Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#11

Post by bosslee » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:09 PM UTC

ada1981 wrote: post #3

1)set up an affiliate deal with a service that turns the photos into real products and integrate with their API. Send them the photo, and then give them the option to buy a print / hat / sticker / skin / etc. 2) you can use display ads from other networks in your email news letter if you want to try that, but it's a pretty abstracted revenue stream 3) sponsorships are much better than ads on low traffic properties..…

thanks for the reply and suggestions. I agreed and feels that sponsorships (in this case) might work better for me. JV is definitely something interesting for me to try out too.

I realised that dkokelley and you shared a common advice for me and that is to grow the users first. I totally agreed with that.

This is my first web app too. So I also I like to ask in your opinion and dkokelley how long would you give your pdt/service a chance to reach product market fit? Currently I have on 30 signups. What if after 3 months it stands at 300 users? Do you use number of users as a metric?

Thank you :D

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#12

Post by elohesra » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:11 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #9

I think you are getting way ahead of yourself in some aspects, as of yet you have not done anything to make your service 'sticky or viral'. How about this: Create a website called "Life goes on..." (or something like that, 'It wasn't that bad really' also conveys the sentiment). In your newsletter send a few news headlines for the day that the regurgitated instagram picture was taken. Invite your subscribers to post…

Wow, that's possibly the most hilariously offensive idea I've heard of in some time. Given your lionization of the man, you clearly care about Mandela, so imagine the product you're suggesting: a big picture of Mandela with some sort of respectful, eulogizing headline, next to which is a picture of a lolcat with some glib pun, and the -- almost sarcastic -- title 'Life goes on' above both.

The mental picture alone is amusingly objectionable.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#13

Post by bosslee » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:15 PM UTC

brunorsini wrote: post #10

I would frame this slightly differently: "How can I make these emails absolutely delightful to users?" Once you nail this you should make it dead simple for happy users to recommend the service to their friends. As for monetizing the happy and (hopefully) growing base... It won't be easy but I would focus on your main strength: unlike most advertisement inventory you have people's email addresses, which could give yo…

hey :D amazon affiliate link is a great idea too, and you are right that I would need to make it transparent for the users. Maybe I could also test on the following hypothesis that "people who loves using-smart phone for photos, might be interested in camera pdts as well" - I could be sharing some of the camera items I brought off amazon.

And I really like the way you rephase my question."How can I make these emails absolutely delightful to users?"

Thanks

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#14

Post by jamesdeer » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:19 PM UTC

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#15

Post by bosslee » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:21 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #9

I think you are getting way ahead of yourself in some aspects, as of yet you have not done anything to make your service 'sticky or viral'. How about this: Create a website called "Life goes on..." (or something like that, 'It wasn't that bad really' also conveys the sentiment). In your newsletter send a few news headlines for the day that the regurgitated instagram picture was taken. Invite your subscribers to post…

you are right, I might be getting ahead of myself. Because tbh I only have 30 users right now :D But I thought it would be good to have a propose business model in mind before moving deeper into the project.

As for the site to allow users to repost their image > I like this. Maybe I can create a tumblr site and allow users to submit photos.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#16

Post by wellboy » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:26 PM UTC

Give your users a link where they can print out their Instagram photo and partner up with Instacanvas. That's what I advise everybody having a business based on Instagram. Making money online with Instagram is just not worth, however, going for physical products is.

They make millions of $$ with it and it's such an easy business.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/instacanvas-launches-global...

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#17

Post by Theodores » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 5:50 PM UTC

elohesra wrote: post #12

Theodores wrote: post #9

I think you are getting way ahead of yourself in some aspects, as of yet you have not done anything to make your service 'sticky or viral'. How about this: Create a website called "Life goes on..." (or something like that, 'It wasn't that bad really' also conveys the sentiment). In your newsletter send a few news headlines for the day that the regurgitated instagram picture was taken. Invite your subscribers to post…

Wow, that's possibly the most hilariously offensive idea I've heard of in some time. Given your lionization of the man, you clearly care about Mandela, so imagine the product you're suggesting: a big picture of Mandela with some sort of respectful, eulogizing headline, next to which is a picture of a lolcat with some glib pun, and the -- almost sarcastic -- title 'Life goes on' above both. The mental picture alone is…

Actually we have that already in newspapers.

Do you want me to dig out the Daily Mail front page with the President doing a selfie, Miley Cyrus twerking and an X factor winner doing something pointless?

I am proposing something far less objectionable to that which passes as 'normal' for the media.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#18

Post by bonemachine » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 6:46 PM UTC

If you want to spike traffic, you can always follow the good example of Ron Paul & Associates, and start peppering your articles with random racial, homophobic and other gratuitous provocations. Don't overthink it, and don't make it too obvious; instead aim for approaches more oblique and back-handed, in the spirt of, e.g.:

“If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.”

You can also try opening with catchy titles like "The Disappearing White Majority." The idea is that, sure, such tactics will probably offend some people, but they will also generate controversy and get you talked about. And if you get flack from anyone over it, you can always claim it was the work of junior staffers, and that you had "honestly do not know" who might have said those things.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#19

Post by elohesra » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 7:00 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #17

elohesra wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's possibly the most hilariously offensive idea I've heard of in some time. Given your lionization of the man, you clearly care about Mandela, so imagine the product you're suggesting: a big picture of Mandela with some sort of respectful, eulogizing headline, next to which is a picture of a lolcat with some glib pun, and the -- almost sarcastic -- title 'Life goes on' above both. The mental picture alone is…

Actually we have that already in newspapers. Do you want me to dig out the Daily Mail front page with the President doing a selfie, Miley Cyrus twerking and an X factor winner doing something pointless? I am proposing something far less objectionable to that which passes as 'normal' for the media.

There's a reason that the Daily Mail is held up as a figure of ridicule.

EDIT: While amusing, my glib original answer ignores one important point: the Daily Mail sells, and it sells extremely well (it's the most circulated UK newspaper). However, while it's true that the Daily Mail does precisely what the parent poster is proposing, I'd argue that the internet demographic (especially the photo-sharing/social media market) tends to swing younger than the Daily Mail's audience. This will result in young people either:

A) deliberately gaming the site to show offensively contradictory images alongside each other (e.g. something racist next to Mandela) or B) complaining about situations like A

While the Daily Mail does peddle in hypocrisy and bile, it peddles in carefully curated hypocrisy and bile. It knows its market well, and it knows what it can juxtapose. It knows it can rant about paedophilia on one page and then write saucy articles about teenaged royals on the next page, because it knows what its market will tolerate. Allowing a crowdsourced attempt at the same will result in mayhem that targets nobody and offends a lot of people.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a profitable business from a newsletter app?

#20

Post by username223 » Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 8:03 PM UTC

So your business is to ask people for their Instagram/Facebook credentials, then send them their old pictures wrapped in ads? Everpix already tried doing something much better than this, and crashed and burned.