🪄 How JotBot grew to $50k MRR in 6 months using Super Long Domains

Hey,

The Spells Master is back!

Welcome to the 108th issue.

Today's topics:

1. How JotBot grew to $50k MRR in 6 months using Super Long Domains

2. A tool to Buy and Sell Newsletters

3. One recommended video on Building A $1M SaaS In 87 Days

How JotBot grew to $50k MRR in 6 months using Super Long Domains

JotBot reached $50k MRR in 6 months using an unconventional marketing strategy.

They got to $25k MRR in 2 months by going viral on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.

JotBot has 100 million impressions across short form platforms, 1 million users and almost $400k in sales with $0 ad spend.

1. Super Long Domains

Declan and Derrick never had any success with any of their previous launches.

They tried EVERYTHING from a Social Alarm Clock App (YouUp) to an AI voice alarm (Avo Alaram) to a gratefulness journal to an AI Tutor for Special Ed to a habit app (Slate) to an AI Notes app (Minutes) to Sneaker Resellers (Steady Soles) but nothing worked.

They tried making dozens of short-form videos on TikToks, Reels, and Shorts daily trying to market all these apps.

They made 3 videos a day everyday for weeks but it was brutal as nothing really worked.

One of their friends told them to focus on one thing and they decided to focus on JotBot.

One day Declan came up with an video idea sitting on a toilet.

He yelled out to Derrick, "yo, we should just get a super long and specific URL like ihaveanessaydueatmidnight.com and direct traffic to our site."

So Derrick recorded the dumb video without expecting anything. They had no hopes as nothing else was working so they didn't even buy the domain.

But after a few hours, the video on reels got 30K views so they bought the domain and started getting traffic.

That video peaked at 7 million views.

So they remade the video with the exact same script and got another 10 million views.

Then they paid a friend to make similar videos and got another 2 million.

Their domains are hilarious:

1. ihaveanessaydueatmidnightthatireallydontwanttodo.com

2. ihave18tabsopenforthisresearchpaperthatsduetonight.com

3. ihaveanessayatmidnightthatireallydontwanttodo.com

4. 10pagepaperisat0pagesrightnow.com

5. thisstupidessayiswaytoolong.com

They bought like 100+ long domains like this and redirected them to the main one.

You can find them by scrolling through their YouTube & TikTok channels.

As with any kind of marketing, the novelty wore off and these videos stopped working. But they got the initial user base through this single video script.

2. Repost Viral Videos to Meme Accounts

JotBot gave the viral videos a second life by taking their most viral content to relevant Instagram Meme Pages.

They paid them to repost the same videos.

These Meme Pages are relatively dirt cheap considering the size of these accounts because they are mostly ran by teenagers trying to earn some pocket change.

So when you have a viral winner, it's a steal to repost.

You can check their handles to find their top most videos:

1. Instagram: @myjotbot

2. TikTok: @jotbot.official

3. YouTube: @SLAMVentures

3. Multiple TikTok Accounts

Since followers don't matter anymore on any social platform except LinkedIn, the way to reach more people is to create multiple different accounts to go viral.

Media Scaling Team made an entire agency around this concept and gets 1 billion organic views for their clients like Kinobody and Matt Gray in 180 days. They have only a handful of clients and are already on track to making $1 million per year.

This worked for Tabs Chocolate as an E-Commerce App but it works much better for Ed-Tech SaaS (Studybuddy) since you get recurring revenue with SaaS.

And it worked for JotBot too.

3. Pivot from Cheating Tool to Useful Tool

Since its a student tool, they had a drop in momentum due to winter break.

But since Jotbot was simply a cheating tool for students to get mediocre AI generated essays, it didn't have great retention.

So they went from being a cheating tool to an actually useful tool for students.

Now its positioned towards writing and research.

Currently, it has 3 use cases: AI-Assisted writing, Draft Generation, and Note Taking.

They brought in a 3rd cofounder recently to help them take past $100k MRR.

Their growth is impeccable. They faced some hurdles like getting scammed by one of their affiliates for $2000 who bought Google Ads on their own branded keyword but all in all they have a useful business with tons of growth potential.

It isn't recommended to sell to students but students buy from influencers who sell the dream of better grades and productivity. Hopium is a hell of a drug.

A tool to Buy and Sell Newsletters

Duuce is a tool to buy and sell newsletters.

If you own a SaaS or have Digital Products to sell, buy a newsletter in that specific niche.

Once you create valuable media for your audience, they automatically trust you with your other products if they have a need for it.

Trust and Likability affects the bottomline.

One recommended video on Building A $1M SaaS In 87 Days

This video gives the blueprint to build a $1M SaaS in a short amount of time.

And its insane how they picked the idea by tweaking just one little thing from the big players. Excellent framework when you own the niche through a media company.

Prediction: It will cross $1m MRR within the next 2 years.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Whenever Tara gives startup advice, take a picture and stick it to the wall.

This is a decade worth of advice summed up in a few words.

2/

If you are a SaaS founder, now is the time to outreach influencers.

They have the money to build SaaS and they have insane distribution.

If Mr.Beast gets even 10,000 YouTubers to use ViewStats for $49/month, he is at a $6M ARR run-rate.

And if there's anyone who knows how to game YouTube to go viral, its Mr.Beast.

After all, he is the #1 YouTuber in the world with 300 million YouTube Subscribers.

Rabbit Holes

1. The definitive SaaS homepage framework - It is insane so many entrepreneurs think that if they just build it, customers will come. You need to have a good product and you need good copywriting. A stranger won't look at your website more than 5-10 seconds. If they don't find it useful in that timeframe, you are out of their sight and out of their mind. Don't make it clever, make it clear.

2. SaaS B2C: What's your #1 marketing strategy? - B2C is a hard game to play. If you have ever tried selling to individuals, you would know. B2B SaaS is where the money and the blood pressure remains stable.

3. Switched to Claude 3.5 - Claude is better than ChatGPT right now but you would only know it if you are in the AI Bubble. The normies (or should I say outies?) only know and use ChatGPT. The average person including me doesn't use ChatGPT as often as they should. $20 per month for an expert in your pocket is insane. Use AI more often than you are doing right now.

Until next time,

Your Spells Master!

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Read all the old case studies here.

More Startup Spells 🪄

1. The Diary Of A CEO's Genius Thumbnail Strategy using Meta Ads (LINK)

2. 1 Billion Organic Views in 180 Days (LINK)

3. Exposing Erika Kullberg's 21 million followers Growth Strategy (LINK)