From 1a7189cc3264a1b7efc9abbc2d5d97bee3123061 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: root Date: Mon, 25 May 2026 13:35:55 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] docs: add STATUS.md and MARKETING.md MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit STATUS.md — full project state, what's done, what's left, deployment checklist, key commands, architecture notes MARKETING.md — go-to-market plan with positioning, target audience, competitive analysis, 90-day content calendar, launch checklist, pricing strategy, metrics --- MARKETING.md | 305 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ STATUS.md | 242 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 547 insertions(+) create mode 100644 MARKETING.md create mode 100644 STATUS.md diff --git a/MARKETING.md b/MARKETING.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14b6dd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/MARKETING.md @@ -0,0 +1,305 @@ +# Analytics Platform — Marketing Plan + +> Version 1.0 — 2026-05-25 + +--- + +## 1. Product Overview + +A self-hosted, privacy-focused web analytics platform. Users install a lightweight JavaScript snippet and get real-time dashboards, goal tracking, funnels, segments, alerts, and a full API — without sending visitor data to Google, Meta, or any third party. + +**Core value proposition:** The power of Google Analytics, with the privacy of Plausible, at a price that scales with your hosting costs rather than your traffic. + +--- + +## 2. The Problem We Solve + +- **Privacy regulations** (GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy) make GA4 legally risky in many markets — especially for EU-based businesses +- **GA4 is genuinely hard to use** — it's built for enterprise advertisers, not product teams or indie developers +- **Third-party SaaS analytics is expensive at scale** — Plausible, Fathom, and Mixpanel charge $9–$999/month based on pageviews or events +- **Self-hosted alternatives are limited** — Umami and Matomo exist but lack goals, funnels, segments, and API access in their free tiers + +Our platform gives technical users a full-featured analytics stack they own and control, deployed on their own infrastructure. + +--- + +## 3. Target Audience + +### Primary — Indie Developers & Solo SaaS Founders +- Building products and tired of paying per-pageview fees +- Care about user privacy and GDPR compliance +- Comfortable self-hosting on a $5–20/month VPS +- Want real metrics: funnels, goals, conversion rates — not just pageviews +- Often run multiple projects and want one analytics instance for all of them + +### Secondary — Small Agencies (2–20 person) +- Managing analytics for 5–50 client websites +- Frustrated by the cost of per-site SaaS tools at scale +- Want white-label or multi-tenant capability +- Need API access to build client-facing dashboards or reports + +### Tertiary — Privacy-Conscious Businesses +- Companies under strict data residency requirements (EU, healthcare, finance) +- Marketing teams that have been told to remove GA4 by legal +- Businesses that have made privacy a public-facing value + +### Who This Is NOT For (yet) +- Large enterprises with dedicated analytics teams (need Snowflake, dbt, Looker) +- Non-technical users who can't manage a server +- Teams that need mobile app SDKs (web only for now) + +--- + +## 4. Competitive Landscape + +| Product | Model | Price | Self-hosted | Goals/Funnels | API | +|---|---|---|---|---|---| +| **Google Analytics 4** | Free (you are the product) | Free | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | +| **Plausible** | SaaS | $9–$19+/mo | ✅ (paid) | Limited | ✅ | +| **Fathom** | SaaS | $14+/mo | ❌ | Limited | ✅ | +| **Matomo** | Open source / SaaS | Free self-hosted | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | +| **Umami** | Open source | Free self-hosted | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | +| **Mixpanel** | SaaS | $0–$999+/mo | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | +| **Our Platform** | Open source | Free self-hosted | ✅ | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | + +### Our Differentiators +1. **Full feature set, free** — goals, funnels, segments, alerts, custom