Profitable Side Projects: Tips from Nomad List Founder Pieter Levels
Bootstrapping and Marketing Strategies
- 🍺The most pure form of marketing is when the product sells itself and people tell their friends about it.
- 💻Building a successful company can be done working alone from a laptop, without the need for networking events, VCs, or paid marketing.
- 👩💼Start small first, so you can get bigger later because if you want to compete with big companies on the first day it's not going to work.
- ⏰Working alone can save a lot of time and avoid unnecessary meetings and delays in adding features, compared to VC-funded startups with large teams.
- 💰The launch stage is the most important, and if you mess it up, it doesn't matter how great your product is.
- 💰Not paying for traffic in the beginning allows you to see if people actually want to use your app or product, without the risk of attracting fake users.
- 📈Sending press releases and launching spin-off features are crucial for maintaining growth and traffic for side projects.
- 🔑Continuous development of new features is essential to keep users excited and engaged, similar to the approach taken by Snapchat.
Solving Problems and Monetization Approaches
- 💡Solve your own problems when building a startup, as you're the expert in your own problems and the best customer for that product.
- 💰Engineers and developers often feel guilty about charging money for their work, but it's important to monetize and get paid for the time and effort put into a project.
- 💰Pieter Levels shares how he made his side project profitable by getting sponsorship from companies like WordPress, making $2,000 to $4,000 a month immediately.
- 🤖The future of automation may lead to a basic income of $2,000 a month for everyone, as jobs become obsolete.
Q&A
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What is the best way to create a successful startup?
— The best way to create a successful startup is to solve your own problems, explore new cultures, automate tasks, and monetize your ideas.
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How can I grow my product without paying for traffic?
— Instead of paying for traffic, launch new features every few months to get new users and re-engage old users. Create spin-off features and launch them every few months to show growth and capitalize on current events to gain traffic.
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What are some important tips for monetizing websites and apps?
— Charge money early on and consider monetization strategies such as affiliate marketing, ads, and premium features to make money with websites and apps. By asking people directly for donations, businesses can almost double their money every year.
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What is the best approach to building a successful remote job board?
— It's important to have little waste of time and not hire in the beginning, so you can add features quickly and work alone. Developing new features and engaging users through push notifications, emails, and social networks can help bring old users back and keep them engaged.
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How can I stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing business landscape?
— Traveling to new cultures and meeting new people is the easiest way to become a more unique person and be ahead of the curve. Do lots of different jobs and explore weird subcultures to become an early adopter and stay ahead of the pack.
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