Don't try to make money with your hobby, and don't operate your money busyness like a hobby.
Both will not work, if you have other things to do beside your side projects.
5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
131–140 of 206 posts
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#132Minimal metronome and minimal time tracker are close to useless, because the market is so saturated, and there are tons of free options. You need to start with validating your idea instead of wasting days/months on coding.
Also, I think we need to stop rewarding 'minimal' products. Like you said, there's no room for minimal time tracking, but there's definitely room for more high quality, feature-dense time tracking tools.
Nope, sometimes I just want no bloat software that can cook my eggs during I use it for time tracking. I just want this one feature.
But don't suppose to make money with an app like this, because there are 20 other people that released one before you.
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#133I’ve had 100% success with my last 3 projects in 5 years. Here’s what worked for me. 1. An add-on for a cryptocurrency trading bot. I developed a MVP, impressed the founding team, got into a partnership where they promoted my project to their customers. After 1.5 years they acquired my product and I signed a 3 years royalty. 2. A Wordpress security plugin. Started with a free version, focused on ranking the plugin in…
> Sold it to a private investor for mid 6 figures.
How? Did you go looking for a buyer or were you approached?
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#134Minimal metronome and minimal time tracker are close to useless, because the market is so saturated, and there are tons of free options. You need to start with validating your idea instead of wasting days/months on coding.
He needs to make ten times as many applications/solutions at least in the same time frame. His ratio comes to less than one project a year and across different markets. In fact he doesn't even release but two of the projects mentioned. The product startup world moves a lot faster than that.
"How I failed 5 side projects in 6 years"
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#135One thing I've learned from doing side projects is that; If you're not going to spend any time/money on marketing then stop giving your projects obscure names. I know we programmers want some Googly names that is not currently in the dictionary but no one will EVER find it and it's very hard to grow organically. If you're not making any money it doesn't mean your product is bad. It mostly means people can't find it.…
This. Especially on the app store. I have several successful side projects myself and am semi retired.
But it is a waste of time trying to tell people that discoverability is the key to success. Everyone who owns an iPhone thinks they are an app expert and the first thing they do with a new idea is to come up with an unsearchable, undiscoverable name.
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#136I've published ~20 iOS apps. Only 4 make money, but they allowed me to reach financial independence and never have to work for someone gain at the age of 24.
What's when your apps are removed from Apple for any reason? Do you have enough money to live without this income? Or do you need then just start over again?
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
That list really drives home the 'ideas are cheap' phrase. I guess the good ideas are expensive.
I very much agree that ideas are cheap. I don't agree that "good ideas are expensive". The issue is: we don't know which ideas are good or bad. The stats from Venture Capital markets are showing that clearly. Before someone even gets a meeting with a good VC firm the idea is already filtered 100-1 if not 1000-1. Of those who get the meeting, maybe 1 in 100 get an investment. Of those that get an investment, out of 10…
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Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#138Main lesson that seems to not have been learned yet, since it's not mentioned at the end: If you want to make money (any money at all), stop focusing on consumer products, build a small B2B product instead.
And build it full time, not as a hobby. And build one that no one else is selling already.
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#139"Get a Product Job (May 2020 - May 2021) This time the main objective was to learn something new by doing. I chose Ruby on Rails. It's a great framework to build websites quickly." Choosing Roby on Rails in 2020 as a "new framework" for web development ... sheesh.
I don't like using RoR personally, but it's not a dying platform. There's still a large active community around it. It's fine.
Like it is on Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0
#140"I still got many ideas in my head but right now I’m more cautious about choosing my next project.
First of all, when deciding about the next project, I need to choose the smallest idea possible that can be developed by one person. Cut the scope as much as possible."
These two paragraphs resonate very well to everyone in his shoes.