Reached $376 MRR with my side project
It's fair to say that I won't need a new bank account for this, but it's really encouraging to see this number going up.
I bootstrapped my journey with a side project, an info product, for...bootstrapped founders - TheBootstrappedWay.com
These are my learnings as a solo founder with a full-time job, that really likes side projects and doesn't have the time to "build in public" or write long-form SEO content for 1-2 hours per day.
What worked well so far:
- newsletter sponsorships (affiliate commission-based)
- LinkedIn ads (only with coupon codes)
- Reddit posts (building my Reddit karma)
- posting on Linkedin (it takes time)
- posting on Twitter (it takes a lot of time)
- posting on Facebook groups (but it takes time)
What didn't work at all:
- HARO answers (Help A Reporter Out) - this is a complete waste of time
- Quora - a complete waste of time
- Medium - I'm getting views on my articles, but very few website sessions
Ok, now, what is working REALLY well - two things:
- outreach via email (the hook is a survey) - long story short, get into relevant communities, get their emails, and survey them about relevant topics discussed in that community. In the end, pitch my product.
- my newsletter - I'm getting better at copywriting, and although I barely have 350 ppl on my list, only last week I made 4 sales from 1 email alone
how long it took you to reach this stage?
Good question. I would say roughly 3 months.
As a side project, I can't work full-time on it, only roughly 1 day per week.