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Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

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Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#111

Post by rmc »

ck2 wrote: post #64
guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with what you did. On the other hand however, I also think that some people have way too much money on their hands or a lack of intelligent spending habits if they are buying stuff like this. We are a very strange country indeed. Have you ever seen the packets of clothing that are sold to vendors in third-world countries by the likes of Goodwill and such? They are full of t-s…

That's an complicated ethical decision. On one hand some local clothing manufacteurers are out of buisiness. On the other hand a whole pile of people have cheap, high quality clothing.

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#112

Post by lionhearted »

guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

Hey Loren, this really got the gears turning in my head. It covers two things I've been thinking about a lot lately:

1. Low downside, high upside: You got in for $8 and a few hours, and it had a shot to do some great things... I think taking these low-investment shots at doing things can add up really fast.

2. Getting in front of trends/timely marketing - I think there's a ton of potential in this, and I've been thinking on it a lot lately.

Thanks for sharing this - very cool stuff here.

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#113

Post by rmc »

mmaunder wrote: post #79

What would be cool, and a nice courtesy gesture since HN gave you so much traffic, is if you shared actual numbers with us. Data we can use. I'd like to see: Cost price of your tshirts, how many you sold over X time, conversion rate on the site, main sources of traffic, highest conversion source, lowest conversion source, fraud levels if known yet. Thanks.

gave you so much traffic

Traffic to his website is not as important as sales. I suspect a poor percentage of visitors from HN converted to sales.

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#114

Post by antihero »

guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

Thanks for inspiring me to put money into a "pot" for small, act-fast business ideas like this.

Could I ask some details:

* Where did you get the T-Shirt made? * How exactly did you go from nobody knowing about it to 1000s of hits?

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#115

Post by kmfrk » 

    > Shipping & Handling
    >
    > These costs are already factored into the price of the shirts, so you don't have to pay any additional costs for shipping. All shirts will be shipped via USPS First-Class Mail. Shirts will only be shipped within US/Canada/Mexico.
I can't emphasize how brilliant this is. It really is a privilege to only worry about people on in three countries.

You've really done a great job of refining a website - one that was made in four hours to boot!

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#116

Post by rapind »

rmc wrote: post #111
ck2 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with what you did. On the other hand however, I also think that some people have way too much money on their hands or a lack of intelligent spending habits if they are buying stuff like this. We are a very strange country indeed. Have you ever seen the packets of clothing that are sold to vendors in third-world countries by the likes of Goodwill and such? They are full of t-s…

That's an complicated ethical decision. On one hand some local clothing manufacteurers are out of buisiness. On the other hand a whole pile of people have cheap, high quality clothing.

Off-topic now for sure, but IMO the investment / charity is always better spent on local businesses to produce goods rather than donating goods. Donating goods just makes us feel better about our excesses (the fact that we by new clothing based on style instead of wear / utility).

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#118

Post by LiveTheDream »

guynamedloren wrote: post #3

I know this is not the norm for projects here on Hacker News and I realize that it may be seen as rather exploitive, so here's a very very brief background and my thought process: - Idea was conceived around 2am this morning. Saw a few events on facebook picking up speed (hundreds of thousands of attendees) so decided to leverage that instant-market - Wasn't sure whether or not it would work, but I didn't have too mu…

Have you had any trouble with PayPal flagging your account yet?

Re: Show HN: My 4-hour project, already profitable

#119

Post by qeorge »

bigiain wrote: post #57

You might want to keep an eye on that Pay Pal account - the "pay me now and I'll send you $stuff in a few weeks" pattern is exactly the sort of thing that trips their "might be fraud, lock the account and keep all the money for 6 months" response.

That's a great point, bigian. FWIW that's not a PayPal-specific policy - Visa and MasterCard's TOS explicitly state that you cannot bill the credit card until the merchandise has shipped.
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