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Colorazen – My first $50 MRR project (adult coloring pages, now with AI)

3 points by numerogeek 1y ago

numerogeek 1y ago
I’ve built a lot of projects that went nowhere. Most died before launch. Some launched but nobody cared. This one makes $50/month MRR. Tiny, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen real money come in from a side project. It’s called Colorazen. It’s just coloring pages for adults. Sounds boring. But I needed it. I was coloring with my daughter during a stressful time and the sites I found were all clunky and outdated. So I made my own. I built it with the tools I already knew (PHP/Symfony). Nothing fancy. Launched fast, shipped imperfect, fixed things as I went. People found it through SEO, Pinterest, Facebook groups. That was enough to get to $50/month. This week I added AI-generated coloring pages. Now every user can get fresh designs, unlimited. It’s early but people like it. Next steps: • Let users publish their own coloring pages. • Auto-categorize those pages, even create new categories based on demand. • Keep growing with SEO and slowly build a small community around it. It’s not a “big startup.” It’s a tiny side project. But for me it’s proof that something can actually work. If you’ve been through this stage: how did you onboard new users so they stick around? Any advice is welcome.
rikem 1y ago
good work on getting this far! How have you monetised this? I can't see any ads or prices
- numerogeek 1y ago
  there's Google ads on it, but you probably have an adblocker ahah !
  - rikem 1y ago
    I did wonder that, I can't see them even with the adblocker turned off
    - numerogeek 1y ago
      Lucky you ! Do you live in a country where there are no Google Ads, or are you behind a VPN ? I don’t see why you wouldn’t have ads if you don’t have an adblocker, it’s really strange
beardyw 1y ago
I was expecting enclosed areas for each colour, particularly in beginner mode. My result was more like just a line drawing.
- numerogeek 1y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out! Beginner mode should indeed have closed areas... I’ll work on improving that so it feels easier :)

3 points by numerogeek 1y ago

I’ve built a lot of projects that went nowhere. Most died before launch. Some launched but nobody cared. This one makes $50/month MRR. Tiny, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen real money come in from a side project. It’s called Colorazen. It’s just coloring pages for adults. Sounds boring. But I needed it. I was coloring with my daughter during a stressful time and the sites I found were all clunky and outdated. So I made my own. I built it with the tools I already knew (PHP/Symfony). Nothing fancy. Launched fast, shipped imperfect, fixed things as I went. People found it through SEO, Pinterest, Facebook groups. That was enough to get to $50/month. This week I added AI-generated coloring pages. Now every user can get fresh designs, unlimited. It’s early but people like it. Next steps: • Let users publish their own coloring pages. • Auto-categorize those pages, even create new categories based on demand. • Keep growing with SEO and slowly build a small community around it. It’s not a “big startup.” It’s a tiny side project. But for me it’s proof that something can actually work. If you’ve been through this stage: how did you onboard new users so they stick around? Any advice is welcome.

rikem 1y ago

good work on getting this far! How have you monetised this? I can't see any ads or prices

numerogeek 1y ago
there's Google ads on it, but you probably have an adblocker ahah !
- rikem 1y ago
  I did wonder that, I can't see them even with the adblocker turned off
  - numerogeek 1y ago
    Lucky you ! Do you live in a country where there are no Google Ads, or are you behind a VPN ? I don’t see why you wouldn’t have ads if you don’t have an adblocker, it’s really strange

beardyw 1y ago

I was expecting enclosed areas for each colour, particularly in beginner mode. My result was more like just a line drawing.

numerogeek 1y ago
Thanks for pointing that out! Beginner mode should indeed have closed areas... I’ll work on improving that so it feels easier :)