I think the practice of building sites on painfully short schedules is more common than anyone thinks, but nobody wants to brag about it because it just shows you're not enough ahead of the curve.
For instance, we spawned the idea for http://mostly365.com/ just 3 days before new years day. We got a design, promotion and all the code (including a twitter scanner, scraper for 15+ picture posting sites and basic CMS) done in time for the new year.
I'm absolutely convinced we're not the only ones doing stuff like this. We just want to pretend we had this all ready months in advance.
Good job, I'm impressed! I have a couple of questions regarding the business model though:
Charging $2, after PayPal have taken their fees you get ~$1.60. International shipping via USPS for a postcard over to here (UK) is $0.98. That means you have ~$0.60 to make the cards and make a profit - it isn't much. Would you mind sharing how much it costs you to have the cards printed?
This leads me onto my next question, you cards are unique right (a message and address on the back), so how do you get this past the printers? I understand most do bulk discounts, but isn't this for identical prints?
Turns out shipping with the slovenian post office is cheaper, only costs $0.61 internationally. And I might be able to arrange some sort of bulk discount eventually.
The printing is kind of cool, since it's digital you can do bulk discounts on large quantities of unique things.
Re: the can't afford advertising problem, you should be able to find a $100 adwords coupon fairly easily. Hopefully you can make enough from that to cover further advertising.
I don't think AdWords coupons are the end-all answer to advertising...
Adwords coupons are only for new accounts, and most people have already created AdWords accounts or linked their gmail account to AdWords.
Man, with this idea I would jump straight on the Sincerely Ship API... Unfortunately, it's for iOS only, but you could imagine it being available for web apps soon.
Agreed. I used Sincerely Ship Library for http://Picsicle.com and it was a great experience. They are great people to work with (YC alum founder) and the library just works. They are looking to add more functionality so I would recommend them.
When you create a postcard, do you have the option NOT to be featured on the home page? Because right now, the Magdaleins are showing off their baby to all site visitors, when perhaps they meant that postcard to only go to family and friends.
When you create a postcard, you aren't featured. The featuring only happens when you buy a postcard, which I guess means you're willing to send it out publicly etc. so it can't be that bad or too personal.
Sometimes I pick and choose cool cards for the frontpage regardless of being paid for.
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[ 7.6 ms ] story [ 1058 ms ] threadI think the practice of building sites on painfully short schedules is more common than anyone thinks, but nobody wants to brag about it because it just shows you're not enough ahead of the curve.
For instance, we spawned the idea for http://mostly365.com/ just 3 days before new years day. We got a design, promotion and all the code (including a twitter scanner, scraper for 15+ picture posting sites and basic CMS) done in time for the new year.
I'm absolutely convinced we're not the only ones doing stuff like this. We just want to pretend we had this all ready months in advance.
The more important point is this: * I launched a MVP * It made sales * I know it's worth investing more time
And I still think it's surprisingly rare not only for people to sell stuff online, but to even dare to try.
Charging $2, after PayPal have taken their fees you get ~$1.60. International shipping via USPS for a postcard over to here (UK) is $0.98. That means you have ~$0.60 to make the cards and make a profit - it isn't much. Would you mind sharing how much it costs you to have the cards printed?
This leads me onto my next question, you cards are unique right (a message and address on the back), so how do you get this past the printers? I understand most do bulk discounts, but isn't this for identical prints?
P.S. I also ordered a card :)
The printing is kind of cool, since it's digital you can do bulk discounts on large quantities of unique things.
No reason not to try, just don't expect AdWords to easily turn $100 into $200 or even $101.
Coverage: http://gigaom.com/2011/10/06/sincerely-postagram-api-develop...
Sometimes I pick and choose cool cards for the frontpage regardless of being paid for.