it finally happened, someone paid for peasy, and it only took me 9 months of hard work, very late nights, and ungodly amounts of coffee. it was, a struggle to say the least, but i am super proud of it and would do it all over again for the $8 and 30 cents i got ($9.00 minus Stripes cut ofc).
the idea & product
peasy started as an exploration of Svelte, a frontend framework i had the hots for from the moment i heard about it. i'm a huge fan of data visualization, so naturally i ended up building dashboards and charts. after 2 months of tinkering, i had something that looked pretty cool. that's when the thought hit me, "maybe i can turn this into a product!"
and so i did. i spent the next 6 months building a web analytics tool with a vision of a powerful and user-friendly platform. why web analytics? because it just so happened that i was doing a lot of web development at the time for different clients, and i was constantly running into the problem of getting my clients to understand their data easily. at the time, there were many services, both paid and open-source, solving my problem, Plausible, Fathom, Pirsch, but they never really hit the "g-spot". they were either way too simple for my needs, expensive or complex. some, (ahem...Google Analytics) had layers of complexity, jargon, and confusing charts that left clients lost and unable to make quick decisions from their data. anyway, I’m getting sidetracked here. back to peasy...
i ended up being very happy with the result, and more than that, i actually enjoyed the process. i was able to work on something that i actually cared about, and i think that made a huge difference in my motivation, productivity and the overall quality of the product.
the launch
so, the product was built. i was actually proud of it. but then came the big question: how do i get people to see it? i'd never launched anything serious, and honestly, marketing was never my thing. i'm a dev – pushing code felt way more natural.
but i knew i had to do something. after digging around online, i stumbled onto a Substack post by Iron Brands which was like a lightbulb moment for a newbie indie hacker like me. it broke down how he got his first customers with a simple idea: figure out who needs your thing, and then go hang out where they already are. simple, right? so i took that to heart and started looking for my people.
Reddit felt like a natural starting point. i found a few subreddits that seemed relevant, especially r/SaaS and r/Sveltejs. now, the thing about Reddit is, you can't just storm in guns blazing, shoving your product down everyone's throat. that'll get you booted fast. so, i lurked in the subreddits for a bit(i've been a long member of both, so this was more of confirmation. if you are new, i'd suggest doing more than "a bit"), trying to get the vibe before i posted about peasy, focusing more on sharing the journey and the tech. interestingly, in terms of pure eyeballs, Reddit sent the most traffic my way initially. but here's the catch: it also had pretty much the lowest conversion rate into actual signups. maybe it's the passive nature of how people browse Reddit, or just how tricky it is to promote something without coming off as too advertisey. could also be that, maybe, the audience ready to pay for new tools isn't spending as much time there anymore – hard truth, perhaps. whatever the mix of reasons, while good for initial attention, it proved a difficult place to find committed users for peasy.
peerlist
Peerlist turned out to be another good spot, maybe even the most effective one early on. it's a smaller community, which really worked in our favor. unlike the high-traffic, low-conversion story on Reddit, Peerlist actually delivered the highest conversion rate by far. people who signed up seemed genuinely interested and ready to engage. the feedback from there also felt the most genuine. peasy even got a comment from the CEO of Peerlist, Akash, which was instant social proof for the landing page.
product hunt & others
then there was Product Hunt. it definitely has its own rhythm, kind of a game you need to play to really make a splash. honestly, i didn't quite crack the code there, so peasy didn't get a huge wave of traffic from it, but hey, it was part of the launch process. posting on Product Hunt always felt like it made the launch "official" and getting this done sooner than later just took the pressure off. i also posted on Indie Hackers and started sharing on Twitter. my Twitter following wasn't massive, but every like and share felt like a win.(shameless plug: you can find me on Twitter at @d3ciee) i also submitted peasy to a handful of saas directories i found via topsaasdirectories.com (or similar sites). casting a wide net, you know?
now, none of these posts exactly broke the internet, but they all got decent eyeballs. and a recurring theme in the comments and messages was praise for the design. people seemed to really notice it. i think this is more crucial than ever. folks see a lot of half-baked, "vibe coded" projects these days and are getting tired of it. your launch is your first impression, your chance to show you care. i wouldn't call myself the world's greatest designer, but i'm not terrible either, and i put real effort into how peasy looked and felt. i actually dove deeper into that process here. that focus on design definitely helped peasy stand out a bit in the noise, making it easier to market.
nb: for a more in depth break down of Peasys traffic you can look at the peasy public dashboard
going forward
the journey is far from over. i still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of things to learn. i still have a long way to go before i can say that i'm successful, but i'm excited about the future. i have a lot of ideas for new features, and i'm excited to see where this journey takes me. i also want to help others on their journey, and share what I've learned along the way. i hope this post helps you get your first dollar online too, or at least gives you some hope that you can make it too!
thats all, thank you for reading, and i hope you have a great day!