3 months into indie hacking. Here's how it's going...
3 months ago I quit my job to commit full-time to indie hacking. I set aside 1 year to make indie hacking work, so I've now used up 1/4 of my time.
Here are some notes about my progress, my experience with this transition, and my plan for the future.
Progress
I built 2 products:
- 1000 Pound Club (https://1000pound.com)
- TypeChinese (https://typechinese.io)
I have 223 followers on X: https://x.com/alexanderqchen
I got on the featured by Indie Hackers a few times. My posts have a total of 16,000 views and 280 likes. I have 20 followers (which does not seem relevant on this site).
1000 Pound Club
This was my first product. It's a web app for powerlifters to track their workouts and share how much they can lift on squat, bench, and deadlift.
As of today, I have:
- 169 registered users
- 2.4k Google Analytics "users"
- 699 workout sets added
- Last registered user was yesterday
Since launching this, I had a week where I was pushing new features and updates, but I put this project on the back burner to focus on other things.
Looking back on it now, it seems this project has not lived up to its potential and it would be worth it for me to refocus on it.
Next features I plan to build are:
- Better profiles and usernames (right now everyone's profile link just has an autogenerated userId)
- Add friends with leaderboard
- Create groups with leaderboard
TypeChinese
This is a web app to help Chinese learners practice typing in Chinese. The main distinguishing feature is that users can choose to have pinyin or zhuyin show with the characters. This is so that users can type characters they may not yet recognize.
As of today, I have:
- 836 Google Analytics "users"
- 6:21 average session time (this seems really high!) on 241 recorded sessions on Hotjar
I feel very mixed about this project.
I lost hope with this project during development because I felt it didn't really know what it was supposed to be.
Do people really need to practice typing? If they use pinyin, not really. If they use zhuyin, yes, but zhuyin is a dying typing method that's only really still used in Taiwan.
Is this product meant to practice typing or reading? Typing is easy if you can read the characters.
Is this product meant to learn new characters? The target audience is people learning Chinese, so it probably should be meant for learning, but it's not doing a very good job at that.
Since I lost hope, I didn't commit hard enough to the launch. I tried launching on LinkedIn with very little success. Almost all of my visitors came from Indie Hackers. I'm surprised session time is so high because Indie Hackers is not my target audience, but it seems like this product is somehow relevant to many of you. I didn't end up launching on Reddit or Discord like I planned to (since these worked well for 1,000 Pound Club).
I also think this product has not reached its potential. I feel a little lost on this one because I don't know if there's really a market for a product like this. The session time is very good, so that does increase my confidence in this product a bit.
If I do continue on this, I think next steps are:
- Refocus the purpose of the product to learning
- Pinyin/zhuyin should be shown with "hints" on individual characters instead of on the entire paragraph
- Have a way to review characters that you missed
- Actually launch the damn product
Social
X/Twitter and Indie Hackers have been my main platforms for posting about my progress. It has been fun posting on these sites, but it has also had practical benefits.
Indie Hackers is my single largest traffic source across each of my products. X/Twitter has been great for interacting with other builders.
I think I'll continue to commit to building a following on these platforms and continue to use them as a distribution channel. X has not been good for distribution so far, but I think it has long-term potential for me, so I plan to continue to work on gaining a following.
Since Indie Hackers is such a good distribution channel for me, I plan to build a product targeting builders like you. Distribution is my biggest challenge so far, so I need to take advantage of what's already working for me.
How I'm feeling
When I quit my job, I worried that I would regret the decision. I'd be leaving a well-paying job in the midst of a bad job market for tech and an impending recession. I also had no experience indie hacking, so I was diving into the deep end.
Right now, I'm feeling very good.
My day-to-day enjoyment has been significantly higher than when I was doing full-time work. I feel more motivated working when I'm building assets for myself instead of just cash. The idea is that these will pay off in the long-term, but I'll need to make that happen first.
There are ups and downs on how I feel about my work. Sometimes I feel like I'm not making progress and I get frustrated. Sometimes I feel so in the zone and am doing my best work.
Throughout all of this, even through the frustrations, I'm slowly learning more about building a business. I believe this will be very useful to me in the near future.
At the start of these 3 months, I wasn't working that much. I was working maybe 2-4 hours a day and filling my time with hobbies. Clearly, my life satisfaction would be high.
