# Square Town for developers with many side projects: $1 per favicon

> Got 10 or 15 side projects? Put every favicon on Square Town, the $1 favicon wall, in one block for $10–$15 — each with clicks, views and a 3D tower.

Source: https://square.pov.town/for/developers-with-many-side-projects

Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall where each 1×1 square costs $1, one-time, and shows one site's favicon linked to its URL. If you're a developer with ten or fifteen side projects, that means every project you've ever shipped can sit on one live, 3D wall for $10–$15 total, in adjacent cells, each with its own click count, view count and deed.

> **At a glance.** One URL per square. $1 each, paid via Stripe, no account, no upload. Buy adjacent cells and your projects form a visible block. Each square gets a secret deed URL with views, clicks and kisses; $5 per square unlocks per-day charts, which you only need on the projects you care about. Twelve projects with analytics on two = $22, once. Rulebook: [/how-it-works](/how-it-works). Prices: [/pricing](/pricing).

## The problem: twelve projects, zero places that show all of them

If you've been shipping for a few years you have a folder of domains. A CLI tool, two SaaS attempts, a Chrome extension, a weekend API, a newsletter, something with "kit" in the name. Each has a favicon you spent twenty minutes on. None of them has a marketing channel, because promotion is per-project effort and you have twelve projects and one evening a week.

Directories charge per listing or want a backlink. Product Hunt is a launch per product. Your GitHub profile shows repos, not sites. Your personal homepage lists them, and only your mother visits it. There isn't a place where a stranger can see all your stuff at once, sorted by whether anyone actually clicks it.

Square Town is that place, mostly by accident: because every square is 1×1 and $1, the natural unit is "one project", and the natural move for a prolific developer is "all of them".

## What a $1 square gives you (times twelve)

1. **A permanent square per project.** Your favicon in the cell you chose, visible to everyone with the wall open, no expiry, no renewal. Forever* — the asterisk is that anyone can evict you for double what you paid.
2. **A neighbourhood.** Pick adjacent empty cells and your twelve icons form a block. Anyone who clicks one sees the others next to it. It reads as one person's output — which it is. See [Showcase all your projects as favicons](/blog/showcase-all-your-projects-favicons) for layouts.
3. **A click-through per project, counted.** Clicks route through `/go/:id`, are counted per square, and arrive at your site with `utm_source=square.pov.town&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=square`. Twelve rows in your analytics, one per project.
4. **Views and clicks per square on a deed page.** Each purchase yields a secret deed URL. The deed shows the square, its views (someone opened its card), clicks and kisses. That's free. $5, one-time, adds per-day charts on that deed.
5. **A 3D tower whose height is clicks.** Ctrl+drag tilts the wall. Every favicon becomes a box as tall as its click count, tinted with the icon's colour. With twelve projects side by side, the tilt view is a bar chart of which ones people want. Nothing else you own gives you that comparison for free.
6. **The social/game layer.** Anyone can kiss any icon (free, public, counted); an unkissed icon fades to grayscale after 90 days. Anyone can evict a square for double its price. Leaderboards track most clicked and most kissed. Your block of twelve is in the game whether you play or not.

## A worked example: 12 projects, $22

Say you have twelve live projects, each with its own domain and favicon. Here is the whole plan.

| Step | What | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Buy 12 adjacent squares | e.g. a 3×4 block, one URL each | 12 × $1 = $12 |
| Save 12 deed URLs | one note, or the "My deeds" button + a backup | $0 |
| Unlock analytics on the 2 that matter | the SaaS you're serious about and the one that's growing | 2 × $5 = $10 |
| Kiss all 12 every couple of months | resets the 90-day fade | $0 |
| **Total** | | **$22, once** |

What you get back: twelve favicons in one block on a wall people look at, twelve counted click-throughs, twelve towers you can compare at a glance, and daily charts on the two you're actually watching. If one gets evicted, that square cost you $1; the evictor paid $2, and it's $4 to take it back if you care.

Compare that to twelve directory listings or twelve launches: the price isn't the point, the effort is. Twelve pastes, twelve card payments, one evening. See [How to promote 10 side projects at once](/blog/how-to-promote-10-side-projects-at-once) for the broader playbook this fits into.

