[corkill]

"I felt like I didn’t want to just be writing software to other people’s specs — I wanted to write software that I wanted to use and enjoy."

Do you use this software and enjoy it? if so you have actually succeeded at your original goal.

If you want to build a business, then your going to need to build software that other people want to pay for. Discovering who these people are and what they need is called customer development. The easiest way to do this is just call people when they are most interested (e.g. right after they signup or inquire on your site).

https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/validatin...

"Yes, the books said just tweet about it to your thousands of followers and they will come flocking."

Please burn these books and instead see http://startupclass.samaltman.com/ (free) thefoundation.com (paid but lots of free content)

Lots of people never generate any revenue their first year attempting something new, but I'm sure if you change your approach and learn from people that have done it before you can turn things around a lot. I'm sure you can already tackle any of the technical challenges, time to learn about the business ones (if you want a business).

[cyberferret]

Thanks for the tips and the links. Yes, it looks like my original goal was a little too self centric. I do have a ton of other app ideas based on my work with my client base, but I guess I wanted to pick the easiest one first so I could get it off the ground quickly and use it as a test case for the best way to launch and market (and sustain) it.

So far it has been a hard lesson, but the feedback so far from my blog post has been great.