I quit freelancing eighteen months ago. Best decision I ever made. A solo developer income can go a long way.
Don’t get me wrong—freelancing paid well. But I was trading hours for dollars, always one client away from starting over, and constantly context-switching between different projects.
Now I earn about $4,000 per month from assets I’ve built. Not every month is the same, but the trend is up, and the work compounds instead of resetting every time a project ends.
Here’s exactly where that solo developer income comes from, with real numbers.
The Current Breakdown of a Solo Developer Income
Micro-SaaS Product: $1,800/month
Digital Products: $900/month
Blog Affiliate Revenue: $650/month
Newsletter Sponsorships: $400/month
Occasional Consulting: $250/month average
Stream 1: The Micro-SaaS ($1,800/month)
My SaaS is a simple tool that helps freelancers track time across multiple clients and generate invoices. Nothing revolutionary—but it solves a real problem I had myself.
The initial version took about three weekends. I used Next.js, Supabase, and Stripe. Finding customers took longer. The first three months, I had maybe 5 paying users. I almost gave up several times.
Then I wrote a detailed post about my invoicing workflow, it got shared in freelancer communities, and signups started coming. I charge $12/month with about 150 paying customers.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. SaaS takes longer to build momentum, but recurring revenue is worth it. Here is a detailed description on building a SaaS MVP over a weekend. This is key to building a solo developer income.
Stream 2: Digital Products ($900/month)
I sell three products: a Next.js starter template ($49), a Notion system for solo developers ($29), and an ebook about launching weekend projects ($19).
Each product started as something I built for myself. Creating them took 1-2 weeks each. The beauty is that sales require zero ongoing work. This a fundamental step in building a recurring solo developer income.
Stream 3: Affiliate Revenue ($650/month)
I write honest reviews and tutorials about tools I actually use. My best-performing content is comparison posts and detailed tutorials that naturally incorporate recommendations.
Developer tools have generous affiliate programs because their customers have high lifetime values. Hosting providers, SaaS tools, and course platforms typically pay 20-50% commissions.
Stream 4: Newsletter Sponsorships ($400/month)
I run a weekly newsletter with about 3,500 subscribers. Once I hit around 2,000 subscribers, companies started reaching out about sponsorships. Sponsors pay $200-300 per issue.
Why Multiple Streams Matter for a Solo Developer Income
Having five income streams isn’t just about total revenue. It’s about stability. Last month, my SaaS had higher-than-usual churn. Didn’t matter—affiliate revenue was up.
How to Start Building Your Own Streams
First: A digital product based on something you already know. Fastest path to first revenue.
Second: Content that attracts your target audience. This enables everything else.
Third: Affiliate partnerships with tools you already use and recommend.
Later: SaaS products, sponsorships, and consulting—once you have audience and expertise.
Mistakes I Made Building These Income Streams
Looking back, I wasted at least six months on avoidable mistakes. Here’s what I’d tell my past self.
I spent too long building my first product before getting it in front of people. Three months of coding in isolation, convinced I needed “just one more feature.” When I finally launched, I discovered nobody cared about half of what I built. The features people actually wanted took me two weeks to add. Start smaller than you think you should.
I underpriced everything at first. My SaaS launched at $5/month because I was terrified nobody would pay. Turns out, the people who wouldn’t pay $12 wouldn’t pay $5 either. And the people willing to pay $12 were happier customers — they took the product seriously. Price reflects perceived value.
I ignored email for too long. For the first year, I had no newsletter. All my traffic went to the blog and left. Once I added a simple email signup, everything changed. That list now drives 40% of my product sales. If you’re creating content without collecting emails, you’re leaving money on the table.
I tried to be everywhere on social media. Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit — I spread myself thin and made no impact anywhere. Now I focus on one platform (Twitter) and ignore the rest. Depth beats breadth when you’re solo.
What I’d Do Differently Starting From Zero Today
If I had to rebuild from scratch with what I know now, here’s the order I’d follow.
First month: Start a simple newsletter on a specific topic. Not a blog — just an email. Pick something you can write about weekly without running out of ideas. This builds your audience before you have anything to sell.
Months two and three: Write consistently and pay attention to what resonates. Which emails get replies? What questions do people ask? These signals point toward what people will pay for.
Month four: Create your first digital product based on those signals. Keep it small — a template, a checklist, a short guide. Price it at $19-29. This validates that your audience will actually buy from you.
Months five through eight: Keep growing the newsletter while working on something bigger. Either a more comprehensive product ($49-99) or start building a simple SaaS if you’ve identified a recurring problem.
Month nine onward: Add affiliate content for tools you genuinely use. By now you have an audience that trusts your recommendations.
The key difference from what I actually did: audience first, product second. I built products hoping an audience would appear. Building the audience first is slower initially but everything else becomes easier. This was my way of starting to build a solo developer income.
Tools That Power A Solo Developer Income Streams
People always ask what tools I use. Here’s my actual stack — nothing fancy, but everything works together.
For the SaaS, I run on Vercel for hosting (the free tier handled my first 100 customers), Supabase for the database and authentication, and Stripe for payments. Total cost until I hit serious scale: under $50/month.
For digital products, Gumroad handles everything. Payment processing, delivery, taxes — I just upload the files and share links. They take about 10% but save me countless hours.
For the newsletter, I use Beehiiv. The free tier worked until I hit 2,500 subscribers. Now I pay $49/month, but newsletter sponsorships more than cover that.
For the blog, I’m on WordPress with a simple theme. Nothing custom. SEO plugins, caching, and that’s it. I spent too long optimizing my site early on when I should have been writing.
For affiliate tracking, I keep a simple spreadsheet. Which links convert, which posts drive clicks, what’s the revenue per post. Nothing automated — I review it monthly.
The total monthly cost to run everything: around $150. When you’re solo, keeping costs low means you’re profitable much faster.
The Honest Truth
Building $4,000/month in passive-ish income took about 18 months. It wasn’t fast. But unlike freelancing, every hour I invested built something that keeps paying.
Next up: How to find ideas that actually sell—not what you think people want, but what they’ll pay for.
