What I Built Last Week - February 15, 2021
Tags: devjournal, productivity
Published: 2021-02-24 16:27:37

> I use these posts are part of my effort to build in public. They are intended to provide an imperfect snapshot of what I am working on and progress towards goals. If nothing else, they are useful to me as record keeping. If you want to get these updates in your inbox, [join the newsletter](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/newsletter/)!

## Overview

I spent the majority of last week focused on on my [Mapbox and React Deep Dives series](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/writing/a-complete-guide-to-sources-and-layers-in-react-and-mapbox-gl-js) and switching my [personal site](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/) over from MailChimp to ConvertKit. Initially the idea of a newsletter or mailing list made me cringe (it feels too salesy). The process of building in public has made me re-evaluate my categorically bad assessment of things like SEO, newsletters, Twitter, and marketing though. It has been refreshing to have this previously held ideas challenged.

### Irons in the Fire

- [Mapbox & React Deep Dives series](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/writing/introducing-mapbox-and-react-deep-dives)
- [Scoped - A Scoping & Budget Planning Tool for Freelancers](https://gumroad.com/l/scoped) (free/pay what you want)
- [Newsletter](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/newsletter/)
- [Personal site redesign](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/)

### Metrics

Making just about everything transparent and accessible.

- You can check out the [Growth Dashboard](https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/7278763f-4383-4dee-99f4-f2951816f6a7) I mentioned below

Here are the things I worked on during the last week.

## Growth Dashboard

![Growth dashboard](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/no578wxj43ghwcfulq3w.png)

### The What

- growth analytics dashboard built on top of Google Sheets and Google Data Studio. Access it [here](https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/7278763f-4383-4dee-99f4-f2951816f6a7).
- bare bones at this point. Opting for simplicity as it increases the likelihood of me updating the metrics.
- eventually would like to bring greater automation to the process

### The Why

- to understand how various aspects of efforts are/are not working
- easy way to visualize targets and progress towards them

## Newsletter & Mailing List

![Redesigned home page with newsletter signup](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5l734s8kqefcdwjzu0qj.png)

### The What

- Switched over from MailChimp to ConvertKit
- Redesigned my personal site home page to more prominently feature newsletter
- Started strategizing more around newsletter/mailing list (despite my initial opposition)

### The Why

- necessary to promote my products and hopefully help people.

## Personal Site Improvements

![New writing layout with newsletter signup](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8kci4hah9v29pvcrdhwn.png)

### The What

- Redesigned my personal site home page to more prominently feature newsletter
- Added a newsletter sign up page
- Improved layout and other style issues throughout the site

### The Why

- Wanted to more prominently feature the newsletter and convert that into sign ups
- Fix some styling issues that had been bothering me for a while

## Writing

### The What

- Published two blog posts
  - [Tilesets & Datasets: Managing Data in Mapbox Studio](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/writing/tilesets-and-datasets-managing-data-in-mapbox-studio)
  - [Songs of the Week - February 14, 2021](https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/writing/songs-of-the-week-february-14-2021)

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