Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by pc86 » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:06 PM UTC

stanislavb wrote: post #72

khuknows wrote: post #14

I run https://pageflows.com and have been living off it full time for a little over a year. The business makes a bit more than what I was earning a few years ago as a junior developer in London, so it's not a huge amount of money, but it's enough. It's a fairly boring business to run and not as predictable or sexy as some sort of micro saas, but it's I'm happy with how things have been so far. Happy to answer any que…

Nice one. It's on SaaSHub, you should verify it https://www.saashub.com/page-flows . Do you know who are your top competitors?

What benefit does verifying it provide to the business owner?

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

#222

Post by crispyporkbites » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:08 PM UTC

temp_throw wrote: post #106

I have a UK based e-business, I've turned over between £750,000 and now £950,000 over the past four years (ex VAT). (~76% net profit margin) Its just me, I'm a developer, which meant I could bootstrap the whole thing for zero cost (time not included) but I've always felt I knew I had what it takes to make a small business successful. Its an online service, we have a web site and apps in the app stores. I'd rather not…

Is this B2C or B2B?

Why is it a one off purchase instead of a subscription?

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

#223

Post by batesy » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:08 PM UTC

puranjay wrote: post #167

I worked with a client recently who ran a successful site comparing products in a very popular and lucrative industry. His affiliate income was in the high six figures annually. He runs the entire business by himself Personally, it might not be completely successful yet, but I started a music blog a while back (don't want to share the URL) just to test some SEO strategies. It's pulling in low four figures every month…

Really interested in hearing more about your music blog. I'm working on an online DJ education platform (pretty niche). DM me if you're up for connecting.

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

#224

Post by adrienjarthon » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

annamargot wrote: post #181

adrienjarthon wrote: post #146

I run https://updown.io since 2012, a website monitoring service I created. I'm working about 5-10 hours per week on it. It makes about $6,000 per month and is still growing linearly. I also keep a full-time job alongside for now as an engineering manager. The key for me is to take time, make something useful, delight your clients, and don't try to become uber or airbnb.

Awesome job. This type of service is critical for e-commerce businesses like mine. Just curious, I see you accept payment in crypto. What percentage of customers pay with crypto, and how has that changed since 2012?

Thanks Haha, less than 1% now that the trend is over, when I added it (2014) it was around 5%.

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

#225

Post by mtbcoder » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #185

t0ddbonzalez wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meeting other humans? Enjoying the work? A regular job with regular income looks good on paper if you want a bank to lend you money, for example. Maybe less likely to appear on tax authority's radar for undisclosed income if people know you as Joe the IT guy who leaves for work at the same time every morning?

Banks are looking for stability in your income. A regular salaried job counts as stability. But proven bank deposits over multiple years also counts. I wouldn't shy away from self-employment just because of banks. Source: I worked at a bank, and wrote algorithms for loan acceptance which evaluated such things.

> But proven bank deposits over multiple years also counts.

That's just one factor. Banks are looking to minimize risk and from the perspective of banks, self-employment increases risk. That's not to say banks won't loan to you, just that the hurdle is much higher for you to prove that you are not a risk. Chances are your interest rates will still suffer even when a bank decides to loan to you.

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

#226

Post by em-bee » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:11 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #174

puranjay wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a smart man. I wish I had done that.

Personally I would say the opposite. You should define yourself by outside interests rather than by what other people pay you to do.

if i didn't define myself by what allows me to make a living, then i would hate my work. now i am not defining myself only by paid work. but it is part of my identity. if it wasn't i wouldn't be able to do it.

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

#227

Post by mrskitch » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:12 PM UTC

I run a headless browser service called browserless.io. Got started due to lack of a comparable service, and all others seemed more geared for testing.

It’s been around two years now, and makes more than any prior engineering job I’ve ever had. You do have a lot of other stresses you might not otherwise have, but you’ll also work a lot less than at a traditional job!

I’m working on a few interviews for some sites, which go more into the details, and will post here when they’re done.

EDIT: feel free to comment here on anything or email me at joel at browserless dot io

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

#228

Post by fecak » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:12 PM UTC

I'm a resume writer that also provides career consultation and job search strategy sessions, LinkedIn and cover letter writing, executive bios, etc. I work from home, am able to set my own schedule and spend time with my kids, and do quite well financially with very little overhead.

I've worked with a number of HN readers over the years.

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

#229

Post by Insanity » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC

phito wrote: post #38

sellingwebsite wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you mind sharing the URL for your business ? I love discovering indie businesses outside of software realm

of course, it is https://phito.be/

I see your Belgian as well. How's the tax situation for something like this? Not giving you too much trouble?

EDIT: This also explains why you say "6 month winter" :D

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

#230

Post by yccheok » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:15 PM UTC

WA wrote: post #47

I have a consumer app with a subscription model. I'm a single developer with no employees. I work between 10-30 hours per week. Last year, my EBIT was close to 300,000€. This year, it's going to be around 370,000€ (and since I live in Germany, my income is in the top 0,5% or so). In the first year, my EBIT was merely 30,000€. It's been going up steadily since then and my product has been around quite a while. Please…

Thank you for sharing your success. I hope I can learn one or thing from your sharing.

Currently, I'm selling a consumer productivity app (Android only) in Google Play store.

The characteristics of this category are large consumer demand, and low barrier to entry. Because of this, there are a lot of players in this category.

My pricing model is pretty simple - $20 one time payment to unlock everything. I know I can earn significant more by having subscription / in-app advertising. Since I can make a living with current income, I will leave it that way. I want to sacrifice short-term good profit, in exchange for long term growth.

Initially, I get the first 10k users, by promoting the app, via forum self-post. Later, we notice this is not something scale-able. As, you can only get that much of users from forums.

Right now, I have around 500k users. That mostly attributes to Google Play store organic/search traffic. Because of this, I spend a lot of time in optimizing Google Play store page listing - provide proper localization on product description, performing A/B testing on different product screenshots.

However, that is pretty much risky. What if Google stops sending traffic to my Google Play store page?

I spend some advertising dollar each day in Google Ads, with the hope able to keep our app ranking afloat.

Do you have any suggestion, how I can have a better marketing strategy?

From your post, I will start by purchasing

- "Rework" by Basecamp

- "This is Marketing" from Seth Godin

I also like your suggestion "Write articles that teach people something". Do you have suggestion which publishing platform I should use? Since I don't have a good writing skill, should I hire a freelancer to help me do so? How can I get an idea what to write about?

Thank you, and BIG congratulation on your achievement.