This is a simple webapp which redirects the user to the departure board of the closest railway station in Germany. Departure board service is provided by Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), I only had to implement a search of the railway station closest to user's location. Plus a trivial redirection.
I have a few questions would really appreciate some advice.
First, in some cases people are not happy with the "closest" station as they prefer a different one. Some people said they'd like to select from 3-5-10 closest stations, some said they'd like to type in the station name. I can understand this, but from the other hand I really like this almost-zero-interaction interface. I'm not sure how to combine it.
Another point is that a website with automatic redirect is not easily bookmarkable. I was thinking about embedding the departure board in an iframe and leaving some space for controls, but I'm not quite sure.
Next, I'd like to monetize it just a little bit, just to make it self-supporting. The domain costs around 35$ a year, infrastructure would be also around 50-100$. Not huge and surely something a can afford. But I'm still interested how a project like this could be made self-supporting. Ads? But I have nowhere to place them, it's just a redirect.
I'd also be grateful for general feedback and suggestions.
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[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 12.1 ms ] threadI have a few questions would really appreciate some advice.
First, in some cases people are not happy with the "closest" station as they prefer a different one. Some people said they'd like to select from 3-5-10 closest stations, some said they'd like to type in the station name. I can understand this, but from the other hand I really like this almost-zero-interaction interface. I'm not sure how to combine it.
Another point is that a website with automatic redirect is not easily bookmarkable. I was thinking about embedding the departure board in an iframe and leaving some space for controls, but I'm not quite sure.
Next, I'd like to monetize it just a little bit, just to make it self-supporting. The domain costs around 35$ a year, infrastructure would be also around 50-100$. Not huge and surely something a can afford. But I'm still interested how a project like this could be made self-supporting. Ads? But I have nowhere to place them, it's just a redirect.
I'd also be grateful for general feedback and suggestions.