The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries logo

The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries

Subscribe
Archives
June 1, 2020

#52 - Happy One Year Anniversary, Newsletter! 🎉

Reflecting on a year of newsletters and an update on our plan to spread the word about the site more widely!

View this email in your browser

One Year On! 


Who remembers receiving the first ever TSG newsletter one year ago? 🙋🏾‍♀️
 

Back then, I'd just shut down the personal recommendations-focused alpha site to focus on building a more robust beta.

I had no idea where we'd be a year on, or if The StoryGraph would still be around, but I'm delighted to say that we're going from strength to strength! 💪🏾

Thank you so much to all of you who've stuck with me on the journey so far! ❤️

Every time I've received a response to a question or general words of encouragement it always warms my heart and spurs me on!

Here's to another year of The StoryGraph and these weekly 1-minute updates! 🥳
 
As a one-year anniversary gift, I'd really appreciate if you forwarded the newsletter to a friend or shared it in your networks!
🙏🏾❤️

Last week
 

What. A. Week!

Remember how I said we were going to start pushing out the site more?

I started by responding to everybody who had interacted with the tweet I shared in newsletter #50.

The reception was pretty good — overall, people were excited by the idea and had generally positive feedback.

But the site wasn't sticking.

Then, one night, middle of the week, about to fall asleep, I had a revelation: what's different and special about the site is hidden away!

People would go hit the landing page for the first time and see this:
 
 
The filter menu can be a lot to take in off the bat.

I felt compelled to address this straight away. I couldn't bear the thought of one more user going on and not grasping why the site needed to exist. 😩

One phone call to Rob and one all-nighter (very uncharacteristic of me, I assure you!) later, people landing on the home page for the first time would see:

 

Since then, we've done no further promotion, but it looks like the site is resonating more: 
 

Let's hope that line keeps going up and to the right. 🤞🏾

This week


Nearly all of last week was spent intervening on Goodreads imports that didn't go quite so smoothly, fixing other bugs, and responding to emails, tweets, and Instagram DMs.

The site also suffered under the increase of people using the site and started to slow down:
 

The orange part is where the site was struggling! 😅

So, the first order of business for this week is automating a few more things and making sure the site performs well despite having more visitors. 🤓

What I'm reading right now


If I manage to find some time to finish my book from last week, I'll be picking up the third book in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy next!
 

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. If you know a friend who's an avid reader or would enjoy following along with this journey, please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)
 
Haven't tried the beta site yet? Give it a go today!
Were you forwarded this email?
If you liked what you read, you can subscribe for future updates and catch up on past ones.
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Copyright © 2024 The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries, All rights reserved.

<p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Subscribe for a behind-the-scenes look at my StoryGraph founder journey and beyond.</span></p>

Did this email take you longer than one minute to read? Let me know!

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries:
Bluesky Threads X Bookshop.org LinkedIn Instagram Personal Website
Powered by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.