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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?

#81

Post by Jack000 »

wusatiuk wrote: post #74
Jack000 wrote: post #55

if you read indiehackers there are a lot of stories that go like "we found a high traffic keyword, did a lot of seo and make xxxx from ads/subscriptions/sales etc" the issue with this approach is that the top 1-3 links on google serp gets more traffic than all other links combined. I'm currently at #6-7 with 200 clicks a day and 3% ctr. Not really sure how to climb up beyond that level..

If you want me to have a look and get so thoughts out of seo perspective, let me know.

cool, it's http://colormind.io here's what my search console looks like right now: http://imgur.com/a/kWkUJ

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

#83

Post by conductr »

codazoda wrote: post #36

Oh, boy, lots of them!!! I'm good at "releasing". I'm not good at deciding what to build (demand) and I'm not good at the marketing side. My latest project helps you get more followers and increase user engagement on Instagram. It's a Google Chrome extension called Magis. It's currently bringing in $30 per month with $25 per month in fee's for the payment solution. Yay $5 profit; if you don't count my time. https://c…

> My previous project helped you validate your idea before you create the actual product. Apparently it was a bad idea

If this existed, you would have known not to build it

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

#84

Post by chrisdbaldwin »

hellbanner wrote: post #68

Arcade game developer here. I loved the game concept of ABA's "Defeat Me": http://wonderfl.net/c/9ykQ . SHMUP where each enemy is a copy of you. Round 3 you fight a clone of Round 1, Round 2, mirrored. but I disagreed with several major design decisions: 1) Rounds were too difficult (a deadline came in very fast, the bullets were nearly the size of the ship) 2) Player movement & weapons changed rapidly (speed & numbe…

Have you tried reaching out to physical arcades? It requires a physical cabinet, but most arcades in the US that I've been to are very receptive to indie arcade titles.

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

#85

Post by kazinator »

byandyphillips wrote: post #82

I made a simple website that lets you send compliments to your friends (no negativity allowed) http://www.letskudos.com

That is impossible to police even if a committee of humans looks at every message and deliberates for 20 minutes. Negativity can be encoded in communication between two people in ways that cannot be detected if you don't have the private context.

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

#87

Post by konschubert »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #30
sfennell wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you want to post it here - why use a throwaway account?

It's really easy to get my real identity given a website that I own and I don't have a non throw away account. I use a throw away account because it gives me the freedom to discuss things openly without being judged based on my real world reputation or which company I work for.

Then the account you're using is not a throwaway, but you could create an actual throwaway to post it :)

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

#88

Post by moflome »

cploonker wrote: post #52

Marketplace for painters and those looking to hire them http://ehirepainter.com/ Inspite of investing ~$50k in marketing efforts, could not get enough customers to list their projects.

Thanks for sharing. There's probably a whole category of challenges in launching a marketplace. What did you learn?

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

#89

Post by ineptech »

I made Word Nazi, which is essentially just a dirty version of Taboo (in the same way that Cards Against Humanity is a dirty version of Apples to Apples) in app form.

Lessons learned:

* I should've paid someone to do some decent graphics, turns out "minimalist aesthetic" is not the same as "no effort put in to design"

* Making it a free demo, with the full game available as an in-app-purchase, sounds like a good deal for the user but in actuality sets off peoples' "IAP == crapware" alarm

On the upside, I also made a fake corporate website (http://ineptech.com) to promote it and that was so much fun that I'd probably waste all that time again.

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

#90

Post by projectramo »

philfreo wrote: post #26
ianleeclark wrote: post #4

I have a project which may never generate revenue, despite the fact I spent 2 months after hours working on it. I did a dumb thing and dove directly into the project without first finding a fit or customer base for it. More or less, it's a scheduling application that allows a user to set when they're open and allow anyone to book that time for however much the original scheduler valued that slot of their schedule. It…

Feedback: bad name, but VERY bad homepage. Nobody wants to ready paragraphs to understand what a product does. SHOW US the product. The basic pitch you described here sounds good, but compare your homepage with others in a related space: https://youcanbook.me/ or calendly.com/ or https://clarity.fm/

This.

The first thing I did is go to the page to see if what it does. I know what it claims to do, but the actual mechanics matter.

And then I want to know how much it costs.

Without those two, I might as well use a competitor that lets me see what it does and for how much.

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