Announcing: Indie Hackers Profiles
by Courtland AllenFor the longest time, your account page on Indie Hackers has been somewhat… lacking.
Sure, it tracks the history of your posts and comments on the forum. But is that something you'd show off to anyone? Does it direct people to your businesses? Does it explain who you are, what you do, and where you're at as an indie hacker?
Not really.
The New Feature
So this week I hacked together an MVP to fix this: Indie Hackers Profile Pages.
Your profile page is an entirely new page that represents your career and your portfolio as an indie hacker.
When your friends and family ask what it is you do? Link them to your IH profile. When your audience wants to know what they can buy from you? Link them to your IH profile. When you've built a gazillion different things and can't remember what you've done? Visit your own IH profile.
Of course, if you're an indie hacker, you can build your own profile page from scratch if you want to. But my thinking is that you've got more important things to do, and IH profiles can make this super quick and easy, so you can focus elsewhere.
Anyone with an Indie Hackers account can create one of these pages today, simply by navigating to your own user profile. 👌
Progress So Far
Essentially, I'm making a niche website builder.
So far I've focused on making the UI simple, intuitive, and mobile-friendly. There's still some work to go on these fronts, but I think the basic structure is good.
Your profile page consists of sections stacked on top of each other, and you can easily add, delete, and rearrange sections.
Right now, everything is super minimal. I'm truly shipping an MVP. There are currently only two sections you can add: a bio, and a list of your projects.
The Future
From here on, I want to ship a ton! I'd mostly like to add new features and sections to make these pages more useful.
Your feedback here would be much appreciated. 🤗 What other sections would like to see?
For example: a section to link your socials, a section to link to feature posts and articles you've written, a section to highlight your best tweets, etc.
There are also some less obvious feature I can add, that leverage the power and size of the IH community. Think social features: an FAQ section built into your page where people can ask you questions, a resume that I can plug into a cofounder matching tool, a directory of IHer profiles to help you all find each other, etc.
There are also the obvious premium features: custom themes, the ability to host this page on your own domain, etc. I'll eventually charge for this kind of stuff, so I can make money and keep IH alive and thriving.
I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas!
It feels so good to be shipping again 🔥
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This sounds really cool! Here are some super personal, biased thoughts:
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It would be cool to have a section for MRR/ARR numbers, but I can see why some people might not like it
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A shortened url would be super cool, but not vital "Hey check out https://indiehackers.com/@jayjen_x" does not quite flow the same as "Hey check out indie.hk/jayjen_x"
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Location would be cool on Bios, to see who's in your area
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"Open to...X" might be a cool feature. Open to consulting calls, open to hire, open for co-founders, etc.
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Tech-stack and Tools would be SUPER cool. Think of it like Stackshare for IndieHackers. If I ever ask myself, "Oh I wonder what stack Tony Dinh uses for all his tools, I could go there instead of trying to chase him down.
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This one is really out there: Newsletter built-in to Indie Hackers. Think of it like Substack - people can "follow you", and your posts become posts that double as newsletters (I think this is a terrible idea, but would be cool)
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More than sharing with friends and family, I would think this would be a great way to replace your personal website for employers. It kind of goes against the spirit of Indie Hacking (lol), but I would definitely use this to share info on my resume, rather than to show friends & family what I am upto.
Happy building!
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Damn. Talk about getting control back from Stripe and everyone can see Courtland is pumped!
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Loved it!
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Loved it.
Another cool feature would be the the ability to add the tech skills of tech founders. -
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@csallen Hello Courtland,
Thanks for creating this helpful profile section for us. It would be nice if Indie Hackers can use their profile as a Landing Page.
If possible, will you please:
1 Allow us to choose an image that illustrates an offer and shows our target audience what they can expect from our platform. For example, we could use a screenshot of our dashboard or a testimonial video from a satisfied customer.
2 Include a lead form above the fold so that visitors to our profile don’t have to scroll down to sign up for our platform.
3 Add a clear and standout call-to-action that tells visitors to our profile what action we want them to take. Use a contrasting color, a large font size, and an action-oriented phrase for the CTA button.
Thanks & Regards,
Debo -
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I fully agree about the shortened domain. I also want my featured posts to show up so it's my link-tree for indiehacking.
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Just setup my new profile, lovin' it!
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When adding products, I wish there were an option to link to the current products we already added and published milestones, displaying MRRs.
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If by "link" you mean hyperlink, you should be able to link your products to any URL you choose, including your existing product pages on IH. If by "link" you mean sync, then I think that's also a great idea and something I'd like to add after the first wave of improvements I make.
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Sounds awesome. A bit of feedback.
bio almost takes half the height. of the browser screen. scale it down.-
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I shortened it quite a bit, thoughts?
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This is amazing. Thanks a lot.
The issue I am having is converting the old profile to the new one. -
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Allen, liking or bookmarking posts doesn't work.
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Nice to see you guys shipping again!
RE profile: I already have a product page on IH, would love to link it instead of recreating it. -
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Hi @csallen,
Congrats on the new features! I like most of these but not sure about the current profiles approach.
Here are some features suggestions:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-indie-hackers-is-not-developing-improving-1238187870Best of luck!
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Awesome feature!
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I am in complete agreement regarding the utilization of a shortened domain name. Moreover, it is important to me my featured posts are visible, effectively transforming it into my link-tree for indiehacking.
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Love it, made mine.
I'd like to add images, maybe a screenshot of my landing page to show my H1 -
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This is interesting, just created mine :)
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@csallen that's a fantastic idea.
Would love to see the following:
- Addition of social media: Twitter, Linkedin
- Addition of podcast features: a lot of indie's have podcasts, so it'd be great to list them
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Just set up my profile & love how clean + straightforward it is. Nice work @csallen 💪 I'll continue to set up and add some feedback.
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This update is really great! Love it! Just set up my profile page.
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Congrats! I definitely hear ya about it feeling good to be shipping again. Personally I've been looking for an idea to pursue for a little over a month now and am really excited to decide on something and start shipping.
Some constructive feedback: I think it'd be helpful to be more concrete about what exactly it is that you hypothesize people need here. An easy way to show people a list of the projects you're working on? You've worked on in the past? MRR? How successful you are?
And relatedly, what concrete scenarios do you have in mind for when someone would need this? Networking with other indie hackers? Trying to appear as a podcast guest?
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There are a variety of use cases, and you listed some of the biggest one.
Before working on this, I mostly learned by looking at the websites many IHers had already created for themselves and linked to from their Twitter bios + talking to the people behind them.
Now that things are live, I'm augmenting that learning by collecting as much feedback as possible, and messaging the people who send it.
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Love this, just created mine!
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This is interesting. good job.
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That is great, but can you just let us downvote people who post spam already!?
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Nice! Good feature
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Great.. it was long awaited!
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Good idea Courtland - thank you!
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Awesome! Its great to see you adding new things ❤️ all the best.
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I like the direction you are heading in here. Boy does it feel good to be early and claim your first name as well!
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I really love where this is going. The thing is, I can't claim my page, clicked the button a lot and nothing happens. Eager to be among the first people in, especially when a guy like me removed his whole LinkedIn profile info and career because it's been boring and kind of spammy. Good luck :)
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Awesome! Its great to see you adding new things ❤️ all the best.
Adding your post to my newsletter 🙂
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