June 2023: Touching iOS and Reversle v2
Improved PromptMonthly and Reversle and launched ColorGuesser
Hello Dear Reader,
Thank you for signing up to this newsletter. This month is filled with tiny project updates and a new project in incubation phase. Maybe you have noticed it on my website.
PromptMonthly.com
Last month, I started another newsletter to send out inspirational AI prompts. After sending the first issue, I extended the website by adding some sample prompts and rewriting the FAQ section. It could still be improved, but for now, I am satisfied with its current state.
In terms of subscriber growth, we are at ~40. Granted, not many, but I also didn’t advertise it anywhere except on ProductHunt and Twitter.
For the ProductHunt launch, I experimented with creating promotional videos (using Remotion). Now I have a simple script that allows me to easily create videos like the following. My hope is to be able to re-use it for all future projects.
Reversle v2
Last month’s main focus was Reversle. Despite being an older project that I neglected, it still attracts around 500 daily users. A few months ago, I asked the visitors if they wanted an archive mode and how they wanted to support me. The answer was clear:
As you can see, a huge percentage is interested to play older puzzles. Apart from that, the huge majority is OK with having more ads. So this month I made those changes:
Changed the favicons (the previous one was rushed)
Added an Archive mode. Right now limited to the last 30 puzzles.
Rewrote the instructions page
Added FAQ section
Redesigned the statistics page
Added more ads (I am sorry, this is the only way right now to monetize the page and finance my development cost)
Added a PRO option to see if anyone is willing to support me with a subscription
So far nobody is interested, I will keep it for a month and then decide what to do next
Added a feedback form
I already got many good feedbacks and suggestions, but did not have the time to implement them yet
Once I am happy with the above changes and bug fixes, I will adapt them to Mathle, where even more people asked for the archived games.
Incubating ColorGuesser.com
A few years ago, I had this (potentially great?) idea: You are given a color name and a color picker, and your goal is to guess the corresponding color based solely on its name. I purchased the domain at the time, started prototyping, but never finished it.
While cleaning up some older projects, I rediscovered the code and thought, “Why not complete it and put it online?”. That is how ColorGuesser.com was born.
For now, I select 5 different color names and present them to you. You guess them and for each guess there is some score calculated. The basic idea was implemented within a few hours, but then I struggled with the actual scoring.
In the first version, I used the Euclidean distance between two RGB values, but that did not make any sense as a score. The calculated number did not match with my perception. Then I went down a rabbit hole, learning about color spaces and different ways of representing colors. People wrote research papers on that topic. For now, I settled on CIE94, but I am not very satisfied yet.
There are a few changes I wanted to make in the coming weeks:
Write a blog article about color spaces (heck, I wasted too much time researching about it, at least the future me should profit from that)
Cross-link between projects
Add an unlimited mode
Change the scoring system, try different color spaces and see if any of them make more sense
Publish the project on ProductHunt and other pages
WhatDinner App
Many people have been requesting Reversle as an App. The current version is based on React, I could publish it as a React Native app, but lack the experience. A coworker motived me to look into iOS App development.
I started going through the official tutorial, but got bored and started porting another idea to iOS (aka learn by doing):
It’s a meal planner for couples who like to cook: You list all your recipes you ever cooked, and every day get an offer of three meals to choose from. This is how it looks like for now:
For now, I have a simple MVP. The idea is to have it working by the end of this month, and then I can actually start using the app daily.
A few other notes
Wrote a single Today I Learned entry
GeoTagSEO has a summer sale going on:
Get 50% off with discount code SUMMER2023
I reduced posting on Twitter. Used to be more active, but then I feel like Elon is destroying the platform. I’d rather spent more time publishing on my website
To my surprise, SlashDreamer still growing slowly
I spent some time fixing bugs and replying to support mails
That’s it for so far. Thank you very much for reading this issue of the newsletter. 🙏 As always, feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions or questions.
Cheers,
Kiru.io