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Launched! 453 YT views, 53 RTs, 107 reddit votes

Yesterday I launched an open source project I have been working on for the past 3.5 months called Slingcode.

It's a web based live-reloading IDE I made for my kids as a simple way to tinker and learn web dev. It gets rid of complex command line tooling and hosting from the web dev process so you can get on with building and running your apps.

I'm one of those "I can't market" open source people, so for me the launch feels like a great success. I posted on Hacker News, Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, Twitter, and made a video explaining the features on youtube.

I've had 453 YouTube views, 53 retweets, and 107 reddit upvotes which I am very happy with! :D

The Product Hunt launch tanked miserably with just 8 upvotes last time I checked, and likewise the Hacker News post did not do very well with just 16 upvotes. I was quite surprised by HN in particular as almost all of the web devs I showed it to were very enthusiastic, encouraging me to share on HN. I have had other projects do way better before even though they were not as good. Just goes to show that with HN and PH quite a lot comes down to luck and timing.

However I was lucky enough to have somebody independently share it on Reddit and that gave the launch a huge boost on that site.

My plan is to continue working on this as an open source project and eventually offer a web app hosting option for a monthly fee. This will include a domain, SSL cert, etc. for people who want to put the web apps they've built online. I'll also provide instructions for self-hosting for people who want to do it that way. I'm committed to keeping the app as open and accessible as possible.

Another thing I've been watching keenly is people like @calebporzio and @zenorocha who have managed to turn their open source projects into sustainable cash-positive operations. I will continue experimenting with screencasts to try and generate some income and think about what a "pro" version could look like. These people are a great inspiration!

Thanks for reading.