This is spot on. I run a small agency, and the number of clients coming from Wix or Squarespace is surprising—especially considering those platforms are marketed as “easy.” I’d recommend using your LLM to research businesses that need websites and start reaching out by email or phone. After that, it becomes a numbers game. Most business owners eventually realize they need professional help in this space. Skip the penny-pinchers and focus on quick wins, and delegate if the margins are there.
Lastly, most of the advice you'll get around here will be technical, but every now and again a gem will popup that sort-of 'fills in the blanks' when it comes to the other part of this, which is sales and marketing. It's not easy, but it's not all hard. I recommend this thread if you want to read more about it, the Op gives some good advice on how to get leads, and eventually customers. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46661167
Friend of mine develops and runs eshops. Through word of mouth he runs like 60-70 right now. Big and small. He sells setup, etc and takes care of hosting and patching and developing new features.
The most money and the easiest ones come from hosting ;-) it’s like X amount per year so that they don’t have to worry about it. He runs two huge servers, and makes pretty good money at are going to increase over time.
But he had patience and will to do the dirty work early on. Now he is riding the wave.
I can totally relate to this but in a different way. Music is very similar, especially nowadays when everyone has an opinion about what you should create, and it's easy to get lost in the sea of YouTube tutorials of people telling you which way is the right way, or even listening to what's accepted in the mainstream and attempting to contort your own work to fit within that structure.
After all, any form of expression can be seen as art, be it music production or games, and the constant battle we feel as artists can be overwhelming at times, especially when you want others to acknowledge and validate you.
Wouldn't it be cool if your son and his son could look back and say, "Look what my dad/grandfather created". For me, that thought is a-lot more full-filling than worrying about what the rest of the world thinks.
Lastly, most of the advice you'll get around here will be technical, but every now and again a gem will popup that sort-of 'fills in the blanks' when it comes to the other part of this, which is sales and marketing. It's not easy, but it's not all hard. I recommend this thread if you want to read more about it, the Op gives some good advice on how to get leads, and eventually customers. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46661167