Hey, I’m Josh.
I write about doing SEO and content marketing for complicated software products, especially now that AI is a thing.
What I’m up to now…
- Co-founder of Chirr App: a Twitter marketing tool for teams.
- Working on Chirr App’s content game. Here’s what I have so far.
- Starting a new project called Daisy Chain, it’s an AI-workflow editor.
- Also taking my homemade ramen seriously over at @scorchedgarlic
Last updated Apr 5th 2023.
My story in 7 bullet points…
- Started my career as a corrective exercise coach for people with severe back pain.
- After 7 years as a physical therapist, I needed a change. I dabbled on the design side of things for a year or two, and UX (whatever that means), but I eventually gravitated towards the tech.
- At 27, I pulled the trigger and I taught myself how to code.
- Worked as a freelance software engineer for about 5 years.
- I realized that I enjoyed the product side of software development much more than engineering. I gradually began to focus on helping companies improve their user retention metrics. Eventually, I switched to becoming a consultant full-time.
- At some point along the way, I began using a tool called Chirr App to write Twitter threads. Reached out to the founder, Sasha Koss, and shared my appreciation. We became friends. A year later, I joined the project as a co-founder.
- Sasha and I now work on Chirr App full-time. We’re a tiny bootstrapped team of 3 and we’re working hard to build a tool that helps teams promote your work on Twitter.
Some useful guides I wrote
The focus of this blog changes over time. It depends on where I’m at in life and what I’m working on. I’ve done my best to distill the practical lessons from each phase into a collection of useful guides that cover everything I’ve learned about growing software products so far.
- Storytelling in marketing
- The user retention audit
- Customer discovery in the context of existing products
- Writing design
- A high-converting landing page
- Techincal SEO for web apps
- Writing copy for websites
Stuff I’ve published elsewhere
- Building 100 backlinks on the Katlinks blog
- A/B Testing The Words In Your Product on Usability Geek
- Webform design best practices in Bootcamp
- Tell me when to use it in the UX Collective
- A podcast interview I did about freelancing
- Everything else…
Other fun projects…
- May 2022 – How I’m getting my brain to focus again
- Feb 2022 – Using Twitter for business
- July 2021 – Growth Marketing mini-degree
- June 2021 – A guide to doing customer interviews
- Apr 2021 – Everything I know about user retention
- Feb 2021 – A 6-week group learning resolution
- Sep 2020 – 12 Weeks of Conversion Rate Optimization
- June 2019 – Building 21st Night’s learning software
- Nov 2016 – Behind the Scenes of the Beeminder Redesign
- May 2015 – Learning to Code at 27
- Dec 2014 – Barsoom- Launching a restaurant
- Nov 2014 – When pandas attack – releasing an album
- Jan 2014 – Building one business a month
- May 2013 – Learning how to file a patent
- Jan 2013 – An Open Discussion On Gender Crime
- Aug 2012 – Flipside – marketing for a small cafe
- July 2012 – How to Make 100 Friends in a Month
- Apr 2012 – How To Make A Handbag
- Dec 2011 – Helping Google
- Oct 2011 – Designing A Fashion Collection