dashboards, annotations, API — all included, no paid tiers +2. **One instance, unlimited websites** — no per-site pricing +3. **Developer-first API** — pull any metric programmatically for dashboards or integrations +4. **Laravel ecosystem** — easy for PHP/Laravel developers to customize, extend, and contribute +5. **Truly self-hosted** — your data never leaves your server + +--- + +## 5. Positioning Statement + +**For** indie developers, SaaS founders, and small agencies **who** are frustrated by the cost, complexity, or privacy implications of existing analytics tools, **our platform is** a self-hosted web analytics solution **that** gives them full-featured, GDPR-compliant analytics — goals, funnels, segments, and API access — deployed on their own infrastructure in under 10 minutes. **Unlike** Plausible or Fathom, **we** don't charge per pageview and don't hold your data. + +--- + +## 6. Pricing Strategy + +The platform is **free and open source**. Revenue comes from value-added services: + +### Tier 1 — Self-Hosted (Free, Open Source) +- Full platform, unlimited websites, unlimited data +- Community support (GitHub issues, Discord) +- You manage hosting + +### Tier 2 — Managed Hosting (Future — $9/mo) +- We host it for you on our infrastructure +- Automatic updates, backups, uptime monitoring +- Email support +- Positioned against Plausible/Fathom on price + +### Tier 3 — Business Hosting (Future — $29/mo) +- Managed hosting + priority support +- Custom domain for tracker script (CDN included) +- SLA, audit logs +- Targeted at agencies managing client analytics + +### Why Open Source First +- Builds trust through transparency (critical for a privacy tool) +- Community contributions improve the product faster +- Developers try it free → recommend it → agencies pay for managed hosting +- OSS projects in this space (Umami, Matomo) have strong long-term growth + +--- + +## 7. Go-to-Market Strategy + +### Phase 1 — Launch (Months 1–2) + +**Goal:** Get 500 GitHub stars and 100 self-hosted installs. + +**Channels:** + +- **Product Hunt launch** — Submit on a Tuesday morning (US time). Write a detailed maker story about why you built it. Reply to every comment within 24 hours. +- **Hacker News Show HN** — Write a technical post explaining the architecture decisions (why Laravel, why self-hosted, how the aggregation pipeline works). Devs respect specifics. +- **Reddit** — Post in r/selfhosted, r/privacy, r/webdev, r/Laravel, r/Entrepreneur. Be genuinely helpful, not promotional. Show the product solving a real problem. +- **Dev.to / Hashnode article** — "I built a Google Analytics alternative in Laravel — here's how the data pipeline works." Technical depth attracts developers who will self-host and share. +- **Twitter/X** — Share the launch, post screenshots of the dashboard, engage with #buildinpublic and #Laravel communities. + +**Launch content to prepare:** +- A 90-second screen-recorded demo video (no voiceover, just the UI with captions) +- A live demo instance at `demo.youranalytics.app` pre-seeded with realistic data +- A 1-click deploy button for Railway, Render, or DigitalOcean App Platform +- A `docker-compose.yml` so developers can run it in one command + +--- + +### Phase 2 — Growth (Months 3–6) + +**Goal:** 2,000 GitHub stars, 500 active installs, 50 managed hosting customers. + +**SEO — Long-tail content strategy:** + +Write in-depth comparison articles and tutorials that rank for searches developers actually make: + +| Article Title | Target Keyword | Intent | +|---|---|---| +| "Google Analytics vs Self-Hosted: Why I Switched" | `self-hosted analytics` | Awareness | +| "Plausible Alternative: Full-Featured and Free" | `plausible alternative` | Comparison | +| "GDPR-Compliant Analytics Without Cookies" | `gdpr analytics no cookies` | Pain point | +| "How to Self-Host Web Analytics on a $5 VPS" | `self host analytics` | How-to | +| "Laravel Web Analytics — Building a Tracker from Scratch" | `laravel analytics` | Developer | +| "Matomo vs [Our Platform]: Which Should You Use?" | `matomo alternative` | Comparison | +| "How I Track Conversions Without Google" | `track conversions without google