🗞 What's New: Top skills of successful founders

What skills do indie hackers need the most?

• From the ability to network successfully, to the willingness to keep learning, founders weigh in on the skills you need to achieve success.
• The '80's are in again, and the retro-themed space is booming with new opportunities! Check out how to cash in on these sweet throwbacks.
• Founder Alex Martinelli's YouTube channel drives his product sales to around $25,000 in monthly revenue. Here's how he leverages YouTube to drive traffic to his store, and why he doesn't accept sponsorships.

Want to share something with over 90,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

👩‍💻 Top Skills of Successful Indie Hackers

by Matthias Gabriel

What are key skills that indie hackers need to possess in order to build a profitable business? The main ones that I can think of are the ability to build products (could be code or content) and promote them (SEO, audience building, etc.). What else?

Mental model

I posed this question to Arvid Kahl on Twitter, and I found his reply super valuable:

I find the mental model perspective to be very interesting. I tend to jump into building things and starting new projects because I get very excited about new ideas.

But with that, I often don't think deeply enough about the problem, and end up wasting time on irrelevant things. I'll try to apply the mental models that Arvid mentioned, and see how that will guide my thinking in regards to my indie hacking journey.

Networking successfully

Anil Kilic believes that networking is one of the most important skills that a founder can possess. Mastermind groups can help, depending upon who is a part of the group.

Imagine releasing a product, and from day one, Courtland Allen writes a post about it. That means that you have a perfect testimonial for the landing page. Perhaps this also leads to an invitation to appear on the Indie Hackers Podcast.

You release a product for book authors, and Arvid Kahl loves it. He decides to share it. This opens up new opportunities. See where I'm going with this?

Or, think about this: Gather 100 motivated people in a mastermind. With this support, it's possible to pin your post to the top of Hacker News, Reddit, or Product Hunt. That's 100 people voting and commenting!

If people can sell farts, potatoes, or rocks you can sell anything. There is no need for SEO, code, or audience. All you need to know is how to grab attention, or know someone who can. That is the most important skill.

Constantly learning

Being willing to learn is a key skill, says Allen U:

I don't necessarily mean learning new technologies or new skills, but being able to develop an awareness of where you're making mistakes, and having the ability to adjust what you're doing to correct them.

One of the best books I've ever read is The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. In it, he talks about how he was a child chess prodigy, and then gave it up. He eventually turned his attention to competitive Tai Chi, and became successful in that as well. The key thing that helped him was his ability to learn quickly. This lesson can be applied to indie hacking, also.

Money and value creation

Skills that are centered around money are most important, says Arek Szklarczyk. You need these skills:

1. Understanding value creation, pricing, what value means to different clients, how much things are worth, smart capitalism, things like that. Dealmaking. Being comfortable with asking for money. Finding out who can pay how much for what.
2. Being good at knowing who to trust, who can deliver, who is really good, and who only pretends.

That is why business school exists. It's not just to make good connections, but to cultivate a certain mindset that is not obvious to most people. A colleague of mine started selling music tapes (bootlegs, obviously) copied on his brother's tape recorder when he was 12 years old. People paid a pretty penny for them. For people like him, this comes naturally. But for most people, it is a skill we need to develop, practice, and get used to.

What skills are essential for founders to possess? Share your thoughts!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

💊 Twitter has adopted a "poison pill" to ward off a Musk takeover.

🧹 As Airbnb grows, so do its cleaning fees.

👀 WeWork wants to be a tech company again.

👥 WhatsApp is coming for Slack with its new "Communities" feature.

🍷 A new app pays alcoholics $5 per day to not drink.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

📻 Retro is Back, Baby!

from the Hustle Newsletter by Shân Osborn

The Signal: What's old is new again.

We've recently covered the glorious resurgence of direct mail and print media. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bigger trend of all things retro.

Subscribers to the r/Retro subreddit have doubled since 2020, and r/80sDesign has hit 84K+ subscribers. Retro search terms are going wild on Amazon. Check out these examples of 90 day search volume increases in the US, per Jungle Scout:

• "Retro home decor" +150%.
• "Retro games" +103%.
• "Retro mini fridge" +96%.
• "Retro kitchen" +56%.

Help consumers go back in time with these new business opportunities for founders:

1. Leveraging the '80's aesthetic:

This is really picking up speed in 2022, with big brands already jumping in.

*Source: Eye on Design

Founders could help brands make an authentic switch to '80's-themed ads. Leverage the aesthetic by selling decor, or focus on '80's-style clothing and accessories.

Don't be afraid to go niche. These ~$9 '80's leg warmers bring in $130K MRR on Amazon, and this guide to '80's preppy drinking reels in $138K MRR, per Jungle Scout.

2. Shutter-lovin':

Film, old school cameras, and darkrooms are in vogue. Subreddits like r/FilmPhotography and r/Analog are booming.

*Source: Subreddit Stats

Founders could start blog-based analog guides or newsletters. Put together starter kits, or focus on micro darkrooms and developing services. Selling D2C developing equipment (chemicals, papers, trays, etc.) and disposable cameras (300M views on TikTok) are attractive niches.

