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I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

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Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#241

Post by dvt »

CM30 wrote: post #183
mromnia wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this advice a lot, but I never really understood what the alternative is. If your product has a specific niche, maybe there are some forums or subreddits dedicated to it, sure. But if it's a game? Some are designed for a niche audience, but most really aren't. Another thing is that most of the forums/subreddits these days have strict rules against self-promotion. And I'm not saying that you're wrong - I'm just…

The main things to keep in mind are that: There are far less creators than there are people that merely consume/enjoy/use that kind of content/art/product/service and that Most people who are creators aren't going to be in your target audience, and hence won't buy/use it. Hence by marketing to other creators, you end up marketing to a subset of a subset of your product/game's total audience. As for how you should mar…

Great post! This perfectly complements my reply and expands on how to get your “widget” out there.

Wish you could save posts on HN because this is a gem!

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#242

Post by z3t4 »

laurentdc wrote: post #184

> Don't hire people for stupid things. Adobe cloud is 20 bucks a month, read a few books, watch a few videos and make simple designs yourself. If your thing takes off, you can always hire for better later. This resonates so much. My company hires and outsources for the most stupid things, like, we need to change colors on a design file or move some buttons around? Let's go on Upwork or through our address book, write…

Your company might value your work 100x what they pay you, so they dont want you to do something they can get for 10x what they pay you... For example when you have the plumber, electrician, etc over, you dont ask her to bake you cookies, even though they might be very good at baking cookies.

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#243

Post by monocularvision »

nonines wrote: post #191
mft_ wrote: post #169

Fun article - thanks. The reference to Flask being a pain in the arse made me chuckle. I am a hobbyist python author and have been using Flask for years, doing exactly what you wrote about, with awkward front-end templates and handwritten SQL queries and the rest. I did some basic tutorials on Vue a few weeks ago and it was absolutely mind-blowingly straightforward in comparison!

Excuse my naive question but how do the 2 compare? Flask == backend, Vue == frontend. Am I missing something here?

You can use Flask to render your friend-end HTML and handle form submissions. JavaScript doesn’t have to be involved at all.

You can also render your friend end using JS and interact with services written in Flask.

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#244

Post by sizzle »

kumarvvr wrote: post #181

To be fair, I would re-phrase the author's thought as "I wrote an SaaS product because I believed it would get me rich and I went and scoured the internet for a well that echos my thoughts" The author speaks about exactly one example, that,I guess I can say inspired him to get going with his idea. No, The internet did not convince him. He convinced himself using the internet to find evidence for a conclusion he alrea…

Confirmation bias?

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#245

Post by nonines »

monocularvision wrote: post #243
nonines wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excuse my naive question but how do the 2 compare? Flask == backend, Vue == frontend. Am I missing something here?

You can use Flask to render your friend-end HTML and handle form submissions. JavaScript doesn’t have to be involved at all. You can also render your friend end using JS and interact with services written in Flask.

thanks

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#247

Post by pdubs1 »

zeroc8 wrote: post #155

The problem we have is market saturation of basically everything. The winners take it all. If I had a chance to do it all over again, I'd probably just learn a trade, like electrician, bricklayer or plumber. They don't seem to run out of work.

If you're in the USA, you're in luck-- We have data to demonstrate whether or not that occupation, this, that, or the other... is a good choice--

Behold: The Bureau of Labor Statistics!!!

10 Fastest Growing jobs in the USA--

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm

IT Security & App Developer occupations have approximately 30% growth rates over the next 10 years.

Wages and projected openings by occupation--

https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2019/article/wages-and-ope...

IT & Computer related occupations, in aggregate, have 250k-300k openings each year in the USA.

(Note: You can find those other occupations in the 2nd link-- it shows wages vs. job openings for many types of occupations)

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#248

Post by lamby »

> Ferreira spent less time doing labour-intensive web design and more time searching for the cold fusion of internet marketing: "passive income."

— Corey Pein: How to get rich quick in Silicon Valley (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/17/get-rich-quick-...)

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#249

Post by balsamiq »

cheez wrote: post #41
dvt wrote: post #39

This is a pretty good atticle, and the product is actually quite solid (maybe a tad overpriced), but this right here is a rookie mistake: > In January, 2019 I launched to HackerNews and some subreddits ... Really? That's a "launch" these days? At least scrounge up a few hundred bucks and throw up some Facebook ads. Reddit and Hacker News have some of the most cynical and thrifty readers out there. Networking and gett…

The best indie launch I've seen was the initial launch of Balsamiq. It was played off as "meh" by Peldi but it was masterful. I had launched a product 2 years before and until then, I couldn't understand what I did wrong. I obsessed over what he did. Every single thing. Trying to find where he got "lucky". There was no luck.

Geez @cheez ;) thanks for the kind words. I do still believe there was a fair amount of luck involved, but I'm glad my writing was useful to you.

Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich

#250

Post by balsamiq »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #102
cheez wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best indie launch I've seen was the initial launch of Balsamiq. It was played off as "meh" by Peldi but it was masterful. I had launched a product 2 years before and until then, I couldn't understand what I did wrong. I obsessed over what he did. Every single thing. Trying to find where he got "lucky". There was no luck.

Peldi is just super friendly and a superhero with customer support. I believe that played a big role in the beginning, and perhaps later. I knew Peldi from the Flash days. Met him once or twice in SFO, and he has an infectious smile and was super friendly. Once, one of our team was showing me Balsamiq and they all liked it. I tried and it was super easy to use. I went to buy the license or I went to ask how to buy it…

Brajeshwar! It's good to come across you on the internet again, it's been a while! I hope you're doing great, and thanks for the kind words.
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