Why this project
BearSee.ca is a platform for reporting and exploring bear sightings across Canada. The idea started forming while I was working on Voyazh and while I was reflecting on a web SaaS project I built earlier (BuildFlipper - an organization and tracking tool for pc flippers). I realized that it may be hard to get people to pay for your product - it may be too niche, the pricing may be wrong or marketing the product may take too much of my time.
I stumbled across a reddit post where the creator of KumaMap.com was sharing his experience with runnning a free website, but earning enough to cover its costs by running affiliate links on it. So I decided to build an analogous site but aimed at Canada, where I found nothing even close to it, despite a large bear population and hiking culture.
Where it stands
BearSee.ca is live and available to explore. New users slowly come in, sign up, and even share photos of bears they saw. I am yet to plan and launch a more concrete marketing campaign in time for next spring (when the bears wake up).
Lessons learned
BearSee was a clear example that you can get consistent daily traffic if there’s a clear demand and search pattern that drives users to check your website, without having to put in any effort into marketing the product.