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How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

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Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#161

Post by ahoyhere »

bravoyankee wrote: post #124
ahoyhere wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just one of my products, Freckle, makes $30,000 a month… more than 6x what you claim is impossible. On, what, you say? Time tracking. A space in which we are a tiny niche player. http://letsfreckle.com But there's no point in letting facts get in the way of righteous condemnation, is there?

How long has freckle been around for? How many hundred blog posts have you written to promote it? How many interviews have you done over the years and plugged it? How many joint ventures and mailing lists has freckle been on? Yeah, if I hustled like you have with freckle, I'd be making at least $30,000 a month too. I'm just trying to insert some reality into the conversation. It's like watching professional athletes,…

I think it's pretty hilarious that you think I've hustled like crazy, considering most months I don't spend more than 10 hours on Freckle… and that's being generous. In addition to it no longer being my main focus (for good or ill), I have chronic fatigue syndrome. If I work a 30-hour week, that's extraordinarily high output for me.

How many blog posts? Easy to find. Look at the Freckle blog and how it's been neglected for months and months until we hired somebody recently.

How many interviews? Google http://www.google.com/search?q=amy+hoy+freckle+interview --- looks like the number is, practically a la the center of a Tootsie Pop, 4. I rarely talk about Freckle except as a story in my podcast interviews, which happen oh, maybe 2-3 times a year in general but never solely about Freckle.

Freckle is nearly 4 years old so, 1 podcast a year on average.

You can ask leading questions, a la Fox News, or you can use facts, which are more persuasive. Unfortunately the facts are not on your side, so leading questions it is, I suppose.

Interesting that you & the other newbie HN user have ways to "counter" every argument. "Nobody could make more than $5k" "I make $30k" "Sure, it's easy to make $30k off suckers, selling a sexy quick fix" "What proof is there that my customers are suckers, and who thinks time tracking SaaS is sexy?" "Oh everybody could make $30k if they worked their asses off like you have" "I barely touch it at all" -- what will your counter be this time?

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#162

Post by aytekin »

bravoyankee wrote: post #119
bdunn wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just confused about why you think I'm running a smoke-and-mirrors shop. I have a ton of testimonials from people thanking me for helping them raise their rates. If you email me, I'll send them to you. I take a lot of offense that you think I have "the proper degree of BS mixed together with things I've learned in a short period of time" and that I'm "taking advantage of people." I am delivering value in exchange…

You and Patrick have done an exemplary job of leveraging the herd mentality, but some of us are getting tired of the pitch. How many times are you going to try and milk this cow?

I received a lot of value from Patrick's lifecycle emails course. I hope he creates more courses/products like that.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#163

Post by ahoyhere »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #156
ahoyhere wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just one of my products, Freckle, makes $30,000 a month… more than 6x what you claim is impossible. On, what, you say? Time tracking. A space in which we are a tiny niche player. http://letsfreckle.com But there's no point in letting facts get in the way of righteous condemnation, is there?

I am curious, is that $30K/mon revenue or profit? Per developer or total?

Revenue. We have one very very part-time developer (my husband Thomas) and the occasional freelancer.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#164

Post by ahoyhere »

18pfsmt wrote: post #151
ahoyhere wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. What consulting? I don't do consulting. 2. Are you privy to hard facts about my customer base like "it's all programmers with poor time management skills"? Or how big a global population that might be? If so, that's very valuable data for me… please share! 3. How much do you think Harvest, Toggl, Freshbooks, etc., make off selling their "sexy quick fixes"? (I believe you might be the only person ever to suggest th…

Just in case you hadn't noticed, there are 3 throwaway accounts (apparently opened just for this) running around this thread attempting to discredit any of the ideas expressed by the OP because the OP had the audacity to charge for his time and efforts. It either set off their BS-alarm, which may be improperly calibrated due to their own views of the world which they then project; or, it might be simple jealousy. Eit…

I noticed. :) The arguments among the "green" accounts all have a similar incoherency. Looks like astroturfing to me.

But I still can't bear to let them stand because if you aren't privy to underhanded "argument" techniques, they sound mildly persuasive. I'm not arguing trying to convince the "greens," but rather the silent majority reading.

