How I developed a content surplus

May 9, 2025

Hello and welcome to another Friday! I hope you had a great week and that you were able to make a lot of progress toward your goals. I did this week as well and am feeling good about that going into this weekend.

I started my week off strong in terms of content creation. As a part of the plan to quit my job, I am working on a checklist of daily tasks to complete. One of those is to write one more piece of scheduled content per day than I post. Since I am scheduling three per day (two on weekends), I want to write four per day. To me this feels more achievable than scheduling 25-minute blocks of pure content writing.

Writing four posts a day five days a week gives me 20 posts at the end of every week. I am scheduling three per day five days a week, and two per day two days a week, which means I am scheduling 19 posts per week. This gives me a surplus of one post per week, which isn’t the most comfortable place to be in, especially since I am going on vacation in about a month from now, so I might need to write an additional 1-2 posts per day over the next few weeks.

The key to account growth

In addition, I have tried to start engaging (replying to other people’s posts) three times for every scheduled post. This basically means I’m replying to at least nine other posts per day. It feels like a lot sometimes, but the reality is that it goes pretty fast. Engagement is an activity that I feel works well within the 25-minute timed block, and once I get going I actually really enjoy doing it, but it can be hard to get started, especially on depression days.

Regardless, this system is working really well for me so far. It’s keeping me consistent, on track every day, and it’s really nice looking at a queue full of posts that haven’t even gone out yet and I still have posts for the day to write. So I’m gonna keep it up.

Why I’m not using Google for auth anymore

I also continued working on the sticker chart app this week. I snagged the domain stickerch.art which is where you can now find the app as I build it. I also spent some time at the start of the week changing up the auth. Previously, and for Time Protector as well, I was using a combination of “magic link” auth via emails sent by Resend, and Google auth as well. However, as I started to set up those things for this project, I immediately started to notice some limitations.

For starters, with the Google auth I needed to create a whole new project in the Google Cloud console to be able to create a new app with the correct branding for stickerch.art, because it’s one app per project. As I was creating the new project, I noticed that there is a limit of 10 projects you can create as a free user, of which I would already have used two. My plan is to diversify here, to create as many apps as possible in a short period of time, and to do it as cheaply as possible. I would run into this limitation almost immediately, and while I could potentially manage separate google accounts for each individual app, that felt like a pain, and so I decided to just take the plunge and get rid of Google auth.

Finding a cheap and effective email provider

I also immediately ran into a limitation with Resend. I was setting up the magic link auth, and needed to configure a from email address, which would require me adding a domain to Resend. No problem, or so I figured, since when I tried to add another domain I received a popup that the free plan only includes a single domain, and that I would need to upgrade to the Pro plan for a new limit of a whopping 10 domains. Again, I’m going to need more than 10, and Resend is already charging $20/month just for that number, so I needed to find something that was a better fit.

A dark-themed modal window titled "Upgrade to add new domains" is displayed on a dark background. The modal informs the user that their current plan includes 1 domain and encourages them to upgrade for more. Below this, a "Pro" plan is advertised for $20 per month, offering features such as Ticket Support, 3-day Data Retention, 10 Domains, and No daily limit. A prominent "Upgrade now" button is positioned at the bottom of this section. Below the plan details, smaller text reads "Need a bigger plan? See all plans." An "X" icon is located in the top right corner of the modal to close it, and a globe icon is situated at the top center.

I started by looking at the different email providers Auth.js has built into it, since that is what I’m using for auth in all my projects.

The image displays a dark-themed interface showing various email service providers. The providers are represented with their logos, including Forward, Resend, Sendgrid, Nodemailer, Postmark, Loops, and Mailgun. Each logo is enclosed in a rounded square with a dark background.

I took a look through all of them pretty carefully and weighed all my options, but Forward Email felt like a standout to me from the beginning. For just $3/month you get unlimited domains, unlimited aliases (login@stickerch.art vs. info@stickerch.art), plus all kinds of other benefits. That’s so cheap I’d have been hard-pressed to NOT try it. So far I’ve been really pleased with it, though I obviously haven’t used it much yet. There is a limit of 300 emails/day, so we’ll see what it looks like when I start getting some traction with some of my apps, but for now that feels like plenty.

Building dynamic controls that are also easy to use

I also did a lot of work this week on the configuration control for sticker charts in the app. It’s the control used to start new charts, or to configure existing ones. It allows users to configure the name on the chart, the number of rows and columns, the background and border colors, as well as the sticker that is used.

A light green vertical panel with dark green text and icons is shown on a light brown background. The panel lists several attributes with corresponding editable values and pencil icons next to each value. The attributes listed are "Name" with a pencil icon, "Rows" with the value "1" and a pencil icon, "Columns" with the value "1" and a pencil icon, another instance of "Columns" with the value "1" and a pencil icon, "Background" with a circular swatch of a light beige color and a pencil icon, "Border" with a circular swatch of a dark gray color and a pencil icon, and "Sticker" with a yellow star icon and a pencil icon.

Clicking the pencil next to each attribute opens an editor dialog I created that displays dynamically a different control depending on which attribute is being edited.

A light green rectangular modal window is centered on a light brown background. The modal contains a light beige empty text input field with a thin blue border at the top. In the center of the modal, there is a red circular icon containing a stylized image of a floppy disk. A black "X" close button is located in the upper right corner of the modal.

A light green rectangular modal window is centered on a light brown background. Inside the modal, a large blue number "1" is displayed vertically between a dark green upward-pointing arrow above it and a dark green downward-pointing arrow below it. Below the arrows and number, there is a red circular icon containing a stylized image of a floppy disk. A black "X" close button is located in the upper right corner of the modal.

The method for changing the values for the attributes is as simple as clicking an up or down arrow.

A light green rectangular modal window is centered on a light brown background. Inside the modal, a circle displaying a selected color is displayed vertically between a dark green upward-pointing arrow above it and a dark green downward-pointing arrow below it. The cursor is clicking the up arrow to cycle through several different colors available for selection. Below the arrows and number, there is a red circular icon containing a stylized image of a floppy disk. A black "X" close button is located in the upper right corner of the modal.

This control took me the better part of a day, and while it’s still not 100%, I am pretty pleased with where it’s at right now. Beyond that, I spend some time refactoring some of the existing UI so that it was more consistent across the app, and so that I could evoke more of a “post-it notes on a corkboard” type feel when looking at it. It’s still a work-in-progress, and I’m hoping to start on the actual Stripe integration next week. I’ve tinkered with Stripe’s API several times, but never have I ever had anything go into Production, so I’m keen to get that going and get this thing live.

And that’s pretty much it for me this week! I’m in a good spot going into the weekend. It will likely be another busy one for us! Our oldest is in two state finals band & orchestra competitions on Saturday, and Sunday is Mother’s Day. Hope you have a great one, hug your mom, and we’ll talk next week!