First side project, would love some feedback - GemBundle

Hello, I’m fairly new to the development world and brand new to the side project world. In the long term, I’d like to start my own business, one that has a profit model. For the time being, I’m content building apps that help people, and in no way, shape or form, are going to make me a millionaire.

My first real project, one that is still in it’s very early stages, is GemBundle. The website was built in order for myself and fellow Ruby programmers to find a new and better way to discover Ruby Gems. There are currently two other solutions out there, but none of them satisfied the goal that I was after, so I decided to build my own.

There are a few things that I know need to happen, in order to become more successful:

  1. Add an about section
  2. Add an FAQ
  3. Revamp the comments section, inside of each gem show page

Thanks for taking a look, and I’m looking forward to your feedback.

Steve

Why do you think an about section would help it become more successful?

On my last saas the about section was viewed 0.3% of the time.

@johnf - Out of interest, do you have any data that would correlate visiting the about section with signups or purchases? Might be interesting to know if a user who signed up was more likely to hit the about section.

Allan

I think my sample size is too small to be relevant. < 3000 uniques, with 20ish trials.

Nobody who signed up for a trial actually visited my about page.

I suppose statistically yes, its not proven - but it does seem that it doesn’t matter much! Thanks, its quite interesting that :smile:

Allan

If you want to gain skills at creating your own business, you should probably try and work on a side project that’s a business. I say that as someone who, over the years, created a number of moderately successful “for fun” side projects without any real business aim to them. It’s like anything, I guess: to get better you need to practice what you want to get better at. The side projects will probably help you improve as a developer, but you might as well try and throw the business stuff in there as well, to maximize your learning.

I hope that’s somewhat coherent… I’m a bit tired today!

1 Like

I agree with DavidW. I spent years building developer side projects, and only recently (2-3 years ago) got serious about trying to sell anything. It’s amazing how different everything is in a side project where you’re trying to make even a little money.

Different people online claim it takes at least 2-5 years to establish a business and get going properly (I’m nowhere near there yet!). So you should probably start pretty soon :wink: