*说明：全文中英对照-上方为英文原文、下方为中文翻译
How I Gained Traction and Became Profitable After Almost Quitting
我是如何在几乎放弃后获得吸引力和盈利的
产品创始人：Ramy Khuffash
官网：https://pageflows.com/
收入：4.6 k 美元/月 ｜ 访客：21k/月
Hello! What's your background, and what are you working on?
你好! 你的背景是什么? 你在做什么工作？
I'm Ramy Khuffash and I run Page Flows—a library of user flow recordings from proven products that designers and product managers use to learn best practices.
我是 Ramy khhuffash，我经营 Page flows ——一个用户流程录像库，收集已被证明有效的产品的用户流程录像，设计师和产品经理利用这些录像来学习最佳实践。
Before I went full time on Page Flows, I contracted as a full-stack web developer in London. I aways wanted to start a business and have built and launched a few products, but Page Flows is the first that's been somewhat successful.
在我全身心投入 Page Flows 之前，我在伦敦签了一份全栈web 开发合同。 我一直想创业，并且已经建立和推出了一些产品，但是 Page Flows 是第一个有点成功的。
It has over 500 customers and makes about $4,500 per month.
它拥有超过500名客户，每月收入约为4500美元。
What motivated you to get started with Page Flows?
是什么促使你开始使用 Page Flows？
While working as a web developer and building a bunch of side projects, I always found the UI design side of things super interesting.
当我作为一个网页开发者建立一系列业余项目的时候，我总是发现 UI 设计方面的东西非常有趣。
I wasn't particularly interested in other aspects of design, like typography or logos, and I thought I wasn't the only one, so I started a newsletter called UI Movement, which was specifically for sharing interesting UI design animations.
我对设计的其他方面并不特别感兴趣，比如字体设计或者 logo，而且我认为我不是唯一的一个，所以我创办了一个名为 UI Movement 的简讯，专门用来分享有趣的 UI 设计动画。
After a successful Product Hunt launch, the newsletter continued growing organically and now has over 27,000 subscribers.
在成功在producthunt上发布之后，它持续增长，目前已拥有27,000多名订户。
A year after launch, I was ready to build something new. This time I wanted to make something people would pay for. I set up interviews with UI Movement subscribers and asked about what kinds of things they'd like to see me work on next and what they might be willing to pay for.
发布一年后，我准备开发一些新的东西。 这一次我想做一些人们愿意为之付费的东西。 我与 UI Movement 的订阅者进行了访谈，询问他们希望我接下来做什么，他们愿意为什么付费。
Although I did a pretty horrible job of what I thought was "customer development," one theme emerged from the conversations. People enjoyed seeing the experimental UI designs shared in the newsletter, but wished there was a resource for learning from more realistic and practical UI inspiration.
虽然我在“客户开发”方面做得相当糟糕，但是从交谈中可以看出一个主题：人们喜欢看到实验性的 UI 设计在简讯中分享，但是希望能有一个资源来学习更真实和实用的 UI 灵感。
That's where the idea for Page Flows was born. It would be a growing library of user flow recordings from popular products. People who were designing common user flows like user onboarding, upgrading, or inviting teammates could learn best practices instead of reinventing the wheel.
这就是 Page Flows 的创意诞生的地方。 它将成为一个不断增长的流行产品用户流量录像库。 那些设计普通用户流程的人，比如新入职、升级或者邀请队友，可以学习最佳实践而不是重造轮子。
While much has changed since then, that core idea remains the same.
尽管自那以后发生了很多变化，但核心理念仍然没有改变。
What went into building the initial product?
构建最初的产品需要什么？
Technically, the first version of Page Flows was super simple. I built it in Django because that's what I knew.
从技术上讲，Page Flows 的第一个版本非常简单。 我用 Django 构建它，因为这是我所熟悉的。
Recording and annotating the user flow videos is what took ages. I don't remember exactly how long I spent on this, but there were plenty of late nights.
记录和注释用户流视频花费了很长时间。 我不记得我在这上面花了多长时间，但是我经常熬夜。
At the time, I was only contracting three days a week so I could spend more than just nights and weekends on the recordings. It took just over a month from when I got the idea to when I started sharing it with the UI Movement audience.
