Learning Web Development & Launching a SaaS in 50 days

AestheticHustler said:

Thanks a lot for your reply!

A few hours later and I'm pretty fair: I got PyCharm, a project library, an app.py and a template (though some problems as I'm not able to properly integrate it with Flask; but I think that's too programming-specific for a journey thread and we don't want to make the mods mad - so I'll either DM you or lurk around to find a solution to my problem).
Either way, to come back to the Snapchat SaaS example I made: Hypothetically speaking, someone wants to make this SaaS and wants to use any GitHub with a Python API (e.g. https://github.com/mpolden/pysnap) - he builds his app.py and maybe functions.py or whatever his files are called. app.py calls the methods / functions from functions.py and integrates those functionality with the front-end (I could code "bare Python" in functions.py and Python/Flask in the app.py) returning values / output or getting input, right?

To extend my question to SQLite: Do you only store user/mailass in the DB or also, e.g. Snapchat API related stuff or shall someone make a different DB for all the API related data received?

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Yea you just code in python to call the api

I only store user and purchase data in the db, for that SQLite is enough for sure. Depending on how much stuff you're storing it might be worth it to pick a bigger or more specialized database that suits your case, Im no expert at that though. I'd suggest you just use whatever is simplest at first and optimize later if needed.

I usually just install dependencies via pip and then I can easily access them, or whats the problem with the integration? Also make sure the github project is still working, as its 3 years old and not maintained

Aulig said:

Yea you just code in python to call the api

I only store user and purchase data in the db, for that SQLite is enough for sure. Depending on how much stuff you're storing it might be worth it to pick a bigger or more specialized database that suits your case, Im no expert at that though. I'd suggest you just use whatever is simplest at first and optimize later if needed.

I usually just install dependencies via pip and then I can easily access them, or whats the problem with the integration? Also make sure the github project is still working, as its 3 years old and not maintained

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Thanks for the end-note, but in the learning phase I'm currently in, I'm not planning to build a Snapchat SaaS from ground-up.

I'd be so interested in which service you're coding currently as it makes lots of fun doing some programming again (paused for quite a while - depends if you could have called me "ever active"). Either way, let's see what the next few days will bring for us.
Keep me updated on your journey and I might contact you any time soon if I got some questions left (and if that's fine for you)

AestheticHustler said:

Thanks for the end-note, but in the learning phase I'm currently in, I'm not planning to build a Snapchat SaaS from ground-up.

I'd be so interested in which service you're coding currently as it makes lots of fun doing some programming again (paused for quite a while - depends if you could have called me "ever active"). Either way, let's see what the next few days will bring for us.
Keep me updated on your journey and I might contact you any time soon if I got some questions left (and if that's fine for you)

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Thats fine for sure! Currently I'm not saying what niche my product in as it's rather small and I've already noticed new competitors coming in recently. However once I'm established in the market (ranking on google ) I'll make it public.
Happy to hear you're having fun programming again! I enjoy it a lot too, its fun to solve logical problems and work towards a goal at the same time.

Aulig said:

Thats fine for sure! Currently I'm not saying what niche my product in as it's rather small and I've already noticed new competitors coming in recently. However once I'm established in the market (ranking on google ) I'll make it public.
Happy to hear you're having fun programming again! I enjoy it a lot too, its fun to solve logical problems and work towards a goal at the same time.

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Sure, completely understandable - though I don't have the resources nor the interest to compete with you, just wanted to take a look at it from a programming point-of-view. Nonetheless, your worries are understandable
And yap, it's making fun, but once again I'm hardcore stuck. Let's see how it goes.

AestheticHustler said:

Sure, completely understandable - though I don't have the resources nor the interest to compete with you, just wanted to take a look at it from a programming point-of-view. Nonetheless, your worries are understandable
And yap, it's making fun, but once again I'm hardcore stuck. Let's see how it goes.

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Yea I didnt mean just you specifically but everyone else that might see this Good luck with your problem!

Aulig said:

Yea I didnt mean just you specifically but everyone else that might see this Good luck with your problem!

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Are you working with blueprints? What's your project's directory?
blueprints, static, templates, app.py and .py files for the backend?

AestheticHustler said:

Are you working with blueprints? What's your project's directory?
blueprints, static, templates, app.py and .py files for the backend?

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I based my project on this one https://github.com/alectrocute/flaskSaaS and kept the directory structure like that (and added new ones). So yea I use blueprints and separate directories for them

Aulig said:

I based my project on this one https://github.com/alectrocute/flaskSaaS and kept the directory structure like that (and added new ones). So yea I use blueprints and separate directories for them

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Neat looking structure - I got more of a "basic" structure (yet).
Those blueprints are giving me headaches, especially in combination with Jinja2.

Update Time!

Because of coronavirus I've got a lot of time to work on this, so the website is almost done now. I've created a Twitter and Youtube account, which I will use to promote the site aswell. I feel like a youtube video could rank quicker than my site, as there are no other ranked videos for my keywords yet, but we will see. I want to make a video showcasing my service anyways so I can embed it on my homepage. Aside from that I've started to build some links to my site (using free backlink threads from bhw ), however I made sure they're at least roughly related to my niche. Currently I'm also writing content for the blog part of my site, but that's just to look like an authority in google's eyes (so i rank better). Luckily my competitors aren't doing any of that, so I hope I can outrank them sooner or later.

Neat product will be interested in testing if you are going to open it up to BHW members.

DamoHG said:

Neat product will be interested in testing if you are going to open it up to BHW members.

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Not sure about that yet, not sure if BHW is the exact target market, but it might be worth a shot.

