My First Digital Dollar Story by Orel Zilberman
First Digital Dollar Project | Orel Zilberman
Welcome to the First Digital Dollar Project
Every week, a solopreneur shares the honest story of how they earned their first dollar online. They also join me on Substack Live to dive deeper into their journey.
Each story follows one path from idea to struggle to income. You will see the doubts they faced, the pivots they made, and the exact steps that led to that first sale.
Whether you are still searching for your breakthrough or already building momentum, these stories show you what is possible when you take action.
This post is a guest contribution from Orel , a fellow solopreneur sharing the story of that first sale.
More on the project:
Orel is the creator of WriteStack, a dedicated Substack Notes co-pilot that lets you research winning Notes, generate ideas in your voice, and batch‑schedule analytics‑driven posts in minutes.
What did I sell to earn my first digital dollar?
I remember sitting in front of my computer on April 6th, 2025, 2pm.
Staring at the Stripe account, waiting for Kacper Wojaczek to claim his 30% for life coupon and subscribe to WriteStack.
Kacper wasn’t just some random user.
He was the first person who ever took my product seriously. Back when it was ArticleGenerate. Then WriteRoom. Now WriteStack.
He gave me more feedback than anyone, and honestly, probably made WriteStack become what it is right now.
The day before, I thanked him, sent him the coupon, and told him I was finally putting up a paywall.
He was happy for me and that he’d subscribe the next day.
So now it’s “the next day,” and I’m there.
Waiting.
It was 9 dollars. Nine. But my hands my chest was pounding.
I kept thinking:
“What if this doesn’t work?”
“What if Kacper is just being nice?”
“What if nobody ever pays for anything I do?”
That noon was not like any other noon. It was nerve-wrecking. It was embarrassing how much I cared. But it wasn’t about the money.
It was the moment I’d find out if I was building a business or living in a delusion.
2:30PM, I get a notification on my phone.
Kacper subscribed.
How did I get that first customer?
Ever since I started my solopreneurship I believed people would just appear at my apps’ front door, begging to pay for a subscription.
I mean, I was solving some problems that people had. Or at least I believed so.
What I failed to realize is that people generally don’t care about you or your product. Not in the beginning of your way, for sure.
They don’t even know you exist, let alone your solutions.
Thinking otherwise is plain stupid.
But that’s what I thought and did for 18 months.
Built → shipped → got disappointed → burnt out → couldn’t figure out what to do next → got a new idea into my mind → built → shipped → .. → repeat
Until one day I decided that I can’t continue doing the same exact thing and expect different results.
So I decided that I am going for my last hoorah.
6 months, 5 books read on repeat and 1 product.
If it doesn’t play out and I don’t make any money out of it, I am going to quit the journey and look for a job.
After building an MVP in less than a week, I had nothing to do.
But I had another 5 months and 4 weeks to handle this project.
So I figured I should do what Hormozi says and find people to test my products by sending DMs.
Best decision I could ever make.
I finally started getting some feedback.
Most of it was how useless my product was.
But golden feedback nonetheless.
Through the DMs I found Kacper.
What obstacles did I face?
I faced a stupid amount of obstacles along the way.
Getting users.
Fixing bugs in the sales flow and feeling like I’d ruined my entire future because one dude couldn’t subscribe.
Improving the UX every week.
Getting hate on Substack from creators who thought I was spamming.
Getting clowned on Medium for even trying.
Telling people I still wasn’t making money after 18 months of trying.
The voice in my head that kept telling me: “you’re gonna mess this up… everyone’s gonna realize you’re a fraud.”
To this day I have that fear inside of me that I’m in way over my head.
Even now, with 160+ subscribers and 80 free trials, that fear is still there. I still have days where I think all of this could collapse tomorrow and I’ll be back at zero.
But the hardest obstacle of all was simple:
I didn’t know how to get users. I didn’t know how to find people who were actually willing to pay for WriteStack.
But once I finally figured it out, everything changed. And since then I realized that it isn’t magic.
It’s repetition.
You do the same moves over and over, and it works.
What did I learn?
I’ve learned a ton of things along the way. Too many to list.
But there’s one lesson that hit me harder than anything else:
Marketing is everything.
Nobody out there knows you exist. Nobody knows your product, your ideas, your solutions, or why they should even care.
And if you won’t do anything, nobody will do it for you.
For 18 months, I didn’t promote a damn thing. I’d build, ship, pray for users, and then complain that nobody showed up.
Even after WriteStack got traction, I never talked about it. Never shared testimonials. Never showed how much people loved it.
Nothing.
Then 3 weeks ago I paid a marketing consultant to tell me what I’m doing wrong and how to improve.
He told me that I MUST start writing about WriteStack and share progress. Anything that I have to say is viable.
And ever since I started my signups went up x5.
So if you take one thing from this whole article, let it be this:
Pick one project. Build it. Stick with it. Get people to try it. Get feedback. Improve it. Talk about it every day.
You will learn more from this simple loop than from any book, course, or YouTube video.
And once you see even a little traction, you’ll realize something:
The process is repeatable.
If you can get your first 10 users, you can get 100.
If you can get 100, you can get 1,000.
What advice would I give someone trying today.
Stop looking for the perfect path.
It doesn’t exist.
It never did.
Everyone’s out here trying to “find the right niche” and “pick the right idea” and “wait for the right timing.”
The truth is there are a hundred ways to reach the top of the mountain.
But if you climb one path, slip once, panic, and switch to another you’ll spend your whole life restarting at the bottom.
That was me for 18 months straight.
New idea, new project, new plan, same result: zero.
The only thing that finally worked was picking one product and committing to it like my life depended on it.
WriteStack started as a Substack articles generator. Ended up being a swiss knife for Substack Notes thanks to focus and feedback.
Your first idea will probably suck.
But it’s a start from which you can build an actual solution.
— Orel
The Vision of First Digital Dollar Project
By the end of 6 months, we’ll have created more than content.
We’ll have built proof that there are infinite ways to start.
That your background doesn’t determine your future.
That the first dollar is possible for anyone willing to ship, learn, and iterate.
Your story matters.
Your first dollar was a turning point.
Let’s celebrate it together.
Contributors: First Digital Dollar Project
Do check out these amazing contributors and subscribe to their Substacks as well!
Find out how 20 solopreneurs with different products, different offers, different strategies, different paths earn their first digital dollars.
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 | A guest post by
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Thank you for the opportunity man :)
The first dollar isn’t about money. It’s about finding out you’re not imagining the demand.