Launched My First Side Project with $0 – Here's What Worked and What Totally Flopped

Hey everyone,

After lurking here for months and soaking in inspiration, I finally took the leap and launched my first proper side project. No team, no funding, no code background — just a stubborn brain, lots of YouTube tutorials, and way too much coffee.

It’s a niche content site focused on streaming (think movies, anime, live sports, etc.) https://castleapkss.com/ I started it mainly to learn SEO and test if I could build traffic without spending a dime. Here’s the honest breakdown:

What worked:

Choosing a “low-key” niche with high search interest (people love free streaming, who knew?)

Writing articles myself and posting 2-3 times a week — consistency > perfection

Joining forums and leaving helpful comments (eventually added my link once I wasn’t a total stranger)

Reddit and Quora brought in some surprisingly good early traffic

What flopped:

I wasted a whole week messing with logo design instead of launching

Tried using AI to write articles — Google didn’t love it, and honestly, they felt kinda soulless

I didn’t set up basic analytics until week 3 (facepalm)

I’ve just hit ~10K monthly visits, got approved for AdSense, and made my first few bucks. Super small numbers, but it feels huge to me.

If anyone’s stuck trying to start something, happy to share more details or answer questions. I’m still figuring it all out too.

Would love to hear from others who started a content-focused project. What’s working for you right now?