Amar Ghose 🏝
@itsjustamar
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Generating Leads for your #SaaS via Smoke Signals & Bird Calls since 1830 🐦 Location independent CEO of @zenmaid, #SaaSmarketing enthusiast, & futbol lover
Nomad blogging at ➡️
Joined May 2009
[thread]. I've shared ZenMaid's revenue which looks impressive over time - but let's talk about *take home pay* so some of you guys get a more realistic picture of what it looks when you're _not_ a developer founder . (ie you're not the highest earning talent in your own company).
(1/2) Our "overnight" success:. 2013 rev: $979 (first payment was Q4).2014 rev: $20,833.2015 rev: $67,233.2016 rev: $106,301.2017 rev: $187,807.2018 rev: $289,408.2019 rev: $596,067 as of today.Projected 2020 rev: ~$1.2 million. Until year 6 (2018) quitting seemed reasonable.👇.
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@JohnLeFevre Tell us you're insecure about your manhood without telling us you're insecure about your manhood . .
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I dislike firing customers or having to ask them to leave but I love protecting my team. The morning is off to a good start!
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Just figured out why all our Australian users are running into scheduling issues with ZenMaid all of a sudden. What the actual fuck is this
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(1/2) Our "overnight" success:. 2013 rev: $979 (first payment was Q4).2014 rev: $20,833.2015 rev: $67,233.2016 rev: $106,301.2017 rev: $187,807.2018 rev: $289,408.2019 rev: $596,067 as of today.Projected 2020 rev: ~$1.2 million. Until year 6 (2018) quitting seemed reasonable.👇.
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@bandholz Seems like a slippery slope. Should your guests be able to smoke cigarettes or weed in your home because that's what they do? . What about things that might damage your furniture (not using coasters for example). To me it's host's home, host's rules.
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Last week ZenMaid crossed the $100k MRR mark. Boggles my mind thinking back to how BALLIN' we thought we'd be at $5k MRR. Here is some inaccurate knowledge & a couple [random] lessons learned along the way I hope might help some of you
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For the first time since getting a credit card as a teenager, my net worth (excluding the value of ZenMaid) is positive. American consumerism really trapped me there for a long while, nice to finally be out of debt (staying out of it this time!)
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99% of bootstrapped business success can be boiled down to. "I never gave up".
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Build sexy software for boring niches. It's the best of both worlds.
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LOL. @microacquire listings get more and more ridiculous by the day. At least these guys have revenue, I guess? 🤷🏽♂️
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Just came across this old photo of our whiteboard goals from mid-2014. Today we passed $2m in lifetime revenue. How times change 😉
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Are you in Thailand?. Are you lonely?. Are you also a SaaS founder?. Good news! The esteemed @JesseSchoberg and I are SaaS founders in Thailand too! And we want you to join us at an epic villa like the one below
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@david_perell Guilty as charged. Was almost suspended from middle school for undercutting the vending machine prices and slinging Reese's Hershey and Twix 🍫🍫🍫.
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"90% of running a business is making a bunch of tiny improvements that nobody notices but end up being transformative over time.". From @david_perell's weekly.
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That plateau I tweeted about a few weeks ago is getting worse . Still confident we're taking right action but it's not exactly fun at the moment. #notallrainbowsandsunshine
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@Jasielinvests @paulg Bro, nobody 'loved this insight'. I can't recall seeing anyone get ratio'd this badly. Ever.
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10+ years in to the @ZenMaid adventure, building from 35+ countries, and today I finally made it as a SaaS Founder 📈
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My opinion:. I get to 'invest' $150 a month into my team's happiness. Gonna get a great ROI on firing this customer.
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At 5 pm on June 17, 2019 we walked around Ubud in Bali (Indonesia) and picked out a ring from a street vendor that @FranCresswell fancied for $10. I proposed that night 💍. She actually changed her mind on the walk back to our accommodation so she doubled back and bought another
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🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 It's official 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧. We're moving to London!. Just confirmed an apartment in Richmond with @FranCresswell - we move in on Saturday. Excited for a new chapter of life. Who should I know/meet there? Tag 'em, please 🙂.
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This might sound like a dumb question but how do you make remote team members take time off?.
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We're looking for a talented WordPress developer to help us implement a new lightning fast version of our blog. We have figma files ready to go, just need help executing. Who do you recommend, Twitter?.
