Try to be descriptive in your comments. When you started, what you've done, challenges you've faced, methods of earning revenue, we want to hear it all!
Sure. I started this in January, but put more time into it starting in February. It's a website that provides news about tech and entertainment. One of the more significant challenges I've faced is finding time to keep up with it, as I'm a full time college student and will soon start working a summer job as well.
Reoccurring income is pretty low, usually less than a dollar a day. All revenue comes via advertisements.
TheSquatRack.com - workout tracking, analysis, as well as ( macros, body measurements, workout-journals, data-export options, import options, etc.). Current features being deployed include workout routines that span weeks and months, with progressions and deloads of weights, macronutrients adjust up or down (you can have customizable targets like <=10g carbs or >= 1.5g/lb bw protein, etc), adding/removing sets or reps, etc. Also allowing you to schedule workout repetition patterns or meta routines, where you're routine responds to the data logged (use case: your FitBit logged less than 5 hrs of sleep, today's workout should be pushed back a day), and you automatically see that in your dashboard. Of course, all the routines are in a database anyone can review and rate. And since the workout schedule is known, it can log it for you, or just keep it scheduled. more info - https://thesquatrack.com/soon . I've taken it from idea to approaching-sustainable living income on my own. Started in August 2012 as a shits-n-giggles side project, got a bit more serious in October, did a lot from Jan-May, took a couple months off, started back up, decided to go all in, and quit my job at Intel doing preboot storage drivers. Now I'm getting a decent subscription rate considering private-beta (I'm sure that'll change once it's public), but I have no true idea how it's going to scale ... so that'll be fun.
The hard part has been managing burnout, stress, backlog stuff, and generally just everything ... there's so much non-programming stuff that goes into a business. Once I can get someone to manage all that stuff, it'll be interesting to see what I can do with all that extra time, haha. That and revenue/funding. I'm completely bootstrapped and solo on this, no cofounder, nothing ... what a pain in the ass, why can't someone just manage the business stuff and marketing stuff.
As far as revenue, I've gone with a subscription model. I tried to split the features so that as a free user, you have no ads and you can manually everything. Subscribers get power-user-esq tools like slice-n-dice analytics, soon the routines and auto-logging, etc. As far as managing the users, I just try to be honest and transparent with them, and actually take their feature requests into consideration. A lot of times it's userA wants feature ABC and userB wants XYZ, clearly not the same, but if you step back you realize the just want special-use cases of '123', see if there's a couple other cases for it, and build it if it fits with the direction of the site. Sometimes features take a long long time to get implemented, but I get to them because I have several more pre-reqs to do first, I just try to weave them into the pipeline as logically as I can because it'll be a different problem to solve and help the users so why not.
How's that for a response? Any questions or anything? I try to be open and honest about myself and TSR because I want to be proud of what I made, it's like digital legos.
My side project http://assembleyourpc.net/ (pc builder tool) is now generating around 200-300 USD per month from adsense and affiliate programs. I started this an year ago. I've made few improvements (added new features, improved UI etc) over the year (0-6 hours of work per month) and I'm going to add some new features this week, automate few backends works or so.
I run http://releas.io. It generates download cards for physical music releases (typically vinyl).
It yields around 400€ per month but I don't do any biz dev. I don't think it's a viable project (beyond a side-project) so I didn't try to make it full-time.
This is a very interesting idea. After the cost of stamps, paper, ink, etc., are you making ~1 dollar per letter sent? What inspired you to build the site?
I built the site because the only way to get what you want is by voicing that you want it. It's especially important presently due to an increasing disconnect between Congress and citizens. Our system of government functions best with a politically active population. Otherwise the will of the people is impossible to express and the laws become the will of the few.
I've mailed several letters to lawmakers and it's a tedious process, but ultimately necessary as letters actually stand out, while email blends into the noise. Removing the encumbrance of mailing the letter enables participation in government, something I believe in very strongly.
Have you thought about extending this to say city councils or mayor's office also.
