Ideas for "micro products"

I have been thinking in this direction for sometime now. However I discovered that building the "mini product" is not the main issue rather, it's marketing it. They require same amount of marketing effort as a well built application.

Mini-products will work when you have a very good distribution channel and that is why a lot of people using Codecanyon owned by Envato to sell their mini-products. So the question is are you going to build your own distribution channel or rely on existing ones?

I'm attempting to do this.

In my case, I'm building products for a shared audience to help minimize the marketing effort. I recently built and launched Kismet (https://findkismet.com) in 2 days and got a ton of signups from the Show HN.

The product is free but I'm in talks with sponsors, so hopefully it'll be ramen-profitable soon.

Realistically, none of those things (except building a cookie-cutter squarespace site) is a 2 week project.

Even a mini ebook needs to be written, needs a decently designed website, needs to be actively promoted in relevant channels etc. All those things are necessary and take time.

Also it's a bad mental model to think "it was quick / easy to do so I can charge few bucks for it" (as opposed to many bucks).

For things you try to sell, the outcomes are bimodal: you either attack the right problem, execute well on it and promote it well, in which case you can charge good money for it.

Or you fail at any of those things in which case you can try to charge little money for it but no one will buy regardless of how low the price.

I think most success stories featured on IH started from a micro-product (aka MVP). It looks like the best way to start your own product is to aim for this kind of two-weeks-already-profitable website.

I think most of the products I've made have been mini-products.

I like the fact that they are self-contained, pretty much evergreen and can be sold hands-off.

On the marketing side it means I can be free mention them if and when the opportunity arises and not feel like I have to deliberately grind on promoting the same thing over and over.

It still feels fun when unexpected sales come in and it takes minimal time to keep them running.

They aren't hugely profitable as they are small value items so it would take lots of sales to make a decent income but they are in profit, which is more than most ideas make I guess.

I'm always keeping a list of possible projects and see plenty of opportunity.

I've found them a great way to learn and build the skills to move on to bigger things!

Could be between something like Pieter Levels' 12 startups in 12 months and Dan Norris' 7 Day startup.

Could call it the 52 weeks of Product.

One page reports on topics of interest and ladder up to a report, book etc.

Another micro is Progressive mobile apps that solve a problem based on where the user is located i.e. parking, dating, study groups, car wash etc

Another potentially good area to explore is mini-Shopify apps. There's a built in distribution channel which is the Shopify app store, and if you make it niche enough they're relatively easy to build.
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Sidebar pitch, if you're looking to build mini-products, we're building a platform exactly for that :) Fastest way to get a mini-product / MVP out the door: http://base.run

Some people charge thousands of dollars for custom squarespace sites

For me, I put together a small e-book and published it in Leanpub for fun. After two years it's earned me and my co-author $70 total ($45 each). Not much, but I also didn't market it much.

I like the idea as a form of supplemental income, which can help give you the time/flexibility to pursue bigger projects. Sales from my online course have certainly helped with that (but I wouldn't call that "micro" by any stretch).

I don't think it is possible to build a reasonable "two-week product" that provides enough value to customers. Like the overnight SaaS success, I think it's a bit of a myth, spread by the few who got lucky and hit a specific pain point, thus providing the value.

In general, "two-week" products often aren't. And once they are "done", it's very difficult to get enough sales to justify the cost.

I like the idea. However marketing and distribution will be the key. I would try it if you have an idea.

Micro Product or Micro SaaS sounds like an exciting idea. I am very much interested in trying something that shouldn't take couple of weeks from conception to execution so that I can fit it between freelance gigs that pay for the bills.

However, I am currently in analysis paralysis mode. Read up so many success stories and not sure where to start. Shopify apps seem to be the lowest hanging fruit but haven't done that before.

I think building partnerships would be the easiest way to make a micro-product or service. An example I have is where I was speaking to a coach and she said that 80% of her storeowner/clients needed to set up payment plans for their customers. The micro-service for this was to offer the set up of a payment plan as a service (#1 product) and also create a course (#2 product) on building a DIY payment plan that could be offered to her clients and she would get 50% commission.

I can always shut off #1 product down the track and keep #2 in place.

I hope this helps get some ideas going :)