analytics` | Pain point | + +**Community building:** +- Open a Discord server — #announcements, #support, #showcase, #dev +- Monthly "what are you tracking?" thread on Discord/GitHub Discussions +- Publish a public roadmap (GitHub Projects or Linear) +- Recognize contributors on a CONTRIBUTORS page and in release notes + +**Developer relations:** +- Publish an integration guide for major frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, WordPress) +- Write an "extending the platform" post — how to add a custom report or data source +- Offer a "built with" badge for developers using the platform on their sites + +--- + +### Phase 3 — Monetization (Months 6–12) + +**Goal:** Launch managed hosting, reach $2,000 MRR. + +**Managed hosting launch sequence:** +1. Announce to existing community first — offer 30-day free trial, no credit card +2. Reach out personally to power users who have filed GitHub issues or starred the repo +3. Product Hunt launch #2: "Managed hosting for [Platform] — your analytics, zero maintenance" +4. Write a comparison post: "Self-hosting vs managed: what's the real cost of your time?" + +**Partnership opportunities:** +- Approach Laravel Forge, Ploi, or Coolify about a one-click deploy integration +- Reach out to Laravel News for a sponsored post or feature +- Partner with privacy-focused hosting providers (Hetzner, Contabo, Greenhost) for joint content +- Offer an affiliate program for influencers in the self-hosting / indie hacker space + +**Agency channel:** +- Create an "Agency Partner" page — explain multi-client dashboard capabilities +- Reach out directly to 50 small agencies who post about GDPR/analytics on Twitter/LinkedIn +- Offer bulk pricing and white-labeling for agencies managing 20+ sites + +--- + +## 8. Content Calendar (First 90 Days) + +| Week | Content | Channel | +|---|---|---| +| 1 | Launch post — "I built a GDPR-compliant analytics platform" | HN, Reddit, Dev.to | +| 1 | Product Hunt submission | Product Hunt | +| 2 | Demo video (90 seconds, no voiceover) | Twitter, LinkedIn | +| 3 | Tutorial: "Deploy in 10 minutes on a $5 VPS" | Blog, Dev.to, YouTube | +| 4 | "How I built the data pipeline" (technical deep-dive) | HN, Dev.to | +| 5 | Comparison: "vs Plausible" | Blog, SEO | +| 6 | Integration guide: Next.js | Blog, r/nextjs | +| 7 | Comparison: "vs Matomo" | Blog, SEO | +| 8 | "3 months of building in public" update | Twitter, HN | +| 9 | Integration guide: WordPress | Blog, r/Wordpress | +| 10 | Webinar: "Self-hosted analytics for GDPR compliance" | LinkedIn Live | +| 11 | Community showcase — what users are tracking | Blog, Discord | +| 12 | Roadmap reveal — what's coming in the next quarter | GitHub, Discord | + +--- + +## 9. Distribution Channels — Priority Order + +| Channel | Effort | Expected Reach | Priority | +|---|---|---|---| +| GitHub (quality README + OSS) | Low | Very high (developer discovery) | 🔴 Critical | +| Hacker News Show HN | Low | High | 🔴 Critical | +| Product Hunt | Medium | High | 🔴 Critical | +| Reddit (r/selfhosted, r/webdev) | Low | Medium | 🟡 High | +| SEO / blog content | High | Very high (long-term) | 🟡 High | +| Twitter/X #buildinpublic | Low | Medium | 🟡 High | +| Dev.to / Hashnode | Medium | Medium | 🟡 High | +| YouTube tutorials | High | High (long-term) | 🟢 Medium | +| LinkedIn | Medium | Medium (agencies) | 🟢 Medium | +| Newsletter sponsorships (TLDR, Bytes) | High (cost) | High | 🟢 Medium | +| Laravel News | Low | High (niche) | 🟢 Medium | +| Podcast appearances | Medium | Medium | ⚪ Low | + +--- + +## 10. Key Metrics + +### Awareness +- GitHub stars (target: 500 at end of month 2, 2,000 at end of month 6) +- Website unique visitors/month +- Organic search impressions + +### Acquisition +- GitHub clones/downloads +- Docker Hub pulls +- New self-hosted installs (estimated from tracking snippet registrations) +- Managed hosting signups + +### Activation +- % of signups who add a website within 24 hours +- % who receive their first tracking event within 48 hours + +### Retention +- Weekly active installs (websites with at least one event in 7 days) +- Managed hosting monthly churn rate (target: <3%) + +### Revenue (Phase 3+) +- MRR — managed