Hello, it's my first rodeo 🤠
Yeeeha, how are u guys!
I'm getting started with this indie maker stuff. I tried building a couple of SaaS before, but I realized I'm too bad at marketing. I'm now trying to make it with directories.
Feels more chill, you don't really expect anything to happen in the short term, there's no pressure to monetize them, you can take it easy.
Over the span of 2 weeks, I've built a Ski Camps directory: https://www.skicamps.org and a free tool for that one too: https://www.skicalc.com
SkiCamps.org
The idea with this one is to get enough traffic from SEO and turn it into a marketplace. The products listed there are quite high ticket ones (1k-5k) so I'd be very happy to get a slice of that pie. Still didn't find the way to rank high on Google (I mean, still only 2 weeks in the biz) but I'll figure it out. There seems to be really low competition so if I don't make it, I'd be disappointed with myself :D
SkiCalc.com
A ski calculator. Currently, there is just a ski size calculator, but I plan to add many more, quite convenient. Every year, there is at least one friend who asks me to do those calculations for him.
I've got 681 views, 122 visits, and 89 visitors during these 11 days. Hope to get better numbers soon!
Hey Asier, I'm also new to releasing any stuff I've developed. I like the look of your site!
One bit of feedback relates to the homescreen, as you scroll down to see the various elements, e.g. "Laax Freestyle Camps", "Zermatt Summer Freestyle". It might be more visually attractive, but also better direction of the user's eye, to have icons for each type of camp. So freestyle, freeride, ski, etc, a simple but distinct small icon for each. And perhaps additionally an image that captures the unique landscape for the particular place, e.g. Zermatt.
Love the top banner/search bit, just a bit more visual splash below would make it even better maybe? Because deciding to go on a ski/snowboarding trip is about being inspired by the image of the landscape and the thought of being there..
I was having cool images from Unsplash before but it was so time consuming that I decided to remove them (also cause loading times were bit worse). But definitely, need to display images, or at least icons, on the cards.
The hero image also needs to be improved, the reason was the same haha, I was fighting with o4 to create a nice hero image, but surrendered lol
Even though I love design and making a website look good, I'm trying to focus more now on SEO in the beginning. First, people should get to the website, then I'll focus on making them stay haha :D
This is very inspiring! I am in the exact same boat. I have created a failed Saas in the past and am currently building a directory website. Hope to follow in your footsteps and post about it once I productionalize it. Lots of learnings along the way. Best of luck!
Good luck to u too, Chris! 🤞🏼
thank you!
Niche is nice! Congrats on the numbers so far!!!
Thank u so much!!
You are great, keep it up
Hi Asier, this is a really thoughtful approach.
Looks great for just two weeks in. The SEO potential seems strong, and SkiCalc adds a nice layer of utility that could bring in organic traffic.
I'm going to follow this post, I look forward to seeing how you change the design of SkiCalc!
Sadly the website links weren't working for me :(
Still thought I would congratulate you on your accomplishments so far! I have never sold a product before and have massive respect for people who are able to do it. Keep up the good work!
This comment was deleted a year ago
Wow man, thank you so much for putting the time into writing this, muchisimas gracias Óscar!!
I didn't know updating content was even a positive thing for Google! I was already doing it anyway, but for a better user experience, not for Google hahaha
I'm not really focusing on the social aspect, mainly because a ski camp is something you purchase once every year, and that's even a lot. People search for (category) [ski/snowboard] camp [location/country] on Google, and what I'm trying to solve is the aggregation of all that information that is on every website of each camp provider, like isolated silos.
Thanks a lot for the OG package too! I only remember about OG images once I share links on social haha then I think "I need to change this", but forget about it quickly hahah
Again, thank you so much for this valuable feedback, dude, really appreciate it!