This is interesting. In the next piece can I request you go into a bit more detail about how you increase in traffic flow to your site...basically what marketing did you do?
Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
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Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#32Wow, it's like reading my own history, especially the beginning, the knowing that gazillions of people will be clamoring for what you build. It's tough when you find that 99% of reactions are "meh..."
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#33Hey I remember when you launched! I even gave you some "business" advice - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1166641.
Well done, waiting anxiously for the rest of your story (you drama queen :-P).
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#34I'm not sure why you are using prgmr over Linode, Slicehost, or the Rackspace Cloud servers. The others have really simple backup tools.
Because prgmr is cheap and I wanted to keep costs under control from day one. :) For example, there's no point in me paying for a nice control panel when I can set up Apache or nginx in no time on my own. I'm not a super sysadmin, but I know enough to quickly write a script that backs up code and database to Dropbox at regular intervals and so on. So paying for those extras? Not sure I see the point when you're not e…
if you don't mind me asking, what package are you using on prgmr.com and the level of traffic it handles.
I've been looking at some VPS options and I wanted to make sure I select the right one that is not oversold + performs well.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#35Hey everyone, I have a semi-related question (since it's briefly mentioned in the article): is it possible to make a decent salary exclusively by doing freelance work through vWorker (rentacoder) and the likes?
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#36I'm not sure why you are using prgmr over Linode, Slicehost, or the Rackspace Cloud servers. The others have really simple backup tools.
Because prgmr is cheap and I wanted to keep costs under control from day one. :) For example, there's no point in me paying for a nice control panel when I can set up Apache or nginx in no time on my own. I'm not a super sysadmin, but I know enough to quickly write a script that backs up code and database to Dropbox at regular intervals and so on. So paying for those extras? Not sure I see the point when you're not e…
How about a write-up on how to get prgmr up and running? If it doesn't take a super sysadmin, it might be nice to see the process you took.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#37Hi everyone, blog post author here. Over the last 18 months I've learned an incredible amount from the users here on Hacker News, and I figured that it's about time I started giving something back. None of my web apps make serious money, but they bring in enough to make a difference to life, and I'm hoping that my articles will help others get on the same path - if not somewhat more successfully! ;) Please feel free…
Have a couple of questions for you (unrelated to twittemachine):
Do freelancers sites bring enough jobs/money to work on it full time and make a living?
Is it a positive experience?
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#38This is great, look forward to reading the second part.
At first, the price seems expensive, but when I think about it, it's really not. You are offering a lot of functionality when it comes to scheduling tweets and that's a feature people will find super useful (unfortunately a lot of those people may be spammers, but at the end of the day as far as your concerned, your business is your business and theirs is theirs).
I'm not a huge advocate of freemium and I would not suggest lowering the price, however you may want to extend the free trial period a little longer.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! The reason why I've separated is time - I thought it would be better to release them as I write them, rather than make everyone wait several weeks :)
I can definitely see it from your perspective: not only does it take less time to write one article rather than three [and probably less pressure as well!], it gives you content for your website (not to mention a steady stream of visitors wanting to see your content, rather than just one big group of visitors then nothing). From my perspective though, it is unfortunate: I'm interested in the story, but I don't know i…
Solution: RSS! I'm a google reader user, and when I find things like this, I toss them in there. If it's not interesting enough going forward, I can always unsubscribe. Of course, if the author is using twitter/facebook/whateverelse to hype posts, you can use those to similar effect, too.
Re: Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I
#40Hi everyone, blog post author here. Over the last 18 months I've learned an incredible amount from the users here on Hacker News, and I figured that it's about time I started giving something back. None of my web apps make serious money, but they bring in enough to make a difference to life, and I'm hoping that my articles will help others get on the same path - if not somewhat more successfully! ;) Please feel free…
Have a couple of questions for you (unrelated to twittemachine): Do freelancers sites bring enough jobs/money to work on it full time and make a living? Is it a positive experience?
Do freelancers sites bring enough jobs/money to work on it full time and make a living?
I guess it depends on where you live, but for here in Poland, sure :)
And whilst freelancing can be somewhat of a lonely business, I found it very satisfying :)