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Yesterday I earned my first $ on the internet + successful PH launch

Hi everybody!

Finally I got my first dollars on the internet and it happened because of a pet project!
Before I dive into, I have to note that this isn't from a business/saas, it's an info product listed on Gumroad that got me my first few hundred $.

I wanted to start a new project. But I didn't have any good ideas. That's when I remembered this interview:
https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/how-i-keep-my-side-project-manageable-and-profitable-eb5544135c

The founder of that project talked about how he scraped/got information from the app stores to see which apps have potentials and also, which of these apps can be turned into better products (improving the existing app).

He used a script which he kindly sent me via email, but I couldn't get it to work so I abandoned it at the time.

A few days ago I wanted to try again, but not this. I wanted to use APIs to get information from the (google) play store, and I found a paid service.

Then I: used advanced queries to filter the information (only apps with 100k+ downloads but lower than 3.2 ratings), and then only select the ones that are active (updates from the last months at least).

I got around ~5,000 apps, I saved them to an SQL database and started going through it and selecting a few of those apps which could be my next projects.

And then I remembered: it's useful to me, maybe it would be useful to others. But anybody can do what I just did, so I should price it low. Like $3.99.
Fast forward, that's what I did: I saved the list as a pdf (+ a json, so developers could use it easily), signed up to Gumroad and started selling.

My first info product was born. It was time to launch it on PH, IH and HN (+ reddit).

The IH launch was unsuccessful and boring, I didn't get any comments, I think I posted it at the wrong time but I wasn't heartbroken.
Then it was time for Producthunt, which was my first successful launch there ever.

It wasn't the day of the product or anything, but so far it gained 200+ upvotes which placed it around 10-12th. And it got me tons of views + sales.
You can view the analytics from Gumroad somewhere in this post, I added an image and I don't know where it will place it.

The HN was successful too, it got me many views as well and a few sales.

Overall:
It's big for me, but it's not a success story. I earned around $255, had 200+ upvotes on PH, 28 points on HN, 4,237 views on my gumroad product page.

If you are interested, this is the PH link:
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/validated-ideas

Have a nice day!

  1. 2

    Congratulations, Huszko! 🎉 Always so great to hear stories like this! I actually saw this on Product Hunt yesterday haha, didn't realize it was yours till I clicked the link!

    You've got great success on Product Hunt, I'm wondering if you shared it anywhere else in order to gain traction on Product Hunt? I'll be launching a product soon, and I'm wondering if you have any advice for gaining traction on Product Hunt. I think getting those initial upvotes is what really helps everything, and it would be great to hear your experience :-)

    1. 2

      Thank you very much! :)

      Well I only shared the PH link on twitter, and that tweet got only 1 upvote so I think not a lot of people came from there.

      I didn't really do anything to gain traction on PH, I guess I was kind of lucky because this type of product is interesting for makers, and obviously there are a lot of maker in PH.

      I posted it around 1am, 1 hour after the "cycle".

      Unfortunately I can't tell you much more because there was no secret for me. I still have to experiment with launching to gain experience.

      Good luck with your launch!

      1. 1

        Thanks for the response, and for sharing your experience with launching on Product Hunt! It's great to hear that you gained that traction without any extensive marketing, that's always refreshing to see these days haha :-)

  2. 1

    Hey Huszko, Congratulations! Your story inspires us all. I am looking forward to purchase this list as I am looking for ideias :)

    Could you tell me what this script he sent to you via email? Or maybe I can get it also? and also the API's you used, thanks

  3. 1

    Hi Huszko, I truly love your idea and congratulations for your successful launch! I am working on a new service that could complement your offering. Is there a chance we can connect?

    I was thinking that since you have curated a list of app ideas with potential but executed poorly, your customers might want to know what is it that the existing app users do not like (the market gap)

    You can find out more with my validation post here https://www.indiehackers.com/post/analytics-of-product-reviews-in-a-daily-email-briefing-3e5808f048

  4. 2

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