

Hacking side projects: Napkin to $1000 per day - ttol
http://waynechang.com/2011/01/18/building-a-sustainable-side-project/

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cpeterso
I could not follow this article at all. He does not even say what his project
_does_ : "I had potentially identified [market demand] related to ecommerce,
and then I spent 3 hours building it before opening it up for business."

The remainder of the article is about using a Google Docs spreadsheet and PHP
to fulfill the "ecommerce demand" by hand. Once he saw the business could be
sustainable, he began to automate the fulfillment process.

That is a novel, low-risk approach, but it's difficult to wrap one's head
around it when you don't know what he is _actually doing_.

~~~
ttol
Thanks for reading. The product I chose is not all that important to the
article. I believe the value lies in the process related to executing around
it, and wanted to share with others.

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lrm242
What you're basically saying is, don't build stuff until you need it. I agree
with that. Unfortunately, without knowing at least what the business is, it's
really hard to understand WHY your process worked the way it did. Personally,
I found the article intriguing, but quickly lost interest when I saw that it
was basically a rehash of standard advice. Providing a bit more information
about the business behind it might have given it a bit more soul and made it
sound less like an empty content piece.

~~~
GrooveStomp
I agree most with this comment.

The article reminds me of get-rich-quick books. "Look at me, I spent
relatively little effort and am making XXX amount of money off of it." It's
just missing the tagline: "AND YOU CAN TOO!"

As you say, building minimally and only as you need it is good advice. I think
the financial snippets are nice and illustrative too. But, the lack of
information on market analysis, finding the niche, or information on what the
product actually is - all greatly reduce the usefulness of the article.

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pragmatic
I don't suppose he mentions (or anyone knows) what the product actually is?

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cpeterso
Page view generator? ;)

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ttol
This blog post would be a very poor and inefficient page view generator --
putting up pictures of cats would be a lot easier than writing and documenting
my side project! :-) I just wanted to share the process I went through; I hope
it helps some people.

~~~
csomar
Without knowing what your product is, the numbers and information you put are
exactly worthless. They have no significance for me. Any reason to do that?

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clyfe
linkbait, buzz intro, not really useful info, beginner php code and timewaste,
and seo honeypot on "Bldng a sstnbl side proj"

~~~
speek
I thought the post was novel. As much as I want to know what the product is,
it's still good advice.

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richcollins
His process for finding markets rather than ideas would be a much more
interesting topic.

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rrival
Could probably find the domain for $200 =)

[http://www.domaintools.com/reverse-
whois/?email=ac6994646bd3...](http://www.domaintools.com/reverse-
whois/?email=ac6994646bd33eb9b5a6c2d4e023fb7a)

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komlenic
It would be nice if the author would have acknowledged a _reason_ for not
sharing more about the product. Readers might get over not knowing WHAT, if
they had a little of the WHY explained to them.

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ncavig
Cached:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&q=cache:http://waynechang.com/2011/01/18/building-
a-sustainable-side-project/&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1)

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csomar
I would like to know how do you find the 3-hours to build product and market
it to $10K/ year.

I'll be very happy if I make $10K only.

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zackattack
I am shocked and appalled by the types of comments on this thread. Wayne has
shared some very powerful business concepts here.

NO there is not any exceptional technology here. Instead Wayne used his
technical skillset to quickly hack a high-leverage SIMPLE solution that WORKS.

It takes genius to make things simple.

NO wayne is not sharing the market opportunity he discovered. His new business
is not strong and robust enough to invite competition.

He discovered a DEMAND CHANNEL.

Maybe if he used the phrase "customer development" you guys would be nicer?

It's the same thing.

