Ask HN: How much to spend on side project, and when?

[jask]

Hi there,

I have been working on my side projects in spare time. The project is up and running, but doesn't generate any revenue (yet), and I don't think it would generate enough to quit my current job. But still I like it - it is something I created (as sole developer) and it is something good and useful, but not too complicated. Also, it helped me in picking up new skills that were directly useful to current job. But as I keep tweaking things here and there, I haven't spent much on marketing or getting it further polished etc. All I am spending is my time and basic hosting cost.

Sometimes I think I should fund my project more, but sometimes I think it is not yet there.

My question to other HN members working on side projects: How much do you spend monthly? When did you switch from doing everything internally to outsourcing part of it, or marketing? What's that trigger or tipping point?

Thanks

[andkon]

You need a real, honest-to-goodness launch to get enough feedback and traffic to tell you anything. If you just made it and no one's visiting, then (depending on who your target market is) find someone who can submit it to Product Hunt, and post it here under Show HN. That may take some money to make a presentable, launchable thing (esp. with a brand, a domain, a landing page design, etc.), but it shouldn't run you that much, and if you have taste and patience, you can do it all yourself.

If it's still not making any money after that launch, and you have sufficient feedback to change it to a point where it could, do that. If the feedback isn't promising at all, I'd kill it. But you need to get this thing in front of people who would pay for it first. Do that however you possibly can, and be creative. Those first 100 users aren't easy to get.

[jask]

Thanks for your reply.