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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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

#501

Post by ronreiter »

mharrison wrote: post #426
ronreiter wrote: post #357

Learnpython.org and other interactive tutorials - passive income that gets me a full high tech salary. Got started when I realized there was a need for an interactive tutorial (before CodeAcademy went live). Wrote it, and that's about it :)

Cool. What is the monitization strategy? Affiliate from Datacamp?

Yes, although this is very new. I always had ad revenue from the websites.

I must admit that it is hard to build a "side project" that aims for organic traffic. I think I got very lucky there.

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

#502

Post by coderholic »

thecatspaw wrote: post #495
coderholic wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for reporting the back button issue. I've also seen this occasionally, but haven't seriously looked into it. Is this Chrome, or another browser? > if I understand this correctly, ipinfo is basically a lookup in a db? What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar? There are 2 parts to that. 1) What's the advantage of using an geolocation API over a local database? It's simpler.…

yeah its chrome Version 54.0.2840.98 (64-bit) on osx Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service. edit: about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup

Cool thanks - I'll look into what might be causing the back button behavior.

> Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service.

Sure, if you've got the required sysadmin and dev skills, and a server to host the file. Not everyone does.

We also return additional data beyond geolocation, such as the ASN and hostname, and have additional optional fields such as company name and domain, and carrier details. You could download multiple databases and do it locally, but it's even more effort.

> about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup

Oh sure - it's not quicker than a local lookup - it's quicker than _other_ IP geolocation APIs.

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

#503

Post by eljs »

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 ;)

How do you market this? Is it mostly SEO or ads as well? Must be expensive if you want to compete with Nike and Adidas for clicks...

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

#504

Post by avenoir »

gottebp wrote: post #411

My grandfather has Parkinson's disease and the hand tremors that go with. This makes using a mouse nearly impossible because the cursor flies all over the place. I created free software called SteadyMouse[1] back in 2005 to remove this tremor while letting normal mouse motion through. It eventually moved up near the top of Google's search results. At the same time, the free version began to show its age with compatib…

What a truly helpful tool! I hope it generates good revenue. It is definitely well deserved!

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

#505

Post by [deleted] »

csallen wrote: post #250

Back in August I launched https://IndieHackers.com , a site where the founders of profitable online businesses share their stories and revenue transparently. I actually got the idea after reading lots of threads like this one on HN :D Indie Hackers is my full-time job now. Is it "successful"? I think so! I've done over 90 interviews, and they've been read over one million times in the past 5 months, largely by you gu…

[deleted]

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

#506

Post by pryelluw »

soneca wrote: post #461
gottebp wrote: post #411

My grandfather has Parkinson's disease and the hand tremors that go with. This makes using a mouse nearly impossible because the cursor flies all over the place. I created free software called SteadyMouse[1] back in 2005 to remove this tremor while letting normal mouse motion through. It eventually moved up near the top of Google's search results. At the same time, the free version began to show its age with compatib…

Congratulations for the project! It looks great (from the GIF demo) and it is certainly a project that adds value to the world! Do you need any help on the marketing side? I am no biz genius, but I have good experience as a generalist digital marketer and also with customer development. I think I can help you with the content side of SEO and contact with niche media to spread the word about the profile. The 90s look…

The design is ok. Its legible and well structured. The only thing I would add is a "buy now" button. It currently lacks that (important) call to action.

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

#507

Post by purple-dragon »

adrianh wrote: post #204

I run https://www.soundslice.com/ with one other full-time person. We're self-funded and make a profit at this point. Soundslice is interactive sheet music synced with audio/video recordings — the Internet's best software for learning pieces of music. We make money by licensing the technology, taking a cut of lessons in a video-lesson marketplace, plus charging $20/month for a "pro" version (Soundslice For Teachers).…

I was just looking for something modern to keep my sight reading practice interesting... oh, the serendipity; this looks really nice!

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

#509

Post by jayroh »

polysaturate wrote: post #251
jayroh wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey s3stat looks AWESOME! I'm working on a product that's built on the back of S3 as well ( https://shubox.io ) so this might come in super handy for me and my customers. Do you have an affiliate program my any chance?

This is really cool. I don't have use for it at this very second, but may in a few months to offload some uploads out of my infrastructure.

Thank you for the compliment :). If you have any questions or want any sort of demo feel free to drop me an email - joel @ my domain above. Would love to hear how I might be able to fulfill your needs!

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

#510

Post by blacksmith_tb »

nbrempel wrote: post #242
mohoyt wrote: post #230

I've been running Bowtiful Ties ( http://www.bowtifulties.com ) as a side project for the last 4 or so years. Everything is vertically integrated and hand made by myself, from the bow ties, to the packaging, to the website and all processes. Bootstrapped from the start, it's pretty low volume, but nicely profitable.

Those look really sharp! I still tried wearing a bow tie. I've always been a necktie kind of guy. Maybe it's time?

I personally like them, but every time the subject comes up I am reminded of the surreal line from the original _Dress for Success_ "In general, I have found that people believe a man in a bow tie will steal."[1]

1: badly OCRed here https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/131743317/

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