A Programmer’s Side Project: Building a WeChat Mini Program

Preparation & Development

Every working professional dreams of building a side project that generates passive income.

I had known about the Taobao affiliate model for a long time, but procrastination and the difficulty of promotion kept me from trying. With more free time recently, I finally decided to give it a serious attempt.

What I Prepared

• Become a Taobao affiliate

  • Apply via the Taobao Open Platform
  • Affiliates have three levels (low / mid / high), each with different commission rates
  • Some people pay for promotion to reach higher levels faster

• Server

  • I chose Tencent Cloud to take advantage of new-user discounts
  • Three years for around 300 RMB—very cost-effective

• Business license

  • Required for WeChat Pay integration
  • Individual business licenses are sufficient
  • In cities like Shenzhen, the entire process can be completed online
  • Avoid paid “agents”—DIY is simple and cheaper

• WeChat Official Account & Mini Program

  • Apply via the WeChat Open Platform

Tech Stack

• Vant Weapp
• Spring Boot
• Spring Data JPA
• MySQL

Launch

After a period of development, my mini program “笔笔省” went live. Search for “笔笔省” in WeChat to find it.

The app helps users save money through coupons and cashback when shopping, ordering food, buying groceries, or purchasing movie tickets.

I also created a supporting WeChat Official Account with the same name.

Monetization Model

• Taobao affiliate

  • Query discounts and cashback via product links or promo codes

• CPS partnerships

  • Food delivery coupons (Meituan / Ele.me)
  • Grocery discounts
  • Discounted mobile top-ups
  • Discounted movie tickets
  • Restaurant and travel deals

User Features

• View cashback order history
• Withdraw earnings

What’s Missing

• Lack of proprietary core features
• Limited user engagement mechanisms
• No admin backend

The product is still evolving, and direction is being adjusted.

A discussion group was created for feedback:

Promotional poster:

Pitfalls & Lessons Learned

• WeChat verification order matters

  • Always verify the Official Account first
  • Otherwise, you may need to pay verification fees multiple times

• Business license

  • Handle it yourself—it’s easier than it looks

• WeChat Pay feature eligibility

  • Requires 90+ days since creation and recent transactions
  • Apply early to avoid launch delays

• Taobao API permissions

  • Advanced APIs are restricted for new accounts
  • Third-party services may be required (often paid)

• Order attribution

  • Mapping Taobao orders to users is tricky
  • Membership systems help but are hard to promote
  • PID-based solutions are another option

• Promotion is hard

  • Building something no one uses is emotionally tough
  • Distribution matters as much as development

Final Thoughts

Side projects are not just about making money. They teach product thinking, operations, and persistence.

Building is the easy part—getting users is the real challenge.