Now I'm working 4-6 hour days. This seems to be near the max of my effective work hours and my life satisfaction is even higher than when I started. Right now, I feel like I'm just starting the grind, but I'm committed to going even harder and getting more results.
I'm 1/4 of the way done with my year and it feels scary and exciting at the same time. I feel like I'm just getting started, but at the same time, I feel like I don't have much time left, so I really just want to go heads down and grind.
The next 3 months
I didn't originally plan to reflect on my work every 3 months, but it seems right to do it now.
The past 3 months have been great for getting started and learning. The next 3 months, I'm ready to act on what I've learned and continue building assets like more projects, existing code, distribution methods, and social following.
Here are my goals for the next 3 months:
- Revisit and improve 1000 Pound Club and TypeChinese
- Build a product targeting indie hackers
- Have 1 consistent distribution channel for any product
- Get 1k X/Twitter followers
I'm hoping for the best and prepared to power through the worst ๐ช
How has the journey been for you?
Good luck to your journey and keep it going!
Thank you! I'm definitely keeping at it ๐ช
doing part-time job here for smooth transition.
Better thought out plan than me, best of luck!
Thank you for sharing your story and props for taking the leap to commit to something you love. That takes courage and dedication!
I have a couple of questions -- both coming from a place of caring.
Out of curiosity, what does making indie hacking "work" mean for you? How will you decide at the end of the year if it is "working"? Is it based on how much cash flow you are generating, number of users on your products, number of twitter followers, etc?
Out of curiosity, if you were to start the year over again right now, would you still choose to build these two products or work on something else? If it is something else, what's the reason to continue investing in these products now given your limited time remaining?
Making it work to me means there is a reasonably high expectation that I can make a living off of indie hacking. My goal is 2.5k MRR by the end of the year. This is enough to live off of here in Taiwan (and other cheap countries), however I may just move back in with parents to really double down.
If I were to start again given what I know now, Iโd build a product targeting people in tech more since my best distribution methods target those people (like you I assume). In the past, I struggled with never committing to projects because I wasnโt sure what was โbestโ or โoptimalโ. Because of this, I try to just start and dive deep into things, then readjust course after Iโve learned from experience.
The reason to continue is that I know the markets for these products much better now and I already have products for them. Essentially, Iโm 1 month ahead if I continue these projects instead of creating a new one. I donโt think thereโs such thing as a perfect idea and I think success is mostly determined by execution.
That being said, thereโs always a balance to be taken! Iโm just taking actions to best find that balance for myself.
That's a great goal to have! Feel free to ignore this unsolicited advice, but looking at your goals for the next 3 months, I'm not sure I see how those goals tie into your ultimate goal of 2.5k MRR. Consider making the next 3 month goals more crisp. For example, if you had a goal like "Get 10 paying users", it's clear to me how that would lead you to success, and could help you decide where to focus your time.
There's definitely something to be said about persistence, diving deep, and building knowledge about a market. However, given your accelerated timeframe, consider taking a more broad approach and figure out how best to validate multiple ideas quickly (e.g. build landing pages w/ waitlist signup) to avoid wasting time diving deep into ideas that may not generate returns for you for a long time (or ever).
Best of luck to you on your journey and keep us updated!
That's great to hear that you're three months into indie hacking! Starting and running an independent project or business can be an exciting and challenging journey. Here's how to provide an update on your progress:
Achievements: Share your accomplishments and milestones you've reached in the past three months. This could include things like launching a product, reaching a certain number of users or customers, or hitting a revenue target.
Challenges: Be honest about the challenges you've faced. Whether it's technical issues, marketing struggles, or other obstacles, discussing your challenges can be valuable for other indie hackers who might be going through similar issues.
Lessons Learned: Highlight any important lessons or insights you've gained during your three months of indie hacking. What strategies have worked well for you, and which ones didn't? Sharing these lessons can help others on their entrepreneurial journey.
Next Steps: Describe your plans for the future. What are your goals for the next three months or beyond? Are you looking to expand your product, grow your user base, or explore new revenue streams?
Community Involvement: If you've been active in the indie hacking community, such as participating in forums, attending meetups, or networking with other entrepreneurs, mention your experiences and how they have contributed to your journey.
Numbers and Metrics: If you're comfortable sharing, provide some key performance metrics like revenue, user numbers, or conversion rates. It can provide context for your progress.
