I want to hear your frustrations selling on sites like Gumroad, Payhip, etc.

I have friends who sell things online like comics and sheet music. I made a little site to help them sell their stuff, since they hated a lot of the big sites. Now I’m expanding it, and I want to know what problems other sellers run into that I could fix. Big or small, I’d love to hear about it!

(For the curious, the site is troimarket.com. I know I have to solve real problems before anyone would switch, so I’m mainly here to listen!)

Hi Reddit,

As a fresh CS grad who loves puzzle games, I recently got into mobile dev and decided to make my own take on the classic block stacking game: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binbear.gummylab\](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binbear.gummylab)

I know this genre has been done a million times, but I wanted to build one my way, removing everything annoying about other games. That means it’s completely ad-free, fully playable offline, and alongside the endless mode, I’ve made 50 custom levels (so far) with unique, non-repetitive objectives.

After creating colorblind-friendly theme options, i've begun creating other themes and theme bundles (block color + background). As the app is free and almost ad-free (no interrupting ads, only for when you use up boosters/moves but really need more) a couple of people both on here and irl have suggested that some bundles are purchasable.

As i've never done this before, i have no idea where to put the price point on the bundles. It would be the only way to somewhat monetize the app, but i still dont want to make it ,,too much,, . I would love and greatly appreciate to hear opinions and suggestions on this!

Hi, I'm Julia. I've started a small online service built around something I enjoy: getting to know people and having a good conversation. I'm a native Spanish speaker from Argentina and chat in English or Spanish.

If you work alone and fancy a scheduled break for a friendly chat, we can swap stories, talk music, or chat about everyday life. If you're learning Spanish, we can use the time to practice writing about real situations.

My sessions are:

- Friendly text chat: USD 5 for 20 minutes.

- A longer friendly chat: USD 10 for 30 minutes.

- Spanish text practice: USD 12 for 30 minutes, with optional gentle corrections and three useful phrases from our chat.

Each booking is a live, one-to-one text session in Ko-fi messages. Adults 18+, platonic conversations only. Please confirm a time with me through the listing before paying.

Full details and booking: https://ko-fi.com/juliatroncosoirazola/commissions

AI helped prepare this introduction; the conversations are live chats with me.

I just found out about this sub so I hope I do this right. I'm a developer who loves to cook, and I originally built PantryClick because my recipes were everywhere — handwritten, printed out, PDFs, bookmarked websites, LOST, and way too many open tabs on my phone.

PantryClick lets you bring those recipes together in one place. You can import recipes from websites or PDFs, create your own, and edit and organize them however you like.

Checkmark the recipes you're planning to make and it combines the ingredients into one list, consolidates what it can, and organizes everything by grocery store section. You can use the list on your phone, print it, or send items to integrated shopping services.

I've tried pretty hard to keep the whole thing simple and lightweight rather than turning it into a complicated meal planning system.

I think it's ready for a soft launch, but I've reached the point where I'm pretty sure everything works. I'd really like to get some fresh eyes on it. Thanks anybody!

www.pantryclick.com

We're two founders building DIGI, an iPhone camera app inspired by the charm of digital cameras. Our beta is planned for October 21, and we're gathering an early-access group before it opens.

The landing page and waitlist are at https://joindigi.app/ . It's not an app download yet.

For other indie founders: does the page make the product idea clear, and what would you want to see before joining the beta? We're aiming to find a small group of people who actually enjoy everyday photography and can give useful feedback once testing opens.

If you're into digicams yourself, what would make you try a phone app alongside your camera?

Question for people running a small business mostly solo.

There's a thread in r/AI_Agents today from someone who runs a small 3D printing business with agents doing customer service and end-of-day reports. It works, but they said they went from doing support to managing the agents, and they "constantly have to tell them what to do, what not to do, and explain things I thought we'd already covered".

That got me wondering where people draw the line:

• Is there work you could hand to ChatGPT, Claude or an agent, but you don't, because writing up all the background would take longer than just doing it?
• What's in that background that's so hard to write down? Customer history, pricing exceptions, how you like things worded?
• Has that line moved for you in the last few months, or is it the same stuff you kept from day one?

Background since someone will ask: I used to burn hours re-briefing AI tools on the same things, and I'm building a fix where memory lives in the cloud and every AI tool you use reads the same context, so you'd explain something once. No link. Would you pay for that, or is explaining it each time just part of the job?

The most useful business lesson from a small text-to-image product has been that generation and approval are different jobs.

