Why your side project makes $0

I went from $1K/month to $83K/month in 2 years. Here are 5 mistakes I made as a developer building micro startups (SaaS, AI tools, boilerplate & habits tracker)
🔗 All my startups - www.marclou.com
⚡️ Ship your startup in days, not weeks - shipfa.st/
💡 Newsletter for solopreneurs (14K readers) - marclou.beehiiv.com/
📸 Instagram - / marclouvion
💼 LinkedIn - / marclouvion
🐦 Twitter - / marc_louvion
00:00 - Intro (from 25% to 100% profitability)
00:30 - Mistake 1
03:30 - Mistake 2
04:33 - Mistake 3
07:10 - Mistake 4
08:11 - Mistake 5
09:56 - Outro (the difference between devs who earn $)

[@marc-lou]

I'm putting all I learned from entrepreneurship into videos, but my channel is still quite new. You can find more content on my blog - especially about marketing & mindset - marclou.beehiiv.com Keep shipping ⚡

[@aakashkathait8328]

Hi Marc Can you make a video about your marketing strategies🙌🏻

[@Wasteyourlifewithmemes]

hey, Marc With lots of projects,I don't know how you find time for reading people's comments but I would love help you out with your newsletter and I want to write you a free email for your newsletter. What do u think? lmk

[@nimigeorge8089]

Hey Marc Lou, your videos are amazing and really insightful How do creatives/developers intern for you? would love to be of service to you and learn how to be an indie hacker at the same time

[@jjbarker7450]

Would love a video where you recommend how to learn how to code. I am a good web designer but I have only used CMS systems and cant code. I want to start a project that requires coding and I dont know wether I should buy help or code it myself

[@VincePolston]

"Users don't care about the invisible. Users only care about one thing: they want a solution to their problems" -- facts

[@Not_Aran8276]

They sure don't care about my invisible channel name.

[@iNT3NS3CLUTCH]

I don't entirely agree with his points after, I can't count the amount of times I've opened a website in light mode and since it doesn't have or support dark mode I instantly clicked off because it killed my eyes. I think some small easy to implement features like that can help with retention

[@dinoscheidt]

Yes. And someone to sue when it goes wrong.

[@techmoneymogul]

Mistake List: 1) Free plan 2) Shiny Tech Syndrome 3) Subscriptions 4) Bad headline 5) Over engineering

[@sardorbekomonkulov6379]

To do list*

[@selimmidikoglu5534]

Free plan is not a bad thing for kinda major projects which you come up with new idea. You might even have similar apps already exist on the market free plan brings customers and feedback in early stages. Than you can refactor app according to user feedbacks and new features. Than it is better to go premium features after some popularity and taking feedback stage.

[@407wrld3]

@@selimmidikoglu5534 yes free plan or demo is a must, or at least money back

[@llothar68]

@@selimmidikoglu5534 No Free plan is bad. But it might be too late to change this mistakes in the industry.

[@frozendeadbush5026]

Ayo its my man coding papi

[@jarostaz]

Haha I agree with all the points, building a product is more fun than marketing, but earning a profit is even more fun! Great video as always.

[@MakingWithGPT-bi8df]

💯

[@mr.objective7703]

nice videos man, maybe i should make some too lol

[@jarostaz]

@@mr.objective7703 Thanks! You should!

[@deryckoe84]

I feel a read a 600 pages entrepreneurship book in 10 minutes. So much knowledge in this video. Having the certainty you are sharing everything based on your own experience with proven results makes it even better. Keep going. You are killing it man. Congratulations.

[@Tomj0nes]

I dont usually comment on vidoes but honestly this video was great really informative and didnt feel like i was being sold bs, just honest information based of your experience. Keep up the great vids man and gd luck on future projects!

[@mchuatak]

Thank you. This is really helpful for us who are just starting.

[@chrismixlist]

Amazing advice. All of your latest videos have been packed with value. Thank you so much

[@shramini3757]

Marc, this is golden! Discovered your channel thanks to the youtube algorithm a few weeks ago and can't stress enough how valuable your insights are for the fellow solo devs out there. Huge thanks!

[@Silb0tic]

Another great video Marc! You show failures and what you learned from it. That's the way to go!

[@eddiejaoude]

Great video! Thank you for sharing your experience, I can definitely relate

[@karateover40]

Love the content Marc. I am working on a SaaS now using your advice.

[@James-to6lh]

Awesome video. Your advice is perfect for me. I'm launching my SaaS this month! Wish me luck!

