Welcome RedditHunter everybody!

Hi everyone!

Is with great pleasure that I present you another one of my creations - RedditHunter.com - Reddit Search Made Easy!

I just posted violently in a bunch of internet resources so be sure to check them:

Reddit/Entrepreneur (http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2k9slx/found_an_itch_to_scratch_reddit_hunter_was_born/)

"Last week I just found myself, while developing a brand new app, desperate with reddit search. The results were too cluttered and information like the comments and ups/downs were hard to track. After thinking to myself that reddit search was not satisfying me for the third time, I decided to take measures in my own hands. Searched the reddit api and started coding some javascript.

I then spent my whole Sunday coding, testing and getting through some cycles of trial and error. By the end of the day I had some satisfactory product and was pretty proud of it. After using it for some days I decided that this should go online, I added some information, some contacts and explanation and there you have it, my first scratched itch:

(www.redditHunter.com)

Hope you enjoy it!"

Reddit Sideproject (http://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/2k9t0t/reddit_hunter_reddit_search_made_easier/)

"Ever thought that Reddit search is a little bit disappointing?

After having that thought for the third time in a single day, I dedicated myself to create a clean, fresh interface for reddit searches. After some trial and error, some hours and a lot of sweat I present you www.reddithunter.com - Reddit Search made easy and clean 25 results at a time!

Give it a go, what do you think of it?"

HackerNews and ProductHunt were also attacked ;) so please, be sure to visit those sites and help me out by upvoting those posts, it would definetely help!

So, what do you think of my new project?

Big things coming... tomorrow!

Just to say friends, in the last few days, I´ve been working a lot!

It all started last Sunday when, for the third time in that morning, I was dissapointed with Reddit search. So I took measures in my own hands and developed my took on a new and fresh reddit search.

It's coming, just a few hours ;)

New app coming soon!

Hi everyone, I'm writing this post just to say that Aspiring Ninja is not dead and that the newest app is almost ready!

It will be called 'Lame O'Matic' and is basically a very simple app that generates random lame jokes.

Want a sneak preview??

"What did one ocean say to the other ocean? Nothing, they just waved."

This is the kind of thing you'll find there. It's almost ready, so be sure to check the blog in the next couple of days.

Sincerely
Aspiring Ninja, Cláudio R.

Post Challenge Musings and ideas

Hi everyone!

As promised I decided not to abandon this blog and I will be posting here all of my ideas and most recent projects.

Lately I've been thinking a lot, and to be honest I hope I hope I had this ideas earlier (during or before the challenge was the ideal time!). Since more or less the end of the challenge that this two ideas have been bouncing in my head.

The first one is a very simple product that would generate a base that could be used for thousands of ideas. The idea is simple, you have an XML file that contains information. Let's call the file our database, This could be anything, from recipes, to text, everything. Then, the next step is obvious, to build an XML parser that is powerfull enough to be extended to any kind of XML structure. This way, accessing the information in a file we have enough building room to build a lot of different applications.

(At this time, the first and simplest idea of them all is already being polished, so hope to see a new Aspiring Ninja App pretty soon!).

My second idea comes from a By-Product. I'm a big proponent of by products and think that they can grow everywhere. During the challenge I was carefully writing down every single problem I had and its resolution. I ended up with a pretty big list of common situations one can find while programming for Android.
The next step will be sharing this information with everybody. I'm still unsure what will be the method used but I will share this information and try to make the most out of it.

This is all for now, until next time I leave you with a phrase that has been in my head lately:

Do it! And do it now!

The 4 Days 4 Products Challenge - Wrap-up

Time to wrap-up, the 4 Days 4 Products Challenge is over.

I had fun, I really enjoyed this. It was challenging and mentally taxing but it was a pleasure. I can't even describe what I felt when I saw OWeather available in the store.
In the end I have a mix of accomplishment and non- accomplishment. I proposed myself to present 4 products by the end of this challenge, but I only was able to present 2 finished products and one idea. Kind of
2.5 products. And while I know this is a pretty good number it still left a sour taste in my mouth.

