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Ask HN: Could a completely free web service without ads generate any revenue?

13 points by kiraken ↗ HN
I'm thinking of starting a web service that could offer tools for unemployed people to get jobs for free, as my own way to help the community. I was wandering if i could generate enough revenue with it to pay for the hosting, and since i hate ads and find them to be annoying i won't be using any (either ways most people use ads block). If the answer is no i'm still going to create the project. But it would be cool if the website could at least pay for itself

23 comments

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[dead] bob31
yes, please I'm homeless, I eat cockroach everyday please send me your email address so I know when it launch bobsadino@gmx.com Thank you very much!
pestaa
Accept donations. State your costs transparently. Contact a lawyer to get the paperwork done.
kiraken
The tools i'm offering are directed toward those without a job i really can't expect much and won't ask them to donate money they need for the website. I was hoping there is a service out there somewhere that would cover the expenses of community service directed web applications
mooktakim
You could ask them to donate money after they find a job, as a way to keep the service running for the next person.
greenjellybean
This is a good idea, it can provide "proof" that your service works as well as pay for it.

I would be more than happy to donate back if it truly helped me land a job.

kiraken
This is actually a pretty good idea man!
chadwilken
Can you get a government grant to cover some of the costs if it helps the unemployed?
kiraken
That would actually be pretty cool
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
z1mm32m4n
It's worth noting that Duolingo is an example of a free web service without ads that generates a profit. In their case, they've crowdsourced the process of translating actual web pages while teaching people new languages.

Depending on the nature of your site, perhaps you could take advantage of a similar crowdsourcing scenario?

kiraken
crowdsourcing is only valuable for a short period of time to my understanding. Excuse my ignorance to anything money related
mooktakim
Depending on what you build, you could get away with using free tier on a lot of hosting solutions, like Heroku.

In the past I've used Heroku for some charity websites, and they've been running well for years. If you do it well (caching etc), you could handle a lot of traffic with the free tier.

bejuizb123
I was actually wondering about something similar to this for a different venture (say something like Uber).

What we need to have is a constant source of income (through donations or other mechanisms). The expenditure will be of two types, Capex and Opex. Capex costs can be covered by the donations, as for Opex, the primary issue is of support and maintenance. For this, my thought was to use either something like MTurk for non-tech activities and something along the lines of open source software development for tech activities.

I think, the world may need such a kind of open model for businesses, a self-sustaining entity.

agiledevers
We were investigating this too. We found a very interesting way by using client resources. The JavaScript of the client making heavy operations for other people (ie computing proof of work for bitcoins or similar).
lovelearning
Not sure what type of content you have in mind, but you could insert relevant affiliate links in the content. Just because people are unemployed does not mean they don't buy educational books, educational courses, training books, motivational books, tools, electronics and many other things online.
kiraken
The website will have a bunch of tools such as a free CV creator with top tier graphic design, a job board, even a website creator for freelancers and such...
davelnewton
Focus particularly on things that aren't available elsewhere.

If you spread the functionality all over the place you won't get anything done.

kiraken
First i'm going to start with the resume creator, already have few designs ready and i'm gonna let the user choose the format he wishes to export the CV in (jpg, png, pdf...) If the application was successful, i'll start adding other tools each time. It might not be much but it's my own way of helping :) Also i was a UI designer before i became a web developer so you could expect the designs and quality to be top notch
lovelearning
Then, I think books on resume writing, preparing for interviews, writing cover letters, etc are relevant and users of your site would find them useful if included in an additional resources section.

As for whether affiliate links can bring in the money, search for 'affiliate' in this HN discussion [0]. It seems to me like they could easily pay for server costs.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629919

joeclark77
There is another side to your market -- the job board whose customers are not the unemployed but rather the companies who want to hire them. You could charge companies or recruitment agencies for "premium listings" while allowing them to post basic want ads for free.

The other way to profit, I suppose, is to use the knowledge and data gained from the app and leverage it into some kind of personal income. For example, maybe you run an employment agency of your own, and draw on the site's database for leads. The app continues to be free, and you are just cherry picking the best from it.

kowdermeister
Ask them to donate something (up to them) from their first salary if the manage to find a job through your platform.
mod
Their first paycheck is likely to be the most important to them, after being unemployed.