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My 10 Year Side Project Story

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Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#21

Post by hbn »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #13
hbn wrote: post #12

I made a very small and simple scraper utility for a photo sharing website (it's one of those sites that doesn't let you download through the app or easily on the website, similar to Instagram). Grab the link, throw it in a box on my site, and it gives you the full-res image you can right click -> download. It's doing pretty decent in traffic, ranking around number 4 in a fairly generic search for this utility, and g…

Donation button in a visible but non-intrusive spot. Share a little bit about yourself to humanize. It will probably make you more than the ads.

That's worth a shot, I'll consider it. Thanks!

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#22

Post by hbn »

jonathanberger wrote: post #19
hbn wrote: post #12

I made a very small and simple scraper utility for a photo sharing website (it's one of those sites that doesn't let you download through the app or easily on the website, similar to Instagram). Grab the link, throw it in a box on my site, and it gives you the full-res image you can right click -> download. It's doing pretty decent in traffic, ranking around number 4 in a fairly generic search for this utility, and g…

I had trouble getting AdSense "interested" also. Depending on what Adsense is telling you I'd have varying suggestions if ads were still the way you wanted to go. The best ways I know to monetize something for consumers: ads, app stores, donation buttons. I tried an iPhone app to monetize the time zone converter but in my case the ad performed better. I tried a donation button for a few weeks and it brought in more t…

Thanks for the reply! The reasoning Adsense gave for rejecting me seemed kinda difficult to disprove for my site. Here's the exact rejection reason:

> Google-served ads on screens without publisher-content

> We do not allow Google-served ads on screens:

> * without content or with low value content,

> * that are under construction,

> * that are used for alerts, navigation or other behavioral purposes

I'm thinking I'd probably fall into the first category. From the research I did, it seems like they want actual unique content, like a blog or something. Though if you managed to get a single-purpose-serving site onto Adsense, it gives me hope maybe I could as well. I might look into it again. The donation button seems worth a shot too. Thanks!

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#23

Post by jonathanberger »

hbn wrote: post #22
jonathanberger wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had trouble getting AdSense "interested" also. Depending on what Adsense is telling you I'd have varying suggestions if ads were still the way you wanted to go. The best ways I know to monetize something for consumers: ads, app stores, donation buttons. I tried an iPhone app to monetize the time zone converter but in my case the ad performed better. I tried a donation button for a few weeks and it brought in more t…

Thanks for the reply! The reasoning Adsense gave for rejecting me seemed kinda difficult to disprove for my site. Here's the exact rejection reason: > Google-served ads on screens without publisher-content > We do not allow Google-served ads on screens: > * without content or with low value content, > * that are under construction, > * that are used for alerts, navigation or other behavioral purposes I'm thinking I'd…

Try the following:

1. Have at least 3 ideally 5 text-heavy pages on your site. 500 words minimum each. Tell your backstory, explain the advantages of your product, create an FAQ, ...

2. Make sure the site has a navigation bar somewhere with links to the basics that most sites have: an About page, maybe a short privacy policy, a contact page.

3. The site can't look broken or have "coming soon" anywhere. It helps if the site has been given a "fresh coat of paint" from a designer.

I don't know for sure, but the feeling I get is some human at Google has a scorecard and they go and check your site. Google won't reveal the actual scorecard because it'd become too easy to game, but the things above are what I've learned through the process.

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#24

Post by debarshri »

xupybd wrote: post #15

"another said it should have taken an hour not a weekend to create." I hate comments like that. Maybe someone could make it in less time but I suspect the commenter hadn't even tried. Why throw your estimate out there as better than someone's real effort? That level of arrogance is frustrating.

I used to be of mindset where I used to think why did people take months or years for something which I thought would have considerably less time. Until I started building my own product. Building something with insights, care, robustness and building something right is function of time and money. Therefore as an indie dev, take your time to build it. Rushing a solution and doing a half ass job often backfires when you reveal it to the world.

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#25

Post by thrashh »

xupybd wrote: post #15

"another said it should have taken an hour not a weekend to create." I hate comments like that. Maybe someone could make it in less time but I suspect the commenter hadn't even tried. Why throw your estimate out there as better than someone's real effort? That level of arrogance is frustrating.

I think it’s because some people grew up having to make time estimates and deciding whether to do something based on the estimate.

If they were in the same boat, they might have not done it if they expected it to take a weekend.

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#26

Post by travisgriggs »

> The site now has more than a million visitors a month and earns a nice side income from a small ad.

So when it says that, what does that mean? It pays for hosting costs I assume. Are we talking enough to pay for a couple of meals out a month? Or enough to retire on?

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#27

Post by hbn »

jonathanberger wrote: post #23
hbn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply! The reasoning Adsense gave for rejecting me seemed kinda difficult to disprove for my site. Here's the exact rejection reason: > Google-served ads on screens without publisher-content > We do not allow Google-served ads on screens: > * without content or with low value content, > * that are under construction, > * that are used for alerts, navigation or other behavioral purposes I'm thinking I'd…

Try the following: 1. Have at least 3 ideally 5 text-heavy pages on your site. 500 words minimum each. Tell your backstory, explain the advantages of your product, create an FAQ, ... 2. Make sure the site has a navigation bar somewhere with links to the basics that most sites have: an About page, maybe a short privacy policy, a contact page. 3. The site can't look broken or have "coming soon" anywhere. It helps if th…

Seems like sound advice. I'll definitely be trying it in the near future. Thanks a lot!

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#28

Post by jonathanberger »

travisgriggs wrote: post #26

> The site now has more than a million visitors a month and earns a nice side income from a small ad. So when it says that, what does that mean? It pays for hosting costs I assume. Are we talking enough to pay for a couple of meals out a month? Or enough to retire on?

It means I didn't want to get too specific about the amount involved. But I can see there's lots of interest in this question.

I wonder actually if something like https://www.levels.fyi could be built or exists but for ad-supported websites (side project idea?). It'd be really useful for people to understand more broadly "if you create site of type x and it gets y amount of traffic you can expect this level of ad revenue".

One reason the amount involved in my case would only be so useful is that sites can wildly vary (by as much as 100x I'm told) in how much $ per visit is generated (the industry term is "RPM").

Re: My 10 Year Side Project Story

#29

Post by sneilan1 »

sloreti wrote: post #14

As someone with a couple side projects kicking around, enjoy posts like this. Would you be willing to share what kind of ad revenue a tool like this can generate with 1M views per month?

Check out https://www.google.com/adsense/start/#calculator The numbers on this seem inflated though. From what I've googled/read, I've seen numbers as low as $1k/month per 1 million pageviews. Unsure if number of unique visitors effects that number however.
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