Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#511

Post by Darkphibre » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:29 PM UTC

elorant wrote: post #490

mittermayr wrote: post #357

My business is in my bio, don't want to link it here. Pays about the same as my previous job at Microsoft did, but with a lot less involvement — I haven't touched the main code in about a year now. I probably spend about two or three hours a week on customer support, that's it, really. No marketing spend, all word-of-mouth and Google. The idea came about when I wanted to post to Instagram, but the API didn't allow it…

Why do you use phones for that? Couldn't you do the same through headless browser sessions?

I've wanted to automate posts to Instagram / find a way to post without using the phone (I spent a 8 months doing daily photography posts, then life happened). Turns out their API TOS is pretty strict, and requires posts to come from a phone.

A low-cost social media posting service is intriguing.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#512

Post by savanpatel » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:37 PM UTC

I have an idea. How about creating a website that tracks timeline of an important news event. Like for example Impeachment. Often times, readