In 2021 I had my first digital product published on Gumroad and giving it away for free to the Indie community

by AJ

Hey all 👋

First of all, I would like to wish all Indie Hackers happy holidays! 🎄🎆

2021 was an exploration year for me as I was trying to look at what to start as a side project.

I can say now, that it's quite hard to get a good idea out there for which people are willing to pay. Not taking into consideration marketing which requires a lot of effort when there's no budget.

As an experiment, I've launched a product called: "750+ SaaS ideas that received Seed Funding in 2020". https://www.indiehackers.com/product/750-saas-ideas-that-received-seed-funding-in-2020 👨‍💻

After experimenting with different acquisition strategies for a few days, I found out that the best idea was giving the list for free for several days on Reddit until a large number of upvotes have been received. Then started charging again for the list. For a year those Reddit subreddits generated traffic for me. and made around $80-100 per month 💸

https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/mc1yju/750_saas_startup_ideas_for_you_that_work/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/mc0jbs/750_saas_startup_ideas_for_you_that_work/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Business_Ideas/comments/mc2acr/750_saas_startup_ideas_for_you_that_work/

Since most of the sales are done and the list is for 2020. I'm sharing it for free with the community: https://airtable.com/shrHvPwuGUn2hOl8O

This SaaS list was a good test for my first digital product online. In 2022 I will seek to build MRR for my iOS/Android applications.

on December 31, 2021

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3

Thanks. Will definitely check it.

AtulGhorpade

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5 years ago
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Thank you very much for sharing this with the community, that's an excellent New Year's gift. I always do extensive due diligence on startup ideas before committing to working on them. I've worked on two social-side projects previously and I'm looking to take a step in the SaaS market to prioritise revenue generation before funding and gathering tens of thousands of users.

This list is definitely helpful! I just have two questions if you don't mind answering.
1. For how long did you offer the resource free of charge on Reddit before charging for it?
2. Did you alternate between offering it for free and for money on the same post? (e.g. 1 month free, 3 months paid, 1 month free again)
3. How did you handle the negative reactions for doing this switch (from free to paid)? Because I see some people have commented negatively regarding such a decision.
Thank you for the list and for your time!
nickgatzoulis

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5 years ago
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1. 2
  I don't remember exactly, but I think after around 2 weeks. On the first days, the traffic is insane and later you see how it starts to slow down.
  
  I did not, it was offered as free then. People could enter the amount they want to pay me. They could also pay $0 and most of the people entered $0.
  
  Since it's like a side side side project, I didn't think about it much. Without thinking I just changed the prices since I had to pay for Airtable. Few comments came here and there, but whatever.
  People that find the post after 1 month, 2 months, and 5 months are quite persuasive of new business ideas, that is why I believe that don't care if it was free before. They see a good rating, a lot of upvotes.
  
  Hopefully, I answer your questions.
  AJ
  
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  5 years ago
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