MakerBadge

MakerBadge is a free tool designed for indie makers to effortlessly cross-promote all their shipped applications and projects. It solves the common problem of new launches quickly losing traffic and existing apps remaining isolated, preventing visitors from discovering a maker's full portfolio. By integrating a single line of code, MakerBadge transforms every app into a gateway to all other creations, ensuring continuous traffic flow and enhanced visibility for an entire body of work.

The core functionality revolves around a simple, three-step process:

1. Grab your username: Users claim a unique handle and build a centralized "maker hub" dashboard. This hub serves as a single source of truth for listing all their applications, startups, side projects, and social media links.
2. Drop the badge: A tiny, asynchronous JavaScript snippet is provided. Users paste this one line of HTML code onto each of their websites or applications. The installation is quick, taking approximately one minute per site, and requires no complex build steps or configurations, making it compatible with any site or framework.
3. Update once, sync everywhere: This is a key selling point. When a maker launches a new app, updates an existing link, or changes their avatar, they only need to modify their maker hub in the MakerBadge dashboard. All badges deployed across all their sites automatically update instantly, eliminating the need for manual redeployments or chasing down footer links on multiple platforms.

Key features and benefits include:

• Centralized Portfolio Display: The badge, when tapped, reveals a comprehensive panel showcasing everything the maker has built, ensuring visitors discover more than just the app they landed on. This helps makers appear more prolific and professional.
• Effortless Updates: The "update once, sync everywhere" mechanism saves significant time and effort, making portfolio management seamless and efficient.
• Customization: Users can personalize the badge's appearance, including its position (e.g., bottom-right), label (e.g., "Made by", "Built by"), and whether to display their photo. The Pro plan further unlocks advanced customization options such as custom shapes (pill, rounded, corner), various color themes (using daisyUI palettes), and different fonts for the dropdown text.
• Performance and Privacy: MakerBadge is designed to be lightweight and non-intrusive. It loads asynchronously, ensuring it does not slow down the host website. It also respects user privacy by not tracking visitors, using no cookies, and requiring no sign-up walls or acceptance prompts from visitors. It functions purely as a dynamic link to the maker's public hub.
• Cross-linking: Each app effectively promotes all others, creating a network effect for a maker's entire portfolio. This ensures that traffic earned on one project can easily flow to new or other existing projects.

MakerBadge offers a "Free forever" plan that supports up to 3 startup links and includes basic customization with a "Made with MakerBadge" footer. For makers with extensive portfolios or those desiring full branding control, a "Pro Lifetime" deal is available for a one-time payment, offering unlimited startup links, full customization options, and removal of the MakerBadge branding. It's built by a single maker, Joffrey (@joffreyio), who emphasizes transparency and community engagement.