How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience
I'm a software engineer by trade, but I've always been interested in marketing and growth. I've been working on a various side projects for a while now, and I recently hit a major success: 100,000 unique visitors in one week.
Here's how I did it 👇
The Idea
I was collecting a list of open-source software for a while. Mostly for my own use (to learn and reuse parts of the code), but I thought it would be cool to share it with others. I was also interested in learning more about SEO and growth, so I thought this would be a good project to experiment with.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it, so I decided to build it within 48 hours.
With such a short time frame, I had to be very selective about the features I wanted to include. I decided to build a simple listing with no search or filtering.
Curating the list
I started by expanding the list of open-source software. I used a combination of Google, Reddit, and GitHub to find the most popular open-source projects. I also used my own knowledge and experience to find lesser-known projects that I thought were worth including.
I didn't want to include every open-source project I could find. I wanted to keep the list high-quality and focused on the most popular, useful software and actively maintained projects. I collected about 70 projects in total.
Building the site
Astro was always on my list of things to learn. I've been using Remix and NextJS for a while, and I was interested in trying out a new framework. I decided it would be a good opportunity to build the site with it. This decision turned out to be a great one, as it saved me a lot of money on hosting costs later on.
While browsing the Astro documentation, I found out they have a pretty easy way to implement a View Transitions so I tought it would be a nice touch to the site.
For the backend, I opted for Airtable as a database. It's a simple, no-code solution that I've used before. It's not the most powerful database, but it's perfect for a project like this. I could easily add, edit, and delete records, and it has an embeddable form functionality that I used for user submissions.
Unfortunately, Airtable's API isn't the best for querying data, so I used a middleware service to turn the Airtable API into a GraphQL API. This allowed me to query the data in a more flexible way.
With the data and the site structure in place, I started building the site. I used Tailwind CSS for the styling, and I was able to build the site in about 12 hours. The good thing about having multiple projects under my belt is that I can reuse a lot of the code I've written before.
Building an Open Source listing, it was pretty obvious that I should open-source the code as well.
GitHub Data and Programmatic SEO
To make the site more useful, I decided to include some data from GitHub. I've built a scheduled Cloudflare Worker that's pulling the GitHub API data to fetch the number of stars, forks, and issues for each project.
I also pulled some related tags from each repo, like what programming language it's written in, and what it's related to (e.g. CMS, CRM, etc.). I then put this data into Airtable and used it to generate lots of pages for Programmatic SEO.
It's too early to tell if this will have a big impact on SEO, but I think it's a good idea to have a lot of pages for Google to index. It's already ranking for some very competitive keywords like "open source alternatives" so I think it may work pretty well.
Hosting
Since Astro is a static site generator, I could host the site for free on Cloudflare. I've never used Cloudflare before, but they've been pretty popular lately due to their free hosting and CDN. I was impressed with how easy it was to set up, and the performance was great.
I then picked the simplest name I could find and registered openalternative.co for $6.99.
Launch(es)
Like always, I posted about it on Twitter. Given that I only had 900 followers and I usually tweet to the void, I didn't expect much. But to my surprise, the tweet got some attention. Nothing crazy, but it was a good start.
For the next few days I let it sit and see what happens. I was engaging with people on Twitter to get some feedback. One of such conversations was with Steven Tey who seemed to like the idea and decided to share it with his audience.
This was a huge boost for the site, as it got a lot of traffic from his tweet.
Product Hunt
I knew I had to keep the momentum going, so I decided to post it on Product Hunt the next day.
I still had some nice traffic to the site, so I've added a custom PH banner to the top of the site to let people know about the launch. I also posted about it on Twitter and LinkedIn.
With the help of the community, we were able to get 3rd place on the day of the launch with over 500 upvotes. This was one of the most successful PH launches I've ever had.
Hacker News
Knowing that the site was getting some attention, I decided to post it on Hacker News as well.
I had a feeling that it would do well on HN, as I thought it would be a good fit for the community, but I didn't expect it to get this good.
The post immediately got featured on to the front page and quickly climbed to claim the #1 spot on the site. It got over 150 upvotes and stayed on the front page for a few hours.
