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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?

#211

Post by nocman »

Lambdanaut wrote: post #149
jmnicolas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been several years now that I'd like to launch a few side projects. But contrary to the crowd here I'm just a normal human : when I come home I'm just exhausted and / or want to do something else than coding. I could use the extra cash though. This month I even tried placing bets on soccer and tennis and failed miserably.

If they're not normal humans, it's only because they have more willpower than you. That's the best news ever, because it's been proven in studies time and time again that willpower can be built up just like muscles through exercise. Conquer your will, and you'll be able to use it to build what you want. Start with meditation if you're not doing it already. Regular physical exercise and meditation are excellent ways t…

I agree that some people just have very little ambition and determination. However, I think the statement "If they're not normal humans, it's only because they have more willpower than you." is way too overgeneralized given the limited information you have regarding jmnicolas' life (unless you know more than can be gleaned from his post here).

There are any number of completely valid reasons why a person would be too exhausted to work on a side project after work hours. People do have limitations. Some people have very difficult lives. People do burn out -- and everything does not boil down to having the willpower or not. I'm not saying willpower is irrelevant -- it is relevant. It just isn't the only variable in the equation.

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

#212

Post by obeone »

dangrossman wrote: post #66

$30K per month from https://www.improvely.com A few thousand per month from https://www.w3counter.com

I notice you have the 4-tier (299/149/79/29) pricing system. I'm curious what percentage of your revenue comes from each tier.

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

#213

Post by Lambdanaut »

icebraining wrote: post #191
Lambdanaut wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they're not normal humans, it's only because they have more willpower than you. That's the best news ever, because it's been proven in studies time and time again that willpower can be built up just like muscles through exercise. Conquer your will, and you'll be able to use it to build what you want. Start with meditation if you're not doing it already. Regular physical exercise and meditation are excellent ways t…

How do you get the willpower to start meditating and doing regular exercise? :P

I'll answer you as if you were serious, haha.

For me, it was a serious medical issue that was partly psychosomatic. Exercise and meditation were just parts of the recovery, and afterwards they stuck around as valuable tools.

For others? I recommend you stare death in the face and use that as motivation. One day you will be dead. Accept that. Then decide whether you want to idle through life letting your mind control you and drive you to do whatever is easiest and most comfortable for it because evolution taught it to seek comforts out, or if you want to accomplish your dreams.

If you want to accomplish your dreams, and know you don't have the willpower, the first obvious step is to build that willpower.

Every day you falter, stare death in the face again and get back to daily meditation and exercise until you've got the willpower to take on your dreams.

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

#215

Post by dangrossman »

obeone wrote: post #212
dangrossman wrote: post #66

$30K per month from https://www.improvely.com A few thousand per month from https://www.w3counter.com

I notice you have the 4-tier (299/149/79/29) pricing system. I'm curious what percentage of your revenue comes from each tier.

It's actually "$299+" which links to a page with even larger plans (299/599/899). I also do custom pricing when that makes sense. There are customers at every price point. Nearly everyone starts at $29/month but as their business grows with Improvely's help, they grow into larger plans as time goes on. That keeps our interests aligned, and also keeps the average customer LTV growing every month without changing prices or upselling other services.

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

#216

Post by ghobbins »

plehoux wrote: post #75

Conferencebadge.com(+Leanticket.com) started in January 2013, generates ~$36k / month and growing. Interesting to note we were reject after interviewing in SF for YC S2013. We are a team of four working on this. Mostly part time, customer support, fulfilment with partners. The money from this enables us to focus most of our time on a newly not announced projet, which we plan to launch in spring 2015. We plan to apply…

Really neat idea and well designed. Excited for the upcoming project. Where can we sign up for updates?

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

#217

Post by SandB0x »

heliodor wrote: post #107

One day, I saw opportunity. I called in sick from work the next day (because I just couldn't wait for the weekend!) and hacked out an Android app. Net result after several years: $50,000 in revenue. The way it happened is that I was already working on my Iridium Flares app, when one day I saw a certain new app launched. I knew I could do it better and I already had some useful code from another project, so I called i…

Call me old fashioned, but I'm not sure it's a great idea to advertise the fact that you wrote your app on company time.

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

#218

Post by psobot »

joeframbach wrote: post #193
psobot wrote: post #38

On average, $400/month from https://the.wubmachine.com , an online music remixing app. Split pretty much evenly between Google AdSense and Android/iOS In-App Purchases for the Android/iOS native clients.

That's pretty neat. Although it took me a while to think of a good song to use. If you have insights on "popular tracks" or "recently used tracks", how about a quickstart link on the wubmachine? That would be handy.

I might be able to do that for popular tracks fetched from SoundCloud, but I take special care not to keep any of the data people upload to the site due to copyright worries.

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

#219

Post by goshx »

munimkazia wrote: post #186
goshx wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand... it is doable, but still not legal :) We should not have to come up with "creative ways" to do something simple like ads on side projects (be it a blog or a free app).

I have been looking at your replies at this thread, and I think you are confusing legality with ethics (at least in the nature of the law and visa regulations). I am sure it is perfectly legal to work on something for your brother, while he earns the money off the product/app/website.

The point I am trying to get across is that such restrictions kill (or seriously hurt) any attempt of innovation coming from people on H1B visas. There are a number of ways to try to circumvent the laws, but the risks associated with them make it not worth the attempt.

I would not risk my status here or the possibility of owning a green card for a side project that makes me a couple hundred dollars a month. It is not worth it.

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

#220

Post by ams6110 »

graeme wrote: post #117
tjbiddle wrote: post #53

Just wanted to add a note: Most people who aren't making anything won't be posting, so results will be drastically skewed. So for anyone here getting discourage because they think their a minority - think otherwise (And then get back to work on trying to get your own setup ;))

The flip side is that a lot of people with highly successful recurring revenue streams don't post at all, because it would invite competition into their niche.

It's almost a certainty that every idea for a website or app that is highly successful at generating recurring revenue already has multiple competitors. A lot of recurring revenue tends to mean a lot of users which tends to mean it's not a secret.
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