All in all I have achieved in 4 days:
- OWeather and OWeather plus available in the play store.
- OWeather.pt responsive website.
- 'Soccer Nerds' available in the playstore.
- Blog posts of all my experience throughout the 4 days.
- A selection of problems and technical wrokarounds I found while developing.
- A prototype of what I think is a great idea in which I will invest in the future.
- A full page in my notebook with suggestions to improve and update the apps that are already launched.

This is a pretty good start I would say.

I learned a lot in this 4 days, from how no to market something, to the value of a community, to marketing and design techniques and most importantly, my limits and abilities!

I would recommend everyone to try something like this, take some days out of your busy life and put yourself to test, you will be amazed with what you're able to achieve.

I decided that I will continue posting to this blog, everything business and developing related that I feel I should blog about, so keep checking, the journey has just started!

Sincerely,
Cláudio R.

Soccer Nerds - Avaliable in the PlayStore

Fans of soccer rejoice, the challenge second product is finally available in the playstore (I submitted it yesterday but had to wait until today for it to be avaliable).

Soccer Nerds is a soccer quiz where you have to guess the club given his logo from a number of possible choices. Results are given in percentage and it is a very fun way to spend some time.

Get it now in playstore!

The awesome logo was a creation of my dear friend and cousin Nélson Rodrigues and you can find more of his work right here! Be sure to check it out!

The Third Product (or sort of)

I want to take some time to talk toy you about my third product (there will be no fourth one, but for a good reason).

While trying to complete this project I had this wacky idea.

Consider you have a small business, like a pharmacy, or a pizzeria, and you want to start doing home deliveries. Now, you two options you either have someone taking those orders or you have to take them yourself.
Either way, it's one resource you're using to do that. It's a great idea, you think, but this resource costs money; and we all know that nowdays money is not the most abundant resource.

That's where my ida comes in, what if you have a service that takes care of that for you. Say, a mobile app, that takes a customer order (answering machine way), confirms it and sends an sms to you with the
said order? This would automate the process, saving a lot of money to a business. Also, Imagine how cool would it be saying to a customer "You want to order from home? Download our app!"

There are some problems that arise with this approach. First of all, there's no single serving. Each business has it's own necessities. So, there's not single solution that solves all problems, which means we would be selling a
service rather than a product. But it is actually a service that turns into a product. To understand the client necessities, and to turn those necessities into an app.

You understand where I'm at?

Because there was no solution to every problem, I thought about excluding this idea from the challenge, but that wouldn't be fair, actually, I really wanted to start working on this one.
I started thinking and sketching and I understood that this app would have 3 fundamental stages: Starting an interaction, recording the interaction results, send the results of the interaction. So, from the top of my head I
would be needing Speech-To-Text, Text-To-Speech and SMS sending.

With this in mind I started developing a prototype. And it went pretty good. Check out the screenshot below:

(Actually there's a connection problem in that screen ;)

I will consider this as half of a product, so at this moment I consider myself 2.5 products in ;)

What about the other 0.5?
Well, something like this needs a different approach, if I want to provide a service and not a product which you can launch and provide support on weekend, I need to have a plan, I need a way to get traction, a different way to
market it; a totally different approach. I am willing to take this jump, onbviously this will not happen in two or three days, but I will work on this idea and bring you some results soon.

P.S - I will provide the installer for the prototype I developed, so you can see for yourself what my idea is and where I am going with this.

P.S - I also have a fancy name for it, but I will not reveal it yet, I might want to buy that domain and I don't want anybody to get there faster than me ;)

Day 4 Update

Just finished publishing my second product into the play store. It might take a few hours until it is avalable and I will make a full fledged post at the time. The game was renamed to 'Soccer Nerds' as a suggestion of a great friend and it was just perfect.

While we patiently wait here's a sneak peak:

Do you know what club is it?

'The Ten Guesses Soccer Quizz'

As some of you might know it, my second product is just waiting for some art to be ready. While that does not happen, I've been working on my third product (which is rather exciting!). But because I don't want you guys to be waiting anymore I'm sharing some screenshots of my second product, the one I called 'The Ten Guesses Soccer Quizz'.

