26 Projects, 4 Years, $115k: Insights from an Independent Hacker

General Forum
1

I want to share my journey of launching 26 projects over the past four years and the lessons I’ve gained. I hope this will inspire those starting out or looking for their next big idea.
Some statistics:

  • 26 projects launched
  • 4 years of work (2021-2024)
  • Total revenue: ~$115k
  • 5 successful project sales
    Key takeaways:
  • Persistence is crucial:In my first year (2021), I didn’t earn anything, but I kept pushing forward. It’s important to keep trying and learn from your mistakes.
  • Not every project will succeed: Out of 26 projects, only 8 made money, and that’s perfectly fine! Each failure teaches valuable lessons.
  • Success can vary widely: Earnings ranged from $49 (GetStatupName) to $78,976 (ReplyGuy). Don’t be discouraged by modest returns on your first projects.
  • Selling projects can be lucrative: I sold 5 projects, contributing significantly to my revenue. Consider this as a viable monetization strategy.
  • Diversification is key: I tried different niches and project types, which helped me discover what truly works.
  • Be ready for the long haul: My most successful project (ReplyGuy) only materialized in 2024. Patience and continuous improvement are essential.
  • Learn from each project: Even projects that don’t generate revenue provide invaluable experience and knowledge for future endeavors.
  • Stay aware of trends: AI-related projects (PictureAI, AnyToSpeech) showed great promise. Keep an eye on emerging technologies and market demands.
    Conclusion:
    The indie hacker journey is full of ups and downs. The key is to keep moving forward, learn from your failures, and continuously seek new opportunities. Remember, every successful project is built on numerous attempts and setbacks.
    I’d love to hear about your experiences! What lessons have you learned from your projects? What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
    Yearly Breakdown:
  • 2021:gethome_today - $0, explosivegrowth - $0, wpfast - $0, wpmonitoring - $0, simplesubmiter - $0
  • 2022: flashbacklist - $0, getstatupname - $49, mentionlist - $99 + sold for $6000, chirpleads - $0, noderemotely - $0, doshowcase - $0, mvpsources - $0, recruister - $0
  • 2023: communitylist - $200, mentiontools - $6000 + sold for $12500, ramenmeter - $0, pictureai - $87, coursendy - $0, anytospeech - $639 + sold for $1.5k
  • 2024: painkillerideas - $8040 + sold for $13500, replyguy - $78976, stealth_marketing - $1736, marevo - $117, indiemerger - $816, founderleads - $0, referral_page - NEW
    P.S. If you have questions about specific projects or strategies I used, feel free to ask in the comments. I’m here to help!
    Check out my latest project: Referral.Page I’m excited to see where this one leads!
2

Hey, it’s just my first year, and I’ve made $8 so far (thanks to a friend who subscribed to my newsletter :sweat_smile:).

Here’s what I’ve learned about gaining the first 1,000 users:

  • 80% of your revenue will come from actively engaging on X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, or other social networks and building a community.
  • 20% will come from the quality of your app.
    But remember, your product must solve a real problem for this to work.
    That’s just my two cents :sweat_smile:. Still figuring out how to reach those 1,000 users!
3

Well written article.
But in regards to the particular tool you created, I simply detest these spam tools that spoof conversations in order to add bogus interaction; I believe Reddit has become a lot worse place as a result of their appearance.

4

That is quite a bit! About once every two months? Could you elaborate on a few of those? I’m curious about the kinds of projects that people can do in a few months.

5

Hey, did you create with the intention of selling right away, or did you sell to make time for more building?

I’m intrigued by this tale and wonder why the sell-offs didn’t result in a larger profit.

6

Fantastic work!
Were all of these developed in-house, or were any outsourced?

Do you have a full-time job on this?
And you made $78K in just a few months from the sale of ReplyGuy? Was that as a result of a high volume of paying customers or novel features?​

7

It appears that some of them were successful. Your web crawler’s secret sauce is its ability to find mentions. By the way, how frequently do you affirm something or do you take a chance?

8

If replyguy continues to receive some visitors, I believe that leveraging the referral page for its affiliate program and adding the referral page’s brand label could increase traffic to the referral page.

Just my opinion; I have no experience in the sector.

9

Would your success rate be significantly higher with a partner or employee who is sales-focused, I wonder? Using a sound business strategy that the technology facilitates as opposed to having the technology “be the thing”