ThrowCalc
Free projector calculators + a 80-model spec database
I built ThrowCalc (throwcalc.com), a free projector throw-distance calculator on top of a hand-verified spec database: 80 projectors, throw ratios checked against manufacturer sheets and ProjectorCentral, plus screen size, lumens and viewing distance calculators. Static Next.js export on Cloudflare Pages, 5 languages, no signup, hosting costs basically zero. Domain was $11.
Why this exists: every projector thread has the same question, "how far back does model X sit for a 100 inch screen", and the existing calculators either lock you to one brand or make you dig the throw ratio out of a PDF.
The honest cold-start numbers, 5 weeks in:
- Google Search Console: ~1,250 impressions and 8 clicks in the last 3 days, average position 18. A new domain just sits in the sandbox no matter what you ship.
- The interesting part: visitors who DO land from search spend 10+ minutes calculating. The tool works, discovery is the bottleneck.
- Yesterday I posted a data study cut from the dataset to r/dataisbeautiful (92% of projectors fit a 100 inch image within 3 m, which surprised people) and got the first real referral traffic and the first genuine data questions.
Monetization plan, in order: nothing yet, display ads once traffic justifies it, Amazon affiliate on the per-model pages after that. The dataset is the moat, the calculators are the distribution.
Question for people who've done tool sites: what actually moved the needle for you in the first 90 days — directories, data content, or just waiting out the sandbox?
1 Comment
What stood out to me is that your constraint isn’t product quality—it’s discovery lag. The fact that users spend 10+ minutes once they land tells you the intent is already validated; the real problem is that search hasn’t “caught up” to the usefulness of the dataset yet. This is where most tool sites quietly stall—not from lack of value, but from the time it takes for topical authority to compound around a narrow utility surface.