*Source: Google Trends

With ~2.5M US weddings expected in 2022, event photographers might offer an analog, or analog-style, option.

Event photo booth company Snapbar raked in millions pre-pandemic, and its founder outlined two specific opportunities:

• Retro-style photo booths for the general public (in bars, hotels, etc.).
• Online photo booths with retro options.

3. Retro gaming:

Old school games and accessories are hugely popular on the retro subreddit, and r/RetroGames has ballooned by 130%+ since 2020.

*Source: Pocket-lint

Focus on retro gaming equipment and accessories, or incorporate print media and revive gaming magazines. r/RetrogamingMagazines is already 6.5K members strong.

4. Retro experiences:

Consumers are skating back to roller rinks and arcades.

*Source: Google Trends

Combine the above trends with retro cafes. r/80sFastFood has 40K+ members. You could provide existing cafes with an '80's biz-in-a-box option, furnishing all of the branding and decor required to quickly morph into a retro diner.

Incorporate the growing vinyl trend by playing them in your diner, or get involved in refurbished sleeves, player rentals, care guides, etc. A quick search of "how to" in the r/Vinyl subreddit is a great place to start!

Would you throw it back and build in the retro space? Let's chat below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to the Hustle Newsletter for more.

🌐 Best Around the Web: Posts Submitted to Indie Hackers This Week

😤 Bitcoin isn't a scam. Posted by Jslover42.

💸 What's stopping you from making money? Posted by Monem Jr.

🛠 How to spend almost $0 on infrastructure. Posted by Svensø.

✨ Is the age of perfection over? Posted by Darko.

🧘 Creating a healthy work-life balance. Posted by Daniel Snell.

🛑 Stop guessing with your landing pages. Posted by Sean Kirby.

Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.

📹 Alex Martinelli's YouTube Channel Drives $25K MRR in Product Sales

by Alex Martinelli

Hi indie hackers! I'm Alex Martinelli, and my YouTube channel has 200K subscribers with high engagement. I use my channel to market my e-commerce store, where I sell courses and sound effects. I share music production tutorials on my channel, and my viewers purchase my courses for more in-depth learning. They also purchase my sound packs, which contain drum samples and other sound effects.

My business is all marketed through my YouTube channel, and earns $20K-$30K per month without any advertising. As a small YouTuber, I only make around $500 per month in Adsense, so I’m entirely reliant on properly monetizing my subscriber base with my own products.

Once I built my channel and storefront, I only had to post once a week on YouTube, and now the business practically runs itself. I only work a few hours a week on videos now.

AMA!

How long did it take to gain traction on YouTube?

It took me five years to get the machine moving the way it does today. I was very inexperienced in e-commerce and social media in the beginning, though. Knowing what I know now, I could probably recreate this model and momentum in a year-and-a-half.

Tips for founders looking to grow on YouTube?

Friction is everything. Friction is getting traffic from one website to another. So, getting traffic from my channel to my website is, and always will be, the goal. This is done with free giveaways: Free samples, checklists, courses, and workshops. If I launch a product and tell my viewers to go buy it, I might get 100 visits to the page and 10 sales, if I’m lucky. If I launch a dedicated free sample that drives traffic to the new product, I’ll get 1K visits and 100 sales.

My second biggest tip is to focus on search-optimized titles when you’re starting out on YouTube. Use this time to get good at editing, and increase your average watch time. Once traffic becomes steady, you can use suggested video optimization on some videos (otherwise known as clickbait). The more search-optimized videos you do in your first year, the better off your channel should be. Once traffic is steady, you can begin a more scheduled regimen with suggested targeted videos once per week.

My favorite part of this model is that it sells evergreen products on autopilot. All I have to do is to make videos once a week. So, I have tons of extra time to work on other ventures, and travel!

How do you create search-optimized titles?

Search-optimized titles should align more with what people search for, rather than what people would click on when recommended a video. Quick example:

A video topic may be how to lose weight in one month on the Keto diet. The search-optimized title for this topic would include search terms that people would be most likely to type:

The popular search terms here are "how to" and "Keto diet." If you're optimizing this video topic for suggested videos, you'd name the video something that people would click on instead of search, like:

Do you also do sponsorships or affiliate promotions?

I don't do affiliate marketing very much, and I sell promotion space for one video once every six months for $2.5K. I don't like to clutter every video with sponsorships because I can make more money promoting my own stuff in my videos. Also, doing sponsored videos is pretty distracting to me.

Every video that I create has the goal of supporting my store. When I do sponsored work, I have to enter a whole new mindset to create what the sponsor wants, and I find that difficult to do.

If I didn't own any products, and strictly sold products as an affiliate (along with sponsorship space), with a channel the size of mine, I'd probably make around half of what I do now. That type of money would still be nice, and that model would be a lot easier than managing my own store, but I enjoy making the products. I will probably stick with my current model for the long run.

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

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 Matthias Gabriel, Priyanka Vazirani, Shân Osborn, and Alex Martinelli for contributing posts. —Channing