$1.2 Million From a Couple of Side Projects

📝 A recent post on Reddit…

• I’ve made over $1.2 million from my iOS app side projects, ask me anything!

It’s a post by Stuart Hall, founder of Appbot, who credits just two mobile apps for most of his success…

• 7 Minute Workout
• WordBoard

He shares a revenue graph in the Reddit post, showing he started in 2013.

$1.2 million over 11 years = a little over $100K/year. 

Pretty damn good for a couple of “side projects” 🤯

Stuart writes…

7 Minute Workout was born because I wanted to run an experiment. Could I build an app, iterate, and build a story around it? It ended up getting millions of downloads, got acquired, given back to me and generated some content that was read by hundreds of thousands of people and helped propel Appbot in the early days.

I created WordBoard to scratch an itch. Apple had just announced custom keyboards for iOS and I was frustrated that I couldn’t easily re-use phrases and text. WordBoard has been a long slow burn, but has actually ended up being more successful than 7 Minute Workout.

✅ His criteria for choosing the right side project to work on…

1. Is this something I’m actually interested enough in to keep at it for years?

2. Is anyone else likely to want this app?

3. Can I make version 1 in a reasonable time frame?

4. Can it exist for months on end without any intervention from me?

5. Is there a popular trend or technology to leverage at launch?

#1 is probably the most important, and Stuart elaborates…

Success can take time and iterations. One of the advantages of a side project is there is less pressure to make it fly on a time frame (without it having to support you financially) compared to a startup or day job.

Do you have some ideas for side projects?

Do any of them meet Stuart’s criteria above? 🤔

Doesn’t have to be an app. Could be a service, a website, a YouTube channel, whatever.