Jason Leow

Maybe this is an indie hacking approach we can double down on:

**Making many small bets within one small bet.**

That's what I've been doing for my Carrd plugins, and recently doubled down on it and starting to see some nice results. Some benefits I see from making many small bets within one small bet:

- I get to channel my itch for creating new things by creating new free/paid plugins.
- I get to help individuals solve their problems because usually my plugins are inspired by someone asking a question in a forum.
- I get to give value to the wider community, generate goodwill and word of mouth for my brand.
- Not just marketing but I get financial returns too – affiliate revenue goes up when people sign up for Carrd in order to download one of my plugins. Seller revenue goes up too when they donate or pay for one of my templates.
- The free plugins are like top of the funnel capture, warming leads and bringing more potentials customers in. The paid plugins are more preium offerings lower down the funnel.
- All the plugins are like stand-alone products, but they amplify one another in terms of marketing and utility, and together act as a multiplier for my plugins project.

I feel optimistic about this project and approach. And seeing these successful small-bets-in-small-bet projects made me feel even more hopeful!

- [tinywow.com](https://tinywow.com) is a productivity tools page where you can use free internet tools to edit/format PDFs, images, videos, AI writing, files. It's super comprehensive, and recently did 7M page views in just March alone, at $20k revenue that month.
- [Finsweet Attributes](https://finsweet.com/attributes) is like Webflow plugins without the code. Passed 140,000,000 page loads permonth!
- And of course, the OG indie hacker, Pieter Levels - he build Nomadlist, a travel listing directory for digital nomads, then moved into an adjacent space of remote work that many digital nomads are doing with RemoteOK. Now building out Rebase, an immigration-as-a-service SaaS.
- Oh can't forget to mention, the OGs I followed when I just started building were the builders of Wordpress templates/themes! They built many themes, some free, some paid. I think deep down that influenced my view of how to make money on the web. My Carrd plugins project were totally influenced by those WP builders. Even choosing to use the word "plugins" is a WP thing! (I could have called it components, scripts, widgets as others did).

The key here is to build many small bets but all within a specific niche or problem space, so that despite being separate products they all converge in one particular direction or topic. You kinda get to have your cake and eat it – the benefits of diversity, variety and resilience from having multiple products, yet all centered around a singular focus.

*What do you think? Is this the best indie hacking approach ever or what?*

Now there's two schools of thought when it comes to product focus: Go all in on one product, or go for many small bets.

I'm usually not a fan of going all in on one product, especially if you're just starting off. All too often, those who find the ONE true product on first try is super rare. Your shipping muscles and instincts just aren't as developed yet. And if there's some incremental results, it seduces you to keep trying on that one thing. All it takes is a rug pull event, some platform risk, like Twitter API price hike, for the castle to fall into pieces. Over night their MRR goes to zero. It was heartbreaking to watch. There's no diversity, very little resilience to shock with this approach.

Personally I tend to prefer building a portfolio of small bets, but it's not without downsides. Observing others who try the same, it sure is a spectacle to witness, fun to watch, but after a while, after like the 10th product or beyond, I don't even remember what they are building, what they stand for. All the different products starts to blend into one another. Most of the time they continue to struggle with revenue. They're launching a lot, it feels like progress, but it's *false* progress, especially if their aim is to make money and be ramen profitable. If there's no happy ending, it starts to get poignantly painful to watch.

So I think the reality is somewhere in the middle for indie hackers who succeed at the game:

Launch many small bets serially, one after another not all at once. Focus more on one that has potential. Build it out to stable state. Find a reliable distribution channel for customer acquisition. Grow revenue to steady state. Then sell it, or keep it running for stable revenue. Try another small bet(s) again. Rinse and repeat, while only working on a 2-3 products at any one time.

After a few years trying small bets, it feels like I'm settling on this approach. A happy middle where you're not over-exposed to risk nor grasping at straws.

*What do you think? What's your happy middle?*

May's going to be consulting season again. Back to juggling product work and consulting. Busy times ahead.

