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I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

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Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#61

Post by cornfieldlabs »

parpfish wrote: post #50

tangential question for the HN side-project crowd: i have lots of ideas for fun little side projects that would never be revenue generating. i'll go on a tear and start building it, but when it comes time to figure out how much it'd cost each month for domains/cloud services/etc I talk myself out of it. I'm not talking about big LLM bills here, just things like $25/month for the database, $10-50/year for a domain, et…

I have had a single cheapest ec2 server at 5$ per month and hosted both db and server in it. Sqlite for db so easy to back up. It didn't contain any important data though.

I ran many projects in it

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#62

Post by cornfieldlabs »

parpfish wrote: post #54
donatj wrote: post #25

I created a rule almost ten years ago that I won't buy the domain until I actually have something to host, and it's done me reasonably well. I however have a similar but more expensive problem, I develop side projects to an MVP and leave them up for literal decades with no one but myself using them, paying for the domain and hosting. I can't let things go. I rewrote a number of things in Go recently so they could sca…

if i search for a domain and it's available, i feel unreasonable pressure to buy it IMMEDIATELY. I'm paranoid that some squatter can tell which domains i'm searching for and they'll swoop in and get it as soon as they know there's one interested party

> I'm paranoid that some squatter can tell which domains i'm searching

Don't search on GoDaddy. I read somewhere GoDaddy raises the prices of high value domains by choosing them from searches

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#63

Post by titusjohnson »

parpfish wrote: post #50

tangential question for the HN side-project crowd: i have lots of ideas for fun little side projects that would never be revenue generating. i'll go on a tear and start building it, but when it comes time to figure out how much it'd cost each month for domains/cloud services/etc I talk myself out of it. I'm not talking about big LLM bills here, just things like $25/month for the database, $10-50/year for a domain, et…

I have an old Mac mini in a closet that runs Ubuntu and serves as a Dokku [1] host. My side projects run for free and are accessible inside my network or if I'm on VPN. If the project gets enough love eventually it'll graduate to public hosting and the transition is easy because the app is already built with deployment in mind.

I have saved so much money over the years just not having to pay $20/mo * IDEA_QTY. The Mac mini doesn't take much power and is dead silent.

[1] https://dokku.com

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#64

Post by kassner »

Thankfully I got domain-sober before the 2012 gTLD round, otherwise I’d have gone bankrupt from renewal fees.

A tip to everyone: subdomains are free, and you can set up a 301 redirect once the project gets some traction. As others have mentioned, I only buy a domain once there is some traction, or when I start getting organic/indirectly referred traffic.

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#65

Post by deadbabe »

hellojesus wrote: post #42
deadbabe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I doubt this. You can learn endlessly and never get any closer to succeeding in something. It’s like the developer equivalent of people who keep reading business books and case studies and going to network events because they want to start a business. After 1 or 2 failed side projects, you should have learned roughly 80% of what you need to know. A few more might get you the next 20%, but 17 failed projects…

> Otherwise you spend your whole life chasing something that will probably never happen, and avoiding better opportunities. I'm also have a decent graveyard of domains. I've all but accepted that I'll never create anything of value in my life or even anything awesome. But the dark side of that is now there's no point to being alive, so I'm planning to die. What are these better opportunities you referenced? Anything…

A life is still worth living even if you never make anything of value or awesome. Find something you don’t understand at all, and feels impossible, and try to understand it. Repeat until you die or find something else you want to do.

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#66

Post by 8200_unit »

I am in a similar boat. My problem is that once I lose momentum on a project I have no interest in every revisiting the work I have done. Sometimes it is a full day of coding, sometimes it is a couple continuous days coding. Once I break away from the computer and start living life it feels like to much work to load all of the project back into my brain. I would finish more projects if I didn't have friends, family, a house, or a life and sometimes I wish for that.

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#67

Post by perilunar »

hellojesus wrote: post #42
deadbabe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I doubt this. You can learn endlessly and never get any closer to succeeding in something. It’s like the developer equivalent of people who keep reading business books and case studies and going to network events because they want to start a business. After 1 or 2 failed side projects, you should have learned roughly 80% of what you need to know. A few more might get you the next 20%, but 17 failed projects…

> Otherwise you spend your whole life chasing something that will probably never happen, and avoiding better opportunities. I'm also have a decent graveyard of domains. I've all but accepted that I'll never create anything of value in my life or even anything awesome. But the dark side of that is now there's no point to being alive, so I'm planning to die. What are these better opportunities you referenced? Anything…

You may never create a successful web business but that’s a long way from never creating anything of value.

By definition most people lead mediocre lives — few doing anything extraordinary. What makes it ‘bearable’ are the simple things: family, friends, work, hobbies, helping other people, contributing to society, etc.

Planning to end it because life seems pointless is depression. Please get professional help.

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#68

Post by jonplackett »

geldedus wrote: post #39
jonplackett wrote: post #7

I have now reached the point where I won’t buy the domain name until I get a prototype ready. I’ve only bought one domain name since then and got the project out! I think the domain name is your reward for finishing your minimum viable product.

never bought a domain until i had the first production version ready

So pessimistic

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#69

Post by matt_opmistro »

At least you've got the building + pivoting down!

Looking back, how do you think you did on the marketing/sales front? I don't mean the results of the efforts but I mean the input front.

Curious if those pivots were caused because the problem addressed wasn't painful enough, the solutions didn't address that pain well enough, or if it was simply distribution.

If the former two, I imagine it's only a matter of time until you strike gold. But if it's the final third, there's a chance one of the 17 could have worked out well.

Re: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

#70

Post by ChemiSpan »

niklasbabel wrote: post #53

tldr: looking for a partner i know how to start. i know how to ship. i don’t know how to pick what’s worth staying with. and i still don’t know what my next thing is. i’ve shipped real SaaS apps. – https://truereviews.co // OAuth-based verified customer reviews. – https://refersend.com // Referral tracking via email for non-digital industries. – https://postpov.com AI-powered content machine for professionals with AI…

> i sprint hard. i get it live. i stall. > b/c promotion/selling burns me out way more than building

Describes me perfectly. Engineer with 7 years exp and can build anything. Let me know if you'd want to chat.

My most recent project: deepswe.io

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