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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#111

Post by agopaul »

dharma1 wrote: post #53
superasn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this guy is truly an inspiration. If you're a one person business, you will find this tweet very useful: https://mobile.twitter.com/levelsio/status/93870716650815488... (aka stop running after shiny new things and just do it!)

I think that's right. But there's a limit to what kind of business you can create with a single php file in 2018, and typically those spaces are pretty competitive. Pieter's approach of what lead him to land on Nomadlist is I think where the value is - scratch your own itch, and do a lot of business experiments - don't spend more than a month or two on a business idea if it hasn't gained traction, move to the next on…

And also, the main takeaway from his story (like so many other similar stories) is: build a community.

Really, his projects are interesting and all but "just ship it" is not enough, it has never been.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#112

Post by jgh »

joelrunyon wrote: post #103
_xzxj wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense but Pieter Levels seems like a bit of a bastard, and you can see it in that thread. I don't pay much attention to him, but when I do come across his social media posts they're pretty off-putting. He's pretty successful yes, but €50k/mo is not exactly f-you money.

So he's a 1) bastard 2) off-putting and 3) not as successful as you want him to be. C'mon dude. At least be consistent with your line of reasoning.

Yes I was wrong in that comment. I re-read the twitter thread and apologized for it in a different reply chain to Pieter.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#113

Post by jasim »

acabal wrote: post #104

I run Scribophile, one of the largest writing communities online, as a one-person business, though I have a ton of help from our volunteer forums moderators. The story is pretty unimpressive... I had the idea back in the days when web 2.0 was the new hotness, so I decided to make it happen and use it as an excuse to learn web 2.0 technologies. It was a freemium model from day 1, though I didn't expect many people to…

So you're the wonderful person who started standardebooks. Many thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#115

Post by cperciva »

Tarsnap. I have an employee now, but I ran the company myself for the first ten years and from ~2011 onwards Tarsnap has been the vast majority of my income.

I got started by... well, sitting down and scratching my itch. I wanted good backups, and it turned out that other people wanted them too.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#116

Post by WalterGR »

anonyx69 wrote: post #92
WalterGR wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small amount of Google AdSense ( https://sortable.com/ . Switching from only-AdSense to almost-entirely-Sortable is what made me able to afford to live off the site's revenue: my earnings doubled overnight.

I suggest you look into Header Bidding, you're leaving tons of cash on the table by going all in on just one demand partner.

Sortable does header bidding.

What are your recommendations for other firms?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#118

Post by sixQuarks »

filipm wrote: post #13

Here's a couple of links you might like, although not all of them are exactly what you're looking for: - https://www.indiehackers.com/ (of course) - https://www.starterstory.com/ - https://www.authorityhacker.com/undercover/ - https://failory.com/ - Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? (Jan 5, 2017): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13326535 (thanks @jbonniwell) - Ask HN: Successful one-person online…

I would say that these sites chronicle just the tip of the iceberg. I run a successful solo online business and would never agree to be profiled as I don't want to invite competition.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#119

Post by gkya »

_xzxj wrote: post #39
superasn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this guy is truly an inspiration. If you're a one person business, you will find this tweet very useful: https://mobile.twitter.com/levelsio/status/93870716650815488... (aka stop running after shiny new things and just do it!)

No offense but Pieter Levels seems like a bit of a bastard, and you can see it in that thread. I don't pay much attention to him, but when I do come across his social media posts they're pretty off-putting. He's pretty successful yes, but €50k/mo is not exactly f-you money.

Frankly all the messages he has to put up with are plain stupid, so if he's being a bit of a bastard, rightly so. I just found about his websites, bookmarked nomadlist.com already. It's funny, to say the least, how people exaggerate taking some data from a database and spitting it out as HTML. The important bit here is the data and the presentation, nothing else.

WRT $50k/mo, for any sane person that's two times more-than-enough. If I could stably do $5k/mo from an app or website I'd be happy.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#120

Post by overcast »

sixQuarks wrote: post #118
filipm wrote: post #13

Here's a couple of links you might like, although not all of them are exactly what you're looking for: - https://www.indiehackers.com/ (of course) - https://www.starterstory.com/ - https://www.authorityhacker.com/undercover/ - https://failory.com/ - Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? (Jan 5, 2017): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13326535 (thanks @jbonniwell) - Ask HN: Successful one-person online…

I would say that these sites chronicle just the tip of the iceberg. I run a successful solo online business and would never agree to be profiled as I don't want to invite competition.

In my opinion, those site are just advertising for your business.
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