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Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

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Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#41

Post by soulchild37 »

kirubakaran wrote: post #39

I've been working on https://instantexporter.com/ I'm surprised by how much longer it actually took me to build the v1, compared to what I initially thought it will take (5+ months vs 1 month!). Also, I thought that I wouldn't fall for the common psychological pitfalls as I know about them well, but here we are.

Great idea! I have thought of this idea before previously but wasn't sure that if this is something user wants. I tried the demo, after pressing export to Google Sheets the window got blocked by pop-up blocker by Google Chrome by default.

Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#42

Post by kirubakaran »

soulchild37 wrote: post #41
kirubakaran wrote: post #39

I've been working on https://instantexporter.com/ I'm surprised by how much longer it actually took me to build the v1, compared to what I initially thought it will take (5+ months vs 1 month!). Also, I thought that I wouldn't fall for the common psychological pitfalls as I know about them well, but here we are.

Great idea! I have thought of this idea before previously but wasn't sure that if this is something user wants. I tried the demo, after pressing export to Google Sheets the window got blocked by pop-up blocker by Google Chrome by default.

Thanks, I'll see if there are ways around that behavior... perhaps by redirecting to do oauth, instead of the popup.

I'm also trying to find out if there is a real need for this :-)

Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#43

Post by jetti »

I started in 2015 and launched an early access in November of 2016. The product wasn't hard to make, per se, but I was stuck in analysis paralysis. Plus I went through a bout or two of depression which took away my time as well as I was writing a book which took even more time.

My biggest challenge was not picking something and just going with it. I picked what I knew (WinForms with C#) and went with it. I ended up throwing away the UI 4 or 5 times because I just couldn't get it right. It didn't look "good enough" it just looked horrible. After I launched I just thought my UI looked horrible so I started to re-do it (yet again) but this time in WPF. My UI looks so much better, I have added more functionality to the UI and it took much less time.

So far I have two big challenges, getting a paid customer as well as accurately tracking my metrics. I have, I think, 30+ downloads of the trial since I launched early access but I'm using events in Google Analytics to track and numbers I see don't always make sense. On top of that, my analytics don't seem to make much sense either as I'm getting majority of the traffic from direct but I'm not sure why that would be.

At the end of the day, I'm looking forward to 2017 as I will have a new updated release of my product, my book will be finished and I can devote more time to getting customers.

Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#44

Post by RepressedEmu »

I spent a few months working on a biz lead generator for web dev freelancers which still hasn't been released. Then I spent a couple months on a news summarizer called Kiwi which never got finished enough to be useful to anyone.

Eventually I got sick of spending weeks and months on things that were too big and serious to actually release and spent one week to get www.whispe.rs out into the public eye. It started as a paid Twilio wrapper for anonymous texting but has now morphed into a free web tool for anonymously texting goofy messages to friends and family for free.(For anyone who has ever wanted to anonymously text "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of Elderberries!" to an unwitting friend) I don't think it will ever make money or anything but it was fun building it, getting harsh feedback, and then rebuilding it. It has also already made a few people smile so I consider it a worthwhile use of my time :)

At some point I will start finishing bigger and bigger projects but for right now I'm happy with Whispe.rs.

Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#45

Post by gurkendoktor »

Mz wrote: post #31
gurkendoktor wrote: post #21

One of my perpetual problems with releasing software is that I hate writing for humans. Marketing blurbs, blogs, emails to the right people. It all sounds so easy when native speakers write or talk about it, but I'm so shy about this stuff that I'm never looking forward to finishing a project. Is there a low-cost service that will proof-read everything you do (not for grammar accuracy, but also tone)? The easiest fix…

Yes, there are low cost services that will write copy for you or rewrite your copy, such as Textbroker. You could also hire a freelancer independently. (I do this kind of work.)

Yay! Thanks. Bookmarking your post for after the holidays :)

Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#46

Post by ezekg »

alkhatib wrote: post #22
ezekg wrote: post #2

I haven't launched, so I hope this is okay. I'm 7/mo into developing a side project called https://keygen.sh , and am finally wrapping things up to launch a beta in early January. I have a few hundred people on my mailing list, so that's a plus. Challenges I've faced: - Getting carried away with automation: emails after certain events, marketing to users who don't convert, billing features; all of these are things I…

The website seems to have a bug on android. The first portion with a button loads then glitches and becomes all white.

Appreciate the report. Safari has the same issue for some reason, so I will check it out on an Android device as well. ty

Re: Ask HN: How long did it take to release your side project in 2016?

#47

Post by joss82 »

jasonkester wrote: post #19

I had the idea for the feature that would eventually turn into Unwaffle [1] back in July. It was initially just going to be an internal tool to track trial user actions for S3stat so that I could detect trends to predict who would convert on their own and who would need intervention. But it quickly became apparent how useful it would be as a product, so I built it that way from day one, with its own domain and API fo…

Awesome!

Could you elaborate a bit on the "minor promotion" part?

We are at the "fully functional" step and wondering how to approach the marketing part.

That'll make a great blog post, i guess we are not alone in that situation.

Many thanks.

We are http://www.parseur.com by the way.

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