Making over $5k/month from a portfolio of side projects - Dan Rowden, ilo
Today we're joined by Dan Rowden, who is an entrepreneur and product builder currently based in Mauritius. 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 with these projects. In this episode we talk about how Dan manages his time throughout his projects, why he hasn't gone full time yet and what he did when a $75k acquisition offer came along.
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:
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
- 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
Follow Me
Thanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites, which is launching in the US this week!
‘I absolutely love being part of Weekend Club.’
‘Huge fan of Weekend Club and I love being part of it.’
‘Absolutely love this community.’
These are real testimonials for Weekend Club - the internet’s most helpful community for bootstrappers. If you’ve ever struggled meeting other solo founders and staying accountable, then this is for you.
We offer weekly Saturday deep working sessions with up to 30 bootstrappers, such as the founders of Simple Poll and VEED, an active Slack community and over 100 software discounts.
Go to weekendclub.co and enter a very limited promo code ‘Indie Bites’ for 50% off your first month.
Interested in ad-free episodes an exclusive content? Sign up to the Indie Feast membership.
