A quick recap 🧵
In my previous post, I wrote at length about the benefits of a developer learning basic design skills. It has definitely proved to be super useful for me. Development is progressing much faster than before.
If you are a software developer and are wondering whether to upskill yourself with basic UI/UX knowledge, do not hesitate, just go for it. It'll be worth the effort.
On the other hand, I decided to spin out a quick landing page for Wobu so that I can start to socialize and validate a couple of ideas.
Why a landing page 🙋♀️
One of the first lessons in the startup world is to validate your idea even before building a MVP. Since my intention in building Wobu is not that of a typical startup, I'm slightly bending the norms per my path.
I validated with a very small set of people, have already started to build and I'm sharing my journey in public. Now that things are getting concrete, I felt this is the right time to validate the idea with a larger set of audience.
Thus I decided to build a landing page, real quick with an essence of what Wobu is all about. It took me a couple of hours to build it 100%. The main reason is because I used No Code tools.
Another tip, if you have plans to pick up a new tech or upskill in general, do check out the world of No Code, it's truly fascinating. Sometime back, I wrote an intro post on the world of no code tools, take a look if you are a curious cat 😺.
Here are the list of tools I used to build the landing page:
Softr - To build a one pager
Mailerlite - To build my prospect database and to send welcome emails
GoDaddy - To buy a domain and map it to the landing page
Here are a few quick steps that you may find it useful to develop one pagers using a tool like Softr.
Sign up with Softr, just stick with the free plan
Go to the Templates section on top. Depending on what you plan to build, choose a template. There are quite a few options to choose from. I wouldn't call it exhaustive or anything, as long as your need is a straight forward one, you should definitely be able to zero down on a template pretty soon.
Assuming you selected a template, start to customize.
What I typically do is to start with the navbar. Even prior to that, If I'm not happy with the site level font and color theme, I change them first. You should see the Settings option as the last one on the left side vertical menu.
Move from one section to another, styling each component of a section, namely the title, subtitle, and the paragraph content.
As long as the section is a static one, it's only a matter of modifying images, text and style. When there is a dynamic aspect in a section, is when you need to define a corresponding action for the same. For example, if there is a form then what happens when you submit it, when there is a call to action, what should be the response and so on. In such cases, it'll be required to connect to a back end data source where the data is retained.
In my landing page, the only dynamic part was to integrate with Mailerlite when someone provide their email and request for an early access or joins the wait-list. Softr has good documentation as far as this integration is concerned.
Before I integrated, I signed up with Mailerlite. Again, to start with, a free plan should be good enough.
In my experience of exploring a lot of SaaS products, I definitely find Mailerlite to be really intuitive and simple to navigate and use.
On following the Softr documentation with Mailerlite, you should be up and running pretty quick.
If you have a need to send a welcome email or an acknowledgement email, I suggest you check Mailerlite's automation. You can define the trigger to send the email, choose an email template, infact build a full fledged workflow. Here is a nice documentation on the same.
Once the above steps are done, you may want to publish your app in Softr (with Softr's sub-domain itself) to see how it looks like. There will definitely be a couple of modifications required. Make the changes and once you reach a satisfied state, it's the right time to purchase a domain.
There are way too many providers, you will be literally spoiled for choices. Here are a few common ones: GoDaddy, Namecheap, Hostinger, Bigrock, Porkbun and the list keeps going. Choose whatever is popular in your home country and sign up.
Decide on a domain name and purchase the same.
Once done, head back to Softr and use the newly purchased custom domain there. It will provide you instructions that is required to be added on your hosting website. A A Record and a CNAME needs to be added with appropriate values.
That's it, integration between your Softr app and your domain is complete.
With Mailerlite, you may have to perform a couple of steps to integrate your domain in order to start sending emails. They are pretty straightforward in Mailerlite's dashboard. Just follow the steps and you will be all set.
A small favor 🤝
It's time to reveal the landing page I built. And here it is!
If you are a working professional, and following my journey of building Wobu, would you mind taking a couple of minutes in checking out the landing page?
If it interests you, do sign up for an early access. No obligations to become a paid user in future 🙈. I have plans for a 30-day free trial once I roll it out.
If you are someone who is willing to take a few more steps to help a fellow developer/solopreneur, please consider booking a slot for a quick 15 minute user interview related to work journaling. Your inputs will help me build a more useful product ⭐
Alright then, ciao until next time 👋
