Viktor Hanacek was frustrated that his now-competitors wouldn’t sell his creative work on their platforms so he built a website and gave it all away for free. People like free things and now, he's making $10k/mo.
I caught up with him to learn how he did it. 👇
James: Let’s start from the beginning.
Viktor: In my high school days, writing blogs became very popular, so I made money making WordPress websites.
But after “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and “The $100 Startup” came out, I kept wondering what the hell I could do to not start from scratch every month.
James: So what did you do?
Viktor: First, I tried selling WordPress and Tumblr templates. Then, I tried selling a photo pack on the then-new Creative Market.
Everyone else on Creative Market was selling icons, templates, etc. at the time, so the photo sales did well — like $2,000 in a few days
Since it was working, I tried to put my photos on other sites. But every site rejected me, saying that my photos were not of sufficient quality.
James: Bummer.
Viktor: So I got angry, started picjumbo, and published all my photos for free.
James: Why?
Viktor: I knew it was hard for designers to get quality photos in high-resolution for free. It was almost impossible. Sites only let you download a watermarked thumbnail — hell for any designer. And to buy the full version you had to click through all their packages and understand how credits worked.
James: That’s a lot of friction.
Viktor: As a photographer, designer, and WordPress coder, I thought I could be different and make it easier for designers. And so picjumbo was born.
James: Do you charge for the photos now?
Viktor: No, the photos on picjumbo are free.
James: And you’re making $10k/mo?
Viktor: It's funny how much money free photos can make.
James: Break that down for me.
Viktor: All photos are free and high resolution. This generates traffic and I can then sell advertising on the site.
James: So it’s all from advertising?
Viktor: The majority of it is from advertising. Revenue streams include:
Advertising — often on a contract for at least one year
Premium memberships — photo packages sent to members every month
All in One Pack — an option to download all free photos to your computer
Newsletter advertising
Photo Redistribution — like an API, you can grab and insert picjumbo photos into your application, website builder, etc.
Affiliates
James: How do you find advertisers?
Viktor: Good old cold email and weeks — sometimes months — of negotiations.
James: Advertising is not a common monetization model for indie hackers. Do you recommend it?
Viktor: Every product is different and requires a different approach. But advertising is sometimes the only way to keep a project alive, and there's nothing wrong with that.
James: Any tips for folks thinking about monetizing via ads?
Viktor: I don’t use AdSense anymore, but when I did, I learned that it really matters who you show your ads to.
To earn the most, you need to figure out how to send entrepreneurs, financiers, and people from the legal field to your website. They will be shown the most expensive ads and you’ll be paid more.
I found that out when Entrepreneur magazine included my website in the selection of the best free stock photo sites. The visitors were all business people, so they were shown expensive ads. And who got paid for it without writing a single article about business? Me.
James: Tell me about your paid products. Why spend time on those if advertising is where the money’s at?
Viktor: Having paid products is extremely important, and not just for income diversification
With a paid product, you establish a closer relationship with the customer.
James: How so?
Viktor: People in premium memberships behave differently. They are my biggest fans and the most intensive users. They care about the direction of the project. And they are happy to give feedback.
James: And are they a good revenue stream?
Viktor: Yeah, take my simplest product, the All in One Pack. It's a $15+ product, with the “+” meaning that people can pay more if they like what I’m doing.
James: Do people actually pay more?
Viktor: Quite often, yes. After payment, they receive a link to a OneDrive folder where all free picjumbo photos are stored and you can download them to your computer.
This simple product has already made over $41,000. It’s just a link to OneDrive!
James: Not bad!
Viktor: I try to keep my paid products simple.
A few days back I decided to start selling my AI image prompts. It's a similar product, so I wonder if it will be able to make the same money.
It's indie hacking at its finest — at about 4AM, I got the idea, designed a couple of product covers, created a Gumroad product, and programmed the website to show a link next to each AI photo.
If someone purchases, after the purchase, the customer sends me a link to the AI image by replying to the receipt email, and I send them the prompt.
That’s it.
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James: Speaking of AI, are you worried that it’ll put you out of a job?
Viktor: No, it doesn't bother me at all.
James: Why not?
Viktor: Mainly because AI helps me. It creates tags for me, translates photo titles, sorts them into categories, and occasionally even comes up with some of my marketing text.
And, of course, I also create photos with AI, which is amazing for me. It's still easier to go to picjumbo and download a photo directly than to enter a prompt, wait for it to generate, fine-tune it, enlarge, etc. I've already done all of that for you on picjumbo.
James: Fair enough.
Viktor: There are certainly challenges in my field, but AI isn’t one of them. AI is all fine.