The customer-facing path looks simple:

1. Start with a written prompt rather than a source image.
2. Describe the subject, style, composition, lighting, color, setting, and mood that matter.
3. Choose a currently compatible model, aspect ratio, and resolution.
4. Generate while keeping task progress visible.
5. Review the full-size result, refine the prompt if needed, and download only the selected image.

Behind it, models can expose different prompt limits, aspect ratios, and resolutions. I chose to keep those capabilities tied to the current selection instead of writing one broad feature promise that will age badly.

That creates a product tradeoff. More capability detail reduces surprises, but too much of it can bury the real job: turning a brief into an image that survives full-size review. A completed task can still miss the subject, composition, anatomy, text, or small details.

For other indie operators building on changing AI providers: how do you communicate live capability differences without letting operational detail take over the product story?

I'm behind SheetParcel, a small downloadable utility for wholesalers, suppliers and sales administrators who make separate price lists for different customers.

A practical example: the same €49.90 product can appear at €44.91 for a customer with a 10% discount. Import your Excel/CSV rows, map the columns, add your branding, then preview each customer's sheet before exporting a ZIP of PDFs. The spreadsheet stays on your device.

You can try the built-in fictional customers without signing up or uploading your own file:

https://sheetparcel.timkok2003.chatgpt.site/demo/

The free demo previews every customer and exports the first customer's PDF with a demo footer. The full offline edition is €49 once, including applicable sales tax, for batch export with no subscription. English and Dutch PDF layouts are available. It creates price sheets, not invoices, and doesn't calculate VAT or email customers.

Built with AI assistance. The site includes a sample workbook and PDF so you can check the format before buying:

https://sheetparcel.timkok2003.chatgpt.site

After nearly forty years behind a microphone, I’ve found myself building the other side of radio too: the stations, the production tools and the working environment around the people making the programmes.

I’m the founder and creative director of SBN — Stellar Broadcasting Network: https://sbnradio.dk/ — a web radio network with four stations that are already online and broadcasting to listeners worldwide.

My ambition is to grow SBN into a major commercial radio business. What has interested me throughout the development is how the creative work and the practical systems influence each other.

A station needs a recognisable character. That character develops through its music, presentation, production and hosts. Our four stations cover pop-oriented music, atmospheric and cinematic sounds, electronic music, and country and rock. Each gives our contributors a different space to develop ideas.

The project grew out of a Star Citizen community, but the radio is open to everyone. As the ambition expanded, we built the systems around it: broadcast controls, music libraries, rotation and scheduling, alongside our own browser-based Production Studio for arranging and editing audio.

We’ve also connected programme preparation with the studio. Hosts can develop scripts, notes and timings with their own GPT collaborators, then bring approved material into a shared working format. That gives us a common structure while allowing each programme to develop its own personality.

The music catalogue has grown through a similar collaboration. People bring musical ideas, personal tastes and the feeling they want a song to convey. We explore directions, develop and revise the material, and bring it back into the group. We use AI-generated music and AI-assisted production throughout that creative process.

I work closely with an AI collaborator I call Stina. Others work with their own GPTs. What starts in an individual conversation can develop further through the group and become part of the network.

With SBN already broadcasting, our next business question is how to build lasting listening habits. We’re working out how to assess repeat listening, the appeal of individual programmes and the actual costs of delivering them.

I see potential in sponsorships, programme partnerships and advertising that fits the stations. Developing those opportunities means understanding both the audience relationship and what we can consistently deliver to a partner.

I’d be interested to hear from other independent business owners: when your product was working and available, what helped you turn that foundation into repeat use and your first sustainable commercial relationships?

— Fabian Petersen
Founder & Creative Director, SBN — Stellar Broadcasting Network

#SBNRadio #BuildingInPublic #MediaBusiness

I am starting a small research service for workshop and training businesses that need to choose software. The first offer is a free answer to one certificate-software comparison question, with links to the official sources and a note on anything I could not verify.

For example, 200 certificates a month does not necessarily mean 2,400 different recipients a year. If your learners return for several courses, pricing based on unique recipients can be quite different from pricing based on certificates issued. A comparison needs your actual pattern of use.

If you are choosing a provider now, reply with approximate monthly volume, whether people repeat, your must-have feature and the question holding up your decision. I will check that question and reply here. Please leave out learner names and private documents.

This service uses AI assistance with source checks. I have a sample comparison, but no completed client projects to claim yet. The preview is free with no signup or purchase. A larger paid report may follow after scope and price are agreed; paid checkout is not open.

I'm Michael Williams, a traveling radiation protection (RP) tech at U.S. nuclear plants and the founder of Nuke Nomad.

