I keep quitting! How do you stay consistent?
I've been on indie hackers on and off for the past 2 years. I launched a couple apps and a youtube channel and they have all been unsuccessful, solely because i gave up a little after i launched them. I just launched a chrome extension and i really don't want to repeat the cycle.
After i launch something, I somehow finds a way to convince myself to work on a shiny new idea. I think it's because the product doesn't get enough traction, and i grow bored of it. Even though i know the only way to get traction is to consistently market the app, i've been inconsistent with that since i'm not good at marketing yet.
I'm sure this happens to a lot of people. To the people that are consistent with their products, please let me know how you do it !
ps: shameless plug, check out the extension if you have a chance and let me know what you think : ) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jojox/pplplnpdbfpnjfgjflpjkanfdodcfanj
You have to be honest with yourself and ask what your goal is. For a lot of people here the goal is really just to build stuff.
Sure they can say they want a certain outcome (a million dollars) but the reality is they just want to build.
I'm sure many people don't want to hear this, but here is the truth with your projects.
BUILDING IS THE EASY PART.
It's why everyone here loves to do it.
Marketing/selling is the hard part. It's also the part that doesn't produce immediate results.
When you write a line of code you know what that code is going to do. When you send out a tweet that's supposed to build interest in your thing then you don't know what's going to happen.
It. also shows how people fall into this trap of only thinking about their good idea and believing that others are supposed to believe it's good as well.
I think many indiehackers have a secret belief that eventually if they keep building stuff, something will finally take off without them having to do any real marketing so they just continue to build.
Every once in a while they wake up from their dream and ask why things aren't working, but eventually they fall back asleep and get right back to building, launching, hoping, and building again.
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If you find that you can't stick with something you built then it usually means you're not invested in the problem. When you become truly curious about the problem then you can't help but stay focused on it.
You can't help but to want to help the world with that problem.
However, when you focus on the solution, then when you feel the solution is done then that means you're done as well.
If you want to stick with something then focus on the problem and it will be something that nags you constantly and you can't let it go.
Thanks for your feedback. It's a problem i had and i really want to solve it. You are right, building is definitely the easy part, since it has immediate gratification.
I'll focus on getting better at marketing and see if i'll grow to like it or if i'm just interesting in building.
Pick one idea and stick to developing and promoting that product for a set period of time.
Before committing to the idea make sure you have validated it.
Everyone has days where they are unmotivated to work on their product but try to make sure each day is not a 0% day. Even if it is changing one line of code or fixing a typo for the whole day.
Thanks for your feedback @wez
Funny thing is that i learned the lesson of validating before you build after working on a couple projects for months and releasing to crickets. The only reason i built the extension before validating was it took almost no time to build.
I love that concept of not having a 0% day, i'll impliment that into my lifestyle and see how that works.
I second teaming up. Find a partner that wants to make the product grow.
You know, 50% of our collective effort should be on traction from day one. So having someone that will be totally focus on that is great.
I do that with my wife, she's studying on the side marketing, traction, business, UX... everything else that is needed to push further. We are in our second year of our indie product, pivoted recently, but we're still pushing forward. If it was only me, I would have given up already a long time ago.
Why not team up with someone?
I recently teamed up with a friend of mine, hopefully that changes things this time.
I hear you. Won't offer advice as I think you already know what to do :) Funny I just wrote something titled On Boredom and Entrepreneurship
i don't know if quitting is such a bad thing. im' a serial quitter.
.. what if what you're missing is a good partner?
It's easy, just don't quit.
Join a startup so you can concentrate on building and ohter handles the biz and marketing.