Case boards
My own projects, as live numbers
A case study is written once, after the fact, usually by someone with a course to sell. A board is different: it shows the whole pipeline while it is still running — how many ideas went in, how many survived each gate, what has actually shipped, and what it has earned. Including the rows that are still zero, which are the rows worth checking on anyone's case.
Where every direction actually stands
Five directions, one ladder, six rungs. A direction stands on a rung because a specific thing is true — not because it feels close. Which means this can sit still for months, and it can go down.
5
directions tracked
5
have something built
5
are public
2
have real users
1
earn money
0
compound on their own
- 1 Idea Captured and graded on paper — not merely thought about
- 2 Built Something exists that actually works
- 3 Public A stranger can find it and use it
- 4 Used Real people use it, not only me
- 5 Earning Money actually received
- 6 Compounding Keeps earning without daily attention
Standing on it because: A live product with paying subscribers. The figures belong to that project and are not published here yet.
To move up: Revenue that holds up for months without me touching it every week.
How it makes money
- Earning In-product purchases — Paid functionality inside the platform, billed with embedded Stripe — no marketplace between me and the customer.
Highest margin of anything here, and the only model where the same customer pays again next month.
Standing on it because: This site: 743 unique readers in the last 30 days, two people opened a checkout, ten free tools in use. No sale yet.
To move up: The first euro that arrives from a product or a commission, not from a plan.
How it makes money
- Earning Affiliate — finance networks — Credit and finance offers through the networks that carry them: Doaff, Leadgid, Adtraction.
- Earning Affiliate — direct programmes — In-house partner programmes of the business and AI tools actually reviewed, rather than a network in the middle.
- Earning Display advertising — AdSense on the information and news projects, where the intent is to read rather than to buy.
- Switched on Own info-products — One-time purchases sold from this site through Stripe, delivered instantly through a token-gated download. The free tools and checklists are the top of that funnel, not a separate business.
- €49 EU Clean-Start Kit A setup playbook plus three editable templates — compliant invoice, income and VAT tracker, services contract. On sale; no sale yet.
- €99 The SEO & AI-Search Guide The method in two formats — a book to work through and the same method as AI prompts. Free updates for buyers. On sale; no sale yet.
- not priced Case-board detailed layers The working material behind each live board — the idea bank, the teardowns, the prompts, the runbook, the revenue log. Price follows the lifecycle: full while a direction is live, lower once it closes, free after about a year.
Two engines on the same traffic: commissions where the reader was going to buy a tool anyway, display where the topic has volume but no product to sell.
Standing on it because: Releases are out on streaming, and the tracks are already in use as soundtracks in the games.
To move up: Listeners who are not me, in numbers a distributor statement can show.
How it makes money
- Switched on Streaming royalties — Per-play payouts from Spotify and the other platforms, collected through a distributor.
- Earning Soundtrack use in my own games — Not cash, but a real saving: the games get original music instead of a licence fee.
Pays per play, which means the only lever is catalogue times listeners. Nothing else about it is negotiable.
Standing on it because: Two titles are publicly listed on Google Play, serving ads with a paid unlock. 19 prototypes and 3 in production behind them.
To move up: Installs from people who are not me, in numbers the console can show.
How it makes money
- Earning Mobile ads — AdMob interstitials on game over, on the two titles now public.
- Earning In-app unlock — A single small Google Play purchase that removes ads and opens the full game.
- Planned Browser premium on my own domain — Stripe directly on my own site — no commission, no platform rules, best margin of the three.
- Planned Portal ad revenue share — Publishing the same HTML5 build to portals that bring their own audience and split the ad income.
Mobile pays through the store and takes its cut. The browser version is the only place the whole payment is mine — and only on my own domain.
Standing on it because: Seven channels publishing since early September 2026 — music clips, education, silent and heartfelt stories, nature, news, games — from one production line, with a Shorts analyser fitted on 6,566 public videos.
To move up: A channel that YouTube moves past its test stages: a video the feed distributes beyond the first small groups, measured at 7 days.
How it makes money
- Planned YouTube Partner Programme — Ad revenue share across the channel types — music artists, news, gaming, education.
The ad share is the small half. Sponsorship and sending viewers to things I already own is the other one.
View the same thing as a table
| Direction | Rung | Standing on | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro-SaaS platforms | 5 / 6 | Earning | In preparation |
| International web projects | 4 / 6 | Used | In preparation |
| The AI music label | 3 / 6 | Public | In preparation |
| One-person game studio | 3 / 6 | Public | Live |
| YouTube channels | 3 / 6 | Public | Live |
Where the payment can actually be mine
The same browser game earns very differently depending on where it is published. This is the table that decides whether a distribution channel is worth building for at all.
| Where it runs | Own payments | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| My own domain | Yes | Stripe with no restrictions. Best margin there is. |
| itch.io | Limited | The platform's own checkout on the game page; in-game Stripe is not their model. |
| CrazyGames, Poki | No | External links and payments are not allowed. Income is a share of their advertising, nothing else. |
| Steam | No | Only the Steam microtransaction API. Your own Stripe inside the game is not permitted. |
| Google Play, App Store | Limited | Through their billing, with commission. The rules on external links differ by country and change often. |
Everything that has actually launched
In order, with what is queued next marked as queued. Nothing on this rail is a plan drawn as if it had happened.
