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How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

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Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#71

Post by mhurron »

BipolarElsa wrote: post #29
blowski wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, they do a pretty good job of balancing the needs of users and advertisers.

I ask a lot of question, and thus get banned from asking more... I wish they would have a "luxury" option for like 49.99 a year where students could ask like unlimited questions. Is this crazy?

> students

Your question has been asked and answered, probably several times. You're getting banned because you refuse to learn about and use the search function.

Flooding SO with beginner questions lowers the usefulness for everyone.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#72

Post by z3t4 »

dolguldur wrote: post #24

Stackoverflow is the prime example for how a company can generate tremenduous value without making that much money. It's difficult to estimate its contribution to the world economy quantitatively, but I'd definitely say billions, many many billions.

i think they are like a bank. Value is inserted by people asking and answering questions.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#73

Post by huhtenberg »

blowski wrote: post #12
dtnewman wrote: post #8

TLDR: They make money through ads, job postings and their enterprise product. The author believes that they can make money and serve users at the same time.

In my opinion, they do a pretty good job of balancing the needs of users and advertisers.

Re: balancing the needs of advertisers -

We looked at advertising with them about a year ago and their options and response were both underwhelming. It wasn't possible to geo-target, it wasn't possible to advertise on most relevant sites (e.g. SoftwareRecs), and their upfront budget requirements weren't compatible with how we normally do things, which is to run a small test campaign to see what sort of traffic an outlet can drive and then expand if it goes well. On top of that, the response from their sales reps was curt and the last message in conversation, once it was clear that we aren't going to drop 50K, remained plain unanswered. So, YMMV.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#74

Post by lucb1e »

subhobroto wrote: post #9
lucb1e wrote: post #5

StackOverflow is an extremely valuable resource for all programmers. I've not seen the option anywhere, but a yearly donation would definitely be something I'd do for a substantial amount (substantial to me as a student, so it's not the moon but not a beer either).

My following suggestion is a very unpopular one, but it is this: If you are a student, use the money you would have donated to StackOverflow to purchase a book or a tool that will help you to learn better and become an expert. If you are an expert, contribute your time to StackOverflow (instead of money). Money is easy to get compared to content. What helps StackOverflow grow is quality content. I am also interested…

> Money is easy to get compared to content. What helps StackOverflow grow is quality content.

I do, >10k rep on the security.stackexchange.com site. I just think it's an amazing platform that I'd like to support with hosting and development costs.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#75

Post by Latty »

finnh wrote: post #52
BipolarElsa wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ask a lot of question, and thus get banned from asking more... I wish they would have a "luxury" option for like 49.99 a year where students could ask like unlimited questions. Is this crazy?

How many questions does it take before you are banned?

There is no limit - the only issue is if your questions are marked as bad. If you ask questions that are answerable and work on StackOveflow, you can ask as many as you like.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#76

Post by dep_b »

I like Stack Overflow, but I seriously don't know how all these answers end up there. I think about 80% of all my questions are answered sooner or later by myself. And some of them are quite massively upvoted too afterwards, so they weren't always niche problems.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#77

Post by lucb1e »

user837387 wrote: post #61
subhobroto wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My following suggestion is a very unpopular one, but it is this: If you are a student, use the money you would have donated to StackOverflow to purchase a book or a tool that will help you to learn better and become an expert. If you are an expert, contribute your time to StackOverflow (instead of money). Money is easy to get compared to content. What helps StackOverflow grow is quality content. I am also interested…

>>book or a tool that will help you to learn better and become I've tried that before, many times. Unfortunately when you are trying to do real work those books are many times useless. Example, I kept trying to build a newtonian physics simulator so I got a Statics and Dynamics mechanical engineering book. The book was a text book for Mechanical engineering students and yet the examples they teach you are for toy pro…

I have the same experience with books. I don't buy non-fiction for learning purposes* because it never worked. I tried with an IPv6 book which I read a few chapters of; I tried with another book or two that I don't even remember; I was gifted two books, one about making games and the other about programming paradigms, neither of which I ever read more than a few pages of... and yet I'm perfectly proficient by just playing around in spare time and looking up stuff I need and stuff I run into.

* I do buy non-fiction for amusement and casual interests though, like Predictably Irrational.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#78

Post by ComteDeLaFere »

antaviana wrote: post #39
sean_patel wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. This question - HOW MUCH MONEY does Stack Overflow make per year - was asked in their Meta site. Granted it's a privately held company but there is atleast 1 answer that quotes "credible sources" and pegs it at atleast 21 MILLION USD in revenues (for 2013). Source: http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/214284/245495

According to Hoovers, their revenue is $11.33M. Source http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/company-search.ht...

How do they employ almost 300 people on $11 mil / year?

Also, why are these posts getting downvoted? The title of this article is "How We Make Money at Stack Overflow".

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#79

Post by criddell »

nicky0 wrote: post #45
criddell wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually surprised ads work at all on StackOverflow. I would have guessed that most of their visitors are blocking ads.

Most of the ads are served to non-logged-in visitors who come to specific question pages through a web search. SO actually shows you fewer ads the more reputation points you have.

I think I would expect logged-in users to be more likely to have whitelisted the site than random Google visitors.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#80

Post by ohstopitu »

jaydles wrote: post #11
lucb1e wrote: post #5

StackOverflow is an extremely valuable resource for all programmers. I've not seen the option anywhere, but a yearly donation would definitely be something I'd do for a substantial amount (substantial to me as a student, so it's not the moon but not a beer either).

We're humbled hearing from folks like you - your willingness to give back is what makes it all work. Keep your money. But here's how you CAN help, right now: Sign up if you haven't, create a developer story, and when you ARE job-hunting, try Jobs. We I think you'll find it to be the most developer-friendly offering on the planet.

I would like to suggest a feature request...

I would love to use developer stories but more importantly, would like to integrate my dev story with my website (as this would also keep the "recommended reading" section up to date as well). If there was some way to do this (we can discuss options) without using an iframe, I would LOVE to do so.

Just to mention...I want this on my website & stackoverflow. Updating recommended reading is of a lower priority than having it on my website in the first place.

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