Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#111

Post by DeanWormer » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:43 PM UTC

charlieflowers wrote: post #49

nickjj wrote: post #40

In 2016 I took content creation somewhat seriously and the end result was enough income to sustain living in NY. Not sure if it's worth blogging about yet. Are other developers interested to see how to potentially make software engineer-tier salaries without having to work for another company? (Note: I also started with nothing. No mentors, no following, no existing profile, no paid advertising, etc.). Edit : If you'…

Of course other developers are interested in that. That's such a leading question that you risk tripping some people's BS meter. But still ... yes, definitely interested.

Yeah my BS meter has tripped. Most of his submissions are links to his own site and his comments here are "would anyone be interested in ____" and "let me tell you a secret" self promotional spam.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#112

Post by mox1 » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:46 PM UTC

ciokan wrote: post #95

mox1 wrote: post #76

I'm the solo founder of http://taveo.net/ (Click Tracking and URL management / analytics). Been running it for the past 2 years now. Recently got more serious about the marketing side of things and it's shown. At the current trajectory I will be able to quit my day job at some point in 2017 here.

Curious why with bitly and others as main competitors. I looked at your project and doesn't seem to pack anything more than bitly for example and their free plan is somewhat ridiculous.

Sure , 2 main differences.

1. Bit.ly (and goo.gl) make their statistics public by default. Some people want private statistics. Our stats are always private.

2. We allow you to use your domain with our platform. You don't need an exclusive domain, you can use any domain you control. We just require a directory prefix (ex: youdomain.com/x can be a base for all Taveo links).

We have other features: conversion tracking, link routing (A/B testing, geoloc, etc.) a good API, ability to download raw data, etc) but 1. and 2. are big selling points. Bit.ly's free plan also only offers basic analytics, we have the full package.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#113

Post by jlis » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:46 PM UTC

mihohl wrote: post #21

https://parkplatzsuche.at/ Local small advert pages for parking spots and garages in the cities of Austria. More or less a online portal for parking, similar to traditional online rental websites.

Nice! Had the same idea for the german market some years ago. Can you lie from this or create any revenue at all?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#114

Post by rpeden » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:48 PM UTC

docsapp_io wrote: post #81

Two years ago I learnt new language (Scala) and wanted to find real problems to work on. So I built DocsApp[1] as real-world project as well as trying build profitable SaaS. Few months ago I plan to sell off DocsApp, but I got low ball offer because low revenue. Then I decided to refocus DocsApp and continue to build it. I wouldn't say DocsApp very successful, but it is getting successful now. [1]: https://www.docsap…

Thanks for sharing! Your product looks quite useful, but it looks like perhaps English isn't your first language? The grammar is a bit awkward in several places, and some things are pluralized when they shouldn't be. It doesn't bother me, but it might turn some potential customers away.

If it would help, I'd be happy to go through the site and provide some suggestions about slight changes you could make. I'd do it for free, of course - it wouldn't take much of my time, and I'd love to help a fellow HN member be successful.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#115

Post by Dragonai » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:48 PM UTC

chrishacken wrote: post #109

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an "online business", but I started an ISP in November '15. It's also not entirely "one-person". I am the sole founder, but I do hire part-time help on occasion if I'm swamped. It started off as a WISP and has finally grown to the point where we are beginning to deploy fiber. The site is https://nepafiber.com I still work full-time as a systems engineer, but the business started brin…

I never would've imagined an ISP being run almost entirely by one person. This is super dope - best of luck in the continual expansion of your business! :)

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#116

Post by ciokan » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:49 PM UTC

mox1 wrote: post #112

ciokan wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious why with bitly and others as main competitors. I looked at your project and doesn't seem to pack anything more than bitly for example and their free plan is somewhat ridiculous.

Sure , 2 main differences. 1. Bit.ly (and goo.gl) make their statistics public by default. Some people want private statistics. Our stats are always private. 2. We allow you to use your domain with our platform. You don't need an exclusive domain, you can use any domain you control. We just require a directory prefix (ex: youdomain.com/x can be a base for all Taveo links). We have other features: conversion tracking,…

Oh...never knew they are making the stats public. That's a good point yes.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#117

Post by adamqureshi » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:49 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #66

UK-AL wrote: post #8

I think it's getting harder, now the world is getting more developers and more fully funded startups.

A developer isn't a software company in the same sense that a kid good with numbers isn't a bookkeeping firm. Software companies don't compete with developers; they hire their services. Small software shops don't meaningfully compete with funded startups, because funded startups have to have some plausible path to growing massive, and the types of things small software shops ship just have to have a plausible path to…

small software shop too. Damn straight. I have a TINY software shop in NYC. It pays the bills and food for me and my nuclear family. I can't complain. I have friends who make 2X as me , who work in a box within a bigger box on a grid. They have NO time todo JACK and SHIT. Wealth is discretionary time. You can ALWAYS make anotha dolla, but you'll NEVA make anotha min.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#118

Post by xcubic » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

dgranda wrote: post #79

I run https://www.fortsu.es (also https://www.fortsu.co.uk , https://www.fortsu.de and https://www.fortsu.com ) a price comparison website for running shoes. Original one is focused on spanish market while expanding into interesting ones. It started as side project some years ago when I wanted to buy running shoes online and it has been improved over the time. To-Do list never ends ;)

To get the prices, do you go and copy them manually or have you written some crawlers?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#119

Post by hourz » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

malux85 wrote: post #47

I'm running https://SignalBox.ai alone, I wrote all of the software and am working on partnering and sales right now. Previously I have 2 other startups, one was media monitoring and one was forex. The media monitoring is B2B only. The forex trading is automated and run from my home research cluster. Both are generating enough revenue to live off (media monitoring 120k forex, 60-80k) I guess they fit the definition o…

email me : charles.quenum(at gmail.com)

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#120

Post by dbancajas » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 2:52 PM UTC

chrishacken wrote: post #109

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an "online business", but I started an ISP in November '15. It's also not entirely "one-person". I am the sole founder, but I do hire part-time help on occasion if I'm swamped. It started off as a WISP and has finally grown to the point where we are beginning to deploy fiber. The site is https://nepafiber.com I still work full-time as a systems engineer, but the business started brin…

Can you expand on this?

How do you compete with AT&T/Google? Are you pretty much on business because AT&T/Goog/TWC are not serving in your area?

Can you do summary of how you grow the business if it's not too much? Really curious about all the logistics. Best of luck!!