Being featured on Product Hunt is great, but #1 on Hacker News is a whole different level. The traffic was insane. I was getting thousands of visitors every hour.
In the same time, I was also posting about it on Reddit. I've posted it on a few subreddits, but the most successful one was on r/SelfHosted. It quicky got over 250 upvotes and a lot of comments.
Unfortunately, I made a mistake by trying to monetize some of the traffic by adding a Stripe Pay link to the site. For $97, a project could be featured on the top of the list. I thought it would be a good way to monetize the site, but it was a mistake. I got a lot of negative feedback and I quickly removed it.
Due to that, reddit users quickly turned on me and the site. I was getting a lot of negative comments and downvotes, and the post was removed from the subreddit.
Still, the traffic was great and I was able to get a lot of feedback from the community.
Summary
The site was a huge success. It got over 100,000 visitors in the first week, and it's still getting a few thousand visitors every day. It was a great experiment in launching a side project and growth, and I learned a lot from it.
Hopefully, you'll be able to take something away from this story and apply it to your own projects. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.
If you want to check out the site, you can find it at openalternative.co.
congrats on this and thanks for sharing.
You should put a URL to your site first thing in the article. You say:
Then below the fold you've got a link to twitter.
I wanna see above the fold a link to https://openalternative.co/.
Maybe I'm wrong though and it was intentional, but one look at your site and people know it's not some crappy old thing, so you should let it do the talking first.
Really cool website btw.
That's great feedback! I didn't want this post to be too promotional, but rather informative. But you're right, in order to add some credibility I should've added the link earlier in the post.
Fixed that now! Thanks.
I didn't even realise you could click on the image 🤦
Gotta optimise for idiots like me 😆
Congratulations and thanks for the insights.
great post
amazing product & distribution.
That is great，amazing
This is great. Well done on a successful launch
Great
Amazing!
Quite impressive! I would say a dream for many :)
I got 2 questions.
The second question is:
Great questions!
The traffic is still decent, so I have some plans to grow and maybe monetize it somehow. Still trying to figure out how to approach this, but thinking some kind of affiliate marketing or selling ad space would be the best option. I would prefer not to allow featured spots, but not 100% sure about this yet.
I would definitely think about ideas on how to monetize this before starting to build anything. Launch-wise, I think I did a pretty good job this time so I'd try to do the same, meaning keeping momentum as long as I can as getting viral can help you tremendously later on (with SEO backlinks for example).
Absolutely smashed that. Great job!
Congratulations Piotr! You're off to a great start.
But if I was you, I wouldn't try to monetize it directly, especially in light of your Reddit experience.
However, it still can be a very valuable asset. There's a very good parallel here with Scott Brinker and his "Martech 5,000" originally called Marketing Technology Landscape. Brinker is even referred to as the "Godfather of Martech" for his contributions to the field.
There's great potential to capitalize on this for your personal brand as well. But monetizing it directly would be short sighted.
I'm reminded on Pinterest in the very early days when they tried to monetize by inserting affiliate links into everyone's posts. It didn't go over well and they quickly abandoned that practice. Now they have a market cap of around $23 billion.
While I understand you're a developer, there's a lot of opportunity here from a marketing perspective that could pay big dividends in the future.
If you're interested, I can explain more.
You can DM me on Twitter if you find some time to discuss.
Thanks Stephen! I agree with everything you've said. Don't know the "martech" case but I'll look into it.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about how I could improve this and maybe somehow capitalize on the success. I'd like to be able to work on improving the site, but currently, I don't see too many ways to turn that into a real thing in the future.
Whoa, turning a side hustle into 100k views in just a week is insane!
Setting up a simple "Support Us" section with donation options can be a chill way to keep things running or maybe consider a value-added subscription model or exclusive content for a small fee to monetize without turning off your audience!
Great ideas! Do you have some examples of how such value-added subscription could look like? I'm very curious.
How about something like behind-the-scenes content or subscriber-only Q&A sessions? Keeps it fun and engaging! Also you could get some of those from your list (or the paid alternative 😜) to offer you some goodies in return for a additional promotion on your sub list.
Congrats Piotr! I will keep an eye on the progress of this project (especially monetization)!
