Forem: Mario Stopfer

Just made $5000 in revenue with my MVP

Mario Stopfer — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 14:59:14 +0000

Well guys, I’m still early in development of my SaaS, but decided to have an LTD sale which ends soon and the results were phenomenal.

I started charging in august and just today crossed the $5000 revenue mark. Most of that came in today from the LTD sale.

Most people will say that LTD sale don’t make sense for SaaS companies, but I’m in a completely different situation. My deploys apps on client’s private AWS account, so I have virtually no associated cost. Currently paying $50 for AWS monthly.

I’d highly suggest you try an LTD campaign if you want to get some traction!

My campaign ends on November 30th, so you can still grab a CodeSmash account here https://codesmash.studio/lifetime-deal

CodeSmash LTD Campaign

Mario Stopfer — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 17:07:29 +0000

I started building CodeSmash earlier this year and it has gotten quite far so far. For those who don't know, CodeSmash is a No Code platform for deploying custom backends.

https://codesmash.studio

The main difference between CodeSmash and other alternative services like Xano and Supabase is that CodeSmash has no lock-in by default. As opposed to alternatives, it deploys all your backends directly on your private AWS account, so you are always in control of your apps.

Not only is that the case, but it sets up the environment in line with DevOps principles so all your infrastructure is defined as Terraform modules and built with CI/CD pipelines. This way both technical and non-technical users can benefit from CodeSmash.

Since I'm currently going through an extensive re-design phase which is almost over, I will be launching an LTD campaign as soon as the new design is completed.

Therefore, you will have the opportunity to pay once and use CodeSmash forever witht he following plans:

Personal - $45
Business - $95
Enterprise - $245

The LTD is about to launch soon, so make sure to join our mailing list as well!

Finally decided on the pricing for my new product

Mario Stopfer — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 23:15:43 +0000

Hello everyone! We are revealing the pricing for CodeSmash, our new No Code platform! If you want more info, feel free to check it out at https://codesmash.studio

CodeSmash - Get Ready to Sign Up!

Mario Stopfer — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:36:15 +0000

Hey guys, we're back with another video! 👋😃

https://youtu.be/Vnl8lCySi60

This time, we're letting you know more about our No Code platform CodeSmash and that we have a roadmap for what's next. Make sure to keeps checking up on our progress because we will soon add the following features:

Create your account
Save your Stacks for later
Store your Stacks in Git repos by default

Wanna try it out in the playground? Go here 👉 https://codesmash.studio/schema

Social media for lead generation still does wonders!

Mario Stopfer — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 02:13:41 +0000

Decided to commit to social media lead generation for just 2 days and spend $0 on ads. 🤩 This is what happens when you go all out on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc. and then get 1000+ views and 70 signups! 🎉

https://codesmashapp.com

The trick is to talk to the right groups of people about the things they’re interested in.
For example, I’m building a No Code platform. This could be interesting to many people, but for different reasons, so you have to tailor your approach based on the group you’re talking to. In my case, developers will react positively to approach where I mention the tech I used to build the project. Bloggers on the other hand will be interested if I present my app as something that lets them start a custom blog in seconds rather than days.

In SEO and digital marketing circles, you go and mention how’s your experience with getting customers. Next most important thing is to find these interest groups. For example if you don’t have millions of friends on Facebook, don’t even bother posting on your wall feed. Rather find groups which have users who are interested in certain topics, tailor your approach based on that group’s interest and post there.

Also, make sure to choose as many hashtags as possible and Google which tags are most popular for the topic that you’re writing about. Then just include those in your posts. For example on Instagram, almost all of my traffic is from hashtags.

That pretty much sums it up.

CodeSmash No Code Platform

Mario Stopfer — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 21:55:45 +0000

It shouldn't be about "No Code vs Code". The future is "No Code + Code". Your non-tech folks should work together with developers to benefit from synergy in order to increase the productivity.

https://codesmashapp.com

CodeSmash - Building in Public - Add Stacks to the Canvas

Mario Stopfer — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 02:24:24 +0000

https://youtu.be/aBT0qPnl42U

Getting closer to the MVP! This time, we show how you can add AWS Resources to your canvas and make them part of your stack.

Building Immersive Communities in public - What do you want to see next?

Mario Stopfer — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 07:57:19 +0000

I've taken into account some of the feedback I got recently and gave Immersive Communities a facelift. From now on, I'll start adding new features based on what the public wants to see next. :)

Feel free to let me know what would you like to see next and what feature would convince you to start using Immersive Communities to build your own community?

Things I've done last week on https://immersive.community

You can now access the articles from the homepage.
Increased the font size of the article title, so its easier to read.
Added a preview of the article text under the title so the readers will get a gist of what the article is about without needing to click on it.
Community banner replaced with a small logo and a title.

I just published the longest Article in the History of Medium.com

Mario Stopfer — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:49:35 +0000

The title says it all and its a 52 min long read.

A few months back, I released a social network, after 4 years of a solo-development. Now I'm back to tell my story, so I wrote down everything that happened during those 4 years, including what I worked on and how.

I hope this article will serve those who are struggling with their side-projects and are looking for some motivation. Its not easy to keep going when you don't see the end in sight, but I guarantee you that if you just keep going, the end of the road is there waiting for you! 😉

https://medium.com/@mario.stopfer/how-i-built-a-social-network-in-4-years-as-a-solo-developer-4af70fb2d4c8

Released on Product Hunt Today

Mario Stopfer — Tue, 24 May 2022 11:19:15 +0000

Just launched Immersive Communities on Product Hunt today! Feel free to go and check it out! 😀👍 #producthunt

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/immersive-communities

Immersive Communities a Social Media Platform for Content Creators

Mario Stopfer — Fri, 13 May 2022 17:59:22 +0000

Hi everyone, I’m Mario, the creator of Immersive Communities.

I’ve been working in my spare time as s solo-developer on this project for the last 4 years and finally completed it last month.

Immersive Communities is a social media platform for content creators where they can create and monetize their own communities and collaboratively write articles about their interests.

Each community can be monetized with member subscriptions and self-service ads. Payments have been implemented with Stripe.

A user can register a community from the main page and it will be available on the subdomain of his choice. I chose the PWA-first approach so each community is installable on desktop or mobile and behaves as a full-screen app. As you can see, the design is optimized for both desktop and mobile. The navigation bar will change its position according to the size of the screen. This was done using Tailwind CSS.

A user can register a community from the main page and it will be available on the subdomain of his choice.

I chose the PWA-first approach so each community is installable on desktop or mobile and behaves as a full-screen app. As you can see, the design is optimized for both desktop and mobile. The navigation bar will change its position according to the size of the screen. This was done using Tailwind CSS.

Articles are written in Markdown by default and can be linked together to form a knowledgebase like Wikipedia. Each community has its own search function which is build with Algolia. For each article we also have recommendations, done with Recombee.com, to show more articles so the user will have a Pinterest-like experience while reading. Each article also supports adding images using Cloudinary and embedding of links using Embed.ly.

Members can also communicate using real-time messages, which was done in Twilio. The community is localized in 10 languages using Locize.com. The rest of the backend was built and unified on AWS using serverless architecture.

Feel free to check it out and let me know if you have any questions.