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4 hours ago
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Hi 👋
I’m Anil, a front-end dev from India. A few months ago, I launched [FormatJSONOnline.com](https://www.formatjsononline.com) — a simple, privacy-first tool to format, validate, and convert JSON data, all in the browser.
Today, the site is averaging 10,000+ monthly users organically without any paid marketing.
Here’s what I’ve learned building this tool solo while juggling client work and life.
---
## 🛠 Why I Built It
Like most devs, I constantly work with JSON — API responses, logs, configs, etc. I used several online formatters but found them either:
- Too slow
- Full of ads/popups
- Or not secure (sending data to the server)
So I built my own:
- Fully client-side (no data is ever sent)
- Fast and clean UI
- Free and ad-free (for now)
---
## 🚀 My Stack
- Frontend: Next.js + Tailwind CSS
- Hosting: Vercel
- Analytics: Simple Analytics
- SEO: Manual + programmatic meta tags
- No backend: 100% static
---
## 📈 Growth Highlights
- 🚀 First 100 users: Reddit + Dev.to + IndieHackers
- 🔗 Added to niche directories: Product Hunt, Daily.dev, StackShare, etc.
- 🔍 SEO took ~6 weeks to kick in
- 🔁 Word of mouth + long-tail keywords helped
- 🧪 Now experimenting with blog content & JSON-related tools
> ✅ Currently seeing ~10,000 users/month and growing
---
## 🔧 Features That Helped
These small additions made a big difference:
- [JSON to Excel](https://formatjsononline.com/json-to-excel) — Great for devs working with Excel
- [JSON Filter](https://formatjsononline.com/json-filter) — Like jq, but in-browser
- [JSON Compare](https://formatjsononline.com/json-compare) — For debugging APIs
- [Copy as cURL](https://formatjsononline.com/json-formatter) — For developers who need to transfer data to and from a server quickly via terminal
---
## 💡 Lessons Learned
1. Simple tools can win if you focus on UX and speed
2. SEO is slow but powerful — write helpful titles and descriptions
3. Niche communities work — Reddit, Dev.to, IndieHackers brought early traction
4. Build first, monetize later — ads coming soon, but value first
5. You don’t need a backend to ship something useful
---
## 💭 What’s Next
- Add more JSON utilities (search, merge, API support)
- Start monetization via ethical ads
- Grow blog traffic through helpful content clusters
- Maybe open-source part of the tool
---
## 🙌 Over to You
If you’ve built a developer tool or a small utility site:
- How did you get your first users?
- Any monetization tips before enabling ads?
You can try my tool here: [https://www.formatjsononline.com](https://www.formatjsononline.com)
Would love your feedback!
Also happy to answer any questions about building small SaaS-like tools solo 🚀
