Would You Still Build Your Product If It Didn't Make Money?
During COVID-19 times, when most of us were locked in our homes; I built several products. Most of them were tiny products that I could build in 2 weeks.
These were simple web apps; for example a web-app to quickly send a thank you or appreciation to anyone, without them requiring to download any app.
Of course - the product never made any money.
Over the next few months; I lost the will to keep building it. People were using it; but it wasn't growing exponentially.
Eventually, I stopped building it - and killed it.
Looking back, maybe I should have kept building it and let it grow at its own pace.
I want to know - would you keep building your product if it didn't make any money? Let me know why.
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If I didn't use the product myself, I would probably have stopped at some point. (Like when you are enthusiastic about something.)
But I remember how I focused on one thing for 3 years, and that held me back from exploring other activities and broadening my horizons.
Looking back, it was a nice time, but maybe I should have quit sooner (so I would have more time to expand in e.g. this international community) :)
@busmark_w_nika - I know the feeling, Nika. We tend to get emotionally involved with the product.
Interesting thought. I love to create and if I'm not designing, creating and building something I tend to feel a little lost, so I do it out of passion and enjoyment. If the idea doesn't work well and the enthusiasm for it falls away, then it's a natural process you needed to explore or an itch that needed scratching.
If an idea is well received and it starts making a return, then this will put logs on the fire and fuel your ambition to work on it more and improve it for your users. I'm hoping this is what will happen when I launch NoSho 😅
Nope. If it doesn't sustain me long term, I'd rather build something else.
If you love what you're doing, or if you use the product you've built, why stop just because it doesn’t make money?
When it becomes a hobby, you should keep doing it -even if there's no financial reward. For example, I still play soccer even though I know I’ll never earn money from it. I encourage you to keep going if it brings you joy 🙂
A few years ago, I created my own website that grouped all the beach webcams around me so I could easily check the surf conditions. I built it for myself and my friends, there was no financial motivation.
Years later, I still maintain it. Now it gets much more traffic from the local surfing community, but I’ve never made money from it, and I don’t plan to (I don’t want to add ads). It even costs me money to keep the site running. But it's my hobby, I built something I enjoy, feel proud and actually use. It's my way of giving back to the community.