How a 6-Hour App and 1,000 Hours of Marketing Earns $1,500/Month

Turning Quick Code into Consistent Revenue

Most developers rush to finish an app and hope users appear. Artturi Jalli flipped that script. He spent 1,000 hours gathering proof that folks wanted AI photo colorization before writing a single line of code. Then he baked a simple MVP in six hours. The result? A stable $1,500 every month.

Finding a Real Problem

Instead of starting with an idea he thought was cool, Artturi hunted for problems people actually search for. He spotted rising interest in turning black-and-white images into color by checking Google suggestions and Trends data. Free tools dominated, so he saw space for a paid solution charging $5–$10 per month.

Building an Audience First

Rather than spending on ads, he wrote high-value blog posts that ranked for keywords like “How to Colorize an Image Using AI” and “Best AI Tools for Colorizing Photos.” That single post climbed to No. 1 in Google and brought 15,000 readers in months. Those readers were his ready-made market.

Validating with Affiliate Marketing

Before building his own app, Artturi recommended Palette.fm in his top posts and earned commissions when readers bought it. That experiment pulled in $1,000 per month. It proved people would pay for a quality colorization tool and gave him direct financial feedback on demand.

Developing a Lean MVP

Armed with data and a built-in audience, he coded a minimum viable product in six hours using existing Python libraries. No fluff features. Just the core promise—add color to photos. This allowed him to launch fast and focus on real user feedback instead of perfection.

Iterating and Scaling

After launch, Artturi tracked user behavior, gathered requests, and rolled out improvements gradually. He wrote new blog posts for major updates, shared them with his SEO-ranked audience, and watched his subscriber base grow. Monthly revenue climbed from zero to $1,500.

Lessons Learned

This case shows that coding is the easy part. The real work lies in understanding demand, building trust, and testing before you build. If you skip the marketing groundwork, even the best idea can go unnoticed.