Developers earned over $8000 by selling Javascript libraries from privjs.com - AMA

Hello all, I have been silent for a long time and today is special because privjs.com crossed $1500MRR. So, I decided to write a blog post about it and also answer any questions that you guys have.

How it started

It was over 2 years ago when I was exploring ways to monetize my open-source javascript library react-gradient-progress. It was a React component for rendering gradient-enabled circular progressbars.
In order to monetize this component, I did my research. Two options that I had was to use EnvatoMarket or host a private registry. Envato market encouraged selling zip files which I didn't like, and hosting a private registry costed a lot of money and time. So, I decided to solve this problem for myself by building a marketplace for nodejs packages - hence privjs.com was born.

Ray of hope

Initially, this project was a disappointment as there were no customers for a few months. Then a ray of hope on the platform was shed when we onboarded Greensock on our business plan ($750/mo then) - it was ecstatic to see first paying customer. This was very special to me personally because this was the first time in my life I had ever sold any product.

Further Distress

Months later I had no other users making any transactions on the platform. To add further distress, all the developers or organizations that I reached out to shun me down. We had a few developers showing interest and publishing libraries, but the sales were negligible. This was the point where I was reconsidering keeping the platform alive as it costed money and efforts to maintain and provide support. I am glad that I kept the platform alive.

Turning point

About a year later, the contributors of webpack reached out to me with an intent to sell licenses to webpack plugins. Few days later the first webpack plugin - https://app.privjs.com/buy/packageDetail?pkg=@module-federation/nextjs-mf was published to the platform. After some tweets and blog posts - for the first time there were lots of transactions happening on the platform. Following this, more companies onboarded the platform and more developers started publishing libraries for sale.

Current State

Right now, privjs.com has processed over 450k downloads on the platform (including public and private packages). We hit a MRR of $1.5k and the open-source developers have made over $8000 so far selling licenses to nodejs packages.

The growth is slow but for an indie maker like me - it works out. Feel free to ask any questions and I'd be happy to answer.

Do follow for more updates related to the monetization of open-source libraries. Also, drop a follow on twitter https://twitter.com/getprivjs for frequent updates.