Project Lab

Welcome to the Lab

The below are ongoing and defunct projects I've tried over the years. Listed in reverse chronological order.

Started: 2023
Status: Active
Industry: Domain names, Affiliate marketing

A daily newsletter that curates interesting or valuable domains for sale across various marketplaces. My most ambitious project to date - building a robust dataset from messy, sparse data. The domain industry is old and established. So even if the newsletter idea doesn't pan out, I hope to pivot to new products quickly using the same dataset.

Syntax Tees

Started: 2023
Status: Paused
Industry: E-commerce, T-shirts

Obscure humor t-shirts for programmers. More of an outlet for my sardonic sense of humor than anything. Built with Wordpress and WooCommerce with the Printful integration. I chose Wordpress/Woo because my only recurring expense is $40/year for hosting. Contrast that to Shopify which is $40/month. I have little motivation to pursue this project. Its purpose was to prove I could take something from idea to launch in a month.

The Nixletter

Started: 2023
Status: Paused
Industry: Newsletter, Tech Startups

A newsletter to help software engineers survive and thrive in tech startups. No monetization strategy yet. I may write a book someday. I couldn't balance this newsletter plus building other products.

Chain Registry API

Started: 2023
Status: Defunct
Industry: Crypto, Open Source Patronage

An API to conveniently query blockchain metadata. The repo is still open source. Primary goal was a forcing function to make me learn Rust. Patronage is no way to earn money - a grand total of $5.

State in the Machine

Started: 2022
Status: Defunct
Industry: Crypto, Service

Custom hosting for blockchain servers. Was asking $1000/mo with no credibility. Tried pre-Elon Twitter ads; not bad. Realized hosting blockchains is horrible because the tech is immature and unpredictable. Failed fast without much investment.

Body Language Decoder

Started: 2012
Status: Defunct
Industry: Mobile App

iOS app for analyzing body language. I taught myself iOS programming and wrote it myself. See it in all its glory at http://bodylanguagedecoder.com. Keeping it up for nostalgia. The app is no longer for sale. I never bothered to update it, and some iOS update years ago broke it. At its peak, made $50/mo. How the heck do you market a $2.99 product?

Dating Profile Writing

Started: 2010
Status: Defunct
Industry: Service, Ghostwriting

Wrote profiles for men using Match.com and similar sites. Sold my services on Elance (which is now Upwork). Elance was a race to the bottom. Earned ~$60 after writing several articles. Pure misery. Happy to let LLMs take over here.

Vagabond Gear

Started: 2007
Status: Defunct
Industry: E-commerce, Dropshipping

Sold travel gear to students studying abroad. I was young and had no expertise in anything. Naturally, I quit my job to pursue. Spent too much money on the website and too much time on mission statement, logo, and other things that didn't matter. Also inspired by 4 Hour Work Week. Eventually had to find a day job because my savings ran out.

Inspirationals

Started: 2007
Status: Defunct
Industry: E-commerce

Sold art pieces with inspirational quotes. Taught me PPC ads are hard and expensive. Surprise: Google doesn't want to show users some half-baked website thrown together by an amateur. Inspired by the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.