hosting subscriptions +- ARPU — average revenue per managed hosting customer +- LTV:CAC ratio (target: >3:1) + +--- + +## 11. Messaging — Copy Bank + +### Taglines +- "Your analytics. Your server. Your data." +- "The analytics platform Google doesn't want you to build." +- "Full-featured. Self-hosted. Free forever." +- "Stop paying per pageview. Own your data." +- "Privacy-first analytics for people who care about both words." + +### One-liner for directories and bios +> A self-hosted, open-source web analytics platform with real-time dashboards, goals, funnels, segments, and a full API — GDPR-compliant by design. + +### Pain-point headlines (for landing page A/B tests) +- "GA4 is confusing. Cookie banners are annoying. There's a better way." +- "Why are you still paying $19/month per website for basic analytics?" +- "Your visitors' data shouldn't live on Google's servers." +- "Analytics that respects your users — and your budget." + +--- + +## 12. Launch Checklist + +- [ ] Write a comprehensive GitHub README with screenshots, quick-start, and feature list +- [ ] Create a live demo instance at `demo.youranalytics.app` with realistic seed data +- [ ] Record a 90-second demo video (dashboard walkthrough, no talking needed) +- [ ] Write `docker-compose.yml` for one-command local setup +- [ ] Submit a one-click deploy to Railway or Render +- [ ] Set up a landing page (separate from the app) with pricing and docs +- [ ] Open GitHub Discussions for community support +- [ ] Create a Discord server +- [ ] Write the Product Hunt submission (tagline, description, first comment) +- [ ] Write the Hacker News Show HN post +- [ ] Prepare 5 Reddit posts tailored to each subreddit's culture +- [ ] Write a launch blog post on Dev.to +- [ ] Build a list of 50 relevant Twitter/LinkedIn accounts to engage with at launch +- [ ] Set up Google Search Console and submit sitemap +- [ ] Schedule the Product Hunt launch for a Tuesday at 00:01 PST + +--- + +## 13. Risk & Mitigation + +| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation | +|---|---|---|---| +| Crowded market (Umami, Matomo) | High | Medium | Differentiate on full feature set + developer experience | +| "Just use Plausible" objections | High | Low | Free self-hosting undercuts their price argument entirely | +| Self-hosting barrier too high | Medium | High | One-click deploy, `docker-compose`, managed hosting option | +| Feature parity with GA4 expected | Medium | Medium | Clearly scope to product analytics, not advertising attribution | +| Laravel not seen as "serious" for analytics | Low | Medium | Technical blog content showing architecture depth | +| Maintenance burden for OSS | Medium | High | Clear contribution guide, automated testing, small focused scope | + +--- + +*This plan is a living document. Revisit and update after each major milestone.* diff --git a/STATUS.md b/STATUS.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed070de --- /dev/null +++ b/STATUS.md @@ -0,0 +1,242 @@ +# Analytics Platform — Project Status + +> Last updated: 2026-05-25 + +--- + +## What Is This + +A self-hosted web analytics platform built with Laravel 11 — a privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics or Plausible. Users add a lightweight JavaScript snippet to their website and get real-time dashboards, AI-ready data pipelines, goal/funnel tracking, and a full REST API. + +--- + +## Tech Stack + +| Layer | Choice | +|---|---| +| Backend | Laravel 11, PHP 8.2+ | +| Auth | Laravel Fortify (2FA ready) | +| Frontend | Blade + Alpine.js + Tailwind CSS | +| Charts | Chart.js | +| Database | SQLite (dev) / MySQL or PostgreSQL (prod) | +| Queue | Database driver (dev) / Redis + Horizon (prod) | +| API | Laravel Sanctum (token auth) | +| Geolocation | stevebauman/location | +| Bot detection | jaybizzle/crawler-detect | +| Build | Vite | + +--- + +## Feature Status + +### ✅ Done — Core Platform + +**Authentication & Users** +- Registration, login, password reset, email verification via Fortify +- Two-factor authentication support +- Profile management +- API token management (Sanctum) + +**Website Management** +- Full CRUD for tracked websites +- Embed snippet page with copy-ready `