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Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

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Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#51

Post by getsat »

wccrawford wrote: post #3
lutorm wrote: post #2

None. ;-)

Here as well, but after hearing what some of my friends do, and seeing stuff online being done, I keep thinking there's got to be a way to get in on that. Will people really give away the sources of their income? I'm guesses not, since it's possible they could end up with a ton of competitors from it. (Which is why I'm not mentioning what my friends do. It wouldn't be fair to them.)

They will. I tell everyone I know about affiliate marketing and how I make money online, but I will never show anyone any of my websites.

It's too easy for someone of low skill to completely copy your operation. Hurting your own bottom line isn't good for business.

If you want it badly enough, you'll figure out a way to make $1/day online and then scale it to $100/day. If you don't want it badly enough, you'll get nothing and that's exactly what you deserve. It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding when you see the results.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#52

Post by hello_moto »

larrik wrote: post #16

I average about $300 a month from app sales of a paid app and an ad-supported app. (This month is looking better, for some reason) [Edit: I didn't actually say it, but these are iPhone apps] On average, almost all of my income is from app sales, and not from ads or In-App Purchases. I had a Lite version of the paid app, but that seemed to do more harm than good. I have In-App purchases (both to unlock some extra cont…

Mind if I ask you how to get started on iPhone business? (skill, rules, regulation, etc)

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#53

Post by gsiener »

ja27 wrote: post #34

Over the year I average $30 a month - but only with about 30 minutes of work a month. It's sad, but I bet I spend more time checking on that income than I do making it. These are mostly old learning experiences and playgrounds for me and I rarely update them. 60% is from Adsense on a sports-related niche website. I make most of that during a couple bursts related to sports seasons - playoffs, spring training, opening…

"If I really did the SEO and worked on the site I could probably make 5-10 times as much, but I couldn't really grow to other niches."

Ditto on this. http://islostarepeat.com doesn't get much love these days...

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#55

Post by peteretep »

I used to make about $1,200 a month from a website with dating advice on it, via affiliate sales of dating products.

It started off as a Digg-esque site for the vast quantity of dating-related articles on the net based on some custom Perl I hacked together, but I quickly realized that while that was getting me linked by 'dating experts', the traffic it was bringing in didn't convert, where traffic to very generic articles ("How to meet girls at the gym") converted much better.

I tried to make sure it was updated every day, and finding, sourcing, and writing the articles took an hour a day. I ended up selling the site for ~ $16k when I needed some money to pay a tax bill quickly.

There are now so so so many sites farming this kind of content, I think it'd be very hard to reproduce in this field. That said, the affiliate commissions are pretty good - one guy would pay you $40 for every $20 ebook of his that was sold as a result of you (because he figured you'd sent him a paying customer who'd end up spending a lot more with him).

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#56

Post by hnsmurf »

patio11 wrote: post #30
w1ntermute wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Appointment Reminder pays its own way now, but doesn't put a meaningful amount of money in my pocket. Do you think that, given enough time spent developing/marketing it, AR will provide as much recurring income as BCC?

I don't own a hat, but if AR doesn't become larger than BCC, I will buy a hat so that I have one to eat. Aside from being owned by me, though, those two businesses are as alike as a kitten and a kumquat. (e.g. AR could take external investment, something which I am kicking around doing later. BCC would be an extraordinarily poor candidate for it.)

I'd be surprised if you don't do well with AR too. You could probably benefit from an active sales force a lot, though I could certainly understand why one wouldn't want to go down that route. The place I get my hair cut at, for instance, makes dozens of these calls a day yet would probably never hear of your service without a cold call.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#57

Post by statictype »

larrik wrote: post #16

I average about $300 a month from app sales of a paid app and an ad-supported app. (This month is looking better, for some reason) [Edit: I didn't actually say it, but these are iPhone apps] On average, almost all of my income is from app sales, and not from ads or In-App Purchases. I had a Lite version of the paid app, but that seemed to do more harm than good. I have In-App purchases (both to unlock some extra cont…

What are your apps? I didn't see anything mentioned in your profile about it. And how long did it take for your apps to start earning at this steady level?

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#59

Post by h4xnoodle »

Back when I was 13-15 I did some freelance web development (before everyone and their grandma was a freelancer) and made about 300USD a month. This was also back when the American dollar was great, the Canadian dollar sucked, and therefore profit. I made more money doing this than a shitty McDonald's job that I couldn't get because I was too young.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#60

Post by WesleyJohnson »

throwaway94818 wrote: post #31

Between 3000 to 5000 a month USD spending about 10 hours a month on support. Last year, made about $40K. Nothing to sneeze at, but nothing to get too excited about either.

I'd like to know what you do for your normal paycheck (and how much it is) if an extra $40k a year isn't anything to get too excited about. Isn't that close to the median household income in the U.S.?
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