Feedback and Support: Ask for feedback or support from your audience. Whether it's advice on a specific issue you're facing or ideas for how to grow your project, involving your readers or listeners can be helpful.
Personal Growth: Discuss any personal growth or skills you've developed during your indie hacking journey. This could include technical skills, marketing knowledge, or even increased resilience.
Acknowledgments: Express your gratitude to your audience, customers, or supporters who have been part of your journey. Recognizing the people who have helped you along the way is a great way to build community and rapport.
Future Content: Let your audience know what they can expect from you in the coming months. Are you planning to provide more updates, tutorials, or resources related to your niche?
Remember that transparency and authenticity are often appreciated by your audience. Whether you're sharing your successes or setbacks, your journey can inspire and educate others in the indie hacking community. Keep going, and best of luck with your indie hacking endeavors!
Same issues with my site boxesgen
Is this generated by chatgpt? This kind of writing style feels way too familiar ๐
I'm new here. I can't do much until my account is "warm". Probably is the case with many others, so I mostly see either four word comments or 4000 words comments done with ChatGPT lol. Not looking great so far :)
I disagree! I think there is a low barrier to entry on this site. As long as you make real progress IRL and post good quality content about it, you can do well.
If you check my history, my 4th post was my first one that did well https://www.indiehackers.com/post/expectations-for-launch-1e77a7c8ce. I don't even think this post was good, it was just some authentic thoughts and worries I had before launching.
After that post, I posted a few higher quality posts just showing my real results from launching my product. Those all did well and now it seems like the site recognizes my posts as good quality because they feature me often now.
I didn't really comment much or anything to "warm up" my account. I just shared my authentic experience and wrote decent quality posts.
Dude... I was referring to lillianspencer's comment.
Keep going Alexander! I suggest giving some time for business planning and goal setting. Going even more specific with these two aspects of your journey. Breaking down your plans and goals into doable actions. That way you will be able to organize your days, avoid procrastination, and you will be able to measure your progress in a more detailed way. You are doing great!
Thanks for the advice! This will definitely help instead of just doing whatever I โfeel likeโ each day.
Exactly that!
Thank you for sharing your journey
Glad you enjoyed!
I aspire to devote 1 year like you to indiehacking.
Please do wonders so that it becomes a motivation for me :)
Yes, I hope I do. Iโll try my best to make it happen ๐
I wouldn't place too much emphasis on followers or audience. I get that it feels good but I think in 95% of cases it has very little relevance to product success.
True, I personally built a business to $30k/mo with 2k Twitter followers.
I started preparing for job interviews last month but while I was preparing I imagined myself becoming someone I didn't want to be. So I stopped the job search and decided to get into indie hacking. Luckily, I've got until December 2024 to make things happen. Looks like we're on similar boats.
It feels great to finally relate to someone. You're doing great Alexander. Keep up the good work! Thanks for inspiring me mate.
Sorry for the late reply. It's been a since I opened indie hackers. Glad to hear we're working on similar things and hope things work out! Excited to hear more about your journey
Really awesome that you're feeling great in spite of still not having find success.
I have some concrete feedback on TypeChinese: I'm finding the "500 most common characters" mode pretty unusable because, so far, it seems to just be a random list of characters, rather than, say, a text that uses them.
It would be much better if it at least kept the characters into whole words.
That's in part because my Pinyin keyboard is made for typing whole phrases rather than isolated characters. If you want me to type ็ณ, then I have to type s h i <down-arrow> 4, searching through two rows of characters to find it. But if you want me to type ็ณๅคด, then it's at position #1.
Also, the thing that would appeal to me is the chance to see characters I've learned in new contexts. I've studied well over 1000 characters on Skritter, but I often can't recognize them on the street because I've only learned them within Skritter. So being forced to recognized them in the context of a story would help bridge the gap between being able to write them in a specific environment and being able to across many environments. That could turn me into a regular user.
(So yeah, a Skritter integration would be awesome.)
Thanks so much for the feedback!
On the phrase instead of character point, I completely agree. This also felt off to me when testing, but I ignored that ๐ Just building sentences with those characters will be much more useful. Let me figure out a way to do this with good variety of characters.
I also really want to make TypeChinese more focused on learning. I think the long-term ideal would an "adaptive mode". Like if you miss a word, the system would know and it would automatically show you this word more in the future (with new contexts) until you learn it, then it would continue on to new words.
