It is hard, I've tried since 2005 and being on a shoestring budget with one person I don't get the money from ads. I tried a WordPress blog and ad blockers kind of kill it.
I tried writing books too.
I can earn more money working for McDonalds or some other minimum wage job. I read dozens of books on online marketing and followed them but I still fail.
I thought BuiltWith is an amazing idea, something small and useful and scalable without needing teams for things like customer support, marketing, and sales. See https://builtwith.com
In answer to your first question: a friend of mine hired me to work on a store locator software in 2012. It was basically a widget you put on your website that allowed searching for nearby stores/locations. He took it over all by himself from that point and was making six-figures for years. Maybe he’ll come along and elaborate.
Beyond that, I’ve known people who were single-owner entrepreneurs for years and made enough to pay the bills and live comfortably. Browser extensions, CRM plug-ins, stuff like that.
To answer your second question: yes and no — it depends on the niche. I did some research for my past employer and they accidentally voided the NDA when they laid me off… according to my lawyer anyway.
I’m still not going to take the chance of dealing with the court system to prove one way or the other…. So sadly, I can’t tell you which niches are better than the others.
Define "Successful". I bought a side project from someone else that does about 13k ARR with 90% profit. Not much but it is profitable and even though I don't do much yet on it (been about 10 months), I have plans to try and grow it next year. I already have a reasonable successful bootstrapped SAAS product that keeps me busy but that one is not a 1 person biz.
Microacquire, Flippa, empire flippers etc. The trick with all these sites is that they are mostly noise (99%) as in overpriced deluded sellers OR bad/failing products/businesses. So you have to understand that and work accordingly. There is a reason they are listing their business and only once in a while, you will find a real gem which with some work could really shine (they all need work). I was lucky to find a gem and they def. exist but less than 1% of listings.
Not quite what you’re asking, I think, but I know a few developers who nailed a piece of software that they live off of and gently maintain over time. Most of the examples I’m thinking of lucked into one or two big clients who are 80% of the revenue.
I tried writing books too.
I can earn more money working for McDonalds or some other minimum wage job. I read dozens of books on online marketing and followed them but I still fail.