There are tons of local small problems, which can be sorted out by city offices, only if they are pointed out in a positive manner, but people do not do so.
- For the Rep lookup, you should probably plug the user's address into a geocoder, and figure out who their rep is - I'll be the vast majority (maybe even 90% or more?) of voters aren't sure who their rep is. You should also remind them that they can and should write to both senators.
- Also, you might want to include a mad-lib style fill-in-the-blanks template on some major issues of the day, for those people who are extremely short on time, and even ask submitters if you can share their letters anonymously with others as a template. Even add popularity ratings for later users to easily get to the most popular letters.
My side project is mahasherpa.com.
A script turned into website I wrote to find myself a job after getting laid off back in november.
Have not made any money out of it yet
I run https://rrandomize.com (it ships random items to you). It's currently earning about $150 a month or so. Most of the money comes in through one-time payments, since I pocket the change after purchasing an item for the user. The idea is simple, so it didn't take much work coding at all. I'm still pretty new to web development so this was a chance to practice execution and security.
That's awesome, I was about to ask if it was inspired by the xkcd before reading your about page. How many people currently have the "adventurer" or "conquistador" plan? Can you provide examples of items you've bought in the past? Actually, you should probably put that info on your homepage.
Around 50 people have those plans right now. Some recent items that have been shipped are: a solar powered cockroach, bacon candy canes, and a pedometer. I was planning on building a live stream of items being ordered, but I'm waiting on more users to sign up before implementing that feature.
20 comments
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 58.8 ms ] threadReoccurring income is pretty low, usually less than a dollar a day. All revenue comes via advertisements.
The hard part has been managing burnout, stress, backlog stuff, and generally just everything ... there's so much non-programming stuff that goes into a business. Once I can get someone to manage all that stuff, it'll be interesting to see what I can do with all that extra time, haha. That and revenue/funding. I'm completely bootstrapped and solo on this, no cofounder, nothing ... what a pain in the ass, why can't someone just manage the business stuff and marketing stuff.
As far as revenue, I've gone with a subscription model. I tried to split the features so that as a free user, you have no ads and you can manually everything. Subscribers get power-user-esq tools like slice-n-dice analytics, soon the routines and auto-logging, etc. As far as managing the users, I just try to be honest and transparent with them, and actually take their feature requests into consideration. A lot of times it's userA wants feature ABC and userB wants XYZ, clearly not the same, but if you step back you realize the just want special-use cases of '123', see if there's a couple other cases for it, and build it if it fits with the direction of the site. Sometimes features take a long long time to get implemented, but I get to them because I have several more pre-reqs to do first, I just try to weave them into the pipeline as logically as I can because it'll be a different problem to solve and help the users so why not.
How's that for a response? Any questions or anything? I try to be open and honest about myself and TSR because I want to be proud of what I made, it's like digital legos.
I built the site because the only way to get what you want is by voicing that you want it. It's especially important presently due to an increasing disconnect between Congress and citizens. Our system of government functions best with a politically active population. Otherwise the will of the people is impossible to express and the laws become the will of the few.
I've mailed several letters to lawmakers and it's a tedious process, but ultimately necessary as letters actually stand out, while email blends into the noise. Removing the encumbrance of mailing the letter enables participation in government, something I believe in very strongly.
Have you thought about extending this to say city councils or mayor's office also.
There are tons of local small problems, which can be sorted out by city offices, only if they are pointed out in a positive manner, but people do not do so.
A few suggestions for you:
- For the Rep lookup, you should probably plug the user's address into a geocoder, and figure out who their rep is - I'll be the vast majority (maybe even 90% or more?) of voters aren't sure who their rep is. You should also remind them that they can and should write to both senators. - Also, you might want to include a mad-lib style fill-in-the-blanks template on some major issues of the day, for those people who are extremely short on time, and even ask submitters if you can share their letters anonymously with others as a template. Even add popularity ratings for later users to easily get to the most popular letters.
Again, great idea. Good luck with it!
for printing photos using text message and through DropBox.
We generate around $100-$200 every month..mostly through our DropBox application