那时候，我一周只承包三天，所以我可以花更多的时间在录音上，而不仅仅是晚上和周末。 从我产生这个想法到开始与 UI Movement 的观众分享它，仅仅花了一个多月的时间。
What's your tech stack?
你的技术储备是什么？
I started with Django because that's the first framework I learned. I still use Django today. For the front end, I started with just HTML with a bit of jQuery, but eventually switched over to Vue.js.
我从 Django 开始，因为这是我学的第一个框架。 今天我仍然在使用 Django。 在前端，我开始只使用 HTML 和一点 jQuery，但最终转向了 Vue.js。
I recently redid the front end and went back to just HTML and Javascript because I found that Vue wasn't necessary for such a simple site. I explain some more about that here.
我最近重做了前端，只使用 HTML 和 Javascript，因为我发现 Vue 对于这样一个简单的网站来说是不必要的。 我在这里再解释一下。
The site is hosted with Digital Ocean because it's very affordable, has a great UI, and their guides are second to none.
这个网站是由Digital Ocean托管的，因为它非常便宜，有很好的用户界面，而且他们的指南是首屈一指的。
I also use: Letterfuel to send newsletter emails ,Postmark to send transactional emails and parse incoming emails captured during the user flow recordings,URLBox.io, which is by a fellow indie hacker, to screenshot those emails
我也使用：Letterfuel 发送新闻邮件,Postmark 发送交易性电子邮件和解析在用户流程录像过程中收到的电子邮件;URLBox.io，这是一个独立黑客同行，可以截屏这些邮件。
How have you attracted users and grown Page Flows?
你是如何吸引用户和增长流量的？
UI Movement has been a key source of traffic from day one.
从第一天开始，UI Movement这个简报就成为流量的主要来源。
I've also launched various iterations on Product Hunt and each launch was picked up by the wider design community.
我还在 Product Hunt 上发布了各种各样的产品，每次发布都被更广泛的设计社区所采用。
There are infinite things I could try, but as a solo founder I can only try one or two things at a time.
我可以尝试无数的事情，但是作为一个独自创业的人，我一次只能尝试一两件事情。
The fact that UI Movement and Page Flows are both clearly made for designers made them spread much further than other products I've launched.
事实上，UI Movement 和 Page Flows 都是为设计师量身定做的，这使得它们比我推出的其他产品传播得更远。
There are plenty of influential design communities and sites that are always looking for new and interesting things to share with their audiences. For example, sites like Bookmark Design and Design Notes continue to drive good traffic.
有很多有影响力的设计社区和网站总是在寻找新的和有趣的东西来与他们的受众分享。 例如，像 Bookmark Design 和 Design Notes 这样的网站一直保持着良好的流量来源。
I haven't really focused on SEO, but it's started to drive growth on its own. Customers discover the site after searching for specific user flows like "Slack onboarding." Although this hasn't been a huge driver so far, it should increase as I add more videos.
我并没有真正关注搜索引擎优化，但是它已经开始自己带动增长了。 客户通过搜索特定的用户流(如“ Slack onboarding”)来发现网站。虽然到目前为止，这还不是一个巨大的驱动，但它应该会增加，因为我添加了更多的视频。
What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?
你的商业模式是什么，你的收入是如何增长的？
I launched Page Flows with a $14 monthly subscription, which flopped. After a couple of weeks, only one person had signed up.
我用14美元每月的订阅价格发布了 Page Flows，结果失败了。 几个星期后，只有一个人注册了。
I actually gave up on the whole idea after that. I made all the user flow recordings free to access and moved on to other projects. After reading so much advice about charging more and businesses only being viable if they can charge $20+ per month, I figured there's no way I could make this work if people wouldn't even pay $14 a month.
