How I Grew My Plugin to $12K/Month

Makes YouTube videos that each solve one long-tail problem a customer actually has (e.g. 'Split the Design Manually and Automatically in Photoshop'). No intro, no fancy setup: just records the solution and speaks directly to the problem rather than framing it as a viral video. Viewers find the fix, trust him and buy the plugin. Each video keeps selling from YouTube and Google every month.

Silently reads conversations in communities where customers hang out, keeps a list of pains that repeat day after day, and sometimes starts a conversation to get more context. Never sells in the communities. The list becomes video topics.

After a customer signs up, an onboarding email asks: 'Do you want any custom tutorial just meant for you?' Replies surface the exact long-tail problems and confusion customers have, which become tutorials.

Treats support as an education channel. When a customer asks for help, they reply 'Send us your file. We will record a custom tutorial or custom Loom video for you.' Sometimes they get on a call, walk through the customer's workflow and solve it live. All of it is recorded; the 1,500+ recordings from 3 years surface real problems and edge cases that never show up in keyword research, and they turn them into content.

Searches his niche on YouTube for videos with low views but a high number of comments (a sign of unresolved pain), lists all the objections and questions in the comments, and creates a better video that answers them.

Before publishing, runs a checklist to give each video an SEO angle so it ranks on Google, not just YouTube. A YouTube video targeting the same search intent can rank on Google without the authority and backlinks a blog post needs. Optimization: keyword in the title, in the description, and spoken in the first 30 seconds of the transcript.

Took an Upwork job to create 1,800 mockups for a print-on-demand store, which the client expected to take 3-4 days. Used his own Photoshop script (built earlier to automate another freelance task) to finish in under 30 minutes. When the client asked how, he didn't explain and offered the tool for $300; the client paid immediately.

First sold the rough script as a one-time fee and realized it wasn't defensible. Without license validation or user management he had to keep selling a one-time/lifetime deal for a couple of years. Once he had enough money, he hired a developer on Upwork to polish the product; it is now a monthly subscription (about $15/month) sold through Gumroad.