James: You’re a solopreneur. What does that mean to you?
Viktor: It means I’m more into breadth than depth.
James: Why?
Viktor: It’s just how I am. I'm interested in lots of areas, and I would often prefer to learn something than to focus on making money.
James: Have you found this to be helpful?
Viktor: It’s why I’m able to be a solopreneur. I can handle the entire project myself.
I don't have to cut into profits for developers, designers, and marketers. I don't have to manage them.
In solopreneurship you do not have to be an expert; you just need to have general knowledge. Then connect the right tools, think right, and your profitable project is not far away!
James: Any downsides?
Viktor: Slower growth. If someone is a good operator who prefers managing rather than creating, they’ll move much faster than people like me.
James: And faster growth isn’t worth it to you?
Viktor: I just can't delegate. If I hire someone, I'm immediately minus $1000/mo. And I can easily see that on my wallet.
And I want to create, not task and control.
James: Let’s talk about how you grew it.
Viktor: I got people talking about it! People love free photos.
James: That’s it?
Viktor: Then make it bold. Underline it And double the font size. That’s the best way to get traffic.
James: What were your channels?
Viktor: Magazine articles and newsletters. These are the best channels in general — and not just for picjumbo.
James: Why?
Viktor: The newsletter is probably the only mass channel that will not bury your project because of some algorithm.
So arrange for your product to be written about in a big magazine to get traffic. And collect emails for your newsletter on your website.
James: Not a fan of depending on social media algorithms?
Viktor: I have thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but I see it all the time: 0 likes, 0 reach. Madness.
James: Tell me more about getting covered by big magazines, blogs, etc.
Viktor: After picjumbo’s inception, "Best Free Stock Photo Sites" articles started being written in a big way, and picjumbo was in every one of them, including Entrepreneur, TheNextWeb, Buffer blog, LifeHacker, WebdesignerDepot, Designmodo, and more.
To this day, these articles bring new traffic. If you don’t want to (or can’t) pay for advertising, you'll have to figure out a similar path for yourself, and that's a lot of work.
James: How?
Viktor: I ranked well on Google and there was lots of word of mouth since it was free and useful. As I said, it was a new thing, it was something unusual, so the publishers found it themselves
James: So what do indie hackers need to do, other than adding a newsletter signup button.
Viktor: Distribution is the key.
If you're just starting out, you might want to do a 10-90 ratio — 10 being creation and 90 being distributing what you’ve created.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of hard work ahead of you to get your product in front of people. You will want articles, mentions, listings in various directories, cross-promotion, micro-influencers, and more.
James: 10-90?
Viktor: Yes. Indie hackers need to realize that even if they have the best product, it means nothing if no one knows about it.
It happens all the time. People have the pixel-perfect design, they add cool new features, and no one comes. So they sunset the product. But it just didn’t reach the right people. Or any people, for that matter.
James: Do you write your own articles?
Viktor: Not much, but blog articles that have value and are valid indefinitely are ideal for distribution.
Anything that you can create once and distribute forever is like winning the jackpot.
James: Are you still doing 90% distribution?
Viktor: No, but I’m trying to! Unfortunately, instead of creating new traffic for picjumbo, I’d rather redesign the premium section, sharpen the PageSpeed metrics, or edit the design of the newsletter.
I know it’s wrong, but I enjoy it and I don't really enjoy outbound marketing.
James: Sounds like your success has been a mix of giving things away for free, good timing, and distribution. Anything else that helped you grow?
Viktor: I had a problem in the beginning, where people did not believe that such high-quality, full-resolution, zero-watermark photos could really be free. Or that they could be used commercially.
That might sound funny today, but this was ten years ago.
James: So what did you do?
Viktor: I changed the button from “Download” to “Free Download”.
James: Simple. Did it work?
Viktor: I didn’t measure it at the time, but people stopped asking if it was really free!
James: Small tweaks with big gains are the dream. Any others that you can think of?
Viktor: I'm heavily dependent on traffic from Google, so redesigning the site to meet the standards of Core Web Vitals was a big one.
James: Did it help?
Viktor: Yeah, I started to rank better in Google almost immediately. Don’t sleep on your CWV!
James: Alright, give me the best advice you’ve got for indie hackers.
Viktor: Chasing something without enjoying life right now is a terrible mistake.
James: Hence, why you don’t distribute as much as you think you should.
Viktor: Exactly.
Sure, work hard. But heck, go out to a great dinner. If you have a good car, drive it and enjoy it to the fullest. If you have a terrace, slow down and have an occasional — or frequent! — afternoon of relaxation there doing nothing.
James: Sounds nice.
