[0:00] I tried building SS for 300 days and I
[0:03] think it's about time somebody tells you
[0:05] the truth let's go back to day one I was
[0:07] sitting at my computer trying to figure
[0:09] out ways to make money without going
[0:11] back to a software development job I
[0:14] tried freelancing but I didn't enjoy
[0:16] having clients I tried selling a course
[0:19] but I quickly grew bored of the topic
[0:22] and stopped updating it and I even wrote
[0:24] books for developers but I didn't like
[0:26] selling information that was already
[0:28] available online that's when I found
[0:30] something called SAS software as a
[0:33] service there were all these developers
[0:35] who were building small software
[0:37] products and selling them to Consumers
[0:39] all while living their ideal lifestyle
[0:42] which quite often seemed to be in barley
[0:45] the fact that I could use my software
[0:47] development skills to actually build
[0:49] something useful become an independent
[0:51] developer and make $10,000 per month or
[0:55] more sounded like the ideal opportunity
[0:57] so this is what happened for the next
[0:59] three 00 days this is my unfiltered take
[1:03] these are my Real Results well first
[1:05] thing I needed was an idea for software
[1:08] product to create at the time I'd been
[1:10] mixing with a group of people interested
[1:12] in YouTube I decided to create a YouTube
[1:15] thumbnail comparison tool and My Hope
[1:18] was that this group of people might
[1:19] decide to buy it problem was my front
[1:22] end development skills were very basic
[1:25] it took me a while to get up to speed
[1:27] with Dynamic JavaScript Frameworks but
[1:30] once I did it was pretty easy to create
[1:32] a web page that showed YouTube
[1:34] thumbnails just like on YouTube and
[1:37] after a month I had a prototype that I
[1:39] sent to the group of people I mentioned
[1:42] well they all seemed to like it after
[1:44] great feedback I assumed I was onto a
[1:46] winner problem was at this point the
[1:49] product was free so it wasn't generating
[1:51] me any Revenue I spent one more month
[1:54] adding new features behind a oneoff
[1:57] payment and when I told all those people
[1:59] that they could now pay for all these
[2:01] extra features for the product that they
[2:03] said they liked so much well only one
[2:05] person bought and even though it was a
[2:07] bit disappointing that I only made $29 I
[2:10] had to remind myself this was the first
[2:12] SAS product I had ever made so was ready
[2:16] to move on to the next one there's this
[2:18] Indie hacker who builds SAS that I've
[2:20] been following at the time and he talks
[2:22] about the benefit of creating a free
[2:24] product and put an advert on it to push
[2:27] people towards his paid product around
[2:29] that time time I was watching a lot of
[2:31] daily YouTube uploaders they publish a
[2:34] vlog every single day and I wanted an
[2:36] easy way to discover those so I created
[2:40] a vlog ranking tool Vlog rank this tool
[2:43] was a lot simpler I finished it in 5
[2:46] days but once I hit the launch button I
[2:49] wasn't really sure how to Market it in
[2:52] fact the only people that I thought
[2:54] might be interested were the daily
[2:55] vloggers themselves and I only knew one
[2:58] of those and he ignored my message well
[3:01] even though my site didn't get any
[3:02] visitors and still doesn't get many
[3:04] visitors today I at least had a tool
[3:06] that I could use myself so I told myself
[3:09] for my next product it was going to be
[3:11] another paid product guess what the
[3:13] topic was y YouTube again around this
[3:16] time I was struggling to come up with
[3:18] ideas I was excited to build and the
[3:20] only one that was of interest to me and
[3:23] potentially of interest to someone else
[3:25] and easy to build was a tool to
[3:28] automatically overlay Tech on your
[3:31] YouTube channel Banner thing is I was a
[3:34] little bit lukewarm about this product
[3:36] but I managed to entice myself to build
[3:38] it by first of all building the landing
[3:40] page and that actually got me a bit more
[3:43] excited to build the product which I did
[3:46] within the next 7 days once I launched
[3:49] it I had another problem I didn't really
[3:52] know anyone that would want to use this
[3:54] product and I realized I didn't really
[3:56] want to use it either I felt like I'd
[3:58] gone backwards from my first product the
[4:01] thumbnail tool because at least I wanted
[4:04] to use that one that's when I got a bit
[4:06] demotivated because I felt like time and
[4:08] time again I couldn't hit that sweet
[4:11] spot of a product that I wanted to use
[4:13] myself other people might want to use
[4:15] and would be willing to pay for so yeah
[4:17] not all of those 300 days were spent
[4:20] working on SAS some of it was just spent
[4:23] thinking what am I going to do next one
