Ask HN: Your best passive income sources? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#51

Post by rytis » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:12 AM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #46

apike wrote: post #18

Two years ago, when we started Steamclock, we spent our first two months building a niche iPhone app. We've done point releases but not added much, yet today it pays our rent. http://www.steamclocksw.com/weddingdj/ We haven't done any serious research or marketing for it. We simply focused down and built the highest quality app we could build, and it worked.

You're practically giving that app away at $5. Wedding-related businesses are extremely high margin, simply because it's super easy to rip people off when they're really happy (same applies for funerals, except people are too sad to care in that case). You could probably sell this for 5x as much and still make more money - the bride will want everything to be perfect for the wedding and will be willing to spend whate…

I suppose this is business common sense, but, man, it sounds awful from a moral perspective when you put it this way... Really, praying on vulnerable. Just my very subjective opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#52

Post by dangrossman » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:14 AM UTC

I launched http://www.improvely.com/ in August, and it's already eclipsed my other sites in recurring revenue.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#53

Post by kaptain » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:14 AM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #46

apike wrote: post #18

Two years ago, when we started Steamclock, we spent our first two months building a niche iPhone app. We've done point releases but not added much, yet today it pays our rent. http://www.steamclocksw.com/weddingdj/ We haven't done any serious research or marketing for it. We simply focused down and built the highest quality app we could build, and it worked.

You're practically giving that app away at $5. Wedding-related businesses are extremely high margin, simply because it's super easy to rip people off when they're really happy (same applies for funerals, except people are too sad to care in that case). You could probably sell this for 5x as much and still make more money - the bride will want everything to be perfect for the wedding and will be willing to spend whate…

People are willing to pay a lot for wedding-related /services/. A lot of people that want to save money on a wedding would buy this because they DON'T want to pay for a wedding planner who will ensure that the music is 100% perfect.

If you price this at $25, you'll lose that group of people that were looking to save money, (you could argue that at $25 it's still cheaper than a wedding planner).

Not every bride is foolish enough to think that everything will be perfect. The more money you have the more 'perfect' it can be. Those on a budget will opt for a $5 DJ that can get them as close to perfect as their money will allow.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#54

Post by TWAndrews » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:14 AM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #46

apike wrote: post #18

Two years ago, when we started Steamclock, we spent our first two months building a niche iPhone app. We've done point releases but not added much, yet today it pays our rent. http://www.steamclocksw.com/weddingdj/ We haven't done any serious research or marketing for it. We simply focused down and built the highest quality app we could build, and it worked.

You're practically giving that app away at $5. Wedding-related businesses are extremely high margin, simply because it's super easy to rip people off when they're really happy (same applies for funerals, except people are too sad to care in that case). You could probably sell this for 5x as much and still make more money - the bride will want everything to be perfect for the wedding and will be willing to spend whate…

Holy crap yes. My wife works in the wedding industry, and being able to manage the music for your entire wedding is worth way more than $5.

A DJ will cost something like 50 - 100x that.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#55

Post by kkoppenhaver » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:18 AM UTC

A site that I've recently stumbled across and been reading through voraciously is smartpassiveincome.com. It has some pretty solid tips and in 3 episodes of his free podcast, he goes over 8 potential types of "passive" income business models.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#56

Post by dhechols » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:21 AM UTC

Last February I started a small YouTube channel surrounding eSports called DrZealotTV. http://youtube.com/DrZealotTV

Although it hasn't even broken even, I'm now equipped with a ton of expertise and I have a few efforts I'm working on that I think will be quite popular. :)

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#57

Post by donebizkit » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:22 AM UTC

bdunn wrote: post #6

Planscope ( https://planscope.io ) - predictable, more-growth-than-churn SaaS revenue Compared to my book, which fizzles out when I'm not actively marketing it, building a B2B subscription product is the best, most turnkey income source I've ever had.

Brilliant. What was your major set back from day 0 till now and how did you overcome it? I am asking you because I need some inspiration here. When I usually hit couple of set backs I tend to demoralize and give up.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#58

Post by suresk » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:22 AM UTC

I really like building developer tools and kind of miss doing it full time. I built a tool for testing/playing with REST services last year and sell it on the OS X app store:

http://www.uresk.net/httpclient/

I'm not getting rich off it, but it usually brings in a few hundred bucks per month and I like hearing from fellow developers who benefit from using it.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#59

Post by pyre » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:22 AM UTC

rytis wrote: post #51

w1ntermute wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're practically giving that app away at $5. Wedding-related businesses are extremely high margin, simply because it's super easy to rip people off when they're really happy (same applies for funerals, except people are too sad to care in that case). You could probably sell this for 5x as much and still make more money - the bride will want everything to be perfect for the wedding and will be willing to spend whate…

I suppose this is business common sense, but, man, it sounds awful from a moral perspective when you put it this way... Really, praying on vulnerable. Just my very subjective opinion.

The same thing happens to parents in general, but specifically, first-time parents because they have 0 experience.

Re: Ask HN: Your best passive income sources?

#60

Post by hartleybrody » Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 5:24 AM UTC

jfolkins wrote: post #44

choxi wrote: post #11

This might not be the kind of answer you're looking for, but the best way to truly passively increase your wealth is to take care of your personal finances (e.g. pay off your student loans, pay off your credit card balance, invest in a lifecycle fund, see if your employer offers a 401(k)) I personally really liked the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich -- it has a poor name but it's dense with incredibly practical advi…

I support the idea of paying off debt. 401k (investment groups) however, is essentially giving your money to a gambler, and having him play your hand. Bet on yourself. Always.

Betting on yourself isn't always the safest. But I'd be curious to know what you meant by betting on yourself. Like investing part of your savings into a side project?