Behold:

 


It is a simple quiz where you have to guess which soccer club has the emblem. Quite fun actually!

This will be released as soon as the art is ready, so it will be a short wait (i think)!

OWeather.pt is online!

Finally, the domain is ready and I was able to put the website online. It's now official, my first product is finished, and already has some downloads, inastallations and feedback; thank you much guys!

Feel free to check the very simple OWeather Website. (also check it on your mobile device, I tried to make it as responsive as I could with the time I had).


The functionality on my second product is ready, but I'm strugling with design issues. I need a kick ass icon so I can publish it in the PlayStore but I'm not getting any help! Anyone wants to volunteer?

Please welcome OWeather and OWeather Plus!

Hi everyone!

Please welcome the first two results of the 4 Days 4 Products Challenge: OWeather and OWeather Plus!
Yes, they were already available this morning, but I was waiting for the ftp information to arrive so I could launch them and the website at the same time; but since the ftp is not yet ready I decided to just release the products!

What is OWeather?

Just take a look at the description:

"OWeather was designed to be the future of mobile Apps.

Simple, clean and beautiful this App was designed to do what it meants to and nothing else!

No more need to go through screens and screens of useless information before you get to what you need. OWeather gives you the weather in the minute of anyplace you want, whenever you need it."

Yes, simple, clean and clear weather information for the city of your choice. Doesn't it look good?

OWeather is available in is regular and Plus version ( which has more precise weather information and more attractive colors ) and you can find it on the PlayStore; just follow the links below:

OWeather OWeather Plus

I really hope that I can put the website up tomorrow, so I can close the first product of this challenge.

I've also been working on my second product, which is a game, a simple quiz game that involves soccer clubs and logos. It's looking good and I think that I might be able to finish it today (which would be great).

Feel free to check the OWeather applications, and happy downloads!

Sincerely,

Cláudio Ribeiro

4 Day Challenge Update (Update 2)

It's with great pleasure that I inform you guys that the first product has just been published to google play store, just waiting for it to be available.
Once that happens I will write a proper post with all the information about it!

I decided to make both versions of the product free, the differences were not that big so, it makes sense that both of them are free.

I'm still waiting for the ftp information, so the website will probably go live after the app is available, but that's not a big deal I think.

Now, it's a waiting game!

I leave with just a sneak peak to what's to come:

Sincerely,
Cláudio R.

4 Days Challenge - Costs and gains

While I'm not expecting to have any kind of profit with this challenge (even though I will be working hard so that can happen), I think a very good exercise is to monitor every cost and gain I make with it. This way I can get in the habbit of recording every business finance.

Here's my registry at the moment:

Quantity	Description	Price	Total
1	Google Play - Developer Registration Fee	19.44 EU	- 19.44 EU
1	.pt Domain	14.76 EU	- 34.2 EU

At the moment I only had costs, as expected, it is impossible to set things up without some amount of money (very little in this case).

I also have some expectation set:

At least 10 downloads from each free app.

At least 1 download from each paid app.

And in the long run I would like to have the total field in the table at green ;)

How about you guys? How do you organize your business finances?

An update on the challenge (Update 1)

My desk at the moment!

The challenge has already started and I'm working like crazy to have things at least organized. I already had a lot of ideas, and started working on the first one. The three ideas and stuck were the following:

1 - Weather App
2 - A simple mobile game
3 - A service based App for little businesses ( I will go over this one with more detail later on ).

At the moment I already started working on the weather app and things are going pretty solidly. The functionality is almost done and all things design based I asked reddit/freedesign to help me.

This app will have 3 diferent moments (this is my improvised, on the fly, business plan), the application itself which will be available for free on the play store. A similar application with better looks and more precise information that will be available for a small fee on the playstore. I will also create a simple responsive website with information on the product to complement the product.

Now I need more ideas, I'm still short of a product and I will take every piece of advice you guys throw at me.

Feel free to comment with your suggestions or questions!

Sincerely,
Cláudio R

By-Products, they are Everywhere!

