🙅‍♀️ No Free Rides

After the fun I was having using Lovable to code up a tool, I decided to try Bolt to see how it compares.

Lovable is much easier to use a noob. And less frustrating.

And I’ve been waiting over 24 hours for a custom domain to propagate and work for a tool I worked on with Bolt. I maybe have to just recreate the whole thing in Lovable.

Or maybe AI coding tools aren’t worth the hassle?

At the end of the day, I don’t really know what I’m doing and Bolt has forced to me actually learn some stuff (like making sense of console errors in Chrome and getting Stripe webhooks to actually work.)

The problem is that it’s not necessarily cheap to learn/use these tools. I started out on the lowest plan with each and had to move up to the next plans fairly quickly.

So, if you build something that works as planned then you’re looking at $25-$50/month to keep it live. But a Hostinger Cloud plan for your WordPress sites renews at $25.99/mo, so is this a waste of time?

That’s my brain dump on that, so let’s switch gears.

More on that in moment…

…

It’s Day ??? of me making a real effort to scale Growth Cupid. Got replies from two warm leads that had reached out. I think one (not a local biz) will end up being a client but I think the other one (a local biz) doesn’t have the budget. (If you want more details, I’m going a bit more in depth in my Skool community.)

(Quick reminder - you can see my recent emails in the archive here)

Potential Commissions Don’t Pay Bills

I get so tired of companies that are making money reaching out to creators and expecting free work.

And they always spin it the same way - that they’ll let you into their “lucrative” affiliate program.

Oh, you want me to do marketing for you so that you can spend nothing while I spend time and money to make you money? And maybe you’ll toss 20% my way?

Almost a month ago the head of partnerships at well-known brand reached out to me. Probably because I already use and promote one of their WordPress themes as an affiliate.

They’ve got this AI automation tool that they want me to promote …. as an affiliate play.

I checked it out to see if it’s anything of interest to me or that I thought my audience might be interested in.

Maybe? I think I could record a few videos on it. But it’s only worth my time if I get a free account out of it. Or get paid upfront.

So, a week after the initial email I proposed the free account with me promising some tutorial vids.

The response?

I didn’t get one. It’s been just over two weeks since I sent that proposal.

Surprise level: existent.

Coming up…

More on what I’m working on and how it’s going.

Stay awesome,

Shawna

P.S. If you or someone you know needs local SEO help, I do pay for referrals to Growth Cupid. So reach out to me!

Some links may be affiliate links. I 💖 you if you use one!