For me, I made something that I wanted for myself. Originally it was just a script I used myself - I built the web service after, once I realised that this might be useful for others. It's B2C and transactional rather than SaaS, which is against the usual wisdom and but there's upside in that it is a more comfortable, less exigent business to be in.
It's not in my usual domain but still technically interesting - that's a large part of the reason I was motivated to work on it outside of the 9-5. Build it lean so that you don't need to spend too much time on it. Your product will look more focused to boot.
Same experience here. Initial integration for 1-off purchases was easy peasy. Updating to PaymentIntents to support SCA was non-obvious. Trawled back and forth through many pages of documents many times before we got there. In the end, the code changes are few but I feel we could have got there via some easier route.
I run a blog to book service (https://pixxibook.com) that while physical product, non-SaaS and firmly B2C has proved to be both low in support and reasonably profitable.
Sold our first book about a year ago and has grown steadily to the point where it could replace my day job. I've done blissfully little marketing beyond buying ads. Currently spend less than 1 day per week on it and during summer holidays I was able to keep it running from my phone with irregular connectivity.
Hello. After I created scripts to turn my own travel blog into a book I decided that the results were good enough that it would be useful to other people.
It supports wordpress, blogger and squarespace which covers a large percentage of personal blogs (but a much smaller percentage of technical blogs).
This is my first real web development effort so all and any feedback is gratefully received!
It's far from _inevitable_. As the GP writes, it is the spirit and openness of the journey that is important and this can work for families and older people. Of course you adapt to suit your party.
When backpacking with kids, we only relocate every week or two, not every few days. We have rest days for schoolwork. When cycle touring, we don't go more than 50km in a day. We eat a lot more icecream. But it is still unplanned, unscheduled and intimate.
