🗞 What's New: This new video AI model can disrupt industries

Many startup companies have tried to create realistic AI avatars:

• The problem is they're too robotic. But, the next iteration is here: Expressional AI avatars. Build products for short ads and YouTube videos.
• Thinking of transitioning from DTC? First, invest in strong branding. Remember, exceptional product is the brand.
• $20K+ MRR from a hosting platform. Elston Baretto suggests finding negative reviews for your competitors, then improving on that.

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from the Trendy Software Ideas newsletter by Darko

The term "AI avatar" refers to a realistic, human-like character that can also speak in a realistic, human-like voice.

Many startup companies have tried to create realistic AI avatars; HeyGen and Synthesia are two that come to mind.

To make an AI avatar, first you have to choose a face. Say, this guy from HeyGen:

Next, you paste the text that you want your AI avatar to say. In the background, the AI tool will generate a video of the character saying whatever you want it to.

The problem with existing AI avatar software

They look fake. They're robotic. They have no emotion.

Some companies have tried to overcome this problem by using pre-recorded videos of people saying something. The software then modifies their lip movements to match the text. ArcAds is one tool that does this.

The issue with that is there are some words that are, let's say, not appropriate for certain emotions. For example, if you're a lawyer, you don't want an avatar to be overjoyed when it says the word "divorce."

You get the idea!

The next iteration: Expressional AI avatars

A company called Infinity has recently released v2 of its AI model, generating realistic AI avatars with emotion.

Here are some examples from real users. Also, the comments on Hacker News are mostly positive, so this company is definitely onto something.

This technology has the potential to disrupt industries

Here are some of them:

1. Faceless YouTube videos: There is a growing trend of people trying to create YouTube videos without showing their face. Technology like this enables those YouTubers to do so.

2. AI short video ads: These video are ~30 seconds long. This type of technology makes those videos look more appealing.

3. Virtual influencers: Once this tech gets a bit better, expect realistic videos from your favorite influencers about all sorts of topics.

4. E-learning: Imagine an entire course made with an AI avatar. Doing that today is hard because the current AI avatars are...boring. We want to keep people engaged, and having an engaging face is a huge part of that.

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by Preston Rutherford

Our singular focus on digital DTC was great early on, but it almost ended up putting us out of business.

Expanding your distribution channels helps achieve scale, leverage, and profitability, but in order to do that, you have to invest in branding. Here's how to think about making the transition for your brand.

The shortcomings of DTC only

1. The total market potential for DTC branded e-commerce is inherently limited. On average, it's ~5-7% of your business' total market potential.

2. With a creative product, you can spin up a site, run some ads, and grow quickly. However, because of the scale limitations, and the fact that the digital ecosystem is typically governed by paid direct response promotion, building a highly profitable business on just this 5-7% is difficult.

3. When a category buyer takes a look at their market, they're asking: Will this brand add to the pie? Will it bring an audience and attract more buyers, as opposed to simply displacing competitors by competing at the price and offer level? Is there a real brand here?

Elevating your thinking on the topic

1. With expanding distribution, the critical questions are: Why would retailers want to carry my product? What's the unique value proposition of my brand to a retail buyer? How does carrying my brand get that person promoted?

2. While it's great to get a potential customer's email address, consider that this also drives up your acquisition cost.

3. While there are downsides to any channel, the potential scale of contribution dollars that retail can generate helps power more product innovation and brand building.

Three things you can do about this today

1. Take a fresh look at your channel strategy. Does it still align with everything you've learned about your business, and the dynamics of digital-only customer acquisition?

2. Exceptional product is the brand. So are your ads, promos, manufactured urgency, and discounts. You're building a lasting impression with all of it. Ask yourself whether it's the impression you want.

3. Review the investments you're making to drive growth. Are they building the brand to where the answers to the buyer's questions are a resounding yes?

This article was originally published here!

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by Stephen Flanders

Hosting is one of the web's most competitive markets, but that hasn't slowed down Elston Baretto; he's scaled his hosting business, Tiny Host, to $20K+ MRR.

What's a mistake that new indie hackers make?

I know everyone says this, but spending too much time developing, and not enough time marketing and shipping.

I see too many new indie hackers waiting until something is perfect before they release it, but that's the worst thing you can do. You have to get the word out there as you're building it.

How do you find ideas for products?

I like to focus on validated ideas, and I have two strategies for finding them:

1. Pick a validated product. Try to either improve it, or adapt it for a different audience. Take Tiny Host, for example. Hosting isn't a novel idea, but we repositioned it for a non-technical audience by making it simpler.

2. Build things that people are searching for. That means using keyword analysis tools, then building a product for the best keyword opportunities.

How do you make products that stand out?

Find negative reviews for your competitors, then improve on that.

Then, there's also market positioning. Niching down is very powerful early on. People really appreciate when you build an app that's meant for them. For example, instead of building a social media management app, build a social media management app for people in the hospitality industry. There are tons of niche communities out there that you can build for!

Early on, the most important things are engagement and feedback from your users.

Favorite marketing strategies

My go-to is SEO. I genuinely think it's among the most powerful marketing strategies for indie hackers, but most people give up too early. SEO is all about being patient. You will need to spend months targeting the right keywords, writing content, and collecting backlinks. But, if you do it right, it's a super scalable strategy that can get you thousands of users for free.

If you want to speed the process up a bit, two of my favorite tricks are YouTube videos and building related side projects.

Reddit is the best way to engage with users early on, but it's definitely tricky. If you push your product there in the same way you do on X or Facebook, you'll inevitably get banned.

So, the key is to find the right subreddits, and be super honest about your intentions. Tell the story of why you built your product, and ask for feedback.

The other key is to try to give something back. When I launched an app on Reddit years ago, I included a little offer code as a thank you. I found that people really appreciated that!

Why do you use a free plan?

Free plans aren't useful for every product, but for us, we really wanted to promote viral loops. Every website hosted on Tiny was essentially an advertising board for us. So, making a free plan helped compound our traffic.

It also helped that we don't have a lot of support requests, which is one of the main downsides of having a free plan. Finally, I think we have enough of an incentive to upgrade that having the free tier for marketing purposes is still worth it.

When I first launched, our prices were basically the same as they are now. However, I lowered them and lowered them, until I started to get sales. Then, I slowly increased them back up to where they are now.

I think, as a general rule, if people aren't complaining about your prices, you aren't charging enough.

Final piece of advice?

Code less, market more. Try to find a mentor who's slightly ahead of you and can grow with you, and don't ignore the power of a strong community. There's no chance I'd be where I am today without the Indie Hackers community!

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by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Darko, Preston Rutherford, and Stephen Flanders for contributing posts. —Channing