Newsletter #28 - We have lift-off!

This newsletter is about my launch of Random Airport.

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But first, an intro:

They say developers don't like marketing.

Writing this newsletter always seems to be the last I get to on my bucket list.

While coding is the first.

I'm seeing a pattern here ...

I have to remind myself I'm writing for myself. Referring (again) to the War of Art.

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In a world full of spam, spreading your ideas is hard

I mentioned my Random Airport a couple of times on Twitter before it was ready enough. With zero reaction.

The probable reasons are that (1) my Twitter following is pretty small with currently 249 followers and (2) this is a super-niche product.

Nevertheless, I built it, I wanted to throw it out there.

These are the channels I tried:

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(1) Reddit Aviation: This is a huge channel with 1.1 million followers. So I realised I can't even post a question there because I never engaged in the community. So this was a Fail.

(2) Reddit Flying: This is a smaller channel focused on pilots. I posted, but zero reaction except someone spamming me back with his product :)

(3) Show HN: My submission got killed. With Hackernews you never know why. Initially I didn't even realise it was killed.

UPDATE: while writing this email, I realised a moderator replied and unbanned me. I'll do a second attempt!

(4) Producthunt: I posted for fun, and it actually got 62 upvotes!!! And some good feedback in the comments. I ended up on position #23 for the day. For reference, a daily winner gets around 600 upvotes.

(5) Nomadlist. Nomadlist is a private Slack group. This was the most challenging of all. Eventually I gave up. First I got a spam warning because I didn't engage in the last 90 days (I did though, but not in the last 60). Then I engaged a little and posted again in two channels (Flying and Startups). So I got a spam warning for double posting. Then I tried again, only in Flying, but I got a (stronger) spam warning because this was the x-th I posted the same message (though all the other ones got deleted). I'll try again later.

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Frankly, I don't think I'm spamming, I think I build something for fun that other people might think is fun as well.

But I guess everyone thinks about their products in this way :D

The lesson

Build rapport in the communities before launching, by asking and answering questions, by engaging in the discussion!

I'm doing exactly that on Reddit Aviation now for example.

Also - and personally I think this is bad - it incentives me to ask questions without searching, because engagement gives you Karma points. Searching does not. I guess this is a signal of the disposable world we live in ...

What to do with it now?

As mentioned before, I got good feedback from Producthunt.

Someone asked to be able to tag the airport as "I have been there".

That sounds like a great idea, but then I have to make sure all airports in the world are there.

But if all airports in the world are there, it gets pretty boring, nobody wants to click through a list of provincial airports he's never heard off.

Also, I would need some visuals, ...

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So, do I continue working on this?

It's not monetizable... but it's fun!?

Maybe I need to speak to a gaming strategist ...

Maybe I need to let it linger, let it ripen, like wine and cheese.

Good ideas need time to ripe, the brain is a fascinating tool which works in mysterious ways!

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In the meantime, I can work on my spouse's project!

Enjoy your week!

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