[@Extremspide101]

Love the content Marc! Thank you these videos are great insights

[@khaledsanny4817]

Wow... a 10 minutes video packed with sooo much knowledge. Amazing 🎉

[@bjorndunkel]

Thank you Marc, that is so well explained.

[@jrabelo_]

hi marc, thanks for sharing this amazing knowledge, I was very confident about selling my sass as a subscription model but not sure anymore after watching you, thanks a lot

[@nicholasfinch4087]

HAHA Ship to production! The definition of "F**K IT, we're doing it live" I love it

[@adityakadam2256]

Hi, thanks for sharing all this. It is very insightful and your content is very inspiring.

[@volimsir]

Hey Marc, great video! I also want to start building things on my own, but I have a really hard time coming up with ideas. Maybe it's because most of the time I just build stuff for other people. Maybe you could do a video on that? How you come up with ideas about a project/startup you want to build?

[@RhinoInsight]

Amazing! Having launched few weeks ago, I almost did the exact same mistakes! I really like the content and format!

[@Jeff_Leon]

This advice is gold! I often find myself guilty of doing some of these things. I still have a very hard time believing you launch fully functional software businesses in a few days. Would love to see some of your live streams recordings.

[@ravitejachandana6199]

Very much valuable information. Thanks for sharing ❤

[@jamesjenkins9480]

I'm working on a side project right now and this video is perfect timing for me as I'm trying to figure out how to monetize it. Thanks for the insight!

[@Joseph-Codes]

Thank you this was really insightful and helpful. By the way I just subscribed

[@muammar88]

Excellent tips! I agree with everything you said.. Sadly learnt the hard way!

[@luanfelipecosta]

Thanks for the tips! Super helpful

[@usmanabdurehman97]

Very nice video man. Learnt a lot

[@VeeWebCode]

finally a geniune video. love ya man

[@R00YSEC]

Thank you for the video Marc!

[@jmgutierrez962]

Thank You sir.. I need to write these things down in my github online portfolio. These insights are gold.

[@Yassinius]

Solid advice, thanks so much!!

[@javiasilis]

Wow, thank you for #3. I was wondering how I was going to implement the one time payment for an OpenAI wrapper. I will definitely use the pay per use model. I will investigate more about it.

[@farrukh.]

Marc growing on social media like a 🚀

[@francosbenitez]

Loved your explanation, man!

[@santoshkumar-wq4qd]

Thanks for sharing your SAAS experience

[@anthony_riera]

Awesome video Marc! I'm thinking of getting rid of my free plan on my app for a while, this might be a solution to unlock some revenue!

[@freenrg888]

It was helpful. Thanks Marc

[@livelyfairr]

Love your videos Marc!

[@joshuaedward6893]

Hmm, this is insightful. I guess I will put a few unnecessary features on my app on hold for now. And also try the pay for what you use model. Thanks again for the insight

[@ramzy8874]

Amazing video, straight to the point ✅

[@barisballi70]

That was crazy helpful. Thank you

[@lennonsigwenamudenda6768]

Thanks a lot @marc-lou these are amazing lessons I am learning quite a lot.

[@davidhack2409]

Great stuff Marc!

[@frenchmike]

great tips bro, keep it up. merci

[@valterszaluzinskis2453]

Excelent video, educating and for some reason even motivating😂

[@samuelemonasterolo4634]

Amazing video Marc🔥

[@tobiaszgala7108]

Very good video thank you for sharing your experience

[@Notepad123]

Thanks for the video brother 🤘🏽

[@tntg5]

Thanks Marc for these tips ! They are very valuable! Could you please tell us about how you started your journey on twitter ?

[@rustapan]

Very valuable video. Thanks!

[@myworldworks]

Love the video Marc.

[@Jegory316]

Amazing content, thank you for sharing

[@ThePharaohsCat]

Great stuff. Crucial value

[@DanielJustavino23]

great content Marc!

[@khaledsanny4817]

Thank you for this great content. Please can you teach your marketing techniques ?

[@Kreshel1]

amazing advice, thank you very much

[@davidkostuchenko3654]

I understand the logic behind mistake #1 about the free plan, but the example of free vs paid didn't add up for me. Am I wrong ? or am I missing something ? or perhaps just nit picky. Free plan vs 10$/month plan example: Core variables: New visitors per month: 10,000 Conversion rate to paid plan: 3% The example: 1st month: 10,000 * 3% = 3,000$ 2nd month: 10,000 * 3% = 3,000$ + 3,000$ (from existing users) = 6,000$ 3nd month: 10,000 * 3% = 3,000$ + 6,000$ (from existing users) = 9,000$ etc... (And of course I'm leaving out people that cancel and maintenance cost out of the example)

[@davidkostuchenko3654]

And btw really like your video man very interesting advice.

