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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?

#41

Post by xjones »

the_bear wrote: post #18
xjones wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great job on both of those! Very impressive. I definitely think the SaaS startup is relevant here. I just used the same title as the last thread, but personally I'd like to hear about any sort of recurring revenue. And as someone who's developing their own SaaS product right now, I need all the motivation I can get from others' success stories. I don't wish to pressure you about your metrics, but how long did it take…

There's an internal debate right now about whether or not it makes sense to release specific numbers, but if I have my way, there will be a post on HackerNews in the future explaining exactly how much money we're making, and how we got where we are. For now, here are some things you might find interesting/motivational: -My brother and I started the company about three years ago. We launched an MVP in January 2010. -A…

This is the exact kind of thing I need to read right now. Thank you.

Over 100 new paying customers per month is incredible in my opinion. Especially for what I would guess is one of the most competitive SaaS markets out there. If I can reach that many total customers on my cheapest plan I will be ecstatic.

If you don't mind me asking, what user acquisition channels have you found most effective for selling to small businesses?

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

#42

Post by dangrossman »

I won't go into numbers, but I make a living running http://www.improvely.com , http://www.w3counter.com , and http://www.dialshield.com

Improvely is a monthly subscription with a free trial period, W3Counter is freemium, and DialShield is pay-as-you-go. They are all bootstrapped and profitable.

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

#43

Post by timurtamerlan »

anon_builder wrote: post #22

In august I made about $122,000 from display ads, mostly Adsense. 5-10% of that is spent on stuff like server space and freelance employees. I can imagine that this will not be taken seriously due to lack of details, but for anyone interested, I'm open to answering non-specific questions. Edit: I see 'from what' is also the question; I have a bunch of entertainment related sites.

Few questions, if you dont mind :)

1. How long did it take to reach this level of income?

2. What is the total monthly traffic that generates 122k?

3. How much time does it take to manage the whole thing in its present state?

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

#44

Post by brador »

bdunn wrote: post #34
brador wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the layouts on these SAAS products. Is there a central resource you guys all use for design? Any recommended reading? Websites/blogs?

The winning formula: Headline that keeps people from clicking the back button; subheadline that briefly describes the product; a few bullet points, testimonials, or short blurbs of text describing the benefits of the product; supporting imagery (screenshot); clear call to action (sign up!) I did my own design, but there are plenty of themes out there that could incorporate the above formula and do just as well (or be…

Thanks, And how about for the Saas software itself? I note a lack of pure black text, it's always a dark shade of gray...softens the look nicely. Little touches like that, anywhere those tips come from? Any blogs, forums or such to follow on the design of saas software, specifically webapp deaign?

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

#45

Post by brendino »

A flash game I built in high school (about 7 years ago) went from an average of $30 per month on AdSense to $500 the next month, to $3,600 the month after that due to an unexpected surge in traffic for a keyword for which it ranked #1 on Google. The $3,600 month happened in May, and it has since dropped steadily to about $1,500 a month now. Regardless, it was a nice surprise since the game was just sitting there from when I spent a weekend building it a long time ago.

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

#46

Post by kinkora »

bdunn wrote: post #29

A little over $2700/mo with Planscope ( https://planscope.io ), my SaaS product that's been out since February. I'm averaging about a 8% growth rate month to month, so very excited about how things are going. * Bootstrapped * Raised my consulting rates to free up more time for products (= same amount of consulting income) * Most new customers come via referrals from existing users and organic traffic (via targeted bl…

great job!

These are the sort of success stories from you regular joes that are more common than the typical "1 billion dollar acquisition" startup.

A couple of questions if you don't mind:

a) What technology stack are you using/did you use to develop planscope?

b) How did you deal with scalability?

c) Are you doing everything by yourself? Support, Development, Marketing, etc.

Thanks in advance!

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

#47

Post by brador »

rqphqel wrote: post #26

About $150 per month with http://www.catgifpage.com (growing fast) and 10 bitcoins per month with a speed logo design service, I really enjoy earning money this way!

How about after hosting costs? I took a look at some image sharing sites today, some of the financials are painful to read. Key point is they're hoping for a buyout on the traffic rather than generating revenue themselves. We're talking break evens at 20mb per ad click. Possible for a blog, a balancing act for image sharing.

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

#48

Post by anon_builder »

CWIZO wrote: post #25
anon_builder wrote: post #22

In august I made about $122,000 from display ads, mostly Adsense. 5-10% of that is spent on stuff like server space and freelance employees. I can imagine that this will not be taken seriously due to lack of details, but for anyone interested, I'm open to answering non-specific questions. Edit: I see 'from what' is also the question; I have a bunch of entertainment related sites.

I would love to hear some more on this if you don't mind. If you are making that kind of money, then our company is clearly doing something horribly wrong :)

You're not doing something wrong per se. I started out at the right time in the right niche, that helped me get away with a lot. I started out when in high school, when I had no costs of living, which is a great way to learn risk-free. As a result I now do 'marketing' as well as technical stuff, which keeps margins high, and gives me breadth in all those fields, which, I think, hugely contributes to my success. But mostly it's a matter of right place, right time...

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

#49

Post by timurtamerlan »

brador wrote: post #31
bdunn wrote: post #29

A little over $2700/mo with Planscope ( https://planscope.io ), my SaaS product that's been out since February. I'm averaging about a 8% growth rate month to month, so very excited about how things are going. * Bootstrapped * Raised my consulting rates to free up more time for products (= same amount of consulting income) * Most new customers come via referrals from existing users and organic traffic (via targeted bl…

I love the layouts on these SAAS products. Is there a central resource you guys all use for design? Any recommended reading? Websites/blogs?

Check out http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates - lots of quality ready-to-use templates there

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

#50

Post by TreyS »

cmaxwell wrote: post #33

-$20/mo from http://www.golfingstat.com . Can't get any traffic and the traffic I do get doesn't click on ads. FML

I would have loved this kind of thing when I played junior golf. I spent a lot of time making spreadsheets with all of my statistics. Have you tried marketing towards junior players? AJGA and some of the really competitive junior tours have a lot of serious players who would love to have comprehensive stats on their rounds.
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