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Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

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Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#171

Post by akfaew »

I see that your tool is mentioned constantly in online forums: https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=site%3Areddit.com+O... - that's 526 results. I suggest keeping an eye on those mentions and reply to any questions someone might have, or clear up any misconceptions.

You might think it's silly to interact directly like this for a product priced at $1, but keep in mind Reddit and Hacker News have very good SEO, so these questions (with your answers) will pop up when people search for your, or similar, tools online.

Moreover, for the same reason, you can monitor your competitors and recommend your tool when you have the advantage.

I don't think that at your price point ads will work for you.

I recommend that approach because that's what I've been helping people do for the past year. I'm the founder of Syften (https://syften.com). I'm happy to onboard you personally, I've sent you an email.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#174

Post by sanity31415 »

codethief wrote: post #136

Incredible project! I've been using custom email aliases for the better part of the last decade (I'm running my own mail server) but it never occurred to me that this could be a profitable business. My main pain point with my current setup is the following: It takes a few minutes to set up a new email alias. I therefore wonder: How long does it take with your service? Would your users maybe appreciate an app (a super…

Hi and thank you for the compliment!

It takes no time at all to set up a new email alias, you just make up an alias and it will be created automatically the first time it is used, it couldn't be easier.

Most of our users rarely login to our website.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#175

Post by sanity31415 »

akfaew wrote: post #171

I see that your tool is mentioned constantly in online forums: https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=site%3Areddit.com+O... - that's 526 results. I suggest keeping an eye on those mentions and reply to any questions someone might have, or clear up any misconceptions. You might think it's silly to interact directly like this for a product priced at $1, but keep in mind Reddit and Hacker News have very good SEO, so…

Hi, thank you for the feedback - yes, we do get quite a bit of positive mentions in online forums, we try to keep an eye out for them but we could be better about that.

Syften looks interesting, I don't think I've received an email from you yet though - did you send to ian [at] 33mail [dot] com? We can also be reached at support@.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#176

Post by bskinny129 »

syats wrote: post #124
bskinny129 wrote: post #49

Definitely double the prices right now. Since there is a free version that is generous, it won’t be “selling out”. I’m sure it felt right back years ago, but think of how much the product has improved since then. You can grandfather all current customers in (or just a year) if it makes it feel better. I am impressed by that video from 99designs. How much did you spend? Do you have a link to their profile?

This is basically saying: "You got them hooked, now squeeze every cent you can out of them", which I think is very dishonest advice. There is at least one costumer who won't (or can't) pay a penny more than they are currently paying, and "experimenting with prices" would be like telling them: "well, go away, there's a guy here in line with more dough than you". Given the very-skewed distribution of wealth, this line…

Let me explain a bit more. I don't suggest raising prices for early customers who are receiving the same product they signed up for originally. They can stay at the same price, which is grandfathering them in.

More typical though is Customer 1 signs up in 2015 when the product had features AB. Then in 2018 the product adds feature C. Is it fair to raise prices on them? Maybe, maybe not. In this case, I would still recommend today doubling prices for all new customers. You can go back to Customer 1 and say either:

1) we raised prices, but since you are an early supporter you get the current price for life with features ABC (if feature D is added, don't give it to them for free, they have to upgrade to the new pricing).

2) we raised prices since adding feature C is providing more value, but as an early supporter we are going to keep you at the original rate for 1 more year.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#177

Post by sanity31415 »

Throwaway1771 wrote: post #68
sanity31415 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, agreed - making it mobile friendly is fairly high on the todo list.

Are you taking portfolios/examples/resumes for help with this?

We'll take a look for sure, although at $8k/mo in revenue our budget is fairly limited. You're welcome to send to ian [at] 33mail [dot] com.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#178

Post by sanity31415 »

mysterydip wrote: post #146

Just checked it out and I love how easy it is. I was thinking I would have to handle the hassle of account management by logging into your site every time I wanted to make or delete an alias, but the fact that creation is automatic and removal is a click away in the message itself makes it really painless. My only suggestion is (at least on my phone browser) there's a couple spots on the "how does it work?" where two…

Thanks for the compliment and the feedback :)

Agree re: wordsrunningtogether on the front page, that will be fixed shortly. We'll also think about how we can provide more visibility into how the bandwidth limits translate to reality, I've added it to our todo list.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#179

Post by pdog »

sanity31415 wrote: post #54
BronSteeDiam wrote: post #45

I'm an early user of your service, and I love it. The only problem I have is it's too cheap! I paid almost nothing for it years ago ($12?) I'm worried about relying to heavily on a service that might go out of business any day. Can you convert to a SaaS and let happy users like me support you.

Thank you for being an early user :) We're not going out of business, don't worry - 33mail is profitable even at our current surprisingly low monthly cost :) If you don't mind, what would you consider a fair price for the service? What features would we need to add to convert to a SaaS?

My friend is a SaaS pricing expert. She normally charges upwards of $578 USD per hour for her consulting services, but she was happy to take a look at your site for free.

Here are some of her recommendations:

* Lite should be called Free and it should be lower on the Pricing page compared to the paid plans.

* Paid plans should segment customers by value.

* Premium and Pro plans can be combined into one Premium plan for $29 per month minimum.

* Enterprise pricing should be on request ("Call Us") or $249 per month minimum.

* You should be price testing via list offers.

Re: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue

#180

Post by sanity31415 »

LaundroMat wrote: post #173

Congratulations for committing to your project and letting it grown organically! How long did it take before the first signup?

Thank you :)

Just looking in our user DB, we had 6 signups on day 1, 35 on day 2, and 120 in the first week.

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