This mistake will cost you everything
How I made my first online $
👋 Hey, it’s Orel here! Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share my journey and lessons as a solopreneur who quit his 6 figures job to chase his dreams.
A moment before we begin, I want to thank all the hundreds who read my newsletter and to the 100+ more who joined in the last month ❤️
It means so much to me and I am happy to have you here!
Now let’s get started.
Picture this:
A tiny baby, eyes wide with curiosity, soaking in the chaos of the world.
Day after day, failing, fumbling, learning. Months of silence, of observing and connecting dots in that little brain, all leading up to one glorious moment.
The parents lean in, hearts pounding, waiting for magic. And then, with a small, mischievous grin, the baby finally speaks!
“Just ship it.”
That baby? That’s me. That’s the first thing I and many others learn about the solopreneurship world.
And that is the worst advice you can get.
There’s a much better way to go about solopreneurship and save yourself a lot of time and failures.
The truth of “Just ship it”
Look, I understand how tempting it feels. Just ship 24 products in 400 days, and one of them must stick. Right?
Wrong. Here’s the problem:
When you “Ship and see what sticks” what you do is rely on virality and finding someone that would love it enough to spread the word.
You count on the assumption that you know what the market wants.
And it can work. It worked perfectly for Steve Jobs and Apple. Look at where Apple is now.
The other way it can work is by pure luck.
So unless you’re Steve Jobs, you rely solely on luck to carry you and get you to your first online $.
The “math” behind it
Statistically, if you’ll keep shipping, eventually you’ll hit the jackpot.
The real question is when?
If you’re willing to spend years and a lot of money trying to find a product market fit first hit (without pivoting), go for it.
People spend months and years on a single product just to figure out what their users actually want before they ever go viral.
But Orel, I will learn from every product and get better every time. That’s the point. Fail, learn, progress.
In theory? You’re right.
In practice? The only thing that I learned is how to code better and use more technologies.
You learn close to nothing by just posting your products on X and hope they’d catch fire.
So how does it work for others then?
Most of the successful “just shippers” are not only shippers.
They are community builders.
They share their journey all the time, what they work on, their revenue, what worked for them and what has failed.
They share every piece of their journey and build a community around that.
As the community grows, their chance to go viral with a single product launch grows exponentially.
The better way
Instead of shipping into the void, hoping someone will notice you, be smarter about it and copy what successful people do.
Be a Community Builder.
Make your journey public. Share as much as you can whenever you can. Stories, lessons, progress, failures, successes, burnouts, good things, bad things.
Make people feel connected to you and your journey. Make it personal.
But Orel, I do not feel connected to any of those big brands. I just follow them because they’re interesting and I want to be like them.
Yes, most big community builders aren’t as intimate as they were in the beginning. They probably miss 99% of the DMs they get.
And that's okay for them. They have many hardcore fans that will spread the word and act as their ambassadors.
You and I? We don’t have that luxury. We need to build personal connections.
How to build a community
Building a community is simple, but hard.
When you decide to become a Community Builder you have to do more than just posting daily.
You have to be active, send DMs, engage, be reciprocative.
Here’s my framework (For Substack):
Post daily notes (Build relationships)
Post a weekly article (Build trust)
Respond to every comment (Be available)
Send a ‘Hi’ DM to every like (Be friendly)
Like and comment on your readers notes/articles (Be reciprocative)
Before using the framework I got 0-1 likes on my notes and 10-25 subscribers a month.
Ever since I started using this framework (45 days ago) I got over 120 new subscribers, I get 10-40 likes on every note (minimum) and an engaged crowd.
And I’ll let you in on a secret:
My first ever paying customer (after 600 days of 0 customers) is someone I just started a casual chat with. ( Kacper Wojaczek :) )
(Since then I got another 2 paying customers)
Final words
Just shipping is a sure way to waste months and even years of your life.
When you build a community of people who truly care about you and what you write, you essentially build a crowd of loyal fans.
Those fans will tell you exactly what they need, so you can provide it to them.
What I enjoyed reading this week
User Personas are Dead: AI-Powered User Models for 2025 and Beyond. by Product with Attitude - Karo (Product with Attitude) writes some of the best articles I read lately. Give her a go.
The world's first {FORMAT} for {YOUR AUDIENCE} formula 🧸 by Marketing Ideas
How I Made $60,000+ With A Simple 2-Hour Mini-Course by Write • Build • Scale
I really hope “building in community” is true.
“They share their journey all the time — what they’re working on, their revenue, what worked, and what failed.”
But in my case, I’ve tried sharing more, and it still often feels like I’m speaking to nobody. No feedback, no real conversation.
Sometimes I’m not sure whether the issue is my content itself, my distribution strategy, or simply that it takes much longer than I expected to find the right people.
hmmmm.... arguable, but thanks for sharing.