A ton of room for improvement with this product.
I think GPT-4 will be really good for this app. You can have it write short stories or sensible paragraphs using the diction of your choice.
Great post and super insightful to how things are going for someone doing it for real from zero. Followed on Twitter!
I was going to ask where you are but I think I saw a comment saying you're in Taiwan. Did you move into cheaper accommodation to extend the runway or just keep going with where you were before?
Thanks for the follow! Yup, that's exactly it. I was living in NYC and did not want to be paying insane rent while doing this. My runway easily 4x'd by moving to Taiwan.
This also makes my indie hacking goals more achievable. I can live in Taiwan or SEA with $2.5k MRR. In the US, I'd need more like $5-10k. This COL goal feels so important because that's when runway becomes infinite and I can theoretically do this forever.
This is amazing. Keep going Alexander, this surely inspired me to start hacking more seriously.
Just one suggestion for 1000 Pound Club, you could focus on amazing shareables which would encorage users to share more, sharing more will give more feedback to users and also bring you more views.
Glad this inspires you to get hacking ๐ช
Yes! Shareability was one of the core features I wanted to have for 1000 Pound Club. I'm currently working on some things to commit to this harder. Thanks for the feedback!
How have you managed your time and priorities while working on multiple projects?
I was doing 1 project a month. First week is ideation, product research, and design. Week 2-3 is building. Week 4 is launch.
For October, I didnโt end up getting a project out bc I was trying to run a social ads experiment, but ran into some issues.
Now that I have 2 projects I want to maintain and build new features for, 1 project/month may not make sense anymore, so Iโll readjust if it causes issues.
Wow! Amazing results
For your opinion what will happen in one year?
My goal is 2.5k MRR. No idea if Iโll hit it, but Iโll try my best to make it happen.
Congratulations and Keep going!!
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing Alexander! It's very inspiration to see you put it all on the line to pursue your dreams, I wish you the best.
In regards to your successful posts on the IH platform, have you realized any trends that could cause a post to have considerable more engagement compared to others (i.e. certain content, length, level of detail, ect.)?
Thanks for the wishes!
For IH, usually authentic content discussing a result I got or a process I want to share do well. It normally has to be โlong enoughโ. Like not 1 paragraph, but similar in length to this post.
Everything is public, so feel free to look at my history and find trends that I may have missed!
IH has been such a good platform for me. You can get a lot of engagement starting from 0 on here.
This is so inspiring. I've tried to launch a few things in the past but backed out for various reasons. I've not seen a community like this before and I think it, and stories like this might motivate me to get back to one of the ideas.
I'm trying to start a newsletter as the first step back into launching something. I'm not sure if that counts? But I'm trying to start small and build momentum.
Best of luck with your newsletter! I feel the same as you. I used to start things but never โfinishโ. The secret is that thereโs no such thing as โfinishโ and we just need to push to the next milestone. Once you hit the milestone, you can see the results and decide what you want to do from there.
Thank you for sharing your experience, I have been hesitating for a long time to try to make side projects really work and it is very motivating to see that it is possible
Happy you enjoyed reading! I still have a long way to go, but Iโm happy with this start :)
This is an amazing start!
Best of luck, brother. Hard work will surely pay off
Thank you! ๐
Thank you for sharing your journey, I will definitely read your further updates.
Much more to come! This is just the start of my story ๐
Congrats. Keep doing in that way
Thank you!
Thank you for your transparency. It takes courage to quit your job and dive into uncertainty. Your products seem cool. Keep progressing and grinding, you'll get there ๐๐ผ
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing Alexander! I haven't started my journey yet but getting to read stories like yours continues to inspire me and I definitely know Indie Hacking will be the way for me.
Glad I can inspire you! I felt the same. Indie Hacking or startups always called to me.
All the best on your journey! This is inspiring
Thank you!
Hey community, i hope this comment finds you well, i am looking for feedback for a small side project i am building called Echo - www.echonow.co
Echo allows you effortlessly leave voice comments inside google docs, sheets , slides & more.
Have you considered re-launching TypeChinese?
Put some firepower behind it, look for some newsletters in your niche, email the owners and ask them how much to promote your launch.
Give them a discount code + lifetime plan, put a countdown timer on your landing page to increase urgency.