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Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

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Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#141

Post by bpatrianakos »

patio11 wrote: post #128
cmaxwell wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

patio11 is a god...can't imagine his consulting offerings will fail.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I would appreciate it even more if you that that I was impressive for shipping stuff and gradually doing process tweaks targeted at things that actually matter. People jump directly from "X is a god" to "I am mortal, and therefore, cannot be like X." Pretty much all HNers capable of shipping product are equally capable of doing the sort of things I do to tweak those products' success…

I jump from "X is a god" to "I suck and therefore cannot be like X". Thank you, X for publicly stating this line of thinking is wrong. It's funny because I'm literally taking a 5 minute break from a project that's taking me down that line of thought so maybe the fact that I headed here to read this comment at just this moment does make you a god. Or maybe I just read the right thing at the right time haha.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#142

Post by memset »

Zaheer wrote: post #140
memset wrote: post #4

I wrote a simple android app which lets Virgin Mobile customers see how many minutes they have left on their account. [1] It is open-source [2], and I have optional ads. (I created the app without ads, and then added them in a later update with a note saying "hey, these ads are an experiment. You can disable them in the app's settings if you want, but otherwise, enjoy it!" This generates between $60-$90 per month, de…

Curious what ad network you use? I just created an Android app and experimenting with a few.

I use AdMob - nothing fancy. There are other ad providers who send me spam emails about their services, but they seem really awful (they install their own apks to do more invasive interstitials, widget icons, etc.)

They have a feature called AdWhirl, which automatically displays ads from different providers depending on who will pay you the most at a given time. I have not tried this. If you do, let me know how it goes!

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#143

Post by the_bear »

conesus wrote: post #106
the_bear wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Yes, she takes all the pictures herself. It's incredibly time consuming, but pictures are such an important part of any food blog that it's definitely worth it. One of her friends is a professional photographer and gave her some pointers when she first started which helped a lot. Even still, if you look at her older posts, you can tell that the photos weren't nearly as good back then as they are now. Practice…

Hey the_bear, I really like The Yummy Life. Just wanted to let you know I added it as a default subscription to the NewsBlur iPad app. This just means that if new users subscribe to the Food category, they'll get TYL. There's only 8 categories, so I'm sure this will net some new readers.

Wow, that's awesome! My mom's going to be thrilled. I don't have an iPad, but you just got a new web user. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#144

Post by badhairday »

memset wrote: post #4

I wrote a simple android app which lets Virgin Mobile customers see how many minutes they have left on their account. [1] It is open-source [2], and I have optional ads. (I created the app without ads, and then added them in a later update with a note saying "hey, these ads are an experiment. You can disable them in the app's settings if you want, but otherwise, enjoy it!" This generates between $60-$90 per month, de…

"Difficult documentation, impossible for me to figure out how to do anything gui-related."

Why is this? Do you have much experience programming in Java? The Android Developer [1] website is a fantastic resource for learning about both the design and development standards on the platform. The User Interface Guide [2] is particularly exceptional at explaining how to implement different UI components on a technical level.

[1] http://developer.android.com/ [2] http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/overview.html

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#145

Post by Zaheer »

memset wrote: post #142
Zaheer wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious what ad network you use? I just created an Android app and experimenting with a few.

I use AdMob - nothing fancy. There are other ad providers who send me spam emails about their services, but they seem really awful (they install their own apks to do more invasive interstitials, widget icons, etc.) They have a feature called AdWhirl, which automatically displays ads from different providers depending on who will pay you the most at a given time. I have not tried this. If you do, let me know how it go…

Thanks, I use AdMob as well right now. I tried using it as a meditation layer and including MobFox but I was getting horrible results with MobFox so recently dropped it. One of the challenges I'm having finding networks is finding one that doesn't require location/phone state permissions. I added it one time and a lot of users got pissed off :O. Will let you know if I come across anything better!

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#146

Post by Zaheer »

memset wrote: post #142
Zaheer wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious what ad network you use? I just created an Android app and experimenting with a few.

I use AdMob - nothing fancy. There are other ad providers who send me spam emails about their services, but they seem really awful (they install their own apks to do more invasive interstitials, widget icons, etc.) They have a feature called AdWhirl, which automatically displays ads from different providers depending on who will pay you the most at a given time. I have not tried this. If you do, let me know how it go…

One other question if you don't mind: How did you initially market the app/gain traction? Right now I've been just reaching out directly to Instagram users (my app is for them www.TagsForLikes.com) and that has worked alright but wondering if you have any other methods.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#147

Post by nwilkens »

cmaxwell wrote: post #129
patio11 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I would appreciate it even more if you that that I was impressive for shipping stuff and gradually doing process tweaks targeted at things that actually matter. People jump directly from "X is a god" to "I am mortal, and therefore, cannot be like X." Pretty much all HNers capable of shipping product are equally capable of doing the sort of things I do to tweak those products' success…

Now that I have your attention.. my site: http://www.golfingstat.com Should I quit it (brokeback style), spend some time making it mobile + setting a annual fee and trying to find the magic adwords amount to grow my userbase without losing money or keep on keeping on (trying to make some ad revenue with my current userbase of 150ish)

As an avid golfer, the only golf tools I have paid for are: League scoring systems & Callaway uPRO GPS for course downloads.

