diff --git a/src/posts/scaling-a-site-to-millions-of-users.mdx b/src/posts/scaling-a-site-to-millions-of-users.mdx new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4b0f76 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/posts/scaling-a-site-to-millions-of-users.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ +--- +title: Scaling a site to millions from a TikTok comment +description: Scaling a site to millions of yearly users at just 15 solely from commenting on a TikTok video +date: 28-01-2025 +slug: scaling-a-site-to-millions-of-users +--- + +When I was 15 years old in early 2022, I stumbled upon an opportunity that would lead me to create a platform serving millions of users. Here's how it happened: + +## The Spark: A TikTok Video + +Like many others my age at the time, I was an avid Genshin Impact player. I was in online school after being assaulted and threatened at a mainstream school. This gave me permanent brain and neck damage, limiting my ability to do a lot that kids my age had the freedom to do. On the contrary, it meant I only had small assignments due every other week, I found myself with a lot of free time. + +One night, while doom-scrolling TikTok, I came across a video where users expressed their frustration about not having easy access to game assets for Genshin and similar games. + +That video sparked an idea: I could create a site to solve this problem. It started as a small notion in my head but grew into something much bigger. + +## The Initial Launch: wtf.dromzeh.dev + +With some unused credits from my DigitalOcean GitHub Student grant, I spun up a site in about two hours. It was named wtf.dromzeh.dev, running on h5ai with NGINX, and I managed the DNS records with Cloudflare. It was simple, functional, and, most importantly, quick to deploy. + +## Organic Growth Through Social Media + +I didn't have a strategy, a marketing budget, or big expectations. All I did was comment on TikToks related to game assets, dropping a line about my site and letting people know the link was in my bio. To my surprise, it worked. + +Within days, the traffic exploded. Users started posting their own TikToks about the site, drawing even more attention. My Discord DMs were overflowing, my inbox was packed, and my TikTok account blew up with comments. In just a few days, what started as a side project had grown to 3,000 daily users. I was stunned, and incredibly overwhelmed. + +## Creating wanderer.moe + +As wtf.dromzeh.dev struggled under the rapidly growing traffic, I knew I needed to create something more robust. That's when wanderer.moe was born. I decided to learn Svelte to build it, even though I only had backend programming experience in Node.js and Python at the time. + +While on holiday, I built version 1 of wanderer.moe in just three days and deployed it on DigitalOcean. But I ran into a major problem: production-specific issues caused the site to go down, taking both wtf.dromzeh.dev and wanderer.moe offline for a couple days. + +Being entirely on my own, I worked non-stop, determined to fix the issue. It turned out the problem was with DigitalOcean, I had faced issues with DigitalOcean before (where they randomly shut off the droplet wtf.dromzeh.dev was running on at 2am for a couple hours without informing me) so I made the move to Cloudflare Pages, and the site came back online. + +## New API Development in 2023 + +Initially, the assets were stored directly in the frontend. While this saved on costs, it required rebuilding the site every time new assets were added. As wanderer.moe grew, this approach became less sustainable. + +In 2023, I designed and implemented a custom API to solve this problem. Using Cloudflare Workers and itty-router, I created an API that dynamically indexed files stored in a Cloudflare R2 bucket. This removed the need for constant manual rebuilds, made updates seamless, and kept costs low. This entire time, I was mostly focused on costs, being so caught up on medical bills due to long NHS waiting times that I had no stable income. + +The new API became the backbone of wanderer.moe. It allowed for faster updates, more dynamic functionality, and a smoother experience for users, all while simplifying the entire process for me. + +## Continuous Improvement: The 2024 Rewrite + +As the platform continued to grow, I decided to rewrite wanderer.moe in Next.js to address performance issues. + +The rewrite wasn't originally planned for early 2024, but a massive DDoS attack forced my hand. Attack traffic from various VPS providers overwhelmed the site, and I realized I couldn't delay the change. In just 6 hours, I built a completely new version of wanderer.moe in Next.js with an entirely fresh structure. + +The effort paid off. wanderer.moe now averages 300,000 monthly active users. + +## Conclusion + +One singular tiktok comment changed my life, and it really shows how fast your life can change with just a couple days of hard work and determination. I've met so many amazing people, and I've learned so much along the way. + +I ended up dropping out of college to work on wanderer.moe. I was only 16 at the time, and my parents did not approve as I wasn't making any money from wanderer.moe (and still don't). + +They wanted me to go to University to do a degree, I disagreed with them and we ended up coming to a conclusion, me going to uni part-time instead of full-time. + +Dropping out of college wasn't an easy decision, nor smart - and there were countless moments of doubt and exhaustion. But by staying focused and determined, I was able to turn a simple idea into something that impacts millions of people worldwide. + +I'm now working on [Originoid](https://originoid.co), a platform for creators to create and share their various work, with my leverage of wanderer.moe and both platforms sharing the same userbase, it has over 15,000 people currently on the waitlist. + +Hopefully, this will allow me to generate a stable income to continue making useful tools for creators, and also pay off my medical debts. + +## Believe in Yourself and Your Ideas + +If there's one thing I've learned from this journey, it's that believing in yourself and your ideas is crucial. + +So, if you're passionate about something and there's an opportunity right infront of you, take the leap. It's not always going to be smooth, but the lessons, growth, and rewards you'll gain make it worth it. Even if you fail, you learn from your mistakes, and that's valuable for the long run. + +You can literally just build things. There are so many resources available now, such as bolt, v0, cursor, windsurf and shadcn. Even if you don't have much experience with programming, you can still build whatever you want. + +You can view the full project on [wanderer.moe](https://wanderer.moe).