I'm happily surprised that the word "lifestyle" hasn't been dropped yet in this thread.
At $500/mo, this is more like a "weekend-style" business, providing some nice walking around money even if not enough to pay the bills.
Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
101–110 of 119 posts
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
An amazon EC2 micro instance is something like $60/mo. I know this because I tried to sign up for their "free" tier a few months ago, and got charged. Luckily amazon had my account information on file, so they went ahead and just charged me for the balance. (It took a few weeks/months to get my money refunded...and forever convinced me that amazon's customer support is completely worthless) I'm sure AWS works for som…
I feel as though you may have encountered the same problem as I did when starting my Amazon service. The micro instance - the free tier - is actually free, and if you run more than one, additional ones cost roughly $15/month. However, what most likely happened is that when spinning up your first instance, you started a "Small" instance instead of a micro. "Small" is the default server selected when adding a new insta…
Yeah, I think that's what happened to me to.
I guess it just felt kindof "bait-and-switch"y to me. Imagine going into a restaurant that says "free buffet", where there are some non-free things mixed in that aren't really labeled all that well.
The thing is, yeah, I made a mistake and clicked the wrong thing. That happens. What was frustrating to me, though, and why I'll never use AWS again was how long it took to find out what happened. There was no support email, no support chat, nothing.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've observed that HN seems most interested in rags-to-minimum-wage stories, and rags-to-riches stories, but not much in between If anyone has any ideas/pointers, I'd love to hear them. Hi, original post author here! :) I think the main difference between our two posts is that mine goes into more detail about how I created the app and bought in revenue, whereas your posts lists only that you're already making serious…
Hey, mootothemax, I wasn't knocking you! Sorry if it came across that way. I only added the time frame because our time frames were the same. If we look at stories like ours PURELY as inspiration fodder (vs personal sagas), wouldn't you prefer to read about somebody who ended up with a hundred thousand instead of a hundred? :) That's not to downplay your success at all, because you've gotten what you've wanted in the…
Leaving aside such issues as time of the day/week when articles were posted (I have no idea if that has played a factor in this case) I agree that the specificity issue is likely to be applicable.
> wouldn't you prefer to read about somebody who > ended up with a hundred thousand instead of a hundred?
How about if it's presented as "$100,000 with full time hours" compared with "a $100 with a few hours"?
From my perspective at least, I view an article about how to achieve "a $100 with a few hours (spread over a year)" as seeming more attainable and accessible than one about "$100,000 with full time hours (spread over a year)". I'd think "Hey, maybe I could do that" about the former and more "That'd be cool to do that" about the latter.
I like that you've got a "mission" to show that what you've achieved is attainable for others as well and I look forward to reading more about how.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#104Ok, maybe I'll be the loan dissenter - and a torn one at that. I really think this is a great article and I think this is information that should certainly be shared out... I have one nitpick with what the author states that bothers me greatly. Bare with this statement - I am not against what he did, but this is the biggest worry in hiring any outside dev to do any work for you, and thus has a clear and real issue fo…
phlux, didn't we have this argument before? ;) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2061369 To try and clarify further: ideas are not worthless, but they also don't have value. How can that be? Simple, unless an idea is coupled with execution its value is zero. This is what leads to the phrase 'ideas are worthless' which is misleading IMO when phrased that way. > why arent the millions of developers constantly outdoin…
Ok, I think I need to clarify what I believe an "idea" to be. So, this is both to you and Random42...
To Random42's point, simply having an idea like: "Wouldn't it be cool if cars could fly" is obviously worthless.
I think that I was not clear enough:
I think of an idea as a vetted plan. An idea, based on an understanding of a problem and a market, a vision on how it will make money. A design a spec and even mock-ups.
Far more than a simple statement of wishful thinking.
For me, whenever I have "an idea" I take it as far as I can take it sans having it developed.
For example, I have a current "idea" in the medical space (which is where my current full time focus is) that is a patient entertainment system.
This idea is based on several years of full time health care systems design experience designing two hospitals each with a budget of more than $500 million. It is an iterative evolution of a previous idea which we implemented and built and released open source, and a solid understanding of the market, the challenges and the sales cycle. Further, it is arrived at with the inclusion of hospital IT and Clinical staff that I have worked with on two projects -- and input from the founder of one of the existing market leading companies in this space.
I have a product spec, financial model, business plan and mock-ups.
This is my "idea" -- it is not worthless because it is a proven, fully informed documented product plan.
I still need development and a host of other things to accomplish this.
I have millions of simple wishful thinking ideas as well, but for anything that has value - real potential I go through the above.
I apparently was not clear with what I thought an idea was... I hope this makes my perspective a little more clear.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
An Amazon EC2 Micro instance is pretty close to that price, plus you don't have to pay for it while it's not running, and you get to learn AWS too.
An amazon EC2 micro instance is something like $60/mo. I know this because I tried to sign up for their "free" tier a few months ago, and got charged. Luckily amazon had my account information on file, so they went ahead and just charged me for the balance. (It took a few weeks/months to get my money refunded...and forever convinced me that amazon's customer support is completely worthless) I'm sure AWS works for som…
> An amazon EC2 micro instance is something like $60/mo.
An EC2 micro instance is around $15/mo (0.02 x 24 x 30). If you were charged $60 (0.085 x 24 x 30), you were running a small instance. They aren't the same thing, and Amazon did/is doing a shit job of making people looking for the freebie account aware of the difference.
