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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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

#61

Post by abnercoimbre »

sova wrote: post #25

Teaching my girlfriend Japanese inadvertently lead to the creation of a whole new curriculum and style of language teaching which I have been embodying in https://japanesecomplete.com/ Originally the idea was to create a new textbook, but I found it easier to pair lessons with browser-based multiple choice quizzes that would hit the material home. Given the success of the first student, I thought it might be somethin…

Wow, I wonder if your series will help me? I'm on a sabbatical and one of the goals is to complete my Japanese studies -- been learning on and off since I was 14.

I'm intermediate and can hold my own okay-ish conversationally, but I need practice scenarios and to strengthen my jōyō kanji.

Most textbooks are taxing because they start from basics and it takes a while to find the practice I need. Advanced textbooks give me little practice and make too many assumptions.

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

#62

Post by Endlessly »

zapstar wrote: post #47

Define "success"... I make a few bucks a day from https://unitprice.org and it doesn't require any effort from me on a day-to-day basis. (I calculate the best price per unit on Amazon for a variety of different products, so the money I make from the affiliate links is typically enough to cover the cost of hosting plus an extra Lego set or two for my son.) Sadly, I have seen an uptick in revenue as a result of COVID-1…

I mean, if you’re really concerned about people buying more than they need, just so say on your site - obviously a valid concern and don’t think any reasonable person would be offended by a reminder that everyone can make a difference by individually making an effort to do what’s right for them AND everyone else too.

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

#63

Post by shrimpx »

pieterhg wrote: post #29

I run Nomad List and Remote OK by myself. Nomad List brings in ~$336,000/y with 972,480/mo pageviews and Remote OK ~$301,000/y with ~628,210/mo pageviews. I do everything myself from coding, designing, front end, back end, marketing, etc. I have one person on emergency call in case the server goes down when I sleep but that hasn't happened in years. You can see live revenue/traffic here, as I share it all: https://no…

This is awesome. Shouldn't this be every engineer's dream? Why do someone else's bidding in a boring corporate megastructure, or in a startup bullied by sharky venture capitalists into making a compromised product, and making less money while at it? I hope in the future we see an explosion of VC-less bootstrapped tech companies and microSaaS. The desire is there, for sure, but the courage is lacking. More examples like this will inspire courage. Thanks!

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

#64

Post by Endlessly »

niccolop wrote: post #59

Isn't there a whole community dedicated to this: indiehackers.com

IndieHackers was inspired by posts on HN just like this, got a lot of traction marketing it here, and was acquired by a YC startup too; basically, IndieHackers is an unofficial YC spin-off.

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

#65

Post by spdebbarma »

pieterhg wrote: post #29

I run Nomad List and Remote OK by myself. Nomad List brings in ~$336,000/y with 972,480/mo pageviews and Remote OK ~$301,000/y with ~628,210/mo pageviews. I do everything myself from coding, designing, front end, back end, marketing, etc. I have one person on emergency call in case the server goes down when I sleep but that hasn't happened in years. You can see live revenue/traffic here, as I share it all: https://no…

Hi Pieter,

Thank you for sharing your story again.

I am one of your biggest admirers and you have been a constant source of inspiration for me for a very long time. I'm currently working on my MVP to do something similar to you.

Thank you so much for everything. Hope to catch up for coffee or something when it all clears.

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

#66

Post by dustball15 »

Running Raccoon as a one one show:

https://raccoon.onyxbits.de/

It's a privacy solution that allows you to download apps from Google Play without having Big G claw into your smartphone.

The tech stack is quite extensive: Java for the application itself (Eclipse toolchain), LAMP for hosting the billing system (build on php, bootstrap and fatfree) and the website (build with Hugo using bootstrap).

COVID-19 hit hard. Even though I see more downloads, people seem to have become cautious with spending money.

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

#68

Post by pieterhg »

shrimpx wrote: post #63
pieterhg wrote: post #29

I run Nomad List and Remote OK by myself. Nomad List brings in ~$336,000/y with 972,480/mo pageviews and Remote OK ~$301,000/y with ~628,210/mo pageviews. I do everything myself from coding, designing, front end, back end, marketing, etc. I have one person on emergency call in case the server goes down when I sleep but that hasn't happened in years. You can see live revenue/traffic here, as I share it all: https://no…

This is awesome. Shouldn't this be every engineer's dream? Why do someone else's bidding in a boring corporate megastructure, or in a startup bullied by sharky venture capitalists into making a compromised product, and making less money while at it? I hope in the future we see an explosion of VC-less bootstrapped tech companies and microSaaS. The desire is there, for sure, but the courage is lacking. More examples li…

I think so! I do think more people should try to build their own thing and monetize it.

But then I also have to add there is probability involved in here. I'm rational enough to understand it's a probability equation of who actually makes it to the other side and can sustainably pay their bills with something they made for a long period of time. Most fail, some do okay and a few do really well.

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

#69

Post by julee04 »

Axsuul wrote: post #48

I run Trunk[1][2] which is a SaaS that helps businesses manage and sync their inventory in real-time between everywhere they sell (e.g. Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace, Square, Faire). It's my main source of income. Starting out, I got my first 10 customers for Trunk by talking to users on e-commerce forums and focusing only on features that would help solve their problem. I didn't have any account managemen…

This type of tool is really interesting. I have a couple of questions related to this:

1. What are the alternatives if they don't use a service like Trunk? 2. What have you seen as the "source of truth" for inventory? Is it Trunk or one of the services that Trunk connects to?

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

#70

Post by Method5440 »

aacook wrote: post #60
andygcook wrote: post #4

Plugging my brother's one-person business because he'll be too humble to post himself: https://nanagram.co The product allows you to send pictures in the mail to your loved ones via SMS. It works great for getting fresh photos to your grandparents who might not be super savvy with a computer. My brother started it a few years ago and makes enough now to keep it going. Probably is the classic definition of a lifestyle…

Thanks for sharing, brother! I would like to take this moment to give a big shout-out to the USPS. NanaGram wouldn't exist without the postal service, in the US and abroad. Apparently, the USPS is struggling financially right now. You can help the USPS by buying stamps, which you can order online [1]. If you're new to the old-school hobby of letter-writing, I wrote some guides [2] to help you figure out how much post…

Absolutely love the idea of this service.

Trying to sign up now, site is returning a blank page near the end of account creation.

Hopefully this is a good sign and you’re seeing the HN spike. Either way, thank you for making this a thing.

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