24 steps to monetize your first product

If I had to start MakerBox from $0 tomorrow, here's what I would do:

1. Pick one audience
2. Write down 5 things that excite me right now
3. Generate 20 product ideas (code, no-code, service, content) based on steps 1 and 2
4. Pick the simplest one to execute & most promising revenue-wise
5. Simplify the MVP ruthlessly to keep the development stage to 1-4 weeks
6. Create a waitlist page to get emails for beta-test and launch
7. Pick one social media platform where your audience hangs out
8. Build in public & Curate / Educate / Inspire every day
9. Pro-actively connect with bigger than mine accounts
10. Set a goal to drive X waitlist emails every day
11. Monetize my first product with one-time payments or annual passes (not subscriptions)
12. Create a simple content freebie (e-book, swipe file, checklist, workshop, etc.) to collect more emails before the launch
13. Ask 30 people from my audience to play with my product for free and roast it (beta test)
14. Shut my ego up and iterate on the feedback
15. Create a minimalistic landing page with Framer / Webflow / Typedream. Follow this structure (hero block - problem agitation - transformation - social proof - how it works - about us - pricing - faq)
16. Announce the launch to attract future supporters
17. Launch it on Product Hunt and your email list on the same day (Monday)
18. Publish my launch to Facebook / Slack / Discord groups / Reddit / HackerNews / IndieHackers / Ben's Bites / Other relevant communities
19. Post non-stop about the launch to get more support from the community
20. Take a day off to celebrate a successful launch
21. Ask new customers for feature requests and testimonials
22. Write down 5 big feature updates that boost the value proposition, 5 conversion rate optimization ideas, and 5 user acquisition ideas
23. Spend 1 month growing it every day. Split product and marketing 50:50 (or 20/80 if content and service product)
24. Make a decision on the future of the product (grow it / sell it / keep it)

It worked for us.

It will work for you too.