Updated on Feb 2, 2021 – I’ve launched the project – QuickXLS.com. Take a look.
I am a content marketing consultant by day. So, the other day, I was discussing with one of my clients about what keywords we should be targeting next.
I had a couple of keywords in mind. So, I pulled out the relevant metrics from Ahrefs like the search volume and keyword difficulty and built a very simple spreadsheet. On Google Sheets.
Then, I clicked on the “Share” button, set the right viewing permissions, before sharing it with my client.
They had a quick look and we had moved forward with our discussion. Meanwhile, the spreadsheet I created now lies in my Google Drive gathering dust (metaphorically, of course).
What if there was a more disposable way to create spreadsheets? Something you don’t have to worry about organizing in your own physical or cloud drive?
This is the inspiration behind my next project idea.
I’m a big fan of simple projects that do one job well. I like to think of them as Input/Output sites – you input certain values, and the site processes data and outputs data for you to use.
My old project BridgeURL is a good example of this – you input a bunch of URLs and it outputs one link that links out to all these different pages.
Bitly is another good example. There are other relatively lesser known Input/Output apps I use a lot. One is Snipboard – you input a screenshot and output a URL that you can use to share this image. Others include Imgur (for all kinds of images), Wordcounter.net (to calculate words), and so on.
Every time I come with up one of these I/O project ideas, the first thing that I think of is how am I going to get traffic for this?
The problem with a site like Wordcounter is that you need to rank on Google or have another stream of traffic to have users. On the other hand, a project idea like Bitly, Imgur or BridgeURL works better for me because once I get to the first handful of users, they share the site with their friends and followers – thereby reaching a new audience each time the site is used.
For this reason, I am excited about this new project. People want an easy way to share spreadsheet or tables. And I want to provide them a nifty way to do it.
In my next post, I am going to give you more details about the process itself. The project specs document I created to build this project, how much it cost me to do, and will also share my thoughts on how I am going to get the word out to the first bunch of users.
