Build Your SaaS Podcast

I got a chance to be on the Build Your SaaS podcast with Justin Jackson and share my journey building side projects over the past 10+ years. I’ve been following Justin for years; it was awesome chatting with him! We dived into multiple topics around:

  • What guardrails did I put in place with a family, full-time job, and building side projects
  • What’s the sales funnel of T.LY URL Shortener?
  • How family motivates me
  • Strategies for building a business with a full-time job and family
  • The pressure of going full-time on a side project
  • SEO strategy of T.LY
  • SaaS pricing: is it ok to be the cheapest?
  • What’s it been like being full-time on T.LY?

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Embracing Failure The Journey of a Builder and Maker

Embracing Failure: The Journey of a Builder and Maker

Have you ever looked at a successful founder and thought, “Wow, they must have just gotten lucky”? It’s easy to assume that someone had overnight success, but the truth is often much different. It’s also easy to use this as an excuse why you won’t build your own project. In fact, most builders and makers have many failed projects before they finally hit on the one that takes off.

These failures are often the result of years of hard work and determination, and they are just as important as the success that eventually follows. This post is inspired by Pieter Levels’ tweet on how only 4 out of hit 70+ projects ever made money, and 95% of everything he made failed.

Unfortunately, many people only see the end result and miss the years of struggle and failure that went into it. This can be discouraging, especially for those who are just starting out on their own building or making a journey. But the truth is that failure is an important part of the process, and it’s something that every successful builder or maker has experienced.

This blog post will cover the past 10+ years of my past projects. Some are still around, but most have been shut down. I’ll explore why embracing failure and learning from it is important. I’ll share why it’s important for builders to persevere through years of failure before finally achieving success. Whether you’re a seasoned builder or maker or just starting out, I hope this post will inspire you to keep pushing forward, even when things get tough. Read More

Who Twitter Blue?

Update 12/18/2022: With Twitter’s recent changes, the extension broke. I made this as a joke and did not plan to maintain it. If you are looking for an alternative, check out this extension.

Maybe you have heard about Twitter being in the news lately 🤣. With Elon’s recent purchase of Twitter and the release of Twitter Blue Verification, there has been a lot of discussion around the “Verification Icon.” In the past, its always been reserved for those notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category. Some users are excited to be verified finally, and some think it will ruin Twitter.

Who Twitter Blue Extension

Inspired by Wes Bos’s Tweet, I hacked together a Chrome Extension that swaps out the verification icon with an emoji for users who paid for Twitter Blue. You can choose between 🤑, 💰, or 💩 emoji icons—also, thanks to  Will Seagar and Walter Lim for their eight-dollars package. Remember, this extension is just for fun and is not to be taken too seriously. Warning it could break at any time.

Install Who Twitter Blue

Who Twitter Blue Screenshot

 

I’m curious what are your thoughts on the changes to the verification system and Twitter Blue?

 

 

Block Fake Disposable Email Addresses

If you run a website that allows account signups, you’ve probably faced abuse from fake users, abusive users, fraudsters, and other malicious actors. If you look at their email addresses, you may have noticed a pattern among these users. Fake users tend to use disposable emails and temporary email services that allow abusers to quickly cycle through new emails with unique address names across thousands of domains. These services make it possible with a simple mouse click to generate a brand new email address.

Since the creation of T.LY URL Shortener, I’ve had to learn a ton about how to stop malicious users on the internet. One part of this was preventing users from signing up using disposable email addresses. Fortunately, there is a Laravel package that handles this functionality. I got a quick solution released that auto-updated from an ever-growing list of fake email address domains. Read More