AWS is pretty awesome if it meets your needs. We use it at work, and don't have many problems with customer support. That said, it seems like there's obvious support prioritization based on account value.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. For what it's worth what you saw was more terrible marketing/support handling for freebie accounts than anything related to the service as normally used.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, mootothemax, I wasn't knocking you! Sorry if it came across that way. I only added the time frame because our time frames were the same. If we look at stories like ours PURELY as inspiration fodder (vs personal sagas), wouldn't you prefer to read about somebody who ended up with a hundred thousand instead of a hundred? :) That's not to downplay your success at all, because you've gotten what you've wanted in the…
Leaving aside such issues as time of the day/week when articles were posted (I have no idea if that has played a factor in this case) I agree that the specificity issue is likely to be applicable. > wouldn't you prefer to read about somebody who > ended up with a hundred thousand instead of a hundred? How about if it's presented as "$100,000 with full time hours" compared with "a $100 with a few hours"? From my persp…
Thanks for the feedback! You actually told me something very important, indirectly -- our SaaS app got to $1500/mo (start) to about $4,500 on a very part-time basis, before we put much time into it. Clearly I should talk about this part of the story more.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
phlux, didn't we have this argument before? ;) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2061369 To try and clarify further: ideas are not worthless, but they also don't have value. How can that be? Simple, unless an idea is coupled with execution its value is zero. This is what leads to the phrase 'ideas are worthless' which is misleading IMO when phrased that way. > why arent the millions of developers constantly outdoin…
Ok, I think I need to clarify what I believe an "idea" to be. So, this is both to you and Random42... To Random42's point, simply having an idea like: "Wouldn't it be cool if cars could fly" is obviously worthless. I think that I was not clear enough: I think of an idea as a vetted plan. An idea, based on an understanding of a problem and a market, a vision on how it will make money. A design a spec and even mock-ups…
> For me, whenever I have "an idea" I take it as far as I can take it sans having it developed.
But that's the problem. You know why? Because anybody can do this. You can have one million people do this, for one million years, and you know what you'd end up with? Nothing.
Don't get me wrong, it's great that you also attach careful research to your idea, but that only serves to lessen the risk you've overlooked obvious reasons for it to fail. It doesn't mean it won't fail. If your idea was guaranteed to succeed then crossing over into development wouldn't be a problem. You'd be able to get the money somehow. I know many ordinary people who have set aside as much as $50-100K just by being focused. Or you could get investment, or a SBA backed bank loan. But idea people won't actually work to do these things, because they know the truth: their idea may end up failing (being worthless when actually tried). Either that or the other truth: even once an idea is developed it takes time and effort to grow it into a success.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, I think I need to clarify what I believe an "idea" to be. So, this is both to you and Random42... To Random42's point, simply having an idea like: "Wouldn't it be cool if cars could fly" is obviously worthless. I think that I was not clear enough: I think of an idea as a vetted plan. An idea, based on an understanding of a problem and a market, a vision on how it will make money. A design a spec and even mock-ups…
> For me, whenever I have "an idea" I take it as far as I can take it sans having it developed. But that's the problem. You know why? Because anybody can do this. You can have one million people do this, for one million years, and you know what you'd end up with? Nothing. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you also attach careful research to your idea, but that only serves to lessen the risk you've overlooked obviou…
Um, no. I am building this. I am not just sitting around thinking up some idea and wishing it were true.
I am very early in my own development abilities, but I have a technical co-founder, a hospital that has agreed to pilot this and experience in my field which informed the design of the idea.
I think I see way to much arrogance on HN. It appears that you guys are so eager to try to find why things shouldn't be built, when maybe its better to figure out why things should.
I love how you all assume that one comes up with an idea, then just sits around and attempts to wish it into existence.
Lets take a poll. How many of you here think of yourself as a mediocre developer?
I'm willing to bet that many are under the impression they are some Ninja Star developer and that NOTHING in this world can possibly work unless you personally come up with it.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#109I love the tone of your writing (both in the post and on TweetingMachine), it's modest yet confident. Some feedback: * [Edit: Looks like it's right there in the center and I'm just blind. :)] I couldn't find the pricing after the 10 day trial anywhere. This frustrated me and made me not want to try it at all without knowing what I was getting into. * Twitter frowns upon auto-follow/unfollow services. You should be ve…
[Edit: Looks like it's right there in the center and I'm just blind. :)] I couldn't find the pricing either, so I think it is hiding in plain sight.
Totally agree. I thought it wasn't listed anywhere until I looked at the comments here. It would probably improve conversions a lot if there was a simple "Pricing" tab at the top.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For me, whenever I have "an idea" I take it as far as I can take it sans having it developed. But that's the problem. You know why? Because anybody can do this. You can have one million people do this, for one million years, and you know what you'd end up with? Nothing. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you also attach careful research to your idea, but that only serves to lessen the risk you've overlooked obviou…
Um, no. I am building this. I am not just sitting around thinking up some idea and wishing it were true. I am very early in my own development abilities, but I have a technical co-founder, a hospital that has agreed to pilot this and experience in my field which informed the design of the idea. I think I see way to much arrogance on HN. It appears that you guys are so eager to try to find why things shouldn't be buil…
> Um, no. I am building this. I am not just sitting around thinking up some idea and wishing it were true.
Well, now we're talking! :)
You are under the wrong impression. It's not that hackers don't want to see idea people succeed, it's that we don't have much respect for people who are on the sidelines and all talk with no action. I'm a developer, but first and foremost I'm an entrepreneur. If a person is willing to put their neck on the line while facing risk and uncertainty, they have my respect. I don't care if they can't even set up a Wordpress blog.
I wish you best of luck with your venture! It's not about arrogance; it's about action. You're in the club as far as I'm concerned.