- May 2026 Milestone
The magazine started
First English-language project: an EU-first magazine for the one-person business, built to test whether the whole playbook clones to a new language and market.
International web projects
- Jun 2026 Went live
Deployed and verified in the wild: the site, the tracking layer, the cloaked affiliate links and the admin behind them.
International web projects
- Jul 2026 Product
First product: the EU Clean-Start Kit
A playbook plus three editable templates — compliant invoice, income and VAT tracker, services contract. €49, one payment.
International web projects
- Aug 2026 Product
Second product: the SEO & AI-Search Guide
The method I optimise sites with, in two formats — a book to work through and the same method as AI prompts. €99, free updates.
International web projects
- Aug 2026 Milestone
Twelve game prototypes in half a day
Forty ideas collected, twenty shortlisted, nineteen built as playable single-mechanic prototypes — twelve of them in one half-day session.
One-person game studio
- Aug 2026 Went live
Music out on streaming
Multi-genre releases produced solo and distributed to streaming; the tracks became the soundtracks in the games — the first cross-project leverage that actually paid off in work saved.
The AI music label
- Aug 2026 Milestone
First game submitted to a store
Developer account verified, first title wrapped for Android and pushed to an internal testing track with a paid unlock configured. Not public yet.
One-person game studio
- Sep 2026 Went live
The pipeline of a one-person studio published as running numbers, zeros included, updated as they move.
International web projects
- Sep 2026 Went live
The label's catalog became the audience layer: music clips, then education, silent and heartfelt stories, nature, news and games — one production line, one Shorts analyser, a release schedule with episodes in reserve.
YouTube channels
- Sep 2026 Milestone
First people tried to buy
Two readers opened a checkout — one for the Guide, one for the Kit. Neither paid. The first evidence of real purchase intent, and the reason the whole payment funnel got instrumented properly.
International web projects
- Next Next
First public game release
Moving a finished game out of internal testing into a public listing — the step that turns four zero rows on the board into something measurable.
One-person game studio
- Next Next
The measuring channel and the first long-form channel
A neutral channel with zero outside traffic testing one variable at a time, and a 20-minute-plus channel designed from the channel analyser's reports. The site's own channel: narration recorded once, dubbed to English in my own voice.
YouTube channels
- Next Next
A streaming statement worth publishing
The music board opens when there is a real payout figure to put on it — the number that decides whether any of it means anything.
The AI music label
Scroll the rail sideways →
The other directions
Each of these is running. None of them gets a board until there are real numbers to put on it — which is why they appear here as a plan rather than as a page.
- In preparation
The AI music label
Multi-genre releases built solo and distributed to streaming. The board waits on real streaming payout figures — the number that decides whether any of it means anything. Its detailed layer will carry a discount for buyers of the game-studio case, because the soundtracks came from here.
- In preparation
YouTube channels: music, education, stories, nature, news, games
Seven channels run as separate experiments from one production line, with my own Shorts analyser and content plan. The first part of the case is public as an article; the board waits on 7-day measurements and the first channel to clear YouTube's test stages. Discounted for anyone who has the music-label case.
Read part 1 of the case → - In preparation
International web projects
English-language sites built for search traffic in markets I do not live in, this one included. Traffic, list and revenue tracked from zero, publicly.
- In preparation
Micro-SaaS platforms
One-person software products with real users and real churn. The board publishes only what can be shown without exposing customers.
How a board lives, and what it costs
A board is not a finished article, so it does not behave like one. It moves through four steps, and the price of its detailed layer follows the step rather than my mood — down, never up.
-
While the direction is live
The current version of the detailed layer is at full price, because it keeps growing: every new result, number and lesson lands in it while I am still doing the work. Buy once and the updates to that version are included.
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When the next version ships
Each version is sold up to a point, then replaced by a better one built on everything learned since. When that happens the previous version becomes free, or nearly. You can start on the old one, see whether the material is worth anything to you, and upgrade only if it is.
-
When I stop working the direction
The board is marked closed, the numbers freeze, and the price drops again. What you get is a complete, finished record rather than a live feed — worth less, and priced accordingly.
-
About a year after that
Everything opens completely and becomes free to read. Nothing here stays behind a wall forever; the point of an archive is that somebody learns from it.
Boards that feed each other are bundled: the soundtracks in my games come from my music project, so buying one of those cases gets you the other at a discount. Nothing is priced until it exists.