Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

251–260 of 289 posts

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

#251

i made ~80$ in the first month after launching http://www.themescroller.com i had a lot of traffic coming from my show hn thread ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4354376 ) but since then i'm struggling to find new traffic sources...

I'd write a personal email to some writers at web design blogs. SmashingMagazine might be interested.

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

#252
post #211

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…

What drew me into your blog is that you started it when you weren't very successful. I don't remember the specifics but it seemed like you weren't all that confident and you were super conservative about how much you spent on your side project that has now become so much more. That makes for a much more interesting (and useful) read than a blog in which the author is apparently cut of a different cloth than normal hu…

I started reading patio11's blog from the start, and as far as I remember, he started blogging before the product was released. Right from the start!

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

#254
post #6

A couple of years ago I started a food blog with my mom (www.theyummylife.com). She does all the writing, and I do programming, design, and monetization. I spent a lot of time setting it up originally, but now it only takes a few hours each week of my time. Right now we're making $5000-6000/month after expenses, and I get 40% of that. My main business (a bootstrapped SaaS startup) generates more than that, but the pr…

What are you doing to generate a profit? Your e-book only sells for $0.99; I imagine you're not selling 6K+ books per month. I imagine the links on the sidebar are some sort of affiliate program, so you probably earn some money there.

Also, I'm curious about the platform your site is built on, the affiliate links are cool because they seem to all be related to the recipe; I'm curious how you handle the organization.

Thanks for the feedback.

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

#255
post #216

I make between $500 und $100 per month off my stand-alone cross-browser testing tool: http://www.browseemall.com The product was launched on february this year and it's growing nicely so far. Not real recurring yet, as every sale comes with one year of free updates.

Interesting. How many unique views a month does your site get now and what kind of conversion rates are you seeing? I am planning to launch a paid version of my app, http://www.pageblox.com and my potential customers are also developers/designers.

About 200 - 300 a day...

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

#256
post #150
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Here's one data point. I found the app through HN a while ago. I've since moved on to non-Virgin phones, but really appreciated your app. :)

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

#257

In august I made about $122,000 from display ads, mostly Adsense. 5-10% of that is spent on stuff like server space and freelance employees. I can imagine that this will not be taken seriously due to lack of details, but for anyone interested, I'm open to answering non-specific questions. Edit: I see 'from what' is also the question; I have a bunch of entertainment related sites.

where do you find good freelance employees? Do you have many writers under your wing?

Freelancer marketplaces. You'll find a good one for every 50 crappy ones.

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

#258
post #250

In august I made about $122,000 from display ads, mostly Adsense. 5-10% of that is spent on stuff like server space and freelance employees. I can imagine that this will not be taken seriously due to lack of details, but for anyone interested, I'm open to answering non-specific questions. Edit: I see 'from what' is also the question; I have a bunch of entertainment related sites.

Do you have a strategy of how you built up your network? I'm really curious about how you started, and how you'd pick the right idea to pursue.

Copycatted a concept, added my own twist. Got lucky and got into a great niche without much competition. Grew from there.

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

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The detail and personal experience make it feel more adventurous than a normal cookbook or recipe blog. I have a few questions: * Are you building on top of a blog platform, or is this mostly custom? (The BuiltWith page makes this site appear full of tech [1]). * What % of the revenue comes from Amazon referral links? * Are there other revenue sources? * Can you discuss your visitor distribution (first time vs. repea…

The blog is entirely custom. Several years ago I made my own blogging software just as a fun side-project, and I decided to use that code as the base for The Yummy Life. It sucks missing out on all the great WordPress plugins, but it's really nice having absolute control over the entire experience. I know you technically have control with WordPress, but it's much harder to edit someone else's code than your own (for…

Thanks for sharing!

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

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've never golfed before, but I'm a huge bowler. During league, we have a lot of side-bets going on between individuals. High game pots, high series, brackets, etc. Is golf league similar? In bowling, it's obviously very easy to keep track of the current score and standings throughout the night. Would a live scoring tool enable, or improve, this aspect of league?
Post reply on HN