[@luiswebdev8292]

watchign this video makes me thing I need to shift my mindset so much, sound exciting

[@andresnavarro1825]

Thanks. Very usefull information!

[@jennyliu07]

Pretty sound! Thanks!

[@CrapuleScred]

Salut et super contenu merci. Je regarde un peu car j'essaye de voir des opportunités d'apprendre et éventuellement d'en dégager un revenu afin d'être indépendant sans pour autant gagner des sommes astronomiques. Et puis quand je vois un autre surfeur ca fait plaisir. Moi ce qui m'intéresserait ca serait de connaître ton parcours plus en détails, et surtout ton cheminement pour l'apprentissage. Je m'intéresse un peu aux possibilités du nocode/lowcode actuellement. J'avais tenté un début sur les bases html et java de mémoire mais je n'ai pas continué. En ce moment je check la formation de base gratuite sur contournement et donc j'abord airtable, zapier, softr etc... J'aime bien. A voir si je persiste. C'est pour ca que c'est toujours intéressant d'avoir des pistes et vu que tu sembles partager volontiers ton parcours. Enfin je cherche de quoi apprendre et progresser. Idem j'ai une petite chaîne sur les jeux de société (rien à voir) mais je pense possiblement ouvrir une nouvelle chaîne youtube sur un autre sujet, pourquoi pas mon apprentissage en la matière. Mais je n'aime pas trop montrer ma tête même si elle est normale 😅. Aller merci à toi et à bientôt. J'aurais pu l'écrire en anglais mais bon on va faire exception :)

[@dus10dnd]

Just because all of the software industry wants to move to subscriptions doesn't mean it makes sense. If it is a service that has compute and storage around it... and you provide a justifiable value, subscriptions make sense. If you're making an app that you ship which has usage not dependent on a backend... release it like traditional software. Accept a one-time payment for that version with updates for a year, or some reasonable time. When a new version comes out... a new charge, and it can include a discount for existing customers.

[@MorrisseyDelicia]

Man, can you make a video about how do you sell? I`m stuck in it. Great work bro! Thanks a lot!

[@thomasthurzo8792]

Like always, a Great Video. Cheers.

[@SwiftUIForBeginners_TY]

Great video very nice tips!

[@THE_G0AlAPAGOS]

Hi Marc, I love your videos, style and the effort you put into your work, keep up the good work. Can I ask what tech stack/tools you used for the site builder? Thanks a lot.

[@marc-lou]

thanks! I used the same stack for all my products. + GPT-4 & SDX for tha landing page generator kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJCkf3udia2Bias

[@hamzahmd_]

Love the unique content.

[@shakapaker]

I agree with all points, amazing content 🔥I think without a free plan they will just not use it and there will be the same 3% that bought or maybe a bigger percentage. Trials a way to go anyway

[@oDOUGYo]

Love the T-Shirt! Where can I see the full graphic?

[@ES-eb6pb]

can you do a video on how to get legal information for your startup? like do i need to buy lawyer services for terms and conditions and other legal things that may need to be specified in my website.

[@hooligansofts7430]

Hey Marc, Kinda curious, you said that you stuck with the one time payment plan for your landing page generator, just wanted to know how do you keep up with the expenses? I assume internally the app utilizes openAI APIs to keep up and stuff, so do you provide the source-code and the user is. asked to self-host? I mean, keeping up with open AI usage, hosting, database usage for LIFETIME doesn't sound very sustainable

[@bethfiore]

Your channel is amazing

[@danielloseyTech]

so good, thanks!

[@juanmiguelguerrero7222]

Marc, How do you calculate the relationship between new visitors and monthly visitors? 1:32

[@pasha0423]

Excellent content 👏

[@mohammadz5474]

Amazing advices ❤

[@L.R.-xh2pm]

Unfortunately I couldn’t agree more. I did all the mistakes you mentioned and much more on top. But what doesn’t kill me right…🎉

[@zarathoustraInParis]

Merci pour ton travail !!! Oui un petit commentaire en français de temps en temps ne fait pas de mal 😝

[@glowdragon]

This video is so valuable that I created a new playlist for videos like this one.

