We Created a Planning Diary Making $160K in 6 Months

If you remember the title of the post, do you mind sharing it?

This one ? https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1164708441216077825

If it gets upped by the community (presumably because it's interesting) what do the intentions matter?

I created an automated reminder in my email to share the best stories from my blog to Hacker News, this is not some elaborate bot system.

I'm just one dude running a solo business and need to build automation things like that so I don't forget to post on Hacker News.

I never manipulated votes or anything like that.

Perhaps there might be a better systemic way of avoiding e.g. water damage without resorting to single-use plastics. Maybe reusable water-proof shipping containers, or requiring postal workers to remove their tear ducts.

I also found it interesting, and depressing. Of course this is off topic, but it goes without saying that plastic is convenient compared to the alternatives. "We made $160k!" but "a few diaries" show up with water damage and their plastic-free plan goes right out the window.

Hey briandear, I'm Tom, the Co Founder of Saint Belford.

You hit the nail on the head with this one.

It's frustrating we still have to use a small amount of soft plastic, but we're doing as much as we can to educate our customers about how to recycle it properly.

Your notebook looks functional and useful, but pretty simple, based on the pictures on your website. There's nothing wrong with that (and if I composed music, I would probably order a copy), but it doesn't necessarily attract the eye.

You might want to consider an edition that has little things a musician might find interesting or useful included in it. That seems to be how these planner people attract people, is a lot of little things that people probably don't really need but enjoy filling out anyway (the link says they compiled all sorts of stuff into their planner, and for anecdata my fiancee is a huge planner nut and loves checking out planners with all sorts of different approaches to layouts and fields and organization and whatnot).

For example (and I don't recommend going this far necessarily, but it might inspire you), a board game designer decided to design a playtesting journal for other board game designers, and threw all sorts of little things in there, like a built in scoreboard, a die number on the page so it could be opened to a random page to simulate a die roll, added achievements with a sticker page, lots of fields to remind the designer to ask certain questions at the end of the playtest, a game contract checklist, a page with guidelines of sizes for various components for getting the game printed by a manufacturer, etc. He did a Kickstarter for it and raised $30k for it (not as much as the article, but still not bad). I backed it and got a few for myself, even though I've kind of settled on my own method for playtesting games, I'll give his a try.

Anyway, his journal serves a specific niche like yours does, so maybe something in there will inspire you to find ways to make your notebook stand out and attract more people to purchase it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/828934174/fail-faster-t...

You've come this far and IMO may as well throw a bit of money at it to do it justice. Better to know you gave it a better shot than wonder what might have been. I once bought a domain and mocked up wine tasting notepads to see if there was a market for it, then I barely showed anyone and it predictably went nowhere.

I'd get some professional photos done with a couple of musicians as models. Upgrade the site. Set the cheapest pricepoint as $30ish for a three-pack (and maybe a bulk option for schools/teachers?). Then try some Instagram/Facebook advertising either as a one off, or with a $50/wk budget.

Then, after a few weeks, if it's had no traction, make a decision to proceed or bail. But at least you will have given it a bit more effort.

I checked it out, have you considered doing something similar to a diary? To keep aspiring musicians on track with practice, theory, performing etc. I play guitar and find it difficult to commit time to practice and improve. Would love a planner/diary that could help me do that.

Hey memset I'm Tom the Co Founder of Saint Belford. Thanks for your kind words. Your notebook looks great. Certainly worth running some ads at musicians, just target people like yourself if you're the end user of the product. This is all we do for ads at Saint Belford. Best of luck!

Unfortunately I suspect the majority of the population is far less rational than the average HN user, which is why quack health (or rather, "wellness" these days, likely because their peddlers are trying to avoid legal issues around implications of being medical) bullshit has always been a relatively profitable if not ethical industry. The sad thing is, the average visitor to the site would probably think nothing of it or even believe, whereas you and me both reacted with "Ugh."

The crystal article is a guest post by another brand. They don't ever claim that crystals will heal you of any disease. Their brand's purpose is: "the ultimate goal is for you to find your inner voice."

I think for some people, crystals are a frame through which to explore their own intuition and emotional world. Not necessarily a literal concept.

Hey shaggyfrog (dope username btw), I'm Tom, the Co Founder of Saint Belford.

Thanks for your kind words about our story and brand, it really means a lot.

Can totally understand the distaste for crystals. We don't actually sell them, this is just a guest blog post from a local brand who do.

Appreciate your feedback.

yes, "date book" growth market

Most of California’s gold rush prospectors went home empty-handed. Those who sold the shovels did not.

You just reminded me of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series from the 90s that came in the form of self help books and structured diaries. They sold tons. Not sure if the franchise is still around.