
Every single step I took to get my side project to $1k/month - TenJack
https://bookmarkos.com/growing-side-project-1k-month/
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adamlangsner
This article is great. It’s not sensationalist like other articles of this
ilk. It doesn’t have these unmentioned or glossed over factors like having an
existing audience like you mention. And it has a level of tactical detail that
I think others lack. It’s honest and shows perhaps a more realistic /
representative sample of what it’s like to actually be a indiehacker. Thanks
for sharing!

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TenJack
Glad you found it useful!

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angrais
Great article and was interesting to hear the different steps taken and the
associated success and failures. In particular, it seems that the most success
of the product could be attributed to the competitor closing.

I wonder how the increased price impacted existing customers, especially when
the price doubled at the end of the article? Were users notified of the change
with the option to cancel? It seemed that a portion cancelled given the
revenue: $750/month at $12 per user vs $1000 at $24 per user.

It would also be interesting to know how many new customers were there after
the price change?

Did existing users have to agree to a new ToC when you made the price change
or was this automatic, i.e. $24 taken out of their account the next month
without their permission? What's the standard practice for this?

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TenJack
Oh, I should have specified this. I didn't change the price for any existing
customers. I just changed the price for new customers.

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angrais
Yes, please do! Really highlights the impact. Great work Jack

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jbarnett2
“I ended up trying out a PR service called Publicize for $500, which
essentially has some lower level PR people come up with a pitch and then mass
emails a list they have.”

I’ve always gotten these emails and thought of them as spam. Great to hear
your experience using one for real

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TenJack
Yep. I think PR can be effective but you really need to pay a lot for it. At
the higher rates, PR people have connections they can leverage.

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sfusato
"Update 08/10/2020: this was written almost a year ago and I have since quite
freelancing to work on my side project full time. As a result it is no longer
a “side project,” but all the info here is still relevant!" \----- I think
it's worth mentioning that this has since turned into a full-time project (as
the article mentions).

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bufrsh
I'm in the same boat right now as author was in the start. Like, it's just a
free service that I built as a side project that is clearly very useful to
_me_ and a few users that absolutely love it, yet alot of people don't see it
useful right now. Definitely learnt some lessons from this article.

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ytoruno
Great article. Unrelated; I'm always interested in the corporate decisions
solo developers make for their projects - did you start an LLC? sole
proprietorship, etc. Care to expand on that if you can?

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TenJack
Just did an LLC. Was the easiest option.

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Giorgi
Can you try blog marketing next? like adding blog with "tips" it seems such
blogs are industry standard, and I always wondered if they work

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TenJack
Yep. Going to try that along with general content marketing.

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davjhan
What was the reason behind getting someone prominent to post on Product Hunt
on your behalf? Is there some benefit over submitting it yourself?

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TenJack
At the time, when a user submits to PH it shows somewhere for all of their
followers. So if they have a large following, it helps. Think it still works
the same but not sure.

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xupybd
Great write up. Would love to hear what it feels like to run your own product.
Does it feel like it was worth the risk and effort?

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TenJack
Yep, it feels totally worth it. The product is something that I wanted to use
myself and I use it just about every day, so just that makes it worth it.

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mleonhard
Did you email a lot of reporters about your product?

How did you make the list of reporters to email?

Did you email them pre-made articles?

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TenJack
I emailed some reporters a while ago. Found articles about similar apps and
then got their emails. I didn’t email them anything pre-made. I don’t think
reputable tech blogs would want pre-made posts but I could be wrong.

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tchock23
The ‘200 million SaaS businesses in the world’ is a typo right? Where did that
stat come from?

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hydroxideOH-
It's a hyperbole.

