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Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

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Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#441

Post by bmalicoat »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #357
bmalicoat wrote: post #331

I'm slowly building some success in Android and iOS games (most revenue comes from iOS!). I've got a paid game that is a yahtzee-inspired poker game with just a touch of cosmic horror [1] and a free-to-play word game [2]. I've been fortunate to get some featuring by Apple which has driven most of my sales. I'm hopeful the daily word game, Well Word, will start to take off because it's the best game I've made and I'm…

What do you see as your best routes to monetization on the Apple v. Android and how FTP differs on each platform? Also, what routes of promotion have you been taking to build a customer base? Sorry to ask so many questions, but as a maker of personal projects which are games, I'm curious about the promotion and monetization of mobile games =)

I haven't yet tried an ad-supported game (with an IAP to remove ads), but I think those perform the best overall. Personally I'm opposed to ads for a number of reasons (privacy, bandwidth usage, ad quality), so I'm not sure I'll ever try one of those.

I was lucky to get my first game, Downwordly, as Game of the Day on iOS. This plus other sustained featuring (Essential Word Games) led to 50k+ downloads. Unfortunately I did a bad job with the IAP value proposition (both explaining it and what it actually is), so the conversion rate is abysmal (Well Word is currently featured under Best New Games and is getting decent download numbers in the mid 100s and has a great conversion rate of ~15%. I'm hopeful that it can continue to spread through word of mouth and the built-in score sharing.

I have made next to nothing on Android. I've never (that I know of) had any featuring and the Play Store doesn't have as many editorial pushes in my experience. To be honest, the download count and revenue from Android is such that I only release games there because it takes less than an hour or so (thanks Unity) and my brother uses Android.

I'm currently working on an expanded version of Pine Tar Poker for console + Steam so I'm interested to see what I can learn in that space! Let me know if you have any other questions. I hope hearing about my experience so far was helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#442

Post by dave333 »

duck wrote: post #253

I started Hacker Newsletter [1] almost 14 years ago and sent out the 647th issue today [2] to 58k folks. It took over a year to break 1k subscribers and a few more years to get to that type of revenue. I could do a lot more with it and plan to one day, but really only focus on it a couple hours each week when I build the issue and talk to sponsors. 1: https://hackernewsletter.com 2: https://mailchi.mp/hackernewslette…

Hmmm... all the stories on the 647 sample issue are ones I had already read here on HN. So you are just curating the HN feed?

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#443

Post by pcthrowaway »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #418

Threads like this one always baffle me. You have to think of the competitive landscape like a jungle. All of the creatures in the jungle are looking for food, and some have far more competitive advantages than you. If you find a food source that no one else has happened to stumble upon, would you scream out that you've found it? No. If someone is asking you, it's because they want to know how they can get what you ha…

I suspect a lot of people here are going to get business from other people discovering their products also

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#444

Post by zorrolovsky »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #418

Threads like this one always baffle me. You have to think of the competitive landscape like a jungle. All of the creatures in the jungle are looking for food, and some have far more competitive advantages than you. If you find a food source that no one else has happened to stumble upon, would you scream out that you've found it? No. If someone is asking you, it's because they want to know how they can get what you ha…

"Thread like this" are popular and entertaining for a variety of reasons. You assume that they're only about making money, stealing someone else's ideas, etc. but that's not necessarily the case. To me, the interesting bit of these threads is to understand the human thought process behind a successful idea: ie was the founder happy with life or in a bad place, working full time or freelancing, was it an impulsive thought or something carefully planned...

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#445

Post by Gunnerhead »

nghiatran_uit wrote: post #48

If you have iOS/Android development experience, you can look at the Developer sector, which is relatively niche IMO. I've developed the iOS/iPadOS app, Proxyman for iOS [0], which gains steadily ~2k recurring revenue every month. Basically, it's an iOS app that helps you to capture and decrypt HTTP/HTTPS traffic on your phone. The app is needed if you need to inspect traffic from your app. Because it's an iOS app, pu…

What tool do you use to create the screenshots with the text in the App Store? I always struggle with that.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#446

Post by thekevan »

rubymamis wrote: post #128
mkl wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you plan to add syncing of notes between devices?

