Challenge: New income in 75 days
For the past several months (well, actually years), I've been part of this community, along with others that focus on building products. During that time, I’ve tried different business ideas—creating eBooks, building mobile apps, working on a personal brand, and so on. But none of these projects have made me any money, except for one that I worked on with some friends, but that was more of a one-off success.
I think the reason is a mix of different things. I know how to build stuff, but I don’t really know how to market it. And when I don’t see results, my motivation drops, and I tend to give up too soon. The projects just end before they have a real chance.
Now, we’re in the last quarter of the year, and I’ve decided to challenge myself. Over the next 75 days, I want to create a new source of income to prove to myself that I can do it. I want to build something that could grow, maybe enough to leave my 9-to-5 someday. But for now, I’m starting simple—if I make even one dollar, I'll consider this challenge a success.
Of course, I still have my day job, along with other responsibilities. Realistically, I can spend about 1-2 hours on weekdays and maybe 2 to 8 hours on weekends (sometimes I’ll have plans that take up my weekends so for that reason is such a wide range).
From what I've learned, I know it’s not a good idea to put all my energy into just one project. So, my plan is to try a few ideas (or MVPs) and see which one takes off. Here are the ideas I’m thinking of starting with:
- A faceless YouTube shorts channel
- A mobile game
- A mobile app
- A website that acts as a tool
- A clothing brand
I know this is a lot to take on, and it might be too much to fully build all of these in just 75 days. But I’ll start with one, and even if I don’t get through all of them, it’s fine as long as I manage to make some money by the end.
I'll be sharing my progress on Twitter (@txordy) and posting weekly updates on my blog here. If you’re reading this, I’d love any suggestions or feedback that might help. With a bit of luck, in 75 days, I’ll look back at this post and be proud of what I’ve managed to achieve.
Hey, congrats for this new challenge, created the day of my birth :p
Regarding a mobile app would recommand you to use expo go / react native to go faster, I shipped my first app in 1 month with that :)
The apps I did in the past, were using Flutter. So I guess it's one of my safe technologies. However, good to hear other opinions to take into account.
I'll be starting a 12 startups challenge early 2025, would be great to have your feedbacks from your 75 day challenge by this time :)
Oh, great challenge too! If you follow me (either in twitter or in my newsletter) I expect to have a full summary by the end of the year with the results of my challenge... And depending how it goes, I may join your challenge :).
Great! Just followed you on X
nice challege. do you want to join mine? https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-want-to-go-on-founder-mode-for-1-year-42a3eba6e5
Hey, I think yours is too much for me now. I'm aiming for something less strict, maybe in the future I'll try something similar, but by now I'll stick with my 9to5 while trying to find a side income.
Good luck in your adventure tho, I hope you find your accountability partner and your main goals!
nice one, I am pushing hard as well towards to end of the year to achieve the same goal. I wish you success, I would honestly subscribe to a newsletter if you would post your progress because I'm interested if you will make it. Do you have an email list?
And as someone who also tried faceless youtube channels, I think making money in 75 days is quite ambitious unless you have some really good ideas or editing skills.
I paid 700$ for play[dot]ht subscription that gives unlimited text to speech for a year, but I've basically wasted it because I didn't see results I was hoping for and I've quit making youtube shorts..
I didn't think about creating any newsletter, if you're interested maybe someone else may be too and it may help feeling accountable, any suggestion on platforms to do that?
And regarding monetizing youtube in 75 days I know it can be tough, for that reason I didn't want to put all my eggs in a single basket and I plan to try at least a couple of business ideas (from the listed in the post).
I initially paid for elevenlabs, but after some testing, openAI's tts is giving me good results too (and I think it's cheaper)
Hey. Just popping in to suggest Beehiv or Substack for your newsletter. I've played around with both platforms in the past, and they seem simple enough. They also have free tiers (if I recall correctly). Good luck with your challenge!
I checked Substack and it seems to have a free tier, so I may try it in the next weeks, thanks!
I think ghost could have that option, it's an open source blogging platform. I dont know if there is more specialized solution just to setup an email list. And on that note this might be a good product to build
Nice! I'm a bit like you. And for the first time, I launched a product that has some traction.Indeed, A week ago I launched a product and got some signups. Now it's time to monetize. But it's hard. I hope to generate revenue before the end of the month.
Happy to receive your update on a weekly basis!
Good to hear you got some traction! Always helps to keep up with the motivation.
Hey @txordy, any idea how do i share my status, activity, progress etc on youtube? I declared that i will publish on youtube, but i never did anything on youtube, have no idea how to do that, never recorded any video, so any help will be appreciated.
Since I didn't create any youtube channel showing my face, my advice may not be the best. However, my suggestion would be: START.
I've seen people record themselves (and the screens too) with their phones. For sure it's not the best video, but at least they were showing and they started taking better videos later on.
If you look for something more professional, in my job I tried OBS that allows creating several scenes (some with only webcam, others cam+screen, only screen, etc.) and is quite straight forward (at least to start, I'm sure that mastering it is not that easy).
Thank you so much, i didn't know about OBS. This is such a helpful advice.
Hey there, I'm really excited about the challenge! I think I am going to do this experiment myself. I'm all in for this kind of deadline – it's a great way to push ourselves and see what we're capable of! Let's see what we are going to build and make some money.
i have also started after seeing @txordy, if you also start it will be 3 of us. Let's go. And we must thank @txordy for this.
Best of luck to all the incredible individuals taking part in this challenge, Let's find a way to share our progress that will inspire and motivate everyone. Together, we can achieve amazing things!. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Initially, we can share our progress in this comments section, and then after some time we can move to other platforms if the data is unmanageable.
agree, have you started?
Good luck in your journey too!
I basically have the same goal of making my first $ online by Jan 2025. Giving you a follow on twitter. Would love to connect and I'm looking forward to keeping up with your progress!
Thank you! Good luck with your goal too!
I think sticking to one "category" will be better. Example, create multiple Shorts channels each with a different topic or theme. Will enable you to apply learnings from previous failures.
You mean spend the 75 days only doing faceless youtube without trying the other ideas?
What I meant by category is things like the Shorts channel, or mobile game, or clothing brand. I recommend picking one. Any one.
looking at this i am also inspired to take some deadline and start building everyday. Please keep posted, i will also set a goal and start.
Having goals is great to keep motivated! Good luck in yours too!
thanks, i am bit confused with what to start, i am clear that i want to do SAAS, but not sure which area, i have some plans for shopify apps, but there are already so many apps, so not sure if that will be a good idea. Other than that i am not sure what to build.
I felt the same many times, and I found there are a couple of options:
Or just built what you like and pray that someone finds it useful (the hardest tho)
thanks, let me find out few options.
Okay, i have decided, i am gonna start building with simple shopify apps everyday for 2 hours for next 20 days and publish my very first shopify app on shopify app store, once that is done i am not gonna stop and keep building to publish 10 shopify apps on app store.
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Thanks!! I'll be posting my progress daily on X and weekly here, so hopefully you'll hear again.