First off, let me just say that much of the time was actually just spent learning web development. (Go, Vue, Tailwind). I was a complete beginner one year ago.

That also why I don’t regret having built the site: I learned a ton and I’ll be able to build my next project 10x faster.

That said, here’s what you can learn from my mistakes:

1. Don’t be afraid of competition.

Going after markets with low competition isn’t a bad idea. You can be a big fish in a small pond. But it gets problematic when the market is so niche that noone actually needs what you are making. With my next product, I’ll go after a proven market. Sure there’ll be competition, but at least people will be interested in what I have to offer.

2. Design is less important than you think.

I made 3 different landing pages for my product, thaught there was something wrong with it every time and made a new one from scratch. Complete waste of time. Pretty design doesn’t change your value proposition and is never going to be a reason someone buys. Sure, good design can improve conversion rates, but if there is no instrinsic demand for what you offer then design won’t help. 0•x = 0

3. Know your customers

One of my main challenges when building my product (keepyourstory.com) was that I was never really sure who it was for. I just built something I found cool and hoped people would appreciate it. Next time I’ll start with a niche, find a problem people are experiencingbin that niche and market it precisely to them.