On 25 September, pinkoa.com was a parked domain. One month later it is a free study timer, a little shop and a pink koala on seven social channels. It has also earned exactly €0. This is the honest recap: the numbers, what worked, what flopped, and what comes next.
Quick refresher on the name. Pinkoa is Finnish for “to run fast”, and in student slang it means “to study hard”. This month we did a lot of both.
Key takeaways
- 42,083 views across 7 channels. Three in four came from short TikTok videos.
- About 515 site visits since launch. Our best day (53) came from a free thing, not a product.
- 2 orders, both free. €0 revenue. Reach is not the same as sales, and we are not there yet.
- 124 products, 24 Etsy listings, 38 blog posts, all in English, German and Finnish.
- Next up: Classroom Mode goes to teachers, exam-season printables, and the hunt for order number one that costs money.
In this recap
Week 1 vs today: the numbers
Every number below comes from our own public dashboard, Shopify and our daily log. “Then” is our first count: 29 September for the shop, 6 October for social views (the day we started tracking).
| What | Then | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Views on all channels | 7,229 | 42,083 |
| TikTok video views | 4,017 | 31,700 |
| Site visits (total) | 86 | ~515 |
| Products in the shop | 32 | 124 |
| Etsy listings | 4 | 24 |
| Blog posts | 5 | 38 |
| Languages | 3 | 3 |
| Directory listings live | 0 | 8 |
| Press emails sent | 0 | 295 |
| Creators contacted | 0 | 83 |
| Instagram followers | 33 | 36 |
| Revenue | €0 | €0 |
The 295 press emails went to 214 outlets in Germany, Finland and the English-speaking world, follow-ups included. The 83 creators are 73 emails plus 10 DMs. Twelve more directory listings are waiting in free queues.
Koa says: “36 Instagram followers. That's three more than in week 1. I'm counting every single one of you.”
Where the views came from
- TikTok (31,700 views): a pink “shade of the day” every day turned out to be our steadiest format. One study-word video and one colouring page each passed 700 views.
- Threads (3,808): a single post about Finnish school breaks brought 1.9K views on its own. Shade posts there stayed at 3 to 12 views.
- Facebook (893): the Page started from zero on 20 October. 97% of its views came from reels we uploaded directly.
- Instagram (1,614): 84% of views came from people who don't follow us yet. Reels did almost all the work.
Reach is not visits (and visits are not orders)
The honest ratio: 42,083 views led to about 515 visits and 2 orders. Both orders were free downloads. Revenue so far: €0.
The pattern is clear, though. Our two best days were free things: the Koa made of study words poster (43 visits) and the day our honest comparison of free study timers went live (53 visits). Product posts barely moved the needle.
Month one in 14 moments
Prefer it moving? Here is the whole month in 30 seconds:
The full story of day 1 is in We built Pinkoa in one day. The check-ins after 10 days and two weeks show how fast things changed.
What worked
- One pink a day. A new shade of pink on every channel, every day since 7 October. Simple, calm, and TikTok likes it.
- Free beats for sale. Free wallpapers, free Halloween printables and a free poster brought more visits than any product post.
- Videos over images. On Instagram, reels reached new people and image posts mostly didn't. On Facebook, reels were 97% of all views.
- Honesty. Saying “0 sales” out loud got us our first press feature, on Gründerfreunde.
What flopped (honestly, and a bit funny)
- Product Hunt, 10 October: 1 upvote. It was Laurens. Traffic that day: about 14 visits.
- X: 42 posts, 436 views in total. Koa is still looking for the right joke.
- Instagram image posts: two weeks in a row they stayed below Instagram's own counter. We now post one carousel a week and give the rest to reels.
- Codes: 131 personal creator codes, 0 uses so far.
- Reddit: our first post was removed by Reddit's spam filter. Lesson learned: be a real member first.
- The Halloween hat: it made Koa shrink in the timer preview. It became a pumpkin face instead.
Koa says: “One upvote is still one more than zero. I ran fast, I studied hard, I'm fine.”
Top 5 most-loved things of month one
Ranked by what you actually watched and clicked:
- Finnish school breaks on Threads: 1.9K views. You love a Finland fact.
- The Watermelon shade video on TikTok: 800+ views.
- Koa made of 70 study words: 775 TikTok views and 43 site visits in one day.
- The Halloween colouring page on TikTok: 737 views.
- The free wallpapers reel on Instagram: 96 views.
Thank you
To everyone who watched, saved, shared or just pressed Start: thank you. Every one of those 42,083 views was a person.
Special thanks to the team at Gründerfreunde for the interview, to Lehrer-Online for picking Koa as a tool tip, and to the language experts at Kielikello who reminded us that pinkoa first means “to run fast”. Thank you also to the creators who wrote back, and the two people who placed the very first (free) orders.
Koa says: “I'd hug each of you, but my arms are short. Please accept this heart instead.”
What's coming in November
- Classroom Mode for teachers: the free projector timer launched today. Teachers in Germany, Austria and the UK hear about it on 2 and 3 November, after the autumn break.
- Exam-season printables, plus an Advent study calendar planned for mid-November.
- Koa stickers for your study chats.
- New launches: Pinkoa goes live on Fazier and FoundrList on 16 November and on Saaspa.ge in the week of 23 November.
- Our goals: 20 classes using Classroom Mode each week, and the first order that costs money. We'll report back either way.
FAQ
How much money did Pinkoa make in its first month?
€0. There were 2 orders, and both were free downloads.
Where did most of the views come from?
From TikTok: 31,700 of 42,083 views (75%), mostly short shade-of-the-day videos.
Is the Pinkoa study timer really free?
Yes. No account and no download. It works at pinkoa.com in English, German and Finnish.
What does “pinkoa” mean?
It is Finnish for “to run fast”. In student slang it means “to study hard”.
Study with Koa, for free
No account, no download. Pick your rounds and press Start.
Shade of the day: no. 30 Shocking Pink
#FC0FC0
Shade of the day: Shocking pink got its name from the designer Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s. It is loud on purpose, a good fit for a day of honest numbers. It pairs with cream, gold and sage.
🎃 Halloween week: Koa's pink Halloween study printables are free until 31 October, and the code SPOOKOA takes 25% off the shop until 1 November.
Pinkoa (Finnish): to run fast, and in student slang, to study hard. Study with Koa for free at pinkoa.com. Live numbers: pinkoa.com/pages/dashboard.
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