I'm curious which paypal product you use, and how it's working out for you?
Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
41–50 of 50 posts
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#42Hi everyone, Author of the blog post here, if you have any questions or feel that I've missed something out, please feel free to ask me :) Previous discussion of part I is here: http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=2471130 Cheers, Tom.
Tom, great series. Quick question -- how do you manage the subscription/billing? You currently have 3 different rates going (the current, and two legacy rates), correct?
I've seen it implemented where a price change is actually a new, separate subscription plan.
So, each plan has an id, and you disallow any new signups for certain plan IDs but still allow them to be active for billing purposes( for older clients).
Only show and allow signups for the new plan IDs.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#43Good article, and I wish you continued and even greater success!
When you try Adwords, keep in mind your CPA (cost per acquisition) profitability should not be judged solely on a single month's price.
If you find out most of your users stick around for 3 months, and you are charging $20/month, the average signup is worth $60. But if you spend $30 in Adwords and get a single signup, and think it isn't profitable because you spend $10 more than the signup, it is a mistake. Over the next two months you will make a $30 profit.
Of course, this is over a three month period. But, if you have enough sign ups in the pipeline, you can see how well this works out.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congratulations, and thanks for the inspiring article. I have had an idea on the go on and off for a while now and this is inspiring me to get off my butt and finish it.
Awesome! I'm properly happy that my post has inspired you :-D Please do one thing in return - let me know how you get on :-)
Sure thing.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#45I love these articles. As much as I respect people who quit their jobs and start wonderful and vast new companies, I don't feel this path is for everyone. It's nice to hear about a success story from someone who has a side project; something that actually does generate small amounts of revenue but doesn't consume the author's life. I would like to have a project like this. Keep the articles coming, I'd love to hear m…
Absolutely, these are giving me inspiration to launch my side projects as products and start my small scale business. Income is small but the amount of diverse stuff you have to deal with is definitely hard to experience if you're not working for a very small startup.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#46Hi everyone, Author of the blog post here, if you have any questions or feel that I've missed something out, please feel free to ask me :) Previous discussion of part I is here: http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=2471130 Cheers, Tom.
Tom, did you design the site?
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#47Good article, and I wish you continued and even greater success! When you try Adwords, keep in mind your CPA (cost per acquisition) profitability should not be judged solely on a single month's price. If you find out most of your users stick around for 3 months, and you are charging $20/month, the average signup is worth $60. But if you spend $30 in Adwords and get a single signup, and think it isn't profitable becau…
Good point.
If the person signs up to the site's mailing list after coming from Adwords, and eventually becomes a member, will Adwords record this conversion?
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#48mootothemax - thanks so much for this series. I loved the first post and was anxiously awaiting this one. It met and exceeded my expectations, packed with great advice and insight. That being said - the language seemed a bit rushed at times. Please run through it and fix grammatical errors - just a nit-picky thing :) Oh, and I have a few quick questions on gaining initial users. Other than mass-mailing bloggers and s…
Thanks for your thanks! :-) Other than mass-mailing bloggers and submitting to twitter directories, what have you done to bring traffic to your site? That's been about the limit of it - attempting to get relevant users visiting the site, as there's no point in getting millions of visitors who have no interest in Twitter tools :-) Also, I'm interested to know unique visitors vs. free users vs. paid users, as I'm sure…
Have you considered reaching out specifically to small businesses who are doing Twitter marketing? Maybe even within your city or state could be a good start.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#49FWIW, I would move the mailing list form out of the main call-to-action area as it visually interferes with the "Try for Free" button. Maybe move it to the black bar below that and center it. Could possibly reduce the size of its elements a bit too.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part II
#50Awesome buddy thnx...