Some time ago I posted this little thought to reddit/Entrepreneur and beacuse I think it is still fresh here it is in my own blog. Hope you enjoy it.

"It all started some time ago, I was trying to get everything I could about Android programming. At that time I started developing what was my first real product, “Care radio”, “Care radio” was supposed to be a music player for Android that focused on the listening experience more than in having a thousand of functionalities. Easy to use, easy to understand, music comes first type of thing. Development went ok, I had almost everything ready (code wise) and was just working on presentation and marketing strategies.

Then it happened!

I was reading “Rework” from 37Signals (which I highly recommend to everybody trying to make a living in web) and I came along the By-Products chapter. Even though the book is more comprehensive on that subject, you can get the idea on their blog post on the same subject:

https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1620-sell-your-by-products

That post made think about any by-products I could have hanging around. And after some thought I came into the realization that I had some. First, I was writing down every error, problem and difficulty I was having, and how I overcame those. And secondly, I had one more by-product, harder to spot… The things I learned! Fast forward to this day, I just completed a beginner book for Android programming which is in review process at this moment, design is being made and everything’s on the way.

What about “Care Radio”? Well, “Care Radio” got sidelined, it was a great learning experience, and maybe, just maybe it in the future it will be a real product, but right now I chose not to advance with it. And it seems like it was the right thing to do, considering some of the information around in the internet, just like this one:

http://valleywag.gawker.com/there-are-officially-too-many-apps-and-nobody-is-makin-1611128750

What about you guys, what’s your opinion on by-products, and the decline of the Android app market?"

Sincerely,

Cláudio R.

The 4 Days 4 Products Challenge

Hi everyone and welcome to the Aspiring Ninja blog!

I created this blog two years ago with the intent of documenting my growth as a web developer. Since then I grew a lot, made a lot of things but I just forgot about this blog completely.

Fast forward to 2014, I just came back from a 10 day trip to Indonesia, and I have to tell you, it is inspiring! One day, while lying down on a paradisiac beach I thought to myself what did I need to spend my days like that?

Yes, it was this one!

Lately I've been reading a lot about digital nomads, backpackers and all sort of determined people that spend their days working on the craziest locations, meeting the most interesting people and growing as human beings like no one else.

Then this guy came to my mind!

At this moment of my life I don't have the possibilities to just leave, but I do have 4 days left on my holydays, can I make something of them? Of course I can, and so the 4 days 4 products challenge was born.

The 4 Days 4 Products Challenge consists of thinking, creating and launching four different products during a 4 day period. While doing this I will also updating this blog frantically, organizing my time using the Pommodoro Technique so I can become a certified Pommodoro master, and documenting all the information I can.

I count on mister tommato to help me!

Basically I will try to learn everything it is possible to learn in 4 days!

Why this challenge?
Lately I've been feeling a bit down on the way I live my life, I have a great 9 to 5 job, a great girlfriend, but it's not enough. Seems like I forgot to grow, I forgot that I can do amazing things (everyone can!) and this challenge is to remember myself of what I can do, and hopefully to change the way my life is going.

What am I intending to do?
Well, I've been learning Android programming the last few months, whenever I can I read some pages and do some examples, do some simple applications and read a little bit more. Because I want to become better at mobile programming I'm also using this challenge to learn more about it. So, at this time, I'm thinking about having all 4 products being mobile ones. Of course this can change with time.

I'm also not creating business plans, the business plans, monetizing or not and all those things will be done on the fly. I will focus on doing simple, easy to use and usefull products and launching them. I might follow some tutorials on the web or books, I might do things totally from scratch, it is an adventure.

Why a free blog instead of a proper domain with a proper look and feel?
Well, I had this one wandering around, and all of this will cost me some amount of money. While I'm totally capable of setting up a wordpress blog with a cool design, that is not the scope of this challenge. I'm sticking with a free one for now, to control my costs and to have more time free to think and develop my products. Maybe in the future, if this challenge goes the way I want it to go I might just migrate all the content to a domain of my own.

I think I covered the most important points with this post. Any question you have, just feel free to ask. I'm off now to start creating and expect news shortly!

Sincerely,
Cláudio R