Indie Bites Making over $5k/month from a portfolio of side projects - Dan Rowden, ilo
Dan, like many other indie hackers, runs a bunch of projects alongside a full-time job which all compound to him making over $5k a month. In 2012 he started Magpile, a free online resource about magazines, which was followed by Subsail, a platform to help indie publishers sell magazine subscriptions.
Earlier this year Dan started using the publishing platform Ghost, which he then started to build a suite of products around, now including:
- Gloat; a productised service for hosting and self hosting
- Cove; a commenting tool for Ghost blogs
- Substation; a theme for Ghost
Dan also launched ilo, a better analytics platform for Twitter a few months ago, which has earned over $6k in revenue since launch.
What we covered in this episode:
- Why Dan lives in Mauritius
- Why choose multiple projects over doing just one?
- How do you manage your time with 3 kids, a wife and a full-time job?
- Why Dan isn't too worried about 'growing' his side projects
- The pros and cons of working on your side project with a full-time job
- Not worrying about the money your side project earns - does it take the fun out of it?
- Why is Dan so bullish on Ghost?
- Why having a 'suite' of products is complimentary to each other
- Getting a 75k acquisition offer
- Being prepared to sell your projects
- Building an alternative to Twitter analytics
Recommendations
- Magazine: Courier
- Newsletter: Dense Discovery
- Podcast: Startup
- Indie Hacker: Justin Jackson
Follow Dan
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Thanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites, which is launching in the US this week!
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