[4:25] thing I hear the online gurus say is to
[4:28] take what's already working working and
[4:30] build your own version of it well one
[4:32] product I'd seen that I thought was
[4:34] really clever was this same Indie
[4:36] hacking influencers bootstrap project
[4:39] which is a shortcut to starting a web
[4:41] app quickly and even though I'd only
[4:43] Built three web apps I still had a lot
[4:46] of experience from all the software
[4:48] development jobs I've done so thought I
[4:50] could build my own version but first of
[4:52] all I had to go to
[4:56] Japan of course I packed my tiny laptop
[4:59] with me and after recovering from jet
[5:01] lag I thought well what am I going to do
[5:03] in the morning before I knew it every
[5:05] morning I started building my own
[5:07] bootstrap project and by the time I got
[5:10] back from Japan it was almost ready to
[5:12] launch I felt like this time I had a
[5:15] product that I wanted to use and it was
[5:17] potentially something that people who
[5:18] watch my YouTube videos might want to
[5:20] use well I launched this product to my
[5:23] email list and I created several YouTube
[5:25] videos where I mentioned it and it's got
[5:27] three sales for a total of
[5:31] $177 so actually this is my most
[5:33] profitable SAS so far but I'm still not
[5:36] hitting the numbers that make all this
[5:38] effort worthwhile having built four
[5:40] products I still see this as a big
[5:43] opportunity because there are so many
[5:45] problems that could potentially be
[5:47] solved with software if you can find one
[5:49] that's painful enough and solve it in an
[5:51] efficient way then I don't see how you
[5:54] can't make a lot of money from that as
[5:55] long as you've got your laptop with you
[5:57] you could live your ideal lifestyle from
[5:59] anywhere in the world that's the path
[6:01] I'm still following but here are five
[6:04] things I'd wish I'd known from day one
[6:07] number one is to solve a problem for
[6:10] someone or a group of people you already
[6:12] know for my second and third projects I
[6:15] kind of made up a problem but a better
[6:17] approach is to identify a problem first
[6:20] that a real human being actually has and
[6:22] then build a solution for that number
[6:24] two not to build something that you're
[6:26] not that's too many negatives only build
[6:28] something you're excited to use yourself
[6:30] the YouTube Banner automation tool I
[6:33] created I literally have not used since
[6:35] I built it nobody else has signed up to
[6:37] the tool either it's not valuable enough
[6:40] I think the answer to that is rather
[6:43] than do something that you think is cool
[6:46] is to do something that solves a problem
[6:48] in your life and then you're going to be
[6:50] more tempted to use it number three is
[6:52] to take the quick and dirty approach
[6:54] it's really easy for perfectionists to
[6:57] get caught up in making all the code
[6:59] perfect when all the customer really
[7:01] cares about is the experience they have
[7:03] using the front end through the browser
[7:06] as long as that works that's all that
[7:07] really matters so focus on getting
[7:10] something done rather than perfect
[7:12] number three is to launch and move on
[7:16] when you launch a single product and it
[7:18] doesn't get the attention that you think
[7:20] it deserves it's easy to get emotionally
[7:23] caught up in that tell yourself you're
[7:24] on completely the wrong path and take a
[7:27] few weeks off from building software
[7:29] whereas a better approach is the Peter
[7:31] levels approach when he did 12 startups
[7:34] in 12 months if you give yourself just
[7:37] one month then you know as soon as that
[7:39] month is up you've got to move on to the
[7:41] next project fifth point is don't go in
[7:44] with the wrong expectations it's very
[7:46] unlikely you're going to make it with
[7:48] your first product and in my case not
[7:50] even your second third or fourth but
[7:53] rather than giving up when this happens
[7:55] instead go in with these expectations
[7:58] every project you build is a small
[8:01] experiment one where you're increasing
[8:03] your skills if you can increase the
[8:05] speed with which you build product
[8:08] you're basically running more small
[8:10] experiments and you're learning more
[8:11] along the way the faster you iterate the
[8:14] more chance you are of seeing success
[8:17] the fact is there are people out there
[8:18] who are building SAS products and are
[8:21] earning a very good income from it
[8:23] question to ask is given you already
[8:25] have software development skills could
[8:27] you do the same thing to earn an income
[8:29] completely independently of a job live
[8:32] anywhere you want in the world and
[8:34] ultimately gain your Independence that's
[8:36] been my experience of following this
[8:38] path so far hope it was useful and I'll
[8:41] see you in the next one