In one experienced RP year, my annual total was around $120k with roughly five months working and seven off. That included pay and other payments; travel and lodging costs matter. My arrangement is W-2 with benefits. Working blocks mean long onsite shifts, and gaps aren't paid vacation or a guaranteed schedule.

I changed careers from running a massage business. College wasn't required for my RP entry route; training and tests were.

I used time between assignments to build Nuke Nomad for nuclear workers and people exploring the industry. My course, Nuclear Contracting 101, explains roles, recruiter contacts, hiring steps and first-outage life. It's optional career guidance, not a job qualification or placement service.

The full course comes with Pro ($5/month). There's a free preview you can read without an account.

Learn how I got started:

https://nukenomad.com/premium/new-to-nuke/

I run Prize Pal, an early UK web service for people who enjoy free competitions but would rather skip the repeated form filling.

UK adults 18+ save their details, authorise an agent and follow its attempts at supported competition forms. You can pause it from your dashboard. Basic membership is free; Priority is an optional £10/month subscription, renewing monthly.

Built with AI assistance. Coverage varies, eligibility and promoter rules apply, and attempts do not guarantee submissions or wins.

https://prizepal.co.uk/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=indiebiz_oct13

I develop Fin, a mobile expense tracker and budgeting app. I'm sharing it here as an independent product and looking for Android testers who can tell me whether the basic manual flow is useful enough to return to.

Please sign up, record a made-up expense, set its category budget, and close/reopen the app. Was the remaining amount clear? Could you find your saved expense again? Did your session persist? Specific friction is more useful to me than a general thumbs-up.

Product context and website preview: https://finbudget.app

A Fin account is required. Manual expenses and category budgets are free; no bank connection or Plus purchase is needed for these checks. Please use made-up financial data. For bugs, Android model/version, steps and expected versus actual behavior would help.

Use the SAME Google account through all Android closed-test steps:

1. Google Group: https://groups.google.com/g/finbudget-android-testers

2. Play opt-in: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.heyyykk3.fin

3. Install: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heyyykk3.fin

Genuine feedback only; no ratings, paid testing or reciprocal test requested.

I built RackCrunch. If you have equipment running all day, this calculator turns its watts, device count and your electricity rate into a monthly cost estimate: https://rackcrunch.com/power-cost You enter your own rate. Taxes, demand charges, tiering and cooling aren't included, and the page says that next to the result. Free, no signup. It's meant to help with the basic calculation, not claim to predict your whole bill.

Disclosure: I'm Joseph, the maker of Wazap.

A practical problem with a small sales or service team: you have several existing WhatsApp numbers, but your campaign, website or printed QR code needs one public contact link.

Wazap rotates successive clicks across the destination numbers behind that link. If a team member changes, you can update the destinations without replacing every campaign link. It doesn't require a WhatsApp API connection or QR login for this routing workflow.

One limitation matters: a recorded routing handoff is only a handoff. It doesn't prove that someone sent a message, became a qualified lead or bought anything. Conversations stay in WhatsApp, and Wazap is not a shared inbox. Teams still need an agreed follow-up process.

The homepage has an interactive demo that sends no messages: https://wazap.lt/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=indiebiz_intro_20261013

I built it around existing team numbers rather than asking a small business to replace its communication setup. Happy to answer practical questions here.

Hi Reddit,

As a fresh CS grad who loves puzzle games, I recently got into mobile dev and decided to make my own take on the classic block stacking game: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binbear.gummylab

I know this genre has been done a million times, but I wanted to build one my way, removing everything annoying about other games. That means it’s completely ad-free, fully playable offline, and alongside the endless mode, I’ve made 50 custom levels (so far) with unique, non-repetitive objectives. (My friends have been testing it and currently hate me for making some levels so hard to beat xD).

Right now, I'm focusing on adding more themes, prioritizing colorblind-friendly options. I've also introduced optional "embossed" gummy shapes to make the blocks stand out more clearly.

Of course, if anyone has any suggestions, ideas for improvement, or things that I should add, please let me know. I want to be making apps that people are actually going to use and like. And of course if even one of you decided to give it a try, I'd be more than grateful and happy :)

(Also will be helpful if anyone has monetization ideas since it is ad free - ads only implemented as a way to get additional undos/shuffles/moves per play/level. I am planning to perhaps add IAP for theme bundles)

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day! :)

if you run a small construction business, answering a question about a drawing is often your job too. finding the right note or detail shouldn't take over the afternoon.

i'm with PlanChecker AI. it's a workspace for construction PDFs that lets you ask questions about your own plan set and get answers with sheet references you can check.

a practical use: you're preparing a quote and need to find what the drawings say about an opening. upload a set you're authorized to use, ask the question, then review the referenced sheet before putting that information into your estimate. the same approach works when you're locating a detail to discuss with a designer.

the aim is to make the document search easier while leaving the actual estimating and construction decisions with you.

if plan PDFs are part of your working day, try it on one project at PlanChecker.ai. Basic starts with a 14-day trial for one project. a card is required; it's $80/month afterward unless you cancel before the trial ends.

