro’s first feature
- Day 53: Dashify has 60 users!
- Day 52: Rewrite or restyle?
- Day 51: Dashify has 50 users!
- Day 50: Setting up email verification in Laravel (Breeze, Mailpit, and Postmark)
- Day 49: Banana bread
- Day 48: May reflection as a bootstrapped founder
- Day 47: I discovered Bruno, an Insomnia and Postman alternative that does not require an account
- Day 46: Dashify has 40 users!
- Day 45: License key generation for my WordPress plugin
- Day 44: Laravel makes file downloads easy
- Day 43: Creating a dashboard with Laravel Breeze and Cashier
- Day 42: One day off per week
- Day 41: A public roadmap for Dashify
- Day 40: Dashify has 30 users!
- Day 39: Buy me a coffee
- Day 38: Catching up on the journal entries
- Day 37: Can you make enough money from selling a WooCommerce plugin?
- Day 36: How should I implement license keys for my WordPress plugin?
- Day 35: “Trialware is not permitted” meaning in WordPress
- Day 34: Conversion rates for a typical WordPress plugin?
- Day 33: What should I introduce in Dashify Pro?
- Day 32: Creating a backlog of content
- Day 31: Dashify has 20 users!
- Day 30: Content creation machine
- Day 29: $1 a day Google Ads
- Day 28: Worries
- Day 27: I discovered that one of my “abandoned” projects is successful
- Day 26: Adding testimonials to the website
- Day 25: Are these journal entries worth it?
- Day 24: I did something that didn’t scale
- Day 23: Launching support for WooCommerce Subscriptions
- Day 22: Being mindful of over-engineering
- Day 21: Are Google Ads effective for bootstrapped founders?
- Day 20: The plan for May
- Day 19: An effective deep work session
- Day 18: April reflection
- Day 17: Sponsoring WooWeekly and pausing Google Ads
- Day 16: Upward trends
- Day 15: Programming better
- Day 14: My vision for Dashify
- Day 13: Pricing
- Day 12: Early customers are awesome
- Day 11: Visual improvements to the order view
- Day 10: Be careful with Google Ads
- Day 9: Dashify has 10 users!
- Day 8: Dashify has a long way to go
- Day 7: Earliest signs of content marketing working
- Day 6: Self-doubt and Google Ads
- Day 5: Email follow-ups for Dashify
- Day 4: Abandoned competition
- Day 3: First blog post on the Dashify website
- Day 2: Cold email results
- Day 1: Cold emails to WooCommerce agencies
- March reflection
- Dashify’s first 5-star reviews!
- Three months to make a living
- This month, I’m only focusing on Dashify
- First impressions of Framer from a developer’s perspective
- Dashify’s first users
- February reflection
- I made something called LinkQR
- Dashify is live!
- January reflection
- We’ve submitted Dashify to WordPress.org for review!
- Waiting for 51 days
- Dashify is launching this week
- Validating a product idea without talking to users
- Pausing the first idea, starting another
- A new purpose for undo.studio