191–200 of 207 posts
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Yeah, why invest in some company you don't know anything about (stock market), if you can invest in yourself?
You shouldn't ever invest in a company you know nothing about. If you're investing in the stock market you should do you research into the company before buying in.
But if not, an ING direct savings account is a good start.
And talk to rich people, to see what they are doing.
Convert your apps into chinese. Even tiny fraction of possible market like that is huge. Conversion should be more or less trivial, translation effort is cheap :)
Tried, does not work. Chinese market in the app store is small.
1. Taxes 2. Retirement savings. Max out your IRA, Roth, etc to take advantage of your (I'm assuming) youth and the magic of compound returns.
Just turned 29. Want to start retirement stuff at 30.
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I'd love to try your advice but I've never been able to find such a niche. Everytime I try to think of one, I get "niche block". Any ideas?
Got a passion? Helps if you have a real interest in an idea. I've found that first-round attempts I've made at sites have been successful (got a few sites that took very little time to set up, but now make $4k/mo for zero effort), but attempts to replicate that have failed (have a few more sites that barely cover their domain registration costs!). Without the passion, you would need to be very disciplined, I suspect.…
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Got a passion? Helps if you have a real interest in an idea. I've found that first-round attempts I've made at sites have been successful (got a few sites that took very little time to set up, but now make $4k/mo for zero effort), but attempts to replicate that have failed (have a few more sites that barely cover their domain registration costs!). Without the passion, you would need to be very disciplined, I suspect.…
That's awesome advice! Thanks. I'm going to try it. Are you available for mentoring :-)
http://seoblackhat.com/2007/02/21/online-business-niches/
However, they're hardly niches and would be thoroughly dominated by MFA stuff already with little room to drive in a wedge. You could however pick a few of those, do keyword research on each and then pick a three-word keyphrase from that wider list to think about and focus on? I wouldn't bother going after a single keyword or even two-word phrase as the competition will be too fierce.
Happy to trade emails if you want to bounce any ideas off me. Can't promise anything useful or insightful, but hey, it's free to try! My background is 12+ years web development (backend and frontend) with side projects in forum/community, some passive content sites geared around AdSense plus bigger ideas that I struggle to find time to work on.
"What I know how to do best is the app store" Set yourself up as an _angel investor for iPhone apps_. Like a mini-mini-mini YCombinator. Based on your experience, you should be very good at evaluating an individual's chances of creating a successful app. Solicit pitches (HN would be a great source) and make 5 small investments of $5k each. If you make another $25k next month, do another 5 investments. Rinse and repea…
Actually, there is one thing I can do perfectly now: I can listen to an app idea and tell you how much money it will make. If I knew developer who needed 5k to make apps, I'd def invest in them. I don't know any however, the ones I know don't need 5k.
Given your track record with app development, there would certainly be demand from third party investors for the expertise you bring to the table. Simply offer investors less preferable terms than those you are able get from the app developers that pitch their ideas to you.
Not the easiest approach, but after addressing any regulatory hurdles, lining up investors and getting a system in place, you can focus on investment opportunities and leverage up the capital you are currently earning.
Your passive investors will be more likely to part with their money if you have some skin in the game yourself. This will have the added benefit of allowing you to diversify into a wider range of apps with higher monetary barriers to entry.
First, congratulations; that's a pretty impressive feat on the app store. Have you thought about taking some of the income and using it to hire other developers to increase the number of apps that you've got being developed at once? It seems like you know what works and doesn't work on the app store, so it would probably make sense to start trying to make your efforts scale up.
The poster expressed the sentiment that the app store ecosystem is fragile and the income will end. If you believe that, investing in hiring more programmers for apps would be a move counter to your own beliefs. Since I tend to agree with that assessment, I couldn't recommend doubling down on building apps. There may be other good reasons to consider that, such as moving in another direction (consultancy, which raise…
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If the OP is a sole proprietor in the United States, then incorporation won't alter the tax burden. Incorporation is still a good idea, for other reasons (simplified banking, limited liability, etc).
Incorporation can help with U.S. taxes by enabling a tax-free retirement account with a large contribution limit. (SEP-IRA has a 25% of salary / $49k annual contribution limit.)
Expand, grow, conquer. - Hire a few contractors to grow your stable of apps. You seem to know what works. Expand on what you're doing so you can do more of the same. - Build your brand, that way you can use the market you've built to transfer interest from one app to other apps, (as you've been doing on line with your excellent blog posts). - Figure out a way to diversify your revenue stream. You're already concerned…
I'm starting Android this month, everything is in place. I'll post comparison posts on my blog after I test it out for a couple of weeks. I personally don't think Android will work, but I'm generally a pessimist.