从那以后，我实际上放弃了整个想法。 我让所有的用户流程录像都可以自由访问，并转移到其他项目上。 在阅读了那么多关于提高收费的建议、以及只有当企业每月收费超过20美元时才有生存能力的建议之后，我认为如果人们甚至不愿意每月支付14美元，我是不可能做到这一点的。
A year or so later I saw from Google Analytics that the videos were getting decent traffic, so I thought it would be worth putting them behind a paywall to see if people would be willing to pay a small one time fee of $29 instead of a monthly subscription. None of my other products were doing well, so I had nothing to lose.
大约一年后，我从谷歌分析中看到这些视频获得了不错的流量，所以我认为把它们放在付费墙后面是值得的，看看人们是否愿意支付一次性费用29美元而不是每月订阅。 我的其他产品都没有卖好，所以我没什么可失去的。
I put up a landing page with a fake payment form and to my surprise, a couple of people tried to pay within 24 hours. At that point I scrambled to set up a proper paywall using Stripe and people have been signing up since.
我用一个假的付款表格建立了一个登陆页面，令我惊讶的是，有几个人试图在24小时内付款。 在那时，我匆忙使用 Stripe设立了一个适当的收费门槛，从那以后就有人注册了。
Over time, I've experimented with various pricing models before settling on a $99 per year plan as well as a $39 per quarter plan.
随着时间的推移，我已经尝试了各种定价模式，最终确定了每年99美元的计划和每季度39美元的计划。
I'm still far from getting the pricing model right. Most customers watch a few user flow videos occasionally. Some watch them daily, and a decent amount just want to see a couple of videos for a specific flow they're working on. It's been hard to find a pricing model that works for everyone, but I'll continue to experiment.
我离正确的定价模式还很远。 大多数客户偶尔会观看一些用户流视频。 有些人每天都看这些视频，有相当一部分人只是想看几个他们正在制作的视频。 很难找到一个适合每个人的定价模式，但我会继续尝试。
Monthly Revenue
每月收入
April 2019 to October 2019 Expenses, including hosting and the price of an accountant, come to around $300-$400 per month.
2019年4月至2019年10月，包括托管费用和一名会计师的费用在内，每月约为300至400美元。
What are your goals for the future?
你未来的目标是什么？
My main goal is to grow Page Flows to $10k MRR.
我的主要目标是把 Page Flows 增加到 $10k MRR。
I'm not exactly sure how I'll do that or if it's even possible with such a low-priced product in a fairly niche market, but I'm going to try.
我不确定我将如何做到这一点，或者这样一个低价产品是否有可能在一个公平的利基市场实现，但我会尝试。
Currently, I'm focused on reducing churn by improving the content on the site and growing the audience through SEO and whatever growth experiments show promise.
目前，我致力于通过改进网站内容、通过 SEO 和任何有希望的增长实验来增加受众，从而减少客户流失。
I'll continue to speak with customers to try to figure out why some get more value from the product than others, and what I can do to either increase the value of the product or find more people who are likely to get value from it as it is.
我将继续与客户交谈，试图弄清楚为什么有些人从产品中获得的价值比其他人更多，以及我可以做些什么来增加产品的价值，或者找到更多可能从产品中获得价值的人。
What are the biggest challenges you've faced and obstacles you've overcome?
你面临的最大挑战和克服的障碍是什么？
My main challenge has been managing my own mental health. I'm constantly doubting myself. When a couple of days go by and no new customers sign up, it's hard to stay motivated.
我面临的主要挑战是管理自己的心理健康。 我一直在怀疑自己。 当几天过去了，没有新的客户注册，这是很难保持积极性的。
Being in a mastermind group and frequently meeting with other indie hackers has helped keep me on track.
成立一个策划小组和经常会见其他独立黑客帮助我走上正轨。
I also suffer from "shiny object syndrome". Although Page Flows has been my most successful product so far, I've spent a good chunk of time working on other ideas that haven't really gone anywhere. I don't think there's anything wrong with building side projects, but I refuse to repeat the mistake of spending months building something no one wants.
我还患有“发光物体综合症”。 尽管到目前为止 Page Flows 是我最成功的产品，我还是花了很多时间在其他想法上，这些想法并没有真正实现。 我不认为建造副业项目有什么错，但我拒绝重复花费数月建造没有人想要的东西的错误。
If you're trying to build a small lifestyle business, listening to advice aimed at people trying to build million dollar businesses could do more harm than good.