Viktor: There will always be another stage that awaits you on your entrepreneurial journey. There is no end to the numbers. Entrepreneurs always want more and more.
But if you only go forward, time will slip through your fingers. Then you'll be 50 and you'll find out that you didn't really enjoy your youth at all.
James: I feel a mic drop coming.
Viktor: Don't slow down if you don’t want to, but realize that life is not tomorrow. It’s today.
James: Nailed it. Where can people find you?
Viktor: You can find me on X or check out picjumbo.
Advertising feels like a dirty word these days, but when ads are highly relevant to your user they can provide great value to both parties.
The freemium + ads model is nothing new (spotify comes to mind) It works well if you have a great product. It feels like something solos and bootstrappers should consider more often.
Kudos, Viktor!
100%! Thanks!! 🫡
Amazing story and journey Viktor! It's very inspiring and show a great example of a problen solved for free and which makes money.
"In solopreneurship you do not have to be an expert; you just need to have general knowledge." I like it !
great job.. I started free newsletter 2 years ago and after gaining 10k subscribers, I started dipping my toes in paid section of my newsletter.. Now its 189 paid subs in 4 months and still growing.. Keeping the free stuff flowing, but also doing extra for paid subs
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Awesome interview, thanks!
"Chasing something without enjoying life right now is a terrible mistake."
I love this. It's also why if you're still looking for an idea to build something, you should pick a business that you would enjoy building and running.
Yooooo, Viktors journey from frustration to finding a unique niche with picjumbo illustrates not just entrepreneurial spirit but a deep understanding of what users need and how to deliver it effectively. It's fascinating how he leveraged his multi-disciplinary skills to create a service that fills such a gap in the market
Thanks Rasha! 🙌🏻
Inspiring story! Only recently have I begun delving deep into this, crafting free products for my target audience to enhance the visibility of my services
Thanks João! I can confirm it's working :) Good luck with your business! 💯
Who doesn't love free?? Giving something away for free can also be a great marketing move for paid products!
Yes! Almost everyone is doing it, let them take a look and then offer them everything you have for $!
This is a striking story! This story shows how to use free resources to attract attention and ensure stable income through advertising and premium products while maintaining deep customer relationships.
Yes, exactly! Attracting attention with free products. 100%!
Brilliant business model!
THANKS! ❤️
Totally agree with the point of the interview, sometimes free stuff will make your business more profitable. However, I'm not sure about the 10-90 ratio. Once you have an MVP the aim is to focus primarily on sales rather than the product itself?
The interview is redacted, I am in favor of the 20/80% rule as I write here or here. When I explain it to someone in person, I explain it for example on my PREMIUM collections.
For example, now I made the Architecture collection. What's next?
20% was creating the collection, now should come 80% distribution:
Email newsletter about new collection
Stories on your own social networks
Scheduling posts about the collection on social networks
Paid posts on social profiles of UI/UX designers
Paid social media posts dedicated to Framer/Webflow templates
Dribbble post with website design created and photo used
Blog post about how and what these photos can be used for
Creating a freebie and submitting it to various freebie sites
...and TONS more
So for me it's more about getting information about the new collection to as many places as possible. If someone has SaaS, it can simply be sales. At the same time, even with SaaS, it can be about the constant creation of (valuable) social media posts, blog posts, influencer collabs, etc.
I have a question of transparency, can you or Viktor answer how much traffic is needed to be successful with advertisement as monetization?
Size doesn't matter, if you have 10,000 views/month from designers and bloggers and give me a banner for $50, I'll take it!
It's just supply and demand.
James, Viktor's story really struck a chord with me.
Turning rejections into a successful $10k/mo venture with picjumbo by giving away free photos is nothing short of remarkable.
I'm curious, how did the shift towards focusing more on distribution than product tweaks impact picjumbo's journey?
Your experience underlines the magic of thinking outside the box and the value of persistence.
It's a great lesson on the importance of distribution and engaging directly with your audience.
How do you balance your efforts between enhancing the product and ensuring it reaches the right people?
I still can't balance it and I'm still tuning the product more than taking care of marketing (distribution). It's a constant marathon, the product is never finished, and I'd like to focus only on distribution, but if I have an idea how to improve something on the website, I just want it done right away :)
But the numbers should give you enough of an indication of what is needed. If that new logo color brings in new customers, do it! (probably not, so do something with bigger impact).
Amazing journey !
I'm currently working on TapRefer.com, a platform that helps you discover affiliate programs to display as ads on your website.
thats Great!
❤️
It's pretty cool how Viktor uses AI to help manage and sort photos for picjumbo. AI photo editors are becoming really handy tools for streamlining creative work. Any specific tools do you recommend tho?