## How to do it

1. **List your projects and check each favicon.** Open each site; a missing favicon means a clown emoji on the wall and a public Hall of Clowns entry. Fix those first ([How to add a favicon](/blog/how-to-add-a-favicon)). If two projects share a favicon, give one of them its own — twelve identical icons in a block tells nobody anything.
2. **Open [square.pov.town](/) and find a run of empty cells.** At launch only the central 16×16 is live; the gold 4×4 Throne is in the middle and the ring around it is off-limits. Zoom in and count out a block — 3×4, 2×6, or a single row of 12 if it's free.
3. **Buy them one at a time, in one sitting.** Click a cell, paste the URL, pay $1 via Stripe. Square Town fetches the favicon via Google's favicon service. While you're in checkout that cell is held; the next one isn't, so keep going until the block is done.
4. **Save every deed URL as you go.** Each purchase shows a secret deed link and adds it under the "My deeds" button (this browser only, localStorage). Copy all twelve into a note. No accounts means no recovery.
5. **Unlock analytics where it matters.** Open the deed page for the projects you'd act on and pay $5, one-time, for per-day views and clicks. Leave the rest.
6. **Tilt the wall and look.** Ctrl+drag. Your block is now twelve towers. Come back in a month and see which grew.

## Tips

- **Pick a spot near the Throne if you want to be seen.** The wall opens centred, so the middle rings are what every visitor's eyes land on. They're also the cells most likely to be evicted. A block a few cells out is a decent compromise; [How to pick a good square](/blog/how-to-pick-a-good-square) goes into it.
- **Put the project you care most about at the corner of the block.** Corners and edges of a block are what people notice first, and it's the one you'd re-buy after an eviction.
- **Kiss your own icons.** Free, resets the 90-day timer, and a block where half the icons have gone grayscale looks like exactly what it is.
- **Keep the favicons distinct.** Twelve squares at 16 pixels each — colour and shape carry it, text doesn't. [Favicon design tips at 16px](/blog/favicon-design-tips-16px) if you're redoing any.
- **Buy the analytics unlock only for decisions.** "Views high, clicks low" means the icon is seen but not compelling; "clicks fine, nothing in my own analytics" means the landing page loses them. If you'd change nothing either way, keep the $5.
- **Save your deed URLs somewhere permanent.** Password manager, a pinned note, a private gist. Twelve deeds is exactly the number that gets lost.

## What it won't do

- **No SEO value.** The wall is a WebGL canvas and clicks are 302 redirects through `/go/:id`. There is no backlink, no link equity, no ranking effect. Don't buy twelve squares expecting twelve backlinks.
- **No traffic promise.** You get a counted click every time someone clicks. How many people click is up to the wall's audience and your favicon; nobody quotes numbers, and you should be suspicious of walls that do.
- **You can be evicted, square by square.** A $1 square costs $2 to take. Someone can pull one out of the middle of your block. That's the game.
- **No accounts, so no recovery.** Twelve deeds lost is twelve squares you can't prove are yours (they stay on the wall; you just can't touch the deed page).
- **No logo upload, no sizes.** Every square is 1×1 and shows whatever favicon your site serves.

## FAQ

### How much does it cost to put 12 side projects on Square Town?

$12, one-time — $1 per square, one square per project. Per-day analytics is an optional $5 per square; twelve squares with analytics on two comes to $22 total.

### Can I buy 12 squares in one checkout?

No. Each square is its own purchase and its own deed. Buy them in one sitting: while you're in checkout your cell is held, but neighbouring cells aren't reserved for you.

### Can I put all my projects next to each other?

Yes, if the cells are free when you buy them. Pick a run of adjacent empty cells and buy them one after another. Someone can later evict any single square out of the block for double its price.

### Do I need a separate favicon for each project?

You need each site to serve some favicon, or it gets a clown emoji. Distinct favicons are strongly recommended — twelve identical icons in a block are twelve squares nobody can tell apart.

### What if I lose a deed URL?

There's no recovery — no accounts, no email. The square stays on the wall under your URL, but you can't open its deed page or buy analytics for it. Save all twelve links when you buy.

### Does Square Town give me 12 backlinks?

No. Clicks are counted redirects and the wall is a canvas, so there's no link equity. It's visibility, a click-through and stats, not SEO.

### Is there an API to see how my squares are doing?

`GET https://square.pov.town/api/state` returns the whole wall as JSON, including every listing's domain, position, clicks, views and kisses. Filter by your domains and you have a twelve-row dashboard. Details on [/api](/api).