The main goal is to support working with arbitrary folder (currently, we store notes in a local databse), so it will be easier to sync using your existing cloud provider (eg, Dropbox, etc..) But maybe in the future will create our own paid syncing service, is that something you'll want?

Earlier today I was looking for an Evernote replacement. Basically the ability to get my notes or info from any device is a core need for any note taking program in my opinion. (I mean you write things down in a paper note book to have with you when you need then, right? You don't just leave the note pad on a shelf.)

I wouldn't be keen to pay a monthly storage fee but I would pay a one time fee to unlock the ability to connect the data to my own storage like Dropbox, Mega, Google drive, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#447

Post by acjacobson »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #162
agotterer wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I “think” I understand what you’re trying to get at. But it’s an unfortunate and limited perspective. Sure, New York isnt Thailand and the restaurant didn’t source their ingredients from a Bangkok market at 4am that morning. But that doesn’t mean the chef didn’t cook, study, or live in the region previously. So does that mean the only thing that makes a dish authentic is its local ingredients and there’s no credit gi…

While I disagree with the above poster's attitude, I agree with the point about food tasting different depending on where you are. Perhaps you can get relatively authentic Indian food (ignoring the variations in Indian cuisine for a second) in the U.S. and Canada, compared to India (I've traveled India for comparison). Because there are tons of import markets in both countries to get all the same ingredients. But Ind…

This is often intentional as it's a way of bridging a foreign cuisine to the local palate - which feta certainly would do. I don't personally like it but I think that's why it sometimes happens. It's not very difficult to make paneer so anyone that is serious about replicating proper Indian flavors could do it.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#448

Post by hiisukun »

FloatArtifact wrote: post #164
darthcloud wrote: post #34

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I made a gross income of around 3K a month last year out of Royalties on the soft for each device sold. It's Apache 2.0 software so people can do whatever they want. I started making money when I decided to list on the GitHub README the list of manufacturers/makers that where sponsoring the project. (Only one per…

What controllers you would recommend for retro games with a great d-pad and buttons? I can't find anything that's even remotely close to native controllers especially for Super NES.

I recommend the PS5 controller! They're very available (unlike the console), come in a few colours, and are regularly on sale -- about $90AUD in my currency.

They're rugged, reliable, pair easily via bluetooth without any custom software required (just hold the PS button and menu button together), and have excellent button feel. I grew up on the super Nintendo so I'm picky at times.

Battery life is excellent, reported over Bluetooth (so linux and macos can see it), and the controller central pad acts as a mouse which makes navigating menus great without needing to put the controller down. They go to sleep automatically if you close the lid on a laptop they're paired to, and you can change the LED colour and brightness on the controller.

I've had and used one for quite a while now, and in that time two of my friends have purchased one to replace various alternatives (8bitdo, & another one I can't remember) for either reliability, pairing issues, or both.

To top off this review: I've never owned a PlayStation!

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#449

Post by konha »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #445
nghiatran_uit wrote: post #48

If you have iOS/Android development experience, you can look at the Developer sector, which is relatively niche IMO. I've developed the iOS/iPadOS app, Proxyman for iOS [0], which gains steadily ~2k recurring revenue every month. Basically, it's an iOS app that helps you to capture and decrypt HTTP/HTTPS traffic on your phone. The app is needed if you need to inspect traffic from your app. Because it's an iOS app, pu…

What tool do you use to create the screenshots with the text in the App Store? I always struggle with that.

Not OP, but have a look at [0]. It’s not great, but good enough. I regularly use it for App Store screenshots with captions and text.

[0] https://theapplaunchpad.com/

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#450

Post by acjacobson »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #445
nghiatran_uit wrote: post #48

If you have iOS/Android development experience, you can look at the Developer sector, which is relatively niche IMO. I've developed the iOS/iPadOS app, Proxyman for iOS [0], which gains steadily ~2k recurring revenue every month. Basically, it's an iOS app that helps you to capture and decrypt HTTP/HTTPS traffic on your phone. The app is needed if you need to inspect traffic from your app. Because it's an iOS app, pu…

What tool do you use to create the screenshots with the text in the App Store? I always struggle with that.

Not OP, but I use Figma to do this. There are lots of templates in the community, or you can make your own pretty easily.

If you don't want to do it as manually there are paid tools that will help. Google "app store screenshot maker" for options.

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