Improved the product some more today and dealt with minor webpage problems. For the website I just need to finish a file upload and some content on one page of the checkout process, so really almost done now. I'm really interested in how quick I can start to rank, as for now I'm not in the top 100 for my keywords lol.

The website is finally completely done since yesterday. Right now I'm just waiting for a friend to help me with making a video showcasing a sample of my product so I can embed that on my video + upload it on youtube to rank it there and maybe on google. I'm also finishing up my first blog article of around 900 words (I'll expand on it once I have more ideas on what I could mention). I'll also use this blog article in modified and spun versions as articles for backlinks. I'll also tweet out the video to maybe grow my twitter and just have some content there. After that I already have 3 more article ideas, but first I'll create some backlinks and maybe answer some quora questions related to my niche. Later on I'll also want to do some reddit marketing and enter my product on sites like producthunt.

Also one keyword has moved into the top 100 yesterday and further rose 7 spots today, to 86.

Nevermind, my keyword dropped to 96 again lol. It seems this niche is a lot more competitive than I imagined. Semrush gives a difficulty between 50 and 75 for most KWs, so I think I'm in for a long ride here. One of my main competitors has a DR of around 30, another over 50. But there's also ones with 6 and 12 on the first page and they have shitty backlinks (they are in the middle of the content without context).
I've published my first article, so we will see if that helps me get into the top 100 of a few more keywords at least lol. Also answered 2 relevant quora questions, but they dont get too many views and dont rank too high on google, so I won't bother with that any longer. Also I created my own subreddit and use IFTTT to automatically post every new article there and on my twitter.

Not in a writing mood right now, but that's needed for almost everything I need to do atm (build backlinks & articles on my page). Well I still need to make the video with my mate, so maybe I can make progress on that today

Yay, gained 1 spot on the keyword again, in Germany it's even ranking on 34 (even though i have no german content yet, however I plan to translate my site soonish). But I really hope things will speed up, as that keyword isn't even one I really care about. I'd be way happier to finally see my actual keywords in the top 100. The thing is, I can't perfectly target the keywords with articles, it only makes sense to rank the main homepage for them, which is happening with all my competitors too. So I'm mainly building articles for google to recognize me as an authority. I'm thinking of translating other articles and rewriting them a bit to get more content out quickly.
Anyways, I pushed out a really short "How To" article on WikiHow and on my site (not identical but rewritten a bit) today.

Also I never really talked about my goals with this SaaS:
I want to make at least ~$500 a month by around october, because by then I will be done with university. If I'm making that much money by then I won't have to get a regular job lol. So I have around 6 months to rank. I hope that's enough (it'll be tough enough to even stay focused on this project for that long if I'm not making visible progress), but I also have plans for non-organic traffic that could hopefully get me some revenue. But for now I'm focusing on SEO as that will take long to build up, so it makes sense to start it asap.

Great journey. Following along closely. Do you want to depend 100% on the 500 bucks a month? Where do you live?

I finished university last year but unluckily I didn't have a stable and high enough internet marketing income at this point to go full-time. Just started developing a SaaS myself but my income goals are a bit higher because I currently earn 3 grand a month in my day job and I'd like to replace that completely with IM income

issorc said:

Great journey. Following along closely. Do you want to depend 100% on the 500 bucks a month? Where do you live?

I finished university last year but unluckily I didn't have a stable and high enough internet marketing income at this point to go full-time. Just started developing a SaaS myself but my income goals are a bit higher because I currently earn 3 grand a month in my day job and I'd like to replace that completely with IM income

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I live in Germany, so it would just barely be enough to live off of if you're really frugal and have a cheap flat. That's not my goal though, I'll probably temporarily move back in with my parents as my older brother will have moved out by then. If I used my computer science degree I'd also earn a lot more than $500, but I think it'd be enough as a sort of "proof of concept" to show my parents that I can make money without a "real job" . That way they will hopefully not bother me with having to apply for one and I can live with them until I make a good amount of money from my projects.

btw the reason why I don't want a regular job is that those bore me to death lol. I've had internships as a software developer and found it unbearable. Don't get me wrong, I love coding (which is why I'm making a SaaS), but only when it's with my own projects. Probably because I want to be the one to make decisions

I picked up python for AI development. never thought of using it for SAAS development or to create any form of ecommerce. I prefer the old LAMP route.

ACMillions said:

I picked up python for AI development. never thought of using it for SAAS development or to create any form of ecommerce. I prefer the old LAMP route.

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What's LAMP? Never heard that acronym before

Aulig said:

What's LAMP? Never heard that acronym before

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Linux Apache Mysql Php

Aulig said:

I live in Germany, so it would just barely be enough to live off of if you're really frugal and have a cheap flat. That's not my goal though, I'll probably temporarily move back in with my parents as my older brother will have moved out by then. If I used my computer science degree I'd also earn a lot more than $500, but I think it'd be enough as a sort of "proof of concept" to show my parents that I can make money without a "real job" . That way they will hopefully not bother me with having to apply for one and I can live with them until I make a good amount of money from my projects.

btw the reason why I don't want a regular job is that those bore me to death lol. I've had internships as a software developer and found it unbearable. Don't get me wrong, I love coding (which is why I'm making a SaaS), but only when it's with my own projects. Probably because I want to be the one to make decisions

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Nice, I'm German too good idea to move back to your parents, I'm already living together with my girlfriend so moving back to my parents is no option for me I've studied computer science too (well, I got to admit it wasn't real comp science but rather Information Systems management )

Totally understand that you get bored, when I'm coding at work (I'm a web developer) my thoughts are always drifting to my own projects. I can hardly concentrate for 2 hours while for my own projects I pull all-nighters with ease.