Side Hustle PRD — Iron Legion Templates
Goal: Earn first $1,000 in 30 days selling digital templates derived from Iron Legion infrastructure. Time budget: 1h/day M–F, up to 4h Sat/Sun (18h/week max). No audience required. Cold traffic via Reddit + Discord.
Path A: "Iron Stack Blueprint" — $149
What You Are Selling
Your swarm topology decisions as a deployable reference for homelabers: sanitized compose files, network diagram, port allocation table, AdGuard → Technitium forwarding logic, and the "deploy in this exact order or it breaks" decision tree. Homelabers fail at the intersection of DNS, reverse proxy, and monitoring — you solved it.
Why It Sells
- Homelab subreddit has 2M+ members. Every week someone posts: "What do you use for reverse proxy + DNS + monitoring?" You hand them the answer for $149.
- No config is unique, but the sequence matters. You documented the exact order that prevents port 53 collisions, socket permission errors, and DNS forwarding loops.
30-Day Math
7 sales × $149 = $1,043
48-Hour Path to First Sale
| Hour | Action |
|---|---|
| 0–2 | Sanitize compose files to generic hostnames, placeholder env vars |
| 2–4 | Write "Why This Order Matters" PDF — 20 pages max |
| 4–6 | Commander review + revise |
| 6–8 | Package on Gumroad with Stripe connect |
| 8–10 | Record 2-min Loom walkthrough of the stack running |
| 10–12 | Post in r/homelab "Show Your Stack" Saturday thread + 3 Discord servers |
Path B: "Fleet Bootstrap Toolkit" — $99
What You Are Selling
Your ansible-pull CI/CD pattern as a standalone template: systemd auto-update timers, node-join wrapper scripts, Docker Engine provisioning playbook, and the "add a new node in 10 minutes" checklist.
Why It Sells
- Any nerd with 2+ boxes manually updates everything and knows they should automate.
- The playbook exists. You need only remove Iron Legion-specific tokens and add a 1-page "replace these 5 variables" header.
30-Day Math
11 sales × $99 = $1,089
48-Hour Path to First Sale
| Hour | Action |
|---|---|
| 0–2 | Extract ansible-pull patterns. Generic hostnames, placeholder vars |
| 2–4 | Build "Fleet Bootstrap README" — Debian → auto-updating node in 30 min |
| 4–6 | Commander review + revise |
| 6–8 | Package on Gumroad with Stripe connect |
| 8–10 | Create before/after architecture diagram |
| 10–12 | Drop in r/sysadmin "What do you use for config management?" threads |
Execution Schedule
Week 1 — Build (Tue–Sun, ~8h)
- Tue: Sanitize Path A configs + draft PDF skeleton
- Wed: PDF content + Commander review
- Thu: Revise PDF + Gumroad setup
- Fri: Screencast + product page copy
- Sat: Post in r/homelab + 3 Discord servers
- Sun: Monitor first 24h, answer comments, DMs
Weeks 2–4 — Promote (~1h/day, 4h weekends)
- M–F: Answer one question on r/homelab or r/selfhosted. Mention the Blueprint only if relevant (no spam).
- Sat: Record a short "tip" video (5 min) based on a question you answered. Drop link in comments.
- Sun: Check sales, iterate product page if under 1% click-to-buy.
Revenue Checkpoints
| Day | Checkpoint | Action if Missed |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | ≥2 sales | Keep going. If 0, pivot positioning or subreddit |
| 14 | ≥4 sales | On track. Consider "Bundle both for $199" tier |
| 21 | ≥6 sales | Healthy. Start Path B if bandwidth allows |
| 30 | ≥7 sales (A) or ≥11 (B) | Milestone hit — evaluate update tier ($19/mo) |
Content Checklist
Path A: Iron Stack Blueprint
- Sanitized compose files (Traefik, AdGuard, Technitium, Prometheus, Beszel, Portainer, Homepage)
- Port allocation table (reserved + why)
- Deploy order decision tree (with rollback steps)
- DNS forwarding chain diagram (Technitium → AdGuard → upstream)
- "Common failure modes" appendix (port collision, socket permissions, label constraints)
- 2-min Loom walkthrough
Path B: Fleet Bootstrap Toolkit
- Ansible-pull playbook (generic)
- Node-join wrapper script
- Systemd timer templates (auto-update + health check)
- Docker Engine provisioning playbook
- "Add node in 10 min" checklist
- Before/after architecture diagram
Notes
- All content derived from live Iron Legion fleet. Sanitized before publication per Commander approval.
- One-and-done digital products. No support obligation. Optional $19/mo update tier if demand confirmed.
- Payment: Stripe via Gumroad. No business entity required.
Drafted by Artemis. Subject to Commander review and sign-off before build.