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31 Comments

How to stop working on no-profitable ideas

Let's start from the main topic: waste time sucks!

I've wasted a lot of time and I'm currently waste a lot of time on side projects that will be never profitable or I simply lost enthusiasm.

One of my goals for this new year is to work in a new direction and focus on getting 1 $ from a side project and of course a real user.

In order to do, my plan:

  • release all my unfinished projects, to see if they gain traction or attract interest (no feedback is really good! It's a good sign to stop immediately in that direction)
  • write down all ideas, never start immediately
  • dedicating a time-boxed time slot in evening, to think on those ideas, research on them and see if anyone worth work on it
  • work on things I can validate quickly, maximum one month: if after one month I'm not able to validate, bye, see next one!
  • force me to write down ideas, analyze my past mistakes and work on those. Work on process, but without anxiety. I've learned last year that process is important, but is not all
  • build habit to put online a landing page, validate traffic, work on the marketing side of the project. Write down some metrics, evaluate without being too much attached.

What are your ideas to stop working on no-profitable side projects?

  1. 9

    Almost all of the ideas you can come up with seems like it won't get any profit at the beginning. I think the key is to focus, do not drop the idea prematurely, and try all possible monetization ideas before you decide to close the projects. Try not to work on multiple projects at the same time unless you have a long experience to organize your attention in that way successfully. My observation is that people tend to underestimate the time required to meaningfully validate if the projects have lags in the world or not. When you release your landing page or early version, you should understand that you start running a marathon instead of a sprint. It can easily take 1-2 years before you can be sure that you were right or wrong with your choices.

    1. 1

      I like to focus, I have tendency to get distracted, so focus on one idea at time fits me.
      But on the other side, if I don't have a time refernece, a goal to get ( for example get 100 visitor on my website besides me, convert 1 of them in a real people to talk with it), I'm feeling I'm losing time.
      I know it's a marathon, what I don't want is to waste too much time on wrong direction and for this reason I have to limit myself on an idea and improve my process

      1. 1

        You have to have a longer-term perspective. You have about 30-40 years of activity as a professional. If you can try and truly test ideas 1 per year, there is still a high chance that you can reach the one which gives you satisfaction and financial stability at the age of 45. Then you still have plenty of time to get the benefits of your work and live a comfortable life after retirement.

        1. 1

          Well I'm 38 rigth now :D
          Anyway, could you describe your framework for idea validation ?

          1. 1

            I'm 40, but I still not feel I'm in a rush. My "framework" and my point of view are distorted by the fact that I mostly work on enterprise-level data-intensive applications. There, one year or longer sales cycle is natural, and validations do not start with a landing page but a coffee, a workshop or a consulting work. Having worked with clients for 30+ years gives me the network and insight to know what they really need, so it is quite natural to come up with some solutions it sill requires years to polish. Another way I work is to solve my own problems and see if others have some issues. Usually, they don't, that is ok. I just improved my own productivity with a solution.

            1. 2

              "I'm 40..."
              "Having worked with clients for 30+ years..."

              You started working with clients when you were 10?? :)

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                Yes, my first client was a fuel station where my father worked. I created a spreadsheet based app on C64 for help customs inspections.

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                  unexpected flex 👏🏻

                2. 1

                  really cool! I love C64 :D

            2. 1

              I like the productivity suggestion, give me a lot of ideas, but any of them are profitable for others.

              I've worked and work in software houses, so direct contact with customers is difficult and distorted by many layers between me an end customer.
              So my other option is to observe need on internet, validate on internet and sell on internet

              note: I don't want to build tools for software houses

              1. 1

                Yes, they are. Developer tools are good (still hard) category to be in.
                Yes, the SW houses are one of the hardest places you can be if you want to start your own product (including legal restrictions)
                I would suggest start building up a little consulting side project as the first step for the type of clients your employee not serving well.

                1. 1

                  Yeah it's hard. Put aside legal things for now, I think validate the idea is first step, right ?

                  1. 1

                    Yes, validation, but validation for consulting is basically having your first client. So the question is, how to get that. That is when you look around in your direct connections most of the time.

                    1. 1

                      What if instead to look to my direct connection I want to get customers online, without knowing them ?
                      Looking whole world seems to be a bigger sea to play, instead to my limited connections

  2. 5

    I'm in the same boat too and I just started with a new process.

    I used to make landing pages too, but I feel they take a lot of time for me.

    What I have been doing recently is as soon as I get ideas, I write them down.

    Then one by one, I visualise how they would look and feel like, and then I'll make designs of it on a UI designer.

    Then, I'll take those screenshots and post them on Reddit while explaining what it is, if they like it, they can register for a "FREE BETA".

