Making over $5k/month from a portfolio of side projects - Dan Rowden, ilo

Indie Bites

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
  • Awesome thread on the $75k offer
  • What were the options?
• 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

• Twitter
• Website

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

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