🚀 MakerList #19: Stop focusing on competitors

👋 Hey there! You might have noticed there was no issue last week. I’ve been busy working on Letterbase, my new startup.

MakerList will likely transition to a more bi-weekly-ish schedule from now on. This’ll give me more time to work on each issue and ensure that I only include the most helpful articles.

As always, if you have any feedback or comments, or you’d like to suggest articles to be featured, just reply to this email!

1. I Just Hit $100k/yr On GitHub Sponsors! 🎉❤️ (How I Did It)

A fascinating look at how Caleb Porzio makes over $100K a year off of GitHub Sponsors. His secret? Good-hearted folks, sponsorware, and sponsored screencasts.

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2. How to email a busy person & get a reply

Sometimes it’s hard getting busy people to reply back to you. The #1 tip? Make your email concise and readable.

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3. How one blog post changed the traction for my startup

An interesting look at how Plausible gained a lot of traffic after they relaunched their website. Their most influential activity seems to be content marketing—publishing a blog post drove over 50K visitors to their website!

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4. Alternatives, Not Competitors

Stop focusing so much on competitors. Instead, focus on making your product better than the alternative—which may or may not be an actual competitor.

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5. Your Competition is Smaller than you Think

You may think you have a lot of competitors, but once you narrow it down to your specific niche and goals, there are often fewer people there than you think.

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Hope you enjoyed this issue!

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Now go make something ✌

- @richard_chu