0) Build an AI Agent that can replace entire professions/jobs/tasks. It's a super difficult tech challenge, but if you make it, the distribution will be easy. I've done it with seobot, which replaced my SEO department. Never had a product that grew faster than this one.

1) If you don’t have any original idea, I recommend finding a bigger project and creating a simpler version. E.g. a simple version of Ahrefs only for backlink analysis.

2) Build a tool for yourself. If you truly love it, others like you gonna love it too. (I built seobot and listingbott to solve my own pain first)

3) Niche down any successful product into a smaller niche. Product: website builder for private schools. ( I did that for Unicorn Platform. It’s for busy solo founders)

4) One feature saas. Find one feature in any successful tool that some people use (and they don’t use the rest) You can ask on SEO Reddit, " What’s one feature of Ahrefs you can’t live without?” That’s how I came up with IndexRusher idea

5) Go to upwork, find projects posted, e.g: “build a marketplace for pets”. Pitch them an idea: “I’ll build it for you at 1/10 of the price, but you let me use the code and turn it into a Nocode marketplace builder”. (We came up with Marketsy idea this way almost)

6) Find any dinosaur niche, call their managers, and tell them you are willing to build a product for them. Then, list some ideas you prepared and listen to their ideas. (That’s how I came up with Filmgrail idea)

7) Automate your work. Don’t think of making a product yet, just try to automate your daily job. I built MarsXdev to automate some of the boring coding routines. It was my internal tool for years until it became a real product.

8) if there is a product you use but there is one thing you wish they had, you can build a new one that’s based around that missing feature. E.g. I built CountVisits cuz I wanted to have 1 dashboard for all my websites and more control over public analytics dashboards I share.

9) Extract features into products. I was building an emailer system inside Unicorn Platform and ended up turning it into a standalone project too (SaaSemailer). IndexRusher was also a feature extract from SeoBot. Later, I removed it from SeoBot to avoid cannibalization.

10) Build an open source version of a generic big product but only for one audience. I did that with DevHunt. It was an open source version of Product Hunt only for developers.

11) Look at popular hyped projects and typical complaints from the users. When openAI announced custom gpts, I quickly saw people making listicles of GPTs and complaining about the absence of a gpt directory. I quickly shipped AllGpts directory overnight, and it was a huge

12) See social media, Reddit and quora for “what’s the best…”. I saw that for “what’s the best next js starter,” and I built a big nextjsstarter directory now.

13) Find a space dominated by huge corporate players. Build a modern and cool version of those products and market it that way. I did it for Filmgrail. I said: your existing software was created before I was born and never innovated.

14. That’s it.

@johnrushx Awesome tips. Thanks John. And for distribution. Whats your tactics?

@victor_bigfield If u go the green path the distribution is easy via social media or directories

@johnrushx Great tips, John! Besides donations and sponsors, what do you think are the most practical ways to make money in open source products?

@ThePushkaraj Charge for cloud

@johnrushx do directories still work?

@chapy079 Yes They will never stop working

@johnrushx Great advice, John! I’ve built niche products before, but getting people to actually use them has always been my biggest challenge. Any tips on effective ways to spread the word?

@chancemky it all comes down to the product you've built, how good is it? if people dont use it, it means you need to make the product better. Making the product great is super hard, you need to iterate a lot, sometimes for many years

@johnrushx These are great tips for finding ideas but the fun part starts when you start marketing those products That's where 99% of us struggle What do you think is the easiest or most promising marketing channel? I'm growing: - SEO - IG - TikTok - X tons of work but something

@johnrushx Awesome tips, man. The best way to generate an original idea is by working on simple ideas because your best ideas are buried under countless iterations.

@johnrushx so much value in here

@johnrushx thank you for sharing @johnrushx I’ll want to add copying what already works in the market, then build a better version. But here’s the thing that separates two builders: DISTRIBUUUUUUUTION You could have the best product out there… but if no one knows about it, you won’t

@johnrushx makes sense! focus on value creation and revenue generation naturally follows

@johnrushx Its a directory of niches

@johnrushx Great list, John. I love the idea of checking out Reddit or social media for complaints.

@johnrushx Great!💫 Thanks for sharing, John.

@johnrushx Bookmarked

@johnrushx startup frameworks? love 'em. tested 100+ accounts, data shows most ideas fail from lack of real-time feedback loops. my 2am spreadsheets don’t lie. (coffee breaks optional but… recommended)

@johnrushx nice

@johnrushx Great process. Too many cute tools that won't last are being made. There is an advantage to build hard things.