5 Lessons I Learned Building A $400/month Micro-SaaS Side Hustle 

I built a database of case studies of startups that have successfully grown through organic social media marketing for you to learn from their playbook: thecontentmarketingblueprint.com/?

I just came on to back up the idea that it's totally a good idea to steal other ideas. No matter what, you will make something that's a little different and you'll have your own flair. Steal Like An Artist

Regarding the subscription vs one time payment, you have to look at your audience. If you are targeting businesses, a subscription model would be more suitable otherwise you are leaving money on the table. Monthly payments aren't that of a turn off for businesses in my experience as a consultant (I often recommend purchasing something that helps them be more productive), they will easily spend monthly + they can easily write it off.

New sub! 👏 Thank you for this advice!

Thnks for that Marketing point/part, Because i think most of us developers usually only tend to focus only on building and building. Without thinking of the marketing part

I’d say the pricing model depends on the product. For instance, if you’re building or have an AI product, offering a one-time purchase is not feasible because you need to pay for the AI API. For other products it’s doable.

Such useful content ❤

Great video and thanks for sharing your insights 👍

Gold. Thanks

Great work and advice bro.

u just got a new subscriber

I like the one time payment model but how do you handle that in an AI app where you are covering the cost of the AI api calls? Can you give specifics on what works?

First thank you for the video, about the one time purchase vs subscription, how to manage long term costs? if your app uses open IA for instance, how you deal with long term costs of using those services?

thats crazy i was literally thinking about making an app like this lol good to know its a good idea

Cool video. How about a credits purchase billing system? New users could get a limited amount of credits that could be quickly used up and then they'll be required to buy more credits to keep accessing the service.

Thank you for your transparency, a struggling app dev here

How much time did you take to build this app?

Hi! love watching your videos coz I find them interesting. BTW you can add your new and/or old app(s) URL in your video description.

Last sentance is gem.. Not an overnight success...

What are your monthly running costs? I saw you mention Vercel in another reply. What do they charge to host? Any dns costs or ssl cert costs?

Hey man, been loving your content! just a quick comment- not sure if it was on purpose but when you said free trial, video said free trail. @ 5:49 Anyway, keep up the videos man!

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience with us. I'm just wondering: how do you sustain a One-Time-Purchase model over the time, like forever? How can you plan and budget future growth, features and current users support if there's no recurrent income to support it? I'm not saying it cannot be done or it is not a good approach. I just cannot see how it can be done and I need some light to find my way to implement a On-Time-Purchase model. Being a custumer, I also like the One-Time-Purchase over subscriptions. But, what happens if at some point you stop getting new users to your SaaS? Thanks for sharing your experience. It's very inspiring and helpful. Cheers!

As a SaaS builder, if you're developing a service with a subscription plan that generates an MRR of $400 which means ARR of $4,800, then you can typically exit your SaaS at a multiple of 5x, which is approximately $24,000. On the other hand, with a one-time payment model, it is more challenging to exit the business. therefore, A subscription plan is still a very attractive option

how did you learn?

Nice video. If you setup a one-time purchase, would that affect your cost of running the software and MRR?

Fantastic insights on leveraging existing ideas and targeted marketing! This approach not only validates the market faster but also maximizes reach efficiently, especially when paired with content that resonates with your audience. 🚀

new to your channel, good stuff. About the subscription and one-time payment, marc louvion has the same opinion on this, in his recent videos he has said something similar. gonna go with pros advice.

I am HR at your company. You are not permitted to work on separate app. I will be talking with you tomorrow and we will be taking all money that you made since you made that app while employed with us and therefore that app and all of its profits belong to us. However if the app has any losses, you are free to take them, in fact I insist you take all losses.

Hey! just have a quick question about Webstorm. Is it ever laggy to you? Laggy to where any action takes about 3-5 seconds to execute and display on the screen. Initially it was working fine but just recently its been unusable

Great video with lots of excellent insights. However, please do a video where you breakdown all the apps that you have built and the profit you are generating from each.

You're right about one-time-purchases... However, especially AI software that needs to use APIs that cost money cannot be financed that way, because ppl will use your app till their api usage eats all your profit

What tools do you use to make demo video for your site?

My router (eero) wouldn't allow me access ur website: "The site you are trying to visit is not secure."

Thanks!

May I ask what kind of tool did you use to build your application?

I’d say become inspired by others ideas instead of stealing them. Definitely want to have your own unique twist. McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s all sell what? Burgers, Fries, etc. in different shapes and sizes!

Hey, i love your videos, i'm a total beginner in coding, i want to start learning to build a web application/ SaS, since you are the expert, can you please guide me with a learning path, i though about html/css- JavaScript with nod.js or express (backend)/react(front). Or ruby on rails (backend) and react frontend. Otherwise Can you please guide me with ur experience which learning path is best for me ?. Regards

How to purchase your app?

Hi how do you handle the ai cost.or do you train your own ai?🎉🎉

Question tho, having a one-time payment plan.. What if only few people buys your product, and then you decide after some time to shut down the app. As the people paid for the product already - can you even do it? So does it mean you need to maintain your app forever then if they paid for it to not get into troubles ? :D thanks for the answer eventho this might sound as a stupid question, but i was thinking about this

Hi man , Glad to see your video. I want to learn python... Can I build such apps with it??

Don't you think a one time purchase is more of a drawback since you need to maintain the saas overtime??

How do you build your apps? From scratch or no code/low code tools?

What if someone pays for your product (nexus $10/month) but the user uses it so much that it costs you $500 of OpenAI API ?

Am I missing something? Isnt Nexus research a subscription model?

would you provide the link of that app

I think you’re wrong about a lot. I run a very similar app, and it’s monthly vs yearly subscription. I’ve tested everything. MRR is extremely important since you are paying for the underlying AI. And you are missing out on so much by not running meta ads. For reference, I make 11k MRR, LTV of a customer is 57$ and cost per acquisition is 2$. Pure viral marketing leaves very little in your control and is not sustainable.

So is your 400/month app also a single-time purchase and not a subscription based one? :o

Can you make a video of how you built this app?

That sound whenever you display a caption is painful -_-

How do you know that apps that you copied earn mone?

TBH I think, marketing is the key right now when it comes to AI wrappers.

Free trail

Make more in-depth video on how to advertise. Starr ting from 0

There are people out there who make hundreds of thousands even millions in monthly revenue who sell subscriptions. I guess you need to start producing 20--30 apps to gain more real experience.

very ali abdaal like thumbnail

935th...Thanks

Hey Man , really nice video ! I was wondering if I could help you with Viral Content ideas in your niche , Script , editing , thumbnail , SEO , Growth and analysis , Leads and appointments for your business , etc in all to you ! Pls let me know what do you think ?

*Please timestamp your videos*

Without your own brain don't work on someone's idea. 😂 Ye to Aisa hua andhi bheed me chalna Bhedchal😁

Ok

And a worthless app

Bro you need to learn how to market your videos. “$400:month”??? You should Call it $400k / month to get more views 😂😂😂

Hello and thank you for the video. Have you got an email. I can contact you with regards to this ? I am really struggling with living costs in the UK and would like to give this a try. I would be grateful for some help. Thank You

Hello and thank you for the video. Have you got an email? I can contact you in regard to this ? I am really struggling with living costs in the UK and would like to give this a try. I would be grateful for some genuine help. Thank You

keep lying

Hi, I love your content, I'm currently founding my second saas startup. Want to connect?