I’ve built a lot of projects that went nowhere. Most died before launch. Some launched but nobody cared. This one makes $50/month MRR. Tiny, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen real money come in from a side project.

It’s called Colorazen. It’s just coloring pages for adults. Sounds boring. But I needed it. I was coloring with my daughter during a stressful time and the sites I found were all clunky and outdated. So I made my own.

I built it with the tools I already knew (PHP/Symfony). Nothing fancy. Launched fast, shipped imperfect, fixed things as I went. People found it through SEO, Pinterest, Facebook groups. That was enough to get to $50/month.

This week I added AI-generated coloring pages. Now every user can get fresh designs, unlimited. It’s early but people like it.

Next steps: • Let users publish their own coloring pages. • Auto-categorize those pages, even create new categories based on demand. • Keep growing with SEO and slowly build a small community around it.

It’s not a “big startup.” It’s a tiny side project. But for me it’s proof that something can actually work.

If you’ve been through this stage: how did you onboard new users so they stick around? Any advice is welcome.

good work on getting this far!

How have you monetised this? I can't see any ads or prices

I was expecting enclosed areas for each colour, particularly in beginner mode. My result was more like just a line drawing.