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Business & incomeExperience excerpt · English

Man I built an app a while back called Kanji Plus

Man I built an app a while back called Kanji Plus. The idea was to build a small side project to generate an income, then use that to fund my magnum opus, Phrasing [1] I built the prototype in a weekend. I spent the next 8 months turning it into a product people cared about. As soon as people started using it, I realized I was going to spend the next 10 years beating around the bush on a product with a very low ceiling. I eventually decided to build Phrasing [1]… and kanji plus just kind of disappeared. Dependencies updated, subscriptions expired, service providers went offline. I feel bad because I sold some lifetime memberships - genuinely expecting to just leave it on the internet forever - but man, apparently websites don’t do that out of the box anymore. Luckily the entire product of kanji plus will fit nicely as a feature in Phrasing, and it’s written with the same front end tech so it should be a very simple copy paste. 2 weeks of work max (famous last words). Still, I feel really bad that people paid me money and the service just went offline. …

Original discussionI launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains262 source comments · at import
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CE

I think I'm officially a side project collector. I've had it all: A SaaS for freelancers... that I never had time to finish because I'm a freelancer. A revolutionary AI tool that I abandoned as soon as GPT-4 came out. And the famous "anti-social media social network" (spoiler: it was just me). I buy a domain name → I code for 3 all-nighters → I lose interest → I start again. My Google Domains look like a graveyard of unfinished dreams. But honestly, I've never learned so much, nor enjoyed it so much. And one day, I might release one that takes off. Or not. But I'll be ready. Any other serial side-projectors here? Share your greatest fails/unlikely successes

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FR

I would not subscribe to your new app that is not yet finished when you have a previous product that was cancelled without fanfare.

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CO

That’s why I’m writing pure html and css in 2025. These sites can last a very long time. I just wrote about this a couple weeks ago: https://joeldare.com/why-im-writing-pure-html-and-css-in-202...

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