I don't say anybody ought to buy my products or Brennan's, but the unfounded accusations flying around are hilarious.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#165

Post by righyeah »

ahoyhere wrote: post #140
righyeah wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the niche products are doing so well, then why the need to sell consulting? I mean if you have a product that is truly revolutionizing the time management space, one would think that business would constinue to grow and require a lot of energy to maintain. It seems like this niche is a given number of programmers with poor time management skills surfing the web (what a coincidence :). Giving them a quick fix impul…

1. What consulting? I don't do consulting. 2. Are you privy to hard facts about my customer base like "it's all programmers with poor time management skills"? Or how big a global population that might be? If so, that's very valuable data for me… please share! 3. How much do you think Harvest, Toggl, Freshbooks, etc., make off selling their "sexy quick fixes"? (I believe you might be the only person ever to suggest th…

Upon further reflection, I retract all my prior statements. I concede defeat. You win the "debate". Alas I cannot downvote my original comment back to "1". I will need help. Any takers? What were those upvoters thinking anyway? Surely we need more ebook marketing of this variety on the HN frontpage.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#166

Post by ahoyhere »

bravoyankee wrote: post #119
bdunn wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just confused about why you think I'm running a smoke-and-mirrors shop. I have a ton of testimonials from people thanking me for helping them raise their rates. If you email me, I'll send them to you. I take a lot of offense that you think I have "the proper degree of BS mixed together with things I've learned in a short period of time" and that I'm "taking advantage of people." I am delivering value in exchange…

You and Patrick have done an exemplary job of leveraging the herd mentality, but some of us are getting tired of the pitch. How many times are you going to try and milk this cow?

"Herd" "milk" "cow" --> classic poisoning the well, utterly (udderly?) without basis or merit. Factual arguments make us smarter. What you are writing makes the discourse dumber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_the_well

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#167

Post by ahoyhere »

zenocon wrote: post #89
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this outlook really sad. I paid $39 for Brennan's ebook (thanks to a $10 off coupon) and I didn't know him from Adam when I bought it. Literally don't think I had ever heard of him, but someone on HN recommended it. I read the whole thing in one sitting and the very next day, sent out two project proposals at a 50% bump in my normal hourly rates. One guy balked, one guy just said ok without comment. That simpl…

Why not just raise your rate regardless of some book -- isn't that really the take away message? I've also been consulting as an independent for 7 years now. I have not raised my rate, but nor have I lowered it (ever). I have turned down plenty jobs, and some have walked away because they did not want to pay the rate, but I have been doing this 40+ hours / week for 7 years now. I do feel like it is time to raise my r…

Why go to a therapist, when you can talk to yourself? Why call a plumber when you can buy a wrench on Amazon? Why go to a doctor when you can look up symptoms on Medscape? Why pay for a gym membership, when you can do P90x at home… hell, why buy P90x tapes, you know what you ought to be doing, everybody knows that all you have to do is burn more calories than you eat, and you can use some heavy books or angry cats you have lying around for weights. Everybody knows what to do. Applying it is just that simple. That's why everybody does what they know they ought to be doing, all the time.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#168

Post by ahoyhere »

rushabh wrote: post #61
bdunn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to disagree. I think the level of likelihood for failing when you're shooting in the dark with your idea dú jour is SUBSTANTIALLY higher than when you mine audience pain points and build products around what people are asking for. That's all I'm doing. There's nothing that I'm doing that someone else can't.

You must also consider that most people do not have the kind of talent for writing that you and patio11 possess. Hats off to you guys for pulling it off and showing the way and inspiring other people. For most normal folk, it will take years of effort to reach this level in writing skills where they can build an audience on that strength. On a slightly different note, there are SAAS products like SalesForce, Quickboo…

"You must also consider that most people do not have the kind of talent for writing that you and patio11 possess"

I always find this kind of statement interesting. Where do you think we got our "talent"? Writing our butts off. It's true -- for people willing to put in the effort to be good, being good pays dividends. If you're not willing to put in the work, you don't get the dividends. But nobody is a "born writer."

As bdunn said in my virtual earshot earlier today, "Compare my first blog and my latest." He provided a lesson for my class recently and I made him rewrite it 3 times before it was in acceptable shape for editing. I'm sure the process was kinda sucky for him on the one hand, on the other hand, he grew hugely as a teacher.

Yep, being willing to exercise a skill pays off.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#169

Post by ahoyhere »

icebraining wrote: post #141
larrys wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nothing like an ad hominem" Well if that's an ad hominem then my example of what I've done myself wouldn't have been used, would it? And where are the words "taking advantage" which you quote appearing in anything that I have written?

where are the words "taking advantage" which you quote appearing in anything that I have written? Are you serious? They're right there in the second paragraph!

When a person argues from passion instead of reason, this is the kind of thing that results. A person who argues from passion isn't even fully aware of the words coming out of his mouth (keyboard), because it's a wave of sheer emotion. I'm glad this is in text, because it's much easier to spot.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#170

Post by mandeepj »

Guys, I am sorry if you think this is a bad comment but I had this question in my mind so I thought of putting it up here.

Now most of life runs off of smart phones which basically comes off with softwares like Appointment Reminder, time scheduling, notes etc (basically productivity suites) so I am not sure investing in this type of software will even let you break even. Although I see these pre-installed softwares are missing features like synchronization across phones. We are talking about SAAS software so I will not talk about inside office premises hosted software.

So again I am not sure how one see Appointment Reminder software business as a profitable one.

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