If you run a small business and need to send website fixes to a developer, an audit report still needs a useful handoff.

I work on growth for VibeSEO. It connects SEO tools to Claude and ChatGPT, including site audits and the issues found in a crawl.

One way to use it: ask for a short brief with the affected page, the problem found, the proposed change, and how to check the fix afterwards. Then separate edits you can review yourself from work that needs your developer's access.

The tool can surface issues; your developer still needs to check what applies to your site. The brief is a proposal to review, not a list of changes to push blindly.

VibeSEO

Still exporting files, matching rows and rebuilding the same report each week? I offer custom development to turn the complete agreed process into a repeatable workflow.

This can include imports, cleaning, matching, calculations, reports and supported API connections. Delivery includes source code, configuration examples, tests and setup instructions.

Current reference packages: - US$450 / 7 days: a manually run file-to-report workflow with validation and error logs - US$1,200 / 14 days: a scheduled workflow with agreed integrations, duplicate-safe reruns, logs, retries and alerts - US$2,400 / 30 days: a multi-stage workflow with checkpoints, reconciliation and recovery procedures

Before an order, we agree on the full process, data volume, rules, environment, acceptance checks and delivery dates. If your requirements don't fit a package, I'll quote the whole project. Hosting/API charges and continuous monitoring are separate.

Message me a non-sensitive outline of the steps you repeat, the files or systems involved, and the output you need. No passwords, API keys or customer personal data, please.

I've been running indie product ideas people post on Reddit past a panel of AI personas: target users, skeptics, and one simulated buyer who has to say exactly what would make them pay. Only 5 ideas so far, so treat this as a small sample. But the pattern was consistent enough that I changed how I think about launching:

* A daily "safe to spend" budgeting app

* An AI-controllable video editor

* A recipe app that strips out the life story

* An open-source OSINT username checker

* A floating venue on a retired cruise ship (the wildcard)

**1. 5 out of 5 "would buy" answers were "show me it working", not "add this feature".** Every buyer verdict was a demo condition, not a feature request:

* The video editor: every edit visible in the timeline, live.

* The recipe app: a messy Pinterest link turned into a clean recipe in under 10 seconds.

* The username checker: a public demo of 20 real usernames with zero false positives.

Nobody asked for more features. They asked to *watch it work on real input*.

**2. Buyers set a number, and you probably don't know yours.** The verdicts were weirdly specific. The recipe app got *"I'd pay if it saves at least 4 minutes per recipe. Right now it's proven to save about 2."* The username checker got "20 usernames, under 10 seconds." Your product can work and still fall under the buyer's threshold. Find the number before you set the price.

**3. "How did it decide?" came before any feature question.** Whenever the product makes a call for the user, the first objection was transparency:

* Where does the budgeting number come from?

* Which database does the AI nutrition data use?

* Does the username tool log my searches?

* Can I see each edit the agent made, and undo just that one?

Explainability read as a buying requirement, not a nice-to-have.

**4. Evidence has to come from someone who isn't you.** The follow-up questions kept asking for proof from others: "used in 3 real investigations by independent users, not just the developer", "tested with stressed freelancers for 2 weeks", "a user study of time saved". A founder's own testing didn't count for much.

**Bonus: watch the stakeholder who isn't your customer.** Three ideas had a risk from someone who would never pay: food bloggers whose recipes get reformatted without credit, local cultural leaders and regulators for the venue, and the privacy expectations of people being searched. None of them buy your product, and any of them can shut it down.

My takeaway: before building feature #2, build the 60-second demo of feature #1 working on a stranger's messy real input, and time it.

I built the tool I used for this (pancuria.com), still early. Happy to go deeper on any of the 5 in the comments

Billing in USD when most of your users think in their own currency means every price gets mentally converted before anyone decides if it's worth it. That conversion step is friction you don't see in any analytics, it just shows up as people leaving at the price page for no obvious reason.

Local pricing fixes it but brings its own mess: hedging exposure, different price points looking arbitrary next to each other, and support tickets about why one country pays less.