如果你试图建立一个小型的生活方式生意，听取针对试图建立百万美元企业的人的建议可能弊大于利。
Another challenge has been prioritization. The organic growth Page Flows has seen so far is slowing down, so I need to figure out how to take it to the next level. There are infinite things I could try, but as a solo founder I can only try one or two things at a time.
另一个挑战是确定优先次序。 到目前为止，Page Flows 看到的有机增长正在放缓，所以我需要弄清楚如何把它带到下一个水平。 我可以尝试无数的事情，但是作为一个独自创业的人，我一次只能尝试一两件事情。
If you had to start over, what would you do differently?
如果你必须重新开始，你会有什么不同的做法？
I wouldn't have initially given up on Page Flows after spending only a couple of weeks struggling to find paying customers. I'd also spend way less time building ambitious features and products without first making sure I can deliver something people want and are willing to pay for.
在花了几个星期努力寻找付费用户之后，我不会一开始就放弃 Page Flows。 我也会花更少的时间去构建雄心勃勃的功能和产品，而不是首先确保我能提供人们想要并愿意为之付费的东西。
Have you found anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
你有没有发现什么特别有用或有益的东西？
I'm in a weekly mastermind call with a couple of other indie hackers and that's been massively helpful in keeping me on track.
我每周都会和其他几个独立黑客一起参加一个策划电话会议，这对保持我的工作状态非常有帮助。
The accountability is great, but the main benefit is being part of a group with similar experiences.
问责制是伟大的，但主要的好处是成为一个具有类似经验的团体的一部分。
Indie Hacker meetups and local co-working spaces have also been great for connecting with other indie hackers.
独立黑客见面会和当地的联合工作空间也是与其他独立黑客建立联系的好地方。
The most impactful book I've read is The Mom Test. It completely changed the way I speak with customers and makes it super easy to figure out whether a pain point a customer tells you about is worth trying to solve.
我读过的最有影响力的书是《妈妈测试》。 它完全改变了我与客户交谈的方式，并且使我能够非常容易地判断客户告诉你的一个痛点是否值得尝试去解决。
What's your advice for indie hackers who are just starting out?
你对刚刚起步的独立黑客有什么建议？
Without switching to the $29 lifetime membership, Page Flows would never have worked. People are happy to spend a few dollars on a one-time purchase, but a $14 monthly subscription is a much bigger decision. If I'd started with the smaller pricing plan, I might have avoided spending a year working on failed products.
如果不改用29美元的终身会员制，Page Flows 就不会成功。 人们乐于花几美元一次性购买，但每月14美元的订阅费是一个更大的决定。 如果我开始时采用较小的定价计划，我可能就不用花一年时间研究失败的产品了。
Subscription businesses are so appealing, but I think most solo indie hackers should consider starting out with a smaller one-time-purchase product that they can start selling right away.
订阅业务是如此吸引人，但我认为大多数独立黑客应该考虑开始一个较小的一次性购买产品，他们可以立即开始销售。
It's also important to figure out what you want to achieve, then filter advice through that. If you're trying to build a small lifestyle business, listening to advice aimed at people trying to build million dollar businesses could do more harm than good.
弄清楚你想要实现什么，然后通过这些来过滤建议，这也很重要。 如果你试图建立一个小型的生活方式生意，听取针对试图建立百万美元企业的人的建议可能弊大于利。
Where can we go to learn more?
我们可以去哪里了解更多的信息？
You can check out Page Flows here. I've also got a personal site which I'll eventually start sharing more on.
你可以点击这里查看 Page Flows。 我也有一个个人网站，我最终会开始分享更多。
I'm always happy to hear from other indie hackers on Twitter and would love to answer any of your questions in the comments below.
我总是很高兴听到 Twitter 上其他独立黑客的声音，也很乐意在下面的评论中回答你的任何问题。
— Ramy Khuffash, Founder of Page Flows
—Page Flows 创始人拉米•科夫阿什