A few thoughts..

Have a free individual version (many of which are league members), and give them an incentive to switch their league to this platform.

A mobile scoring system integrated into league play allowing you to see realtime scores against your competitors may be compelling.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#148

Post by memset »

badhairday wrote: post #144
memset wrote: post #4

I wrote a simple android app which lets Virgin Mobile customers see how many minutes they have left on their account. [1] It is open-source [2], and I have optional ads. (I created the app without ads, and then added them in a later update with a note saying "hey, these ads are an experiment. You can disable them in the app's settings if you want, but otherwise, enjoy it!" This generates between $60-$90 per month, de…

"Difficult documentation, impossible for me to figure out how to do anything gui-related." Why is this? Do you have much experience programming in Java? The Android Developer [1] website is a fantastic resource for learning about both the design and development standards on the platform. The User Interface Guide [2] is particularly exceptional at explaining how to implement different UI components on a technical leve…

Haha, fair question.

I'm really really proficient in Java. I used to teach it in school, I've done it professionally, etc. So I had no trouble at all writing the actual "guts" of the app, or even the android-specific APIs. And while I'm not great at swing/awt, I can make it work if I need to.

But it really breaks down when I get to the Android gui+os-specific things. I find myself having to memorize (and reference, and re-reference) words like Activity, Intent, Bundle, View, etc. You have many kinds of menus and dialogs - options menus, preferences menus, etc.

Of course, all of the information is there, and perhaps it's worth reading all of it, one page at a time, in order become a proficient android programmer. But it's so specific to that one platform, and has has such a new set of vocabulary which isn't common anywhere else in computing, that I personally have found it really difficult.

It looks like the documentation has gotten much, much better over the past couple of years, so maybe you've inspired me to give it a fair shake. But I really wanted to "jump in and build" and that has a much larger learning curve than I would have liked.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#149

Post by memset »

Zaheer wrote: post #145
memset wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use AdMob - nothing fancy. There are other ad providers who send me spam emails about their services, but they seem really awful (they install their own apks to do more invasive interstitials, widget icons, etc.) They have a feature called AdWhirl, which automatically displays ads from different providers depending on who will pay you the most at a given time. I have not tried this. If you do, let me know how it go…

Thanks, I use AdMob as well right now. I tried using it as a meditation layer and including MobFox but I was getting horrible results with MobFox so recently dropped it. One of the challenges I'm having finding networks is finding one that doesn't require location/phone state permissions. I added it one time and a lot of users got pissed off :O. Will let you know if I come across anything better!

I know that it takes time for each ad network to warm up to your app, as it gets a sense of how much traffic, and what kind of traffic you have. Possibly swapping out different ad platforms exacerbates this problem, or makes it take longer for the network to reach its peak. What if you updated your app to switch to another network 100% of the time? (Or used the mediation layer to do this?)

I have no idea what I'm talking about. But there's a lot of interesting tests to run.

Also - and the AdMob guys told me the same thing when I talked to them at google io - my app only has about 30k active users. This is hardly enough (because click-through rates are so low) to be able to find meaningful trends and test them, because the data is so inconsistent and I'm probably not getting high-quality expensive ads anyway.

If any of the above is wrong, then let me know! I'd love know how this stuff actually works, especially as it applies to small-potatoes devs like me.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#150

Post by memset »

Zaheer wrote: post #146
memset wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use AdMob - nothing fancy. There are other ad providers who send me spam emails about their services, but they seem really awful (they install their own apks to do more invasive interstitials, widget icons, etc.) They have a feature called AdWhirl, which automatically displays ads from different providers depending on who will pay you the most at a given time. I have not tried this. If you do, let me know how it go…

One other question if you don't mind: How did you initially market the app/gain traction? Right now I've been just reaching out directly to Instagram users (my app is for them www.TagsForLikes.com) and that has worked alright but wondering if you have any other methods.

Yeah, this was about as organic as it possibly could've been.

I bought an el-cheapo Android phone from Virgin Mobile and was annoyed that I couldn't check to see how many minutes I have left. I searched on the internet, and others had the same problem, and would post about it (eg, howardforums.com)

So I wrote the app and then posted to those message boards: "Hey, check this out, I created a free app. It's crappy but it works."

(This inspired me to hunt down that forum post. Here: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1686978-Intercept...)

It started catching on from there, and it also shows up when you type "virgin mobile" into the android market store.

So besides plugging it on the internet (a few forums, on HN, telling friends) I haven't done that much.

I recently moved to Manhattan, and was in a radio shack buying a top-up card. I was chatting with the cashier, who was also a VM customer, and asked her if she'd ever used my app. I showed it to her, she liked it, and said she would recommend that all of her customers download that app when they buy VM phones. I have no way to know how many sales that generated, but it was a cool feeling!

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