Let's Talk About Money and the Fear of Charging

Many indie makers have a fear of charging money for their stuff, at least at the beginning (I very much include myself here). This is a real legitimate fear with logical objections. Until we address these internal objections, we can't readily follow the advice to "always charge, charge more, raise…

How Stuff Works: Search Engine Optimization [#Letter23]

Here's a report from 10+ hours of SEO research including reading original SEO documentation from Google. (Full list of resources at the bottom). As a software engineer I mostly thought of SEO as a marketing tactic people use to get (lure?) other people on to their website. Either to buy…

Start With Questions: 7 Steps to Efficient Learning [Letter#22]

Imagine that you have a reliable system for learning any topic that interests you. For first-time entrepreneurs learning efficiently and consistently is key to progress and success. But sometimes when we decide to learn more about a new topic, we don't know where to start, what to consume and in…

The Most Important Decision for Founders [Letter #20]

Three questions to ask yourself before starting a business or getting attached to a business idea: What resources are you willing to put in? time, money, risk?Who do you want your customers to be?What do you want to get out of this?I came across these questions in…

How To Evaluate Business Ideas [Letter#19]

Hi there! How can we come up with business ideas? And more importantly how do we know if a given idea is a good one? In order to come up with business ideas, we can pay attention to what's missing? What do you need that doesn't exist? What would you…

How Stuff Works - Meditation [Letter#18]

Hi there! Have you been meaning to learn more about a topic but never got around to it as it never felt urgent. Meditation is a topic that falls into this category for me. I'm starting a recurring segment for The Leaf Node called how stuff works. I'll do research…

On Boredom and Fear of Making Something Lame [Letter#17]

An inability to cope with boredom kills more success than any kind of competition." - tiny mba, by Alex HillmanWhat should I work on next? This is a recurring question. When you're building side-projects, how do you decided when to stop working on the current thing and start working on…