[@AppySpaces]

00:02 Offering a free plan can kill your revenue 01:19 Free plans may hinder profitability for solo entrepreneurs 02:34 Provide free tools for users to try before purchasing 03:55 Users prioritize solutions over aesthetics. 05:14 Subscriptions have drawbacks for both business owners and users. 06:34 Implement a pay-per-use system for fair user pricing 07:53 Craft an excellent headline for your project. 09:12 Remove anything not directly valuable to the customer. Crafted by Merlin AI.

[@markodupor]

Great stuff, but what I'm really interested in is how do you market yourself? I've created a couple of side projects which ended up making 0 profits simply because I suck at marketing and there was no real traction there.

[@VaibhavShewale]

well that was insightful. i have a qestion on how to find this kind of problem?

[@Paul_Micu]

the no typescript is quite interesting and I'm curious to the reasons. i started building the feature part of my MVP without typescript but i decided i wanted to switch to nextjs as a full stack framework instead of what i had before which was just react frontend end and java microservices. When i started transitioning the project to nextjs i had to convert all the js into js because i felt like it was the "correct" way to do it.

[@shakapaker]

Actually it's interesting idea to not use typescript, maybe it depends on project if it's complex that can lead to bugs and you waste more time, but you can add it later on, not sure on this

[@nicolasdiot7007]

Love it ! I'm currently developing a SaaS this month with your advice : same tech stack, no typescript, no test, no subscription but life time payment and no free plan. Just keep it simple with one main functionality and launch in one month maximum

[@rusl12]

What's the plan for the lifetime membership when you decide to close your product in 6 months' time? No offence intended, that's just what happens with most products and I am genuinely curious

[@rusl12]

Something that isn't addressed in the video (because it's probably not important for the solo entrepreneurs??) is that subscriptions are a good method for an ongoing exchange of value. As a user I like this because my regular payments are incentivising the developer to continuously deliver me value, meaning 1. they won't shut down and 2. they will keep improving the product to stay competitive. One-time "lifetime" payments offer neither of those.

[@dvillegaspro]

Why no typescript?

[@yoshirubin9481]

Hey started watching your content and have found some really interesting insights I saw you say you dont put a reset password button on your products, how do you handle a situation where a user forgets their password?

[@user-dk6nc8jo5z]

Where can we market our products Are there any websites for that or do we have to use Google itself?

[@CyberTechBits]

@marc I thought you were going to share your tech stack? What tools do you use to develop?

[@z_0968]

While I agree with mistake 2 (all of them actually), throwing shade at shadcn/ui was kind of unnecessary, that's not the shiny new library that's THE UI library to use. The only reason to not use shadcn/ui with a TailwindCSS project is if you already bought an UI library like Chakra or even Tailwind's own components.

[@LS-in1xn]

I about indiepage just now... so wish to follow this path!

[@dei8bit]

Bro OMG your videos and your intention, I really want to launch my apps, I really appreciate your advice I just get emotional because I want to achieve it and I feel your teaching as if it were from father to son ._. when I manage to monetize my apps, I will write you to thank you.

[@cocoarecords]

Amazing and practical

[@Srg9000]

What do you do for licence agreements? Like who is liable if your servers are down or you sell the ownership for something you charged a one-time only fee for?

[@pavellegkodymov4295]

Cool, thank you very much!

[@borjafat]

Really cool editing. Do you edit your own or do you have an editor?

[@randomeno1]

what are you using to deploy your apps?

[@senatrius1968]

Great tips! But from a user perspective, free trial with a credit card might not always be ideal. If I find some interesting software that says it has a free trial for 7 days, I click "Try now" and it immediatelly asks me for a credit card, I'm leaving right then and there. Unless your software is something I really need right at that moment and it has no alternatives, then fine, I'll reluctantly sign up and immediately cancel the trial if I can so it doesn't renew the subscription. Perhaps the numbers show otherwise and asking for credit card details on sign up is worth it in the long term, but it makes me wonder how many people that would've signed up for a trial and then purchased a subscription later just don't sign up for a trial at all.

[@vannhantran547]

Glad we have Marc sharing his gems

[@Connor0to10]

Another great video!

[@comedyclub333]

Another reason why companies like Vercel can offer a free plan is that the free plan is limited enough to keep someone from using it in large scale. And since you get used to it for your side projects and see the benefits, you are more likely to consider it for your large scale projects, e.g. at your 9-5 job. What I'm trying to say: Free plans might work, it highly depends on the product you want to bring to the market.