How I launched pcsalesapp.com in under a week

Background:

This started as an idea I had while browsing deals on PC components on Reddit around Black Friday. I thought it would be useful to build a database of deals from Reddit posts, and then add price and category filters for faster browsing. I was thinking about using it as a project to learn React, but after a month of inaction, I was realizing that would take me too long. I saw a post here challenging people to launch a start-up before Christmas, so feeling motivated on December 19th I decided to attempt the challenge using basic jQuery and Bootstrap for the front-end. I launched pcsalesapp.com three days later on December 22nd.

How it works:

-Runs an hourly process in Python that uses the Reddit API to check for new posts announcing sales on PC parts (RAM, GPUs, monitors, laptops etc.)

-Parses text with regex to identify the product categories, prices, and links.

-Uses a basic jQuery/Javascript front-end to filter on price and category. You can also sort by price or time posted by tapping or clicking the column headers.

Hosting: I went with Digital Ocean, which basically lets you SSH into a computer running Linux and leaves the rest to you. On the one hand I like the flexibility of this setup, but configuring a server is a bit painful if you're inexperienced. They have tutorials, but I still spent hours troubleshooting certain things like caching. I'm using a really basic setup for $5/month with the first two months free. I paid $11 for the pcsalesapp.com domain.

Traffic: Posting my progress in the Challenge thread brought about 50 visitors/day for a couple days. I posted a thread on Reddit (r/SideProject) which had a good response and brought in 200 visitors/day for a couple more days. Since then, visitors have fallen to about 20/day.

What's next: There are some more subreddits I can try posting in. Someone also suggested hackernews so I'll try that too. Not sure if paid advertising would be worthwhile. I'm interested in hearing any other suggestions. I'm waiting to see if it can generate decent traffic before worrying about monetization.

You can try it at https://www.pcsalesapp.com