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Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

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Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#121

Post by cosmodisk »

inviromentalist wrote: post #93
akamia wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problems that a lot of engineers have is failing to recognize that their time has a cost. Spending 4 extra hours of your own time setting up a mail server that will cost you $5/month to run instead of paying $10 per month for Office 365 or some other service is not really saving you money because that initial 4 hours of labor is time you could've spent doing other things for the business. It's not free tim…

Counter points- There is no telling if it will actually save time. You could be messing with configurations, have to learn their docs, etc... Or future migration could be expensive in both time and money. The cost savings can/do exist. Especially as things scale or last a long time. Custom is more configurable. People overestimate their time worth? Sure you can theoretically work for 75$/hr, but can you get overtime/…

I was discussing lack of space in our office with my boss and how difficult it'd be to add extra people should we suddenly have such a need.He replied: these are nice problems to have. Same with scalability of your software: if you get to the point where it's an issue, you just hire much smater people with some of that momey you've been making so far and they'll solve it all.

Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#122

Post by crispyporkbites »

em-bee wrote: post #58
crispyporkbites wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dedicated IPs can be worse for low senders, as there's no other legitimate volume coming through outside of your own, so you need to build and maintain your own reputation entirely. Ideal solution would be a provider that only allows trusted people on shared IPs. Generally a non-free provider will be best for that.

how is building and maintaining your own reputation a problem for low volume sender?

If you don’t build a reputation your emails won’t get delivered. New IPs have no reputation, so your users will suffer.

Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#126

Post by teach »

PakG1 wrote: post #86
0xTJ wrote: post #81

Just a comment on the site, why is the text so big? I had to zoom out to 60% to make reading comfortable on a laptop.

That's weird, I've never ever heard someone complain that a font was too big to be comfortable to read before. Do you have any sense what about it makes it more uncomfortable for you? Small fonts are easy to explain.

I've reached an age where I have trouble reading small fonts, and often zoom the web page to be readable. In fact, I have HN permanently set to 125%.

Yet even I thought the font was too big in this one. I _didn't_ have to shrink the text to be more readable but I had to scroll more than usual.

Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#127

Post by donmcronald »

qubex wrote: post #53

I’m going to be cynical and applaud the author at one of the most effective S.E.O. efforts I have seen lately: including his own app on a list of effective and well-curated apps for startups.

I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years.

Is his app really the best option in that product space?

I know most people around here will applaud the effort as clever, but I think it's the type of tactic that's ruining the internet. Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.

Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#128

Post by hello_moto »

donmcronald wrote: post #127
qubex wrote: post #53

I’m going to be cynical and applaud the author at one of the most effective S.E.O. efforts I have seen lately: including his own app on a list of effective and well-curated apps for startups.

I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years. Is his app really the best option in that product space? I know most people around here will applaud the effort as clever, but I think it's the type of tactic that's ruining the internet. Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.

> Is his app really the best option in that product space?

Does it have to be the best? Is the best for you? or for the consumer segment he targeted? Who's judging?

> I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years.

Do you prefer cold-call? Door-too-door salesman? One of your subscriber emails slip it in?

> Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.

Why is this ruining the internet? 99% of the content is about the SaaS he used to run his businesses and one of them happened to be "X" that he mentioned down the list. He disclose it and he's nothing more than dog-fooding his own stuff.

This is MILESSSS better than anything else out there.

By your litmus-test, YCombinator (and hackernews) have some marketing related ulterior motives as well.

Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#129

Post by shanecleveland »

donmcronald wrote: post #127
qubex wrote: post #53

I’m going to be cynical and applaud the author at one of the most effective S.E.O. efforts I have seen lately: including his own app on a list of effective and well-curated apps for startups.

I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years. Is his app really the best option in that product space? I know most people around here will applaud the effort as clever, but I think it's the type of tactic that's ruining the internet. Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.

>Is his app really the best option in that product space?

He didn't say it was the best. He said he pays for it and uses it. Nothing wrong with dogfooding. I'd be worried if he wasn't using it. And he offers a full disclaimer.

Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business

#130

Post by lubujackson »

donmcronald wrote: post #127
qubex wrote: post #53

I’m going to be cynical and applaud the author at one of the most effective S.E.O. efforts I have seen lately: including his own app on a list of effective and well-curated apps for startups.

I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years. Is his app really the best option in that product space? I know most people around here will applaud the effort as clever, but I think it's the type of tactic that's ruining the internet. Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.

I think it is 100% defensible if they put out a "this is my app" disclaimer, and I personally don't fault anyone for not including that as long as they aren't lying about it. Getting anyone to try a product is hard. If you put in effort to research, organize, share and promote useful domain knowledge and I find the rest of your advice useful, you have provided a decent resume for the app.

Yes, people are always selling you something and that is annoying, but I would much rather an honest post with a small self-serving ad than the alternative which seems to be a top 10 list written by a freelancer for $5 and ranked by referral payouts. Well-researched articles written for no reason are few and far between.

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