I realised recently I have to work in sync with my energy seasons. Working against it is a recipe for burnout or poor moods. An example: I feel low in energy and in spirits. I try to work anything. Force myself a bit. Feel even worse after that. Mood gets worse. The mind and body doesn't get what it needs. Rinse and repeat every day for a few weeks, and you'll burnout. It's a viscious, lose-lose cycle.

The month of April set an example for that.

Come May I don't have the luxury of dwadling in those negative whirlpools.

*Just follow your energy. Trust it, dammit.*

And that's it. That's my intention for May. That's all of it.

As for the spring cleaning and Marie Kondo-ing I didn't achieve in April? Back to basics. 1% compounding rules. I'll spring clean a piece at a time. Remove/re-arrange one item a day.

Just 1 item a day. A scrap piece of paper. An old reciept. An stray pen lying around.

Shouldn't be hard right? Right?

Onwards!

APRIL METRICS:
📈 Current MRR (all from Lifelog): $99 (↓$10)
💰 One-off revenue: $907 (↑$11)
💵 Total revenue: $1006 (↑$1) 🎉
💸 Total costs = $165
💎 Total profit: $841 (↑$159) (excl. consulting revenue)
📊 Profit margin: 84%

At the start of April I thought this month will be a month of self care and rest, while doing some spring cleaning. I had the month for downtime before the pace picks up again for my consulting in May, so I thought I can finally spring clean my work space and by extension, my mindscape.

BUT no Marie Kondo-ing happened.

I was heading into an energy slump, and no number of plans could pull me back up. It sucked being in low spirits, being neither here nor there. I thought I accomplished nothing this month. But as monthly reviews go, the amount of output always surprises me, in a good way. In the end, it wasn’t half bad.

My mood just added a negative lens to everything, but thankfully, the real data showed otherwise. Despite it all inwardly, things were going just fine outwardly.

Another important demonstration of why I do these monthly wrap-ups so religiously. It shows the work without ambiguity, based on objective reality. Even if the impression in my head was otherwise. And my mind’s wrong pretty often.

NGL..had been in a slump lately. When that happens, I build for FUN to feel better.

Today's fun build:

Added typing sounds of a mechanical keyboard when writing a post. I have a mech kb but this audible feedback makes me feel like a typing maestro! 🤓

🔊 Turn on sound 👇

Mood these days.


It's uncanny how life's seasons work, with its characteristic peaks and valleys. In February and March I was consumed with an energy to build build build. I shedded some of the anxeity I'd been unconsciously carrying and charged ahead. Yet very soon after that epiphany, work happened, life happened, and challenges happened. When April started, things started to dip every so slowly but noticeably, till now – the slump. The build energy all but faded. The excitement and sense of adventure of starting anew, gone. I wrote about how these are [the hardest days](https://golifelog.com/posts/hardest-days-1682673017554), yet a part of me knows...

***This too, shall pass.***

It had always done so. It always does. It always will. Just as the sun rise and set. Just as the seasons come and go. The seasons of life, the summers and winters of the inner world, arise and fade. Knowing that, makes it easy to not celebrate too soon or worry too much, today. Maybe there's no need to jump in to set things right, since time itself will fix most of it. Maybe there's no need to hold on too tight to our wins, when time itself will loosen them.

***All shall be in place, in time.***

The hardest days aren't days when there's fires to fight, bugs to squash, customer crises to solve.

Those are—in fact—the easy days.

Because you know what to do. Immediately. The direction is clear. The task is obvious. The need is expressed.

The hardest days are the days when you're slumping in your chair, running on fumes, low on energy and motivation, unsure why you're feeling so 'off', and the day passes in a hazy daze. You're clicking around online looking for something to bite into, but nothing bites. And you just wish for the day to pass and night to come because you hope tomorrow you'll find your normal self again.

Except that it doesn't.

The next day comes and it's the same old same old.

For the nth day. You've lost count already by now.

And day by day the self-doubt creeps in. *What if this doesn't go away? What if I need to get some serious work done? When will I see the daylight of optimism and adventure again?*

Self-doubt gives way to anxiety. Anxiety unfolds into fear. Fear grows into panic.

These are the hardest days.

Tracks only your own views for now