    I use Google forms / Airtable for those forms

    I see the number of signups. Because people who are really interested will definitely signup on any kind of form

    A Reddit post along with app designs should suffice to get initial validation.

    If you see a lot of activity and upvotes, then make a basic demo directly and soft launch it.

    Then check activity again and retention, analytics , hotjar etc.

    If it still seems good and growing THEN push out a feature / add more content.

    Launch more features again

    So on and so forth :)

    What do you think?

    1. 1

      Clever, I like it.
      I will stole this approach! Which subreddit do you use ?
      Do you have some example to share ?

      I think you could build a product on this: define an idea, upload ui, share on reddit / whatever, track links, redirect signup to airtable, right ?
      Somethink like zapier could do the trick and automate this part

      1. 2

        I usually post in r/sideproject or r/appideas if they are generic ideas

        but more niche oriented ideas have their own subreddits.

        let's say you're making a travel app, you should mostly post it on a travel-related subreddit

        but don't pitch your idea directly. They will ban you.

        Read this book called "The Mom Test"

        1. 1

          Same for me, I think it's a matter to catch attention with few keyword and trigger interest

        2. 1

          This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

          1. 1

            The problem I've faced is, many communities don't allow surveys, signups, self-promotion.

            So, one way is by asking them what they already use as tools, and then asking their pain points.

            See if your solutions can solve any of their pain points.

            This is for validating your idea.

            Now, then directly DM them telling you made a product to solve the problem.

            If they're using it and loving it (and you're able to make $), then you've found your PMFit.

            Now you go all in with your marketing, SEO efforts and find more users.

          2. 1

            I've got a good example. I made www.journalforcouples.com.

            My gf and I used to be long distance, so I occasionally post to r/longdistancerelationships about past hardships my gf and I had - and I always mention our journal in the title. Inevitably, someone always asks about it and I get to post an "organic" link somewhere in the thread. Always makes an impact on downloads.

            1. 1

              But this is a medium-long startegy, something to get result more quickly ?

  3. 3

    One month is definitely not long enough to validate the idea. I think with such a short term evaluation you may build for you self a bad habit of jumping to a new project after a little difficulty on the road. I think 6 months is the absolute minimum, and this is probably still far too early to draw proper conclusions. ( so maybe give your self at least a year ).

    But one the other hand, if you find a way how to validate correctly an idea within 30 days, that probably would be groundbreaking :)

    1. 1

      Thanks for sharing your points.
      I know one month is short time frame, but force me to focus on what I need: get interest, landing page traffic, newsletter/betalist email. Without this, how you can invest six months?
      One clarification: for me validate starts when you put landing page online, there is for sure work before that

      1. 1

        I've heard of some solo indie hackers that create a threshold for immediate feedback. If their idea gets X amount of waitlist signups from the landing page, they'll continue working on it. But if the initial feedback is sort of sucky, they'll move on.

        And there are very easy ways to make a landing page - Mailchimp lets you make a decent one in 5 mins.

        It's almost better if your UI and landing page are both ugly - that means the signups you get are attracted to your idea, not pretty pictures.

        1. 1

          It's almost better if your UI and landing page are both ugly - that means the signups you get are attracted to your idea, not pretty pictures.

          this is something I never think too much, good idea!

  4. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 1

      We should start from people we know, or community where we are, otherwise is really hard.
      For example on reddit there are some "nice" subreddit:

      I'm looking into it one time for week and there are some nice ideas as some cool discussions too

  5. 2

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 2

      I'd like to find a framework or a way to quickly "validate", if you can understand me properly, before doing a prototype, have at least validate few times, so I can prototype for someone

      1. 3

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

        1. 1

          I've tried but failed, of course :D
          Reddit, forums, IH. I think it's refine the angle that I've missed so far, or maybe my english is terrible, I don't know.
          I'm a visual person too, so create a landing page is something I have to do in order to visualize value proposition, correct images and understand others

          1. 1

            This comment was deleted a year ago.

            1. 1

              There is also another comment on this up (by https://www.indiehackers.com/trentguillory ), that says

              It's almost better if your UI and landing page are both ugly - that means the signups you get are attracted to your idea, not pretty pictures.

              what do you think on this ?

              1. 1

                This comment was deleted a year ago.

                1. 1

                  In general could be a test during validation, put something simple online as landing page and then iterate on design, each time measure effect and so on.

                  Btw: full yellow page man! that hurts my eyes ( it's intended ? )

                  1. 1

                    This comment was deleted a year ago.

                    1. 1

                      yeah, this is my problem, at start a/b testing is really hard or even impossible

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