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How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

campfirelabs.co

171–180 of 261 posts

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#171
post #69

This is great and educational. But I've noticed that many (most?) of the successful side projects were started by people who had some sales and marketing experience. Sales first, tech second (or third). If you want other people to buy, rent, invest, etc., you have to be able to find the right people and communicate with them in a way that will lead them to become your customers/partners. Unfortunately, I doubt many o…

I'm a marketer who has gradually gotten more and more technical over my career. I refuse to believe that people with CompSci degrees can't quickly pick up the more basic (and even many intermediate and advanced) marketing skills, particularly in the digital realm. Yes, knowing how to apply them, and learning about audiences messaging, etc. are going to be challenging, but you'd be shocked how far you can get for many…

We can definitely learn things (CompSci people). In fact, my career is full of near constant learning. However, when it comes to marketing, knowing where to start (on one's own) is a challenge. And as you say, having a good bs detector is important.

I'll take your advice about reading the Google Ads and FB ads docs! Thanks.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on when this product was created, I can almost guarantee they are just manually scraping LinkedIn (plus a few other places - Facebook, twitter, Bloomberg, maybe even Pitchbook). There are custom Google search portals you can use to search LinkedIn via keyword that not everyone knows about. From there one can use a bunch of services that will provide you (mostly)valid emails at various companies. I imagine he ma…

This is the problem with articles like this, they never really go into specifics. Generally fluff. Look at me I did this, but I won't give any specifics how except for vague self-help pamphlet jargon like "Monetize your brain".

I don't think that's fair, there's detail in there. For example, his approach to sales calls.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#173

500 emails for 20 signups = 96% off target. >> By May of 2015 I had sent over 30,000 sales and marketing emails .96 × 30,000 = You just annoyed ~28,800 people. It's only because this immense amount of time lost is borne by strangers that it's a viable business. Let's not glorify spammers.

The article is also just shit clickbait.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#174

I created a successful side project back in 2014. It is still running and making 20 times more than I would get with a normal job. But i was lucky. Lucky to be born in a rich country. Lucky because I was given a computer at the age of 5. Lucky because I had unlimited education opportunities. Lucky because I had a friend who gave me access to something I needed for my business. And many other lucks. I will never deny…

I worked for a mom + pop Amazon seller (manufacture + ship from China to America, stick packaging on it, send it in to Fulfillment by Amazon, collect a check) He's probably worth $50m as one of the top 250 sellers. Probably ~20 SKUs. Tons of competitors trying to bring him down but his product has so many reviews that it is just a money printer. He was smart to be at the right place at the right time. He undercut the…

When someone works really hard, goes through lots of hard moments and eventually succeeds the general public or not so close friends see the end result but don't see all the struggle. Then they try to explain how this happened and when they fail to connect the dots it all looks like magic to them and all they can say is that luck was involved.

The hard truth is that everyone comes by opportunities in life (call it luck) but very few people have the knowledge and experience to achieve something meaningful out of those opportunities.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#175
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a millennial myself, I would like the need for income taken off the table so that I can find a recurring source of meaningful work.

> As a millennial myself, I would like the need for income taken off the table In other words, I'd like someone else to pay for taking care of me, my shelter, my food. > so that I can find a recurring source of meaningful work. So that I can follow my desires rather than being forced to pay my own way. As a gen-x'er I just have say, you are not entitled to other people's labor, certainly not so you can avoid labor yo…

> Virtually everyone would prefer not "needing income", that's just another way of saying "be rich". Meaningful work is a luxury.

If you honestly believe this you need to broaden your outlook. There are interesting people all over the world experimenting with different systems of living and working without a traditional means of income. It's not about wanting to "be rich".

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#176

500 emails for 20 signups = 96% off target. >> By May of 2015 I had sent over 30,000 sales and marketing emails .96 × 30,000 = You just annoyed ~28,800 people. It's only because this immense amount of time lost is borne by strangers that it's a viable business. Let's not glorify spammers.

A 4% signup rate actually signifies really well targeted emails. Not everyone who doesn't sign up is annoyed by the mail (or did even open or read it). I think this is far from beeing spam, where you would see signup rates well below 1%.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, maybe pay people a living wage no matter what country they are from? Doesn't seem that unreasonable.

It seems reasonable until you realize you could completely wreck their local economy. If you start paying people to compile lists for you at a higher rate than they are paid performing important local services, then they will stop performing important local services and start compiling lists for you. What needs to happen is slower growth. So foreign businesses outsource to the Philippines, paying them low wages. Then…

That last part of "demanding more pay" almost never happens. The reality is, service economies start a race to the bottom by taking advantage of the lower starting cost of living and then the economy doesn't really improve. People just live with lower starting costs of living and lower quality of life in many cases.

Note that I use the term lower starting costs of living. There's a reason a lot of people migrate if they can. It's because these countries (like Sri Lanka which is where I live) have costs that suddenly spike the moment you aspire to a better quality of life and the salaries don't keep up.

But I digress. The evidence of the local economies not necessarily improving is there in many outsourced service economy based countries. India is a prime example. And when outsourced jobs started moving away, there were articles describing India's IT industry as a bloodbath (or something similar).

So no. Paying people better actually improves the economy of the country. Especially if it's non local currency. Most countries benefit from inflows of strong foreign currency. People start having less incentive to leave the country so brain drain is less. People can reach higher quality life goals, so purchasing and usage of local services increase (think food and beverage, local tourism, clothing, and even other simple services like laundry).

The idea that US companies paying higher rates is going to wreck an economy of a lower performing country is very unlikely. The reality is that if it somehow became a norm, (unlikely since if rates are high globally, you'd keep the jobs local as much as possible), people would just form new companies to service that market.

Which is technically what is already happening in countries like India and Sri Lanka.

So no. Please pay people better. It'll most likely help that country's economy.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of this is realizing where the path might have lead you. Were I in your position, I suspect my regret might be tinged with relief. Zynga might be an extremely profitable company, but they also epitomize some of what I view as the most egregious offenses in manipulation human nature for monetary gain. So, were I presented with your prior circumstances and had I capitalized on them, would my convictions h…

considering known statements at the time I think probably Zuckerberg would think it sounded ideal.

I've of the richest most powerful people on the planet, whose creation is able to influence democracy; most people probably dream of being such a person?

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#179
post #176

500 emails for 20 signups = 96% off target. >> By May of 2015 I had sent over 30,000 sales and marketing emails .96 × 30,000 = You just annoyed ~28,800 people. It's only because this immense amount of time lost is borne by strangers that it's a viable business. Let's not glorify spammers.

A 4% signup rate actually signifies really well targeted emails. Not everyone who doesn't sign up is annoyed by the mail (or did even open or read it). I think this is far from beeing spam, where you would see signup rates well below 1%.

Spam generally includes unsolicited and unwanted emails, targeted or not.

Re: How I Built a $5K a Month Side Project

#180

500 emails for 20 signups = 96% off target. >> By May of 2015 I had sent over 30,000 sales and marketing emails .96 × 30,000 = You just annoyed ~28,800 people. It's only because this immense amount of time lost is borne by strangers that it's a viable business. Let's not glorify spammers.

What is the line between marketing and spamming?
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