How do you monetize this?
So far I only sold one featured spot in the very short time-frame that it was possible to do that. I plan to turn some of the link into affiliated ones to maybe earn something extra on the side.
Note to self: it's hard to monetize a product around open-source community.
Great job on launching this in just 48 hours! I 100% going to use your strat of the SEO and community engagement for my SAAS. Thanks for sharing your journey!
Neat. Great job.
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing. The tip with Hacker News in particular sounds like an interesting alternative to the "usual" Product Hunt. Especially because SEO often takes a long time.
Thanks for sharing the information. I have recently launched my product so I am searching for how can I improve my site traffic. This post is very helpful for me!!!
I've seen sites/lists like this before, but pSEO is a good way to help give it a boos! Thanks for the insight on your tech stack and progression!
Wow, what an incredible journey! It's inspiring to see how leveraging open-source resources and strategic launches across platforms can lead to such remarkable success. There's so much to learn from this experience, and it's exciting to see how it can motivate others to pursue their own projects with determination and creativity.
inspiring insights, thank you!
congratulations and thank you for the very insightful post
Inspirational. I am impressed.
such cool thanks!
A really well developed and very inspiring. THANKS !
I like the "Programmatic SEO" part.
Thanks for Sharing, Piotr.
Amazing journey, Piotr! Your success with openalternative is incredibly inspiring. Did you encounter any unexpected challenges while using Airtable as your database, especially regarding scalability or data management?
Hi Piotr,
I'm amazed at how you achieved such a milestone in such a short time. Could you elaborate more on the Airtable backend and embeddable form used for project submissions? It's something I may consider for future projects.
So cool! great work @piotrkulpinski. Love the design of the site too, I've bookmarked it!
Nice. Though what is your next approach for monetization ?
this is a great story, i feel motivated, even with the back lash from reddit, you kept the momentum .
What an incredible experience! Achieving these numbers in such a short time is truly remarkable. I hope you find a way to monetize this. Also, I found the UX/UI design to be perfect.
Thank you! Really appreciate that 🫶
I'm amazed about how you curated the resources for building this in 48 hours!Congratulations!
Hey @piotrkulpinski, that's pretty interesting. I'd like to see how SEO goes after Goggle's March update! Please keep us updated.
Also, I tried to submit a website, but it seems something is wrong with the submission 🫤
Thanks! So far so good: https://twitter.com/piotrkulpinski/status/1773671849240539433
Yes, there's some issue with the submission callback. They're coming through though, so I'll review it soon!
Bravo, also love the site. I reference it pretty often now!
Pleased to hear that! I'll keep adding new awesome tools as they just keep popping up these days 🎉
Congrats! Thanks you for you story.
Thank you for reading!
Nice story, but here's the thing: how long will this success survive?
Lots of similar sites exist, so how are you differentiating yourself from competitors?
What unique value are you providing that others aren't?
wow, sounds really motivating for me 🚀 and what are the next goals?
Hi @piotrkulpinski, congratulations on your progress so far.
I've noticed one thing. In Steven's post, your site had transition animation, which is currently missing. Did you turn it off? If yes what's the reason?
The reason is that I've moved away from Astro to add more dynamic features like search and filtering. Finally decided to use Remix which also supports the Transitions so they are now BACK 🎉
This is a inspired post for any founder. Thanks you very much
Thanks a lot!
Congrats Piotr!
Impressive accomplishment! Your strategic approach and execution undoubtedly contributed to the remarkable growth of your side project. Well done!
Achieving 100k unique visitors in just 7 days for a side project with no existing audience is an impressive feat, and it typically involves a combination of strategic planning, effective marketing tactics, and creating compelling content. Here's a general outline of how you might accomplish such rapid growth:
Identify a Niche or Trend: Choose a topic or niche that has the potential to generate significant interest. This could be a trending industry, a popular topic, or a niche area with limited competition.
Create Compelling Content: Develop high-quality content that is valuable, engaging, and shareable. This could be in the form of articles, videos, infographics, or interactive content. Make sure your content addresses a specific need or problem within your target audience.
