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Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

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Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#151

Post by googletazer »

pierrebai wrote: post #78
googletazer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a second, so how do you imagine it working? Millions of artists each with their own individual pages connected to Stripe? Out of these, some will still be top 10, the rest will be behind. Every artist who uses his platform wins since thats what connects them to consumers and work orders.

The connected economy does have aspects that can be concerning: * Many see bartering as a grey business. Profiting from a disparity in pricing between buyers and sellers is always a touchy subject. The usual justification is the service of connecting sellers and buyers. One can honestly wonders if buyers and sellers really would not have found each other otherwise. * How much is the match-making worth. One person doe…

It seems like the main beef you have with the guys startup is that its automated, so he doesn't have to continuously work on the same thing, it attempts to "game" google's algorithm, and that in your eyes it extracts too much money for providing too little of value (connecting the consumer and the producer). I don't see it this way at all, I see it a business that helps both sides and takes a cut. If the cut is too large, eventually it will fail.

We'll probably see if thats the case in around ... 3 to 6 months when somebody who reads this thread and has the skills and the drive to improve on it will make an attempt at a clone.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#152

Post by rhizome »

qwrusz wrote: post #147
chrischen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! Thanks for the comment! All I can say is that the reason I don't charge more is it'd just be lining my pockets since the artists set their prices at a pretty consistent rate. I don't get lower rates from the artists than my competitors, so I just undercut them in final retail price instead.

> the reason I don't charge more is it'd just be lining my pockets What's wrong with lining your pockets? This is a business no?

I read it to mean that it would be excessively exploitative. "The artists set their prices at a pretty consistent rate" says to me that the artists generally hold to a price point, so OP milking the margins by raising prices on the retail end would benefit only OP and not the artist.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#154

Post by hilop »

chrischen wrote: post #105
qwrusz wrote: post #96

Congrats on the success. Thanks for sharing the business story too. Disclaimer: this is not a paid endorsement. I don't know Chris. But I happen to be a customer - having bought a painting as a gift. It is framed on the wall at this moment. My only feedback. Your prices felt too inexpensive. Knowing something was handmade I would have paid more than I did. I'm sure you have researched the market and margins and all t…

Hi! Thanks for the comment! All I can say is that the reason I don't charge more is it'd just be lining my pockets since the artists set their prices at a pretty consistent rate. I don't get lower rates from the artists than my competitors, so I just undercut them in final retail price instead.

Can you pay the artists more?

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#155

Post by hilop »

OJFord wrote: post #120

What's going on with the shipping pricing? > Standard delivery (approx 3 weeks) > Guaranteed (+$15) > Within 25 days (+$20) > Within 15 days (+$20) 3 weeks is 21 days, so assuming "guaranteed" just removes the "approx", why would I ever pay more for "within 25"? Further, why would I ever pay for "within 25" when "within 15" is the same price? Surely this can be condensed to: > Standard delivery (approx 3 weeks) > Gua…

Decimal weeks

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#156

Post by hilop »

danso wrote: post #60
TekMol wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you certain? I am fairly certain that the world's best search engine is not falling for that. How can we decide who is right?

Uh, what experiences have you had that make you think otherwise? Google is the greatest information-finding service invented but it can still surface poor results. But in this case, I don't think Google was necessarily "fooled". The developer happened to be multitalented enough to create a game that was popular. Assuming that the traffic it receives was legitimate (which I imagine Google can know based on Google Anal…

The problem is thst people use infographics that get a lot of links, to get SEO juice for the rest of their site thst is utter garbage.

Ideally, Google wouldn't credit one part of the site that is lower quality than the other part.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#157

Post by hilop »

gm-conspiracy wrote: post #127
dkrich wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the Art Institute of Chicago, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art qualify? In fact, the existence of products like, say this: http://www.artinstituteshop.org/item.aspx?productId=931 would seem to indicate that there actually is a pretty decent market for oil painting reproductions that are [GASP] the product of a high quality printer and that you are wrong. In other words, don't assume that just because you are an…

One man's poster is another man's oil painting reproduction, eh?

Some of the oil painting reproductions on HN at downright rude.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#159

Post by adventured »

qwrusz wrote: post #96

Congrats on the success. Thanks for sharing the business story too. Disclaimer: this is not a paid endorsement. I don't know Chris. But I happen to be a customer - having bought a painting as a gift. It is framed on the wall at this moment. My only feedback. Your prices felt too inexpensive. Knowing something was handmade I would have paid more than I did. I'm sure you have researched the market and margins and all t…

I was surprised at how relatively cheap the prices are. A 48"x72" oil painting for $279 base is at least half of what I would have expected. Pushes me to want to make a purchase before the prices inevitably have to climb as demand overtakes the scarcity on the production side.

Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees

#160

Post by pbhjpbhj »

hilop wrote: post #156
danso wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, what experiences have you had that make you think otherwise? Google is the greatest information-finding service invented but it can still surface poor results. But in this case, I don't think Google was necessarily "fooled". The developer happened to be multitalented enough to create a game that was popular. Assuming that the traffic it receives was legitimate (which I imagine Google can know based on Google Anal…

The problem is thst people use infographics that get a lot of links, to get SEO juice for the rest of their site thst is utter garbage. Ideally, Google wouldn't credit one part of the site that is lower quality than the other part.

>Ideally, Google wouldn't credit one part of the site that is lower quality than the other part. //

Site authority presumably wouldn't be a thing if it didn't produce good results. Sites that allow crappy content will tend to have more crappy content and so a page on such a site is less likely to be what someone is searching for; as long as that stands then site authority will still be useful and shouldn't - IMO - be discounted completely.

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