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Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

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Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#41

Post by guynamedloren »

gilaniali wrote: post #10
guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

Where are you getting the shirts printed from? Whats the total cost for printing and shipping?

Wholesale screenprinter. No on demand or drop shipping. Printing + shipping is approx $8 or less per shirt.

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#42

Post by Mz »

guynamedloren wrote: post #39
Mz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get your first order in 4min? I mean, how were you promoting it? I have decided I would like to leave my current job and town (as in "post haste" instead of "someday") and I need funds to do so. A quick influx of money would do wonders for moving that goal forward. Would love to learn anything you can share.

Right now I can tell you I didn't do much to market except designed a good product, a good presentation, and took advantage of the ridiculous amounts of traffic going through the Facebook events mentioned in OP. No magic or silver bullet here. Will go into more detail with a blog post soon. Madebyloren.com

I really love the landing page and envy you your skills in that regard. Also, some of your remarks suggest that you have substantial background with some aspects of this, like shipping t-shirts. So it sounds like you capitalized on an area that came fairly easily to you due to experience, positioning, and other factors.

Looking forward to your blog post. I very much want to work a few miracles and leave my current situation.

Thank you for sharing. For me, as a non-programmer, this is really much more inspiring (as in something I could aspire to) than the posts about some program someone wrote in x amount of time.

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#44

Post by tectonic »

guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

I'm very curious to know how much you made off of this (ballpark).

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#45

Post by guynamedloren »

hsmyers wrote: post #15
guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

A non-relevant question, which one? St. Louis, Tulsa, Chicago, New York, etc... Since the shirt doesn't say, it won't make a difference from the sales point of view, just wondering which one was your inspiration?

Chicago and central il (home and college home). Of course the shirt applies to pretty much the whole Midwest right now, so that helps from a market segment perspective.

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#46

Post by guynamedloren »

ramanujam wrote: post #12

Are you taking care of the shipping (after printing the T-shirts locally) or is the wholesaler taking care of everything? Congrats!

I'm doing everything aside from printing. Good experience and more profit that way - cant go wrong there, right?

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#48

Post by guynamedloren »

djahng wrote: post #9

Where are the shirts being made? Are they made to order and drop-shipped like Cafe Press/Zazzle? Or are you building up inventory?

Building up orders to place a bulk wholesale order. Cafe press and zazzle are overpriced for the customers and too low profits for sellers. Why would I charge somebody $24 + shipping for a shirt if I would never pay that myself?

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#49

Post by warrenwilkinson »

guynamedloren wrote: post #31
unshift wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wouldn't call it exploitive, rather i would say it's very savvy. even if it's a one-time shot, it's real money and you're not doing anything shady to earn it. that's how people build wealth -- seizing opportunity. congrats on the success.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad the Hacker News community is so understanding and supportive, even with silly little projects like this!

Its a very nice site. Nicely designed and you know exactly what you're getting and what it's about when you look at it.

I wish my site was so intuitive =(.

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