Optimize for SEO: Implement search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to improve your website's visibility in search engine results. This includes keyword research, on-page optimization, and building high-quality backlinks to your content.
Utilize Social Media: Leverage social media platforms to promote your content and reach a wider audience. Share your content across relevant social media channels and engage with your audience to encourage sharing and interaction.
Reach Out to Influencers: Identify influencers or thought leaders within your niche and reach out to them to introduce your project and request their support in promoting it. Collaborating with influencers can help amplify your reach and attract more visitors to your project.
Engage in Community Marketing: Participate in online communities, forums, and discussion groups relevant to your niche. Share your content, answer questions, and engage with community members to establish yourself as a valuable contributor and drive traffic back to your project.
Run Paid Advertising Campaigns: Consider investing in paid advertising campaigns to drive targeted traffic to your project. Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads offer powerful targeting options to reach your desired audience.
Optimize for Virality: Create content that has the potential to go viral by tapping into current trends, leveraging humor, or evoking strong emotions. Encourage sharing and make it easy for visitors to spread the word about your project.
Monitor and Iterate: Track your website analytics to monitor the performance of your marketing efforts. Identify what's working well and what can be improved, and iterate on your strategy accordingly to continue driving growth.
By implementing a combination of these strategies and staying persistent and adaptable, you can significantly increase the visibility and traffic of your side project, even with no existing audience, and achieve remarkable growth in a short period of time.
bloggergiant
Congratulations! Looks great!
Would a website like this be a good use case for Superstash?
This is exactly the use-case Superstash was created for. That being said, you can't get quite the same functionality using Superstash as I experiment with directory sites and see what could I add/change in the tool to make it better.
congratulations for the big achievement ❤️
Thank you 🫶
Really nice story. I like how organic everything about the project was - you found value in bringing these open source sites together so others quickly did!
Which analytics tools are you using ?
Exactly! So grateful I was able to provide value to people. I use a bunch, but mostly Cloudflare web analytics and PostHog.
Your post has been removed from Reedit.
I know. It's been pointed out in the post, but I posted it for anyone interested in the Reddit discussion that were happening.
Motivating!
Great to hear that! You got this 💪
Nice post! I think your project offers high rated information, especially for startups. Would you still recommend posting on Reddit after your experience?
Of course! Even with the negative sentiment at the end, I still got lots of visitors and visibility. I'm sure if it wasn't for the short monetization episode, it would've been even bigger success.
Congratulations, Piotr! Do you have plans to monetize it?
Thanks Dmytro! Check out this comment: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-grew-a-side-project-to-100k-unique-visitors-in-7-days-with-0-audience-15d48ea192?commentId=-NtQBjgBs7WseGY0FZzC
Inspiring journey! Your strategy to grow a side project to 100k unique visitors in 7 days is truly commendable. Great job!
Thank you!
I have the same question as well: how do you plan to monetize this? Only via advertisements (as the one you mentioned in the reddit part of your text)?
If so isn't there a risk of featuring bad projects on the top? in the end wouldn't this affect the reputation of the site?
Responed to the other comment about this.
I totally agree, featured listings could affect the reputation of the site, but that's how most of the directory websites make money. I could also offer only paid submissions, but there's not enough open-source projects meeting the criteria to justify that imo.
Great
Thanks Joy!
How you earn from this?
Please check my other comments.
It's amazing that a working website with SEO considerations could be built in 48 hours.
It amazed me as well! Will definitely try something like that in the future.
Thanks for sharing! Reddit is a High risk high gain place to generate traffic. What is your next step for the project?
And for the next steps... I plan to keep improving the site, add search and filtering. I'll also invest some time into SEO and see how far I can take it.
Would you be interested in exchange for backlinks？I am also doing programming SEO. But only have 1.8k UV daily. We may can improve each other Authority a little.
Definitely, I learned it the hard way, unfortunately.
Great! My website is gosummarize.com .Yesterday unique visitors are 1.9k. 1.2k pages already indexed by Google, about 10k impressions from Google search. I already put your website on footer and it is a dofollow link which passes the authority. We can put each other website on the footer without setting nofollow. You can check our footer on one of detail page.
Nice to inspired
So happy to inspire anyone with my story!