Giving your service away is a great way to build your portfolio, nice strategy.
Some ways that you can improve it:
- Find businesses that need your help. Find a couple in the same industry (like 3-4). Rebuild one of the sites and contact the business offering the site, showing them it is already done just needs their content. They will probably say yes. If they say no move to the next on the list, just swap the logo.
- Same as above, find a few sites that could use your help. Instead of rebuilding, just message them with your ideas, let them know that you can help them.
Another tip: Get on growing your personal brand. Get on social media and start sharing everything you know about your industry. What are the best practices? What do a lot of people get wrong? Make connections.
Finally, make connections with others in similar industries. You know who knows a lot of people that need a new website? Copywriters. Make friends with them and partner together on projects.
I write about getting clients on my newsletter for freelance developers and designers. I also talk about growth, finances, and branding. Check it out if you have time!
Go for it!
I recently released my first Google Sheet product (A calculator for freelancers to figure out how much money they need to make and the rate they should charge in order to get there).
I got a lot of sales when I first launched it. I have a way to track the links and see how many times the link is clicked. I have not noticed any abnormalities so far.
I also am not worried. If someone wants to steal it, well have fun! I hope it brings them value. You could waste a lot of energy and time trying to keep people from pirating your tool, or you could use that time to better support the paying users. That is the approach I am taking.
As far as “is it a good idea”, yes! I was surprised at how many people would pay for a tool like this. It beat my expectations on sales in the first couple of hours. I say go for it! You already have the tool built.