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Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

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Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#221

Post by Mz »

devopsproject wrote: post #213
Mz wrote: post #202

I have had a bunch of little websites that didn't do much of anything. Some problems that have plagued my projects (especially health-related ones): 1) Credibility. I am getting well when the world says that cannot be done. Most people don't want to believe this at all. So I get called crazy, a charlatan, etc. 2) Inherent monetization challenges in the problem space. I am convinced that part of what is wrong with mod…

> I am getting well when the world says that cannot be done No one is saying this. The "Health and Wellness" industry is booming > I am convinced that part of what is wrong with modern medicine is that money gets made off of treatment, not off of positive health outcomes Crazy charlatans want treatment, preferably expensive and\or ongoing > I'm a woman ... I don't know how to do business ... I'm very eye catching I'd…

I am routinely told it cannot be done for my condition, the health of the "health and wellness" industry not withstanding.

And you are, ironically, proving my point that a lot of attention ends up on me, and not in a good way, rather than on my work.

My life is a case of "fact is stranger than fiction." I am confident that trying to lie about it in order to make it more palatable would only compound the problem. I am making progress, in spite of continued comments of this sort.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#222

Post by seltzered_ »

weaksauce wrote: post #216
seltzered_ wrote: post #121

Thimble for Mac ( https://thimblemac.com ) It's a plugin to bring gesture-shortcuts to graphic design tools (Sketch, Photoshop, etc.). I've worked on it in bursts of my spare time for a few years, and took a break from development the past several months. At some point I started calling it more of a 'passion project' because I just really wanted to see other forms of UI in the world outside of the sandboxes of gaming…

I could see that being pretty successful if you finish it. good luck!

Thanks! It's technically available as a beta, right now I send invites by hand to whoever signs up.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#223

Post by simonswords82 »

Without looking through the responses (yet) I can guarantee the vast majority of any failed projects here can be contributed to a lack of focus on sales and marketing.

For us techies (and I include myself in this although I do sales and marketing for a living, so I've beat it out of me) it is far too easy and safe to return to what we know...AKA the technology.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#224

Post by daveguy »

0xJRS wrote: post #176
sfennell wrote: post #12

I built a cash forecasting app ( http://www.money-stew.com ) that I use religiously to verify that I won't have any trouble paying my bills. I actually managed to get some traffic and ad revenue ($100 I continue to try and improve on it, but it rarely gets the bulk of my free time. Its been difficult for me to get _any_ feedback on it, so I bounce back and forth between feeling like its a worthwhile venture or its ju…

I'd maybe look at the UI of your website, it looks too boilerplate or wordpress-y. Maybe remove the pink and just make the content fill the rest of the page for a start. I like the premise but the website has a gut "cheap"feeling.

Second this. PLEASE get rid of the pink and just have content fill. That pink is nauseatingly bright and screams "leave now!"

Not as bad on mobile because it's so thin, but on a desktop with wide screen it is not ok.

I don't usually bikeshed on layout (not a graphic designer), but I am begging you please.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#225

Post by CamTin »

I built https://callmom.pro/ this year in anticipation of a Mother's day rush. The idea is that we'll call you and your mom once a week at a set day/time in such a way that your phones both ring and when you pick up, you're talking to each other.

The site is janky AF because I'm still in the neophyte stages of front-end/css. I do still think it's a good a idea, so I'm planning a revamp of the sales site in time for a big push at the holidays.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#226

Post by danielsg »

squiggy22 wrote: post #91
mars4rp wrote: post #54

I created https://CoWriteStory.com/ last year, it is a platform for people to cooperatively write stories. I was sending lots of private messages to r/WritingPrompts/ users, and got tons of positive feedback but reddit blocked my account and keep blocking my new accounts. it is a good product but like lots of developers I failed at marketing and attracting users!

Have you heard of http://nanowrimo.org Find out where these people hang out including hashtags etc. Huge community of starter writers.

I've been trying a similar approach. I developed an Electron app called First Novel App which is supposed to help writers silence their inner editors.

It's available free to download at http://www.firstnovelapp.com which redirects to a Gumroad store.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#227

Post by jesses »

lalo2302 wrote: post #220
jesses wrote: post #182

https://www.gigalixir.com is a platform-as-a-service for Elixir apps. It only just launched a few months ago, but so far hasn't generated a profit. I spent 6 months building it and still hope it may take off as Elixir gains in popularity.

This looks awesome. I found the pricing confusing tho, it is hard to estimate how much it will cost me.

Oh sorry about that. The free tier is obviously free, but once you need to scale up, you just pay for how much memory you need whether that's 1 big instance or many small instances.

This may help since it has some examples. http://gigalixir.readthedocs.io/en/latest/main.html#pricing-...

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#228

Post by arcatek »

BleachNut wrote: post #105
arcatek wrote: post #25

I built http://start9.io three years ago - the idea was to somehow manage to show video game publishers that a 'professional' vintage gaming platform was something that could attract users. I wanted it to be the Netflix of the retrogaming. Unfortunately, I never managed to find cofounders that were as much motivated as I was - each one I worked with was working on it as a hobby more than anything else, and I usually…

This is beautiful. What exactly is preventing you from monetizing through ads? Also, did you post the site on r/gaming and /v/?

There was three issues that prevented monetization:

- The userbase cannot grow enough without publisher, because the requirement of asking people to upload their rom is too much complex for most people.

- With no publisher by my side, I fear advertisers will not invest in a platform that is on the grey side of the legality (Start9 is legal, since we clearly state everywhere that only people uploading their own roms can use the service, but some might see this differently). Especially for the low amount of user (cf issue #1).

Everything comes down to publishers ...

The bitter part of this is that some people put together shitty implementations of this concept, but without any vision, any regard for the legality of the project, or even the future of the platform. They just make an html page with a flash emulator, add a bunch of porn and/or blackjack ads on the thing, and call it a day. They certainly bring more money than Start9, and they'll never get shut down by Nintendo ... go figure.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#229

Post by daveguy »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #29

http://lookwork.com is a "visual RSS reader," subscribe to RSS feeds minus the words. Sort of a mood/inspiration feed for artists and graphic designers. First launched free around 2012 I think. Then there was a relaunch where we tried to go subscriber-based. At the time, the only online payment options were Paypal (shudder) and Amazon (a mess to configure). The subscription model flopped, so we relaunched free again.…

I get a "sorry you can't use this page on mobile" ...

While connecting from up-to-date chrome on win10 desktop!! You are probably weeding out a good chunk of users for no reason.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#230

Post by arcatek »

wyldfire wrote: post #117
arcatek wrote: post #25

I built http://start9.io three years ago - the idea was to somehow manage to show video game publishers that a 'professional' vintage gaming platform was something that could attract users. I wanted it to be the Netflix of the retrogaming. Unfortunately, I never managed to find cofounders that were as much motivated as I was - each one I worked with was working on it as a hobby more than anything else, and I usually…

FYI, PICO-8 [1] is a similar commercial project AFAICT. Maybe you're right that there is a market there. [1] https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

I'm sure there is! Sega announced last month that it would be releasing its catalogue online[1], and let's not forget the success of the SNES Mini, released last year. I was just on the market too soon, and especially without any connection to the people that could make the dream come true (hence why we applied to Y Combinator - more than the money, the network would have helped us). Oh well. :(

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/21/15846752/sega-forever-net...

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