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I've been thinking about doing almost exactly this for quite awhile now (even have a book outlined). It's time. Going to follow in the footsteps of @arvidkahl & @mjwhansen to do this over time via podcast and/or newsletter. I start today!.
Someone should really write a book or course about SaaS marketing. Something simple like, here's 100 things you can try. It's the number 1 question I get asked. Everyone knows how to build an app but nobody knows what to do after that point.
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Coworking here for March and April if anyone wants to join us 😉
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Announcement:. I'd just like everyone to know officially that I am not working at @basecamp . I never was working there, nor did I ever have any intention to, but apparently Tweeting this is the hot new thing to do today. My DMs are open, though that has nothing to do with this.
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When we broke $10k MRR we celebrated like mad men. Unfortunately we hit variance immediately after and went back below $10k for another month or two. Talk about premature celebration. That's why I've waited until 83.7k MRR to celebrate hitting the $1m ARR mark for @ZenMaid ;-)
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Life isn't fair. Monday, our father, Anjan Ghose, passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones. On June 12 he collapsed and hit his head in Robles Park in Palo Alto. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, and was in a coma prior to surgery. He never regained consciousness.
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Made a new acquisition over the weekend . ROI: Already priceless
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Anything I can help you promote?. Drop a link to your latest project, blog, post, tweet, pod, etc. Would love to check some stuff out and reshare!.
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Today's coworking space offers plants you can bring to your desk. Little touch that adds a nice bit to the atmosphere
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If I could describe my management style in 1 word it would be: ineffective
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We're launching a free for life plan @ZenMaid and this is the first comment about it 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
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What's the closest you've come to shutting down or completely f*cking your business beyond repair?. Twitter is all wins all the time, I want to hear from some successful entrepreneurs about times we almost went broke. RT for better answers 💪🏾.
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Fun fact: I've built @ZenMaid to [almost] $1m ARR while smoking not-tobacco just about every day I've had access to it. Why share this?. Bc I see way too many folks saying you have to GIVE UP ALCOHOL or LIVE LIKE A MONK to build a successful business. You don't. Do it your way.
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Doing a AMA on @IndieHackers now!. If you've wanted to be inspired or depressed by the fact that someone as non-technical as me can build a successful SaaS company, now's your chance to ask me anything. Have at it, I'll be here all day avoiding work ;-).
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If you can make $2000/month, you can buy yourself freedom in a lot of fun places around the world 🥳. i.e. Bali, Chiang Mai (it's even less here!), Medellin, etc.
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Work permited, but not required 😉. I guess I live in the UK now?. Excited for our next chapter 👏🏾
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Setting up a lead capture 404 is an easy way to turn mistakes into marketing. Build your email instead of (or in addition to) looking like a fool. We convert 4% of visitors to this page for a nice boost
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It helps to not a be dev/creative but I've literally run ZenMaid off a $150 chromebook for almost 2 years.
Idk who needs to hear this. But a new MacBook Pro isn’t what is going to make you more productive . I could probably run my life from a $150 chromebook.
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Yesterday ZenMaid hit 11 years in business. I largely credit our success to simply staying the game long enough for our results to compound once we found a niche product market fit. Quick math: . 1st 5 years in business: less than $500k revenue. 6 years later, we've generated.
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Odd question for SaaS Twitter - how do you all organize your settings pages?. We've frankensteined ours over 8 years and they need a refresh. I'm overwhelmed even trying to start. What would you do? What do you do?.
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I've finally made. The Godfather of #indiehackers @levelsio recognizes my ability to tell others to do work and #shipitlikeitsHOT
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Most productivity books can be summarized in 11 words:. One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now.
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My other point is that I've been ballin' since 2015, traveling to 31 countries while building a multi-million dollar business (barely). If there's one thing I've learned from @tferriss it's this:. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A MILLIONAIRE TO LIVE LIKE ONE
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I don't understand why so many people are saying "today is not the day to post about your SaaS". Not everyone cares about what is going on in America and the number of people who seem to believe different is part of the reasons Americans are often perceived as self obsessed.
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Keeping in mind COVID prices, guess how much this epic place is costing us per night in Bangkok (revealed at the end). We booked a 1 bedroom suite but they upgraded us upon arrival (no idea why). Dudes. The bathroom has a sofa in it lol
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I received a cold email and am actually moving forward with their service 🤯. AMA.
