How I Failed 2 Side Projects In Under a Year And Lessons I Learned
Tags: ux, design, sideprojects, webdev
Published: 2020-11-02 10:47:27

`I feel like I should start off the blog post by mentioning that I am a Product Designer with little to no development skills, so I heavily rely on no-code tools to get my side projects up and running.`

The idea of creating something that thousands of users could potentially use was just so exciting to me. Over the course of just shy of a year, I worked on 2 projects that made me less than $20, **combined**, so I feel like it's safe to say I can share my experience with you guys and hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes.

# designtarget

 ![Custom Size – 3.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604131920818/D9DxXPfJk.png)

Oof, designtarget was a wild ride. On 18-8-2019, god knows what happened but I just hopped on Namecheap and purchased the domain designtarget.org with no prior experience in web development. I was just so into the idea of creating the 'ultimate design directory' that I really didn't think anything through. How would I monetize the platform? Do I even have a list of resources that I can work with? Where will I market the website? So many questions, and little to no answers.

I remembered seeing an ad for a visual editor plugin on Wordpress called Elementor, it seemed intuitive so I go to Namecheap's cPanel and install Wordpress, purchase a year's subscription to Elementor and I get building. Literally next day I was done, I didn't think the design through, I just wanted to get an MVP out right away, and this atrociousness was born, but I was proud of it. I had no web development knowledge and I made a website, and it felt great.

![Web 1920 – 1.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604132243316/TKr68CyWaA.png)

Naturally, I wanted people to see what I had built, so I go on Reddit and post the website on /r/webdev - no it wasn't a Saturday(you can only post your work on Feedback Saturday on /r/webdev), yes the post was locked. But that doesn't matter, why you ask?


![Mask Group 1.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604132936013/UONs_j1_Z.png)

8.5k visitors in less than 2 hours of being on reddit when I wasn't supposed to. I knew I was onto something, but a little after the hype died down, it dawned on me, I just missed a huge chance to build an audience. I rushed creating the website that I missed some essentials such as **creating a newsletter sign up** or even just a **blog**.

Fast-forward a few months, I eventually create a newsletter, Instagram page, and even a blog. 

📧 ~300 newsletter subscribers.

📸 ~400 Instagram followers.

and most importantly, my blogs were ranking on Google. I don't have Search Console screenshots but I had ranked around ~11th or so for a few articles. 

I had solved the traffic problem of any side project, but monetization was where this project went downhill. I simply had no monetization plan whatsoever. And this is where the story of designtarget, ends, well, I sold off the project for a measly amount but that was it.

### Lessons learned:
👉 No matter how excited you are, keep cool and think things through.

👉 Traffic is easy, business is hard. 

👉 Think things through, but also do not spend much time working on an MVP.

👉 It is fine to not know what you're doing.

# Good Code

![screencapture-moeminm-github-io-goodcode-2020-10-31-10_42_27.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604133785236/39YjxeLlg.png)

This one is close to my heart, it really is. You can read my [post on IndieHackers](https://www.indiehackers.com/product/good-code/temporarily-pausing-work-on-good-code--MKnKtlnidKMGLMQAuyr) to know why I stopped working on Good Code.

The idea originally came to me when I discovered  [Frontend Mentor](http://frontendmentor.io/), by then I had learned HTML, CSS, and a little bit of JavaScript and wanted to improve my skills. I liked FEM, but the free templates were just not the level of design I wanted to work on, queue Good Code.

This time, I was ready, monetization plan was straight-forward, content was ready, community building was in place, newsletter was in place. I cook up a static version of the website using HTML and CSS and release it on Github Pages, you can view Good Code  [here](https://moeminm.github.io/goodcode) and straight to reddit I go (and IndieHackers this time as well). 

![Mask Group 2.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604134249747/BPvkUcJ5j.png)

September 3rd, to September 15th. I was onto something, again. Shortly after launching, I view my Gumroad page only to find 2 customers have purchased templates for a total of $10. My first internet money! 

I also had people posting their solutions on the [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodCodeChallenge/)  I created just for this website, it felt great.

I really wanted to continue working on Good Code, as it stands, it's only hosted on GH Pages, so there's a good chance there *could* have been more sales had it been on an actual domain. I might resume working on Good Code in a future date, but for now, I'm pausing for reasons listed in the  [IndieHackers post](https://www.indiehackers.com/product/good-code/temporarily-pausing-work-on-good-code--MKnKtlnidKMGLMQAuyr). 

### Lessons learned: 

👉 Spin ideas. I could have just released this as just another website selling Adobe XD templates, but I feel like the 'improve your HTML and CSS skills' twist was what brought this to life.

👉 Create a community for your side-project.

 👉 Don't be afraid to shut down.

To wrap things up, had I not started designtarget, I wouldn't have learned how to code (albeit being bad at it), had I not learned how to code, I wouldn't have started Good Code and made my first $ from a side-project, who knows what my next had I not started is going to be, but I feel like it might be success.

You can read more articles over at https://blog.moeminmamdouh.com/