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Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

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Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#31

It can't be that easy otherwise everyone would build 10 or 20 of them and retire.

If it takes you one year to get that product to $1K/month, then you'll need 20 years... But you have to consider that in 20 years, some of your apps will die and also managing 20 apps and customers is a headache.

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#33
post #32

A person asking such a question shouldnt be building stuff for profit in the first place.

What are better questions to be asking?

(Serious question. I suck at asking questions that get me useful answers. I have some websites that have been around a while and make next to nothing in spite of having something of value to offer. I want to make $2000-$3000/mo. How on earth do I get there from here?)

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#34

Is it hard to write a story or make a film that people will watch? Same thing, just a bit different. "Everyone" seems to know the answer, but the truth is nobody knows. Because everyone would do it then.

I agree in part with your cimment but even if everybody knew how to do it, not everybody would. Compare: basic healthy habits.

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#35
post #33
post #32

A person asking such a question shouldnt be building stuff for profit in the first place.

What are better questions to be asking? (Serious question. I suck at asking questions that get me useful answers. I have some websites that have been around a while and make next to nothing in spite of having something of value to offer. I want to make $2000-$3000/mo. How on earth do I get there from here?)

You can start by being specific. There's no generic answer here. You can't really try to understand "succeeding at businesses" in the abstract. You have to do things on a case-by-case basis. So if you ask about one of your _specific_ sites, people can help you.

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are better questions to be asking? (Serious question. I suck at asking questions that get me useful answers. I have some websites that have been around a while and make next to nothing in spite of having something of value to offer. I want to make $2000-$3000/mo. How on earth do I get there from here?)

You can start by being specific. There's no generic answer here. You can't really try to understand "succeeding at businesses" in the abstract. You have to do things on a case-by-case basis. So if you ask about one of your _specific_ sites, people can help you.

Okay. How would one get more quality traffic with this specific challenge: It's a health site where I talk about getting myself well when doctors claim it cannot be done. The rest of the world thinks it cannot be done either so it's a hard sell.

So far, I have been working on building an audience painfully slowly. Since I am also working on getting myself well, content does not go up as regularly as I would like. My feeling has been this is probably a good thing for now because the first thing I have to do is win over my audience and the world just does not believe this can be done. Maybe I am completely wrong (about needing to build the audience this way)? But without participating in email lists and hearing what other people are asking, I also don't really know what to talk about -- I don't just psychically know what is different about what I am doing compared to other people. So for me that relationship to the audience is important and there has been a huge barrier for a long time. It is gradually coming down. Maybe I do know exactly what I am doing and it just takes time. Or maybe I am an idiot and someone else would have no problem slapping some content onto the site and generating an income.

Thoughts?

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#38

Questions like this, "what should I build", and "which language should I use", and etc make me cringe when I read them. Asking questions is awesome, but these just don't seem to be productive. His question isn't related to building a web app at all, he just wants to know if he built that app, could it make $1k+ per month. Plus, any answer(s) given will likely just fuel his planning, and not execution.

In his defense I know lots of developers doing small webapps they intend to keep on life support and not actively work at growing in an attempt to hit their magic mark for what their monthly budget / expenses are. This may not be the attitude of the majority of HNers but lots of people would be happy with a way to make 2500$ a month for themselves... Just enough to maintain a modest quality of life in the midwest.

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#39
post #27
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal - yes, but for a lot of us not really justifiable. I'd rather flip burgers.

And a lot of people would rather consume porn rather than those burgers. It's all subjective and down to personal taste. He makes a good point about not being downvoted simply for the market he's chosen.

Because lot of people would rather consume porn rather than burger, and those same people would rather flip burgers rather than produce porn, is why porn is so profitable.

If that was not the case, porn would have been as cheap as dozons of say, ERP applications.

Re: Is it hard to build a web app that makes at least $1000 a month?

#40
What does a "recurring billing system" do? I'm new to this, but all I did for now was to store PayPal's (actually the clone that exists in my country) transactions in my database, and bump the "good_until" timestamp when a new payment is received (via POST in my case).
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