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I wrote a quick script and invested in Fiverr Jesus. The best $22 I've ever spent. Never did run this ad though :-(. 🔈🔈🔈sound on 🔈🔈🔈
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Merry Christmas from Thailand!. We hope Santa doubled your MRR this holiday season 🎅🏾🎅🏾🎅🏾
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Left my sunglasses in an Uber in Thailand. Didn't realize until my next ride 45 minutes later. But I matched the same driver and got 'em back 😎
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In a previous life I'd be in the office in SF right now. Sitting in on the daily sales meeting after a 1 hour commute before a full day working for someone else. Today, instead, I'm watching a Premier League match in person after a long day working for myself. Life is good.
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There is not a single action we've taken in 7+ years at ZenMaid that 'changed everything'. It's all been incremental (though some increments are bigger than others). Not 1 marketing channel or ad, or product feature, or any other singular thing has significantly moved the needle.
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Someone out there needs this timeline cleanser in their life right now. Is it you?
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@AndrewBedell1 @Austen I don't know a single SalesForce user who enjoys the system. You might as well be saying I want my team to be miserable. Not saying you're wrong at all, just that no one on the ground likes the product.
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In 2017 we set the system on fire during a redesign release and almost lost the business (literally lost 40% of our revenue over a 6 month period). Many would have quit. But sticking through that hellish experience is what got us to where we are today.
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This was for 2 founders. I left the US in 2015 paying myself $1000 a month. Went to Thailand to keep my expenses low. Many would have quit.
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My dream wife: .- taller than me in heels.- white AF.- solid in a hot way. Like a crossfit chick. - cute accent.- marches to the beat of her own drum.- nomad.- makes me feel good at the worst of times (can turn any situation into a date).- paddleboarder.- loves me a LOT. oh,
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Like so many Tweets, this makes it sound so easy and simple. We've spent 4+ years trying to get our campaigns to this point. It's great now that we're there but it's definitely not this simple for most people.
The easiest way to grow your SaaS to $100,000 in less than 6 months. ✅ Facebook Ads. That's it. ❌ No Personal Brand.❌ No Email Lists.❌ No Blog Posts. Here's how we did it 🧵👇🏻
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@thesamparr There's a 99.9% chance @SahilBloom is somewhere in these comments with Athletic Greens.
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Last chai latte and brunch in the UK for month or two. Off to Thailand with a quick stop in Copenhagen along the way 🙂
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@BenjaminHouy I've been trying to train my team to make these offers time limited. We rarely give discounts but when we do it's 'sign up today using this link and it's this price'. At least it helps us collect some money up front and we found those that took action were more likely to convert.
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@Decentralizd @ASvanevik @Airbnb We had the same in a 2k trip and less than 24 hours later @Airbnb announced they would refund all covid related cancelations. Then refused to honor our because we'd done the right thing and canceled. Still makes me angry. 🖕🏾@AirbnbHelp.
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@petecodes It's the insane investment it takes to make so little money early on. You might not find PMF but literally have no idea for 3 years. It's high risk, high reward but it takes a long time to know (adding to the risk).
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We have a competitor reaching out to our users about our recent issues and if they'd like to switch. Sneaky. But smart. I respect the hustle. It's like poking a bear though, they've now placed a target on their backs. What would you do?.
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Horrify an @IndieHackers member in 1 sentence. I'll go first:. We're about to upgrade Rails . to version 4.
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Business idea:. A site that provides forged COVID tests so folks can travel without being tested. Require usual info + flight details. Charge $100. Turn in all buyers to the government.
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Here's some real life that isn't shared enough:. Last month, while my father was dying in the ICU, I had to have this conversation with my mother. About divorcing my dying father if he made it through this ordeal so she wouldn't lose everything they've both worked so hard for
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I could go on for days about the challenges we've been through that others would have quit if confronted with. My point here is not to brag about the pain I've put myself through. My point is: Don't give up.
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@Austen Absolutely boggles my mind. I have yet to meet a user who actually LIKES the product. My team actually picked it for themselves despite my warnings. Gotta let em live & learn. Took 3 months before they realized what they had done to themselves. 12 month contract lol.
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At WeWork overhearing someone that's just discovered Zapier (yesterday apparently) - I assumed everyone working would be familiar with it but serves to reminds how we're in our own little bubble. Lots of little things like this I take for granted others are 1st discovering :-).
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To survive initially you need two things. 1. One effective marketing channel.2. A good enough product.
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~7 weeks later, I'm finally out of my cast. 6 weeks left in a walking boot but at least I can start proper rehab now
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What else . it took us almost 3 years to reach that magical $10k MRR mark which seems to tiny now. Many would have quit. And many would say I should have quit too ;-).
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Target market size is overrated for bootstrap/lifestyle businesses. I have no idea the size of our market because I knew there were 1000 maid services out there willing to pay us and if we hit that, we'd be successful, independent of anything else.
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If you had a company making $1-1.5m annually and you wanted to step away from your business: . How would you go about finding your replacement? Where would you search?. How would you structure an offer?. What questions would you ask?. Asking for a friend 🤣.
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Am I the only one who finds book buying easy/a no-brainer?. Even when I was in debt and using credit cards, any book that caught my eye I'd buy. Insanely high ROI.
Why do you think is it so hard to pay $10-20 for a book but so easy to pay the same amount on fast-food, Netflix, etc? 🤔.
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A potential ZenMaid user once insisted we give him exclusive access to the software (not allow any of his local competition to use it) and he wanted to know when I was going to personally come to North Carolina to set them up. For $49/mo 🤣.
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You've been kidnapped. You can send one SaaS-related tweet to subtly let your followers know something is wrong. What are you writing?.
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Risk mitigation isn't talked about enough on Twitter . Today we cut all paid ad spend (~$20k USD) for at least the month of January . We'd prefer the cash in the bank right now and would like to see how our paid ads are truly performing. Will report back results.
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Pop quiz:. A customer paying you $150/mo makes racist comments towards your support team. What do you do?.
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When @FranCresswell and I started dating she told me she likes a man with power. And I found that really inspiring and motivating. Since that day I've made it a point to pay electricity bills on time ahead of all others.
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You don't take sales calls for under that LTV because it scales. It doesn't. You take those calls because, below the MRR suggested ($20k for the biz), the information gathered from the calls, and how that information can be used across your business, is worth way more than.
I guess I’m seeing this through the lens of, the few calls I’ve had, the customer would end up having a LTV of < $2k so it didn’t make sense (takes multiple calls to close). You end up at 0 profit factoring in infra, support, the sales process. Something something charge more.
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We're plateauing a bit at ZenMaid and I'm trying my best not to 'panic' or let it get to me . but it is. What's the longest you've plateaued and how'd you breakthrough?.
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Share what you want and stop with the judgement. For lots of SaaS Twitter hitting $1k MRR or $10K MRR is f*cking MASSIVE. Share for yourself, build in public, and for the love of God stop saying that things you don't like are 'toxic'. Who tf does this person think he is?. /rant.
We need to fight a toxic habit in Startup Twitter. I won't be talking about MRR/ARR anymore. I will talk about:.- ARPU / CAC.- Churn / retention.- Profit / revenue.- User acquisition.- Other interesting metrics. But no more random MRR flex. Join me 💪.
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Don't compare yourself to others. It took us over 3 years to get to 10k MRR while I had friends jumping out to 30k+ in the same time period. Some are still ahead of us, most are not.
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Fun fact: My grandmother was the first female mechanical engineer in all of India and the first Indian female mechanical engineer to be disappointed in her children . She lived a pretty epic life to say the least (passed late last year)
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I've started responding to PE/acquisition cold emails by responding with 'the number' and asking if they still want a call. No one has said yes yet, and I couldn't be happier. It's $10m.
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I would love to hire someone in the @IndieHackers circle to help us build tools like these for maid service owners. If you're early in your journey and want to make some money on the side of building your future main thing, drop me a DM. I'll also mentor you and support your.
VEED IO Gets $1.1M/mo traffic using lead magnets. Here’s how:. 1. They find keywords with high traffic and low KD.2. Then create free tool that solves 1 specific problem .3. Each tool is linked to the main product.4. Currently, VEED has a database of 150 tools.5. The same
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@levelsio Flip it to "cupboards that wash your dishes" and I think this idea will have more traction.
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