I think we are in an age where there is so much saturation and noise in every corner of the internet and with the rise of AI everyone is building "disposable" software for their own niche use or what THEY think is new and unique that it's impossible to generate organic traffic anymore. All the "hot" projects are botted to hell with most likely paid promos on places like twitter to promote their project and botted stars on github. Everyone is throwing their own project out in the void and hoping someone will adopt it. I have resigned to just working on what I enjoy and find useful that fills a niche somewhere and just having fun with it.
I agree with you completely! This honestly evolved beyond what i was expecting. It started as a learning tool for my work colleagues and evolved into a local tool they use. As a DOD/DOW employ i cant broadcast my project inside the walls of my building, and this is my way of spreading the love (at a small cost to cover my dev tools)
Your first hundred users probably won’t come from crowded feeds; for a trading-risk tool, I’d recruit ten traders manually and watch where they hesitate before chasing reach.
I've built quite a few projects from 0 -> business over the last 20 years, and I think the fundamentals are still true today.
First rule: if you're building the product solo, is it something you're the target user of? I've always felt like the biggest "cheat code" for building successful products is just making them for people like you. I know that goes against a lot of lean startup methodology (talk to users, etc.), but it has always worked in my experience. Use your unique domain knowledge to make something meaningfully better, cheaper, more accessible/simple than the competition.
Second rule: marketing is important. Almost all the things I've built are developer services, so to get user feedback and early traction, I'd submit to go speak at the local meetup groups in my area, talk about the tech stuff I worked on as part of the product, then give people a free shirt if they'd give me some in-person feedback after the event. I made some good friends that way (hello, SoCal Pythonistas!), and also made meaningful product growth. Don't be a shill, just genuinely nerd out about the things you're doing in an authentic way. People like that.
Third rule: write well. Don't use LLMs to spam blog content that's low quality about your product. Write about it yourself. Show examples, highlight features. Don't use marketing words, use simple descriptions.
Thank you so much for the feedback. Marketing is my weakest aspect in this project. I've tried the grass roots organic approach, but I think I need to start venturing out of my comfort zone.
Marketing is the hard part.
Ideas are trivial. Code is easy (and now with AI trivial.)
Most humans do the easy part first. It's the most fun. Lots of people can play a guitar. Only a tiny fraction market enough to make any money.
If you want success (in anything) learn (and do) the hard part first. Every product idea starts with 3 basic questions;
A) who is this for?
B) how do I reach them. Prove it by getting 10 names, email addresses, and nominal deposits.
C) can my target market afford this? Poor people need private jet transport, but that market cannot afford that product.
Writing the code is the last thing you do, not the first.
Assuming of course your goal is to make money. I make ceramics for fun, not to sell. I get the joy of making and using my own pots. It's a hobby, not my day job. I'm not interested in marketing or selling them. And that's perfectly OK.
I think we are in an age where there is so much saturation and noise in every corner of the internet and with the rise of AI everyone is building "disposable" software for their own niche use or what THEY think is new and unique that it's impossible to generate organic traffic anymore. All the "hot" projects are botted to hell with most likely paid promos on places like twitter to promote their project and botted stars on github. Everyone is throwing their own project out in the void and hoping someone will adopt it. I have resigned to just working on what I enjoy and find useful that fills a niche somewhere and just having fun with it.
I agree with you completely! This honestly evolved beyond what i was expecting. It started as a learning tool for my work colleagues and evolved into a local tool they use. As a DOD/DOW employ i cant broadcast my project inside the walls of my building, and this is my way of spreading the love (at a small cost to cover my dev tools)
I love this weird world we live in now lol
Yes you can tell if it's good: it's not. Finding the customers is part of your job and if you can't do that it's your own fault
Your first hundred users probably won’t come from crowded feeds; for a trading-risk tool, I’d recruit ten traders manually and watch where they hesitate before chasing reach.
I've built quite a few projects from 0 -> business over the last 20 years, and I think the fundamentals are still true today.
First rule: if you're building the product solo, is it something you're the target user of? I've always felt like the biggest "cheat code" for building successful products is just making them for people like you. I know that goes against a lot of lean startup methodology (talk to users, etc.), but it has always worked in my experience. Use your unique domain knowledge to make something meaningfully better, cheaper, more accessible/simple than the competition.
Second rule: marketing is important. Almost all the things I've built are developer services, so to get user feedback and early traction, I'd submit to go speak at the local meetup groups in my area, talk about the tech stuff I worked on as part of the product, then give people a free shirt if they'd give me some in-person feedback after the event. I made some good friends that way (hello, SoCal Pythonistas!), and also made meaningful product growth. Don't be a shill, just genuinely nerd out about the things you're doing in an authentic way. People like that.
Third rule: write well. Don't use LLMs to spam blog content that's low quality about your product. Write about it yourself. Show examples, highlight features. Don't use marketing words, use simple descriptions.
Thank you so much for the feedback. Marketing is my weakest aspect in this project. I've tried the grass roots organic approach, but I think I need to start venturing out of my comfort zone.
-Chris
Marketing is the hard part. Ideas are trivial. Code is easy (and now with AI trivial.)
Most humans do the easy part first. It's the most fun. Lots of people can play a guitar. Only a tiny fraction market enough to make any money.
If you want success (in anything) learn (and do) the hard part first. Every product idea starts with 3 basic questions;
A) who is this for?
B) how do I reach them. Prove it by getting 10 names, email addresses, and nominal deposits.
C) can my target market afford this? Poor people need private jet transport, but that market cannot afford that product.
Writing the code is the last thing you do, not the first.
Assuming of course your goal is to make money. I make ceramics for fun, not to sell. I get the joy of making and using my own pots. It's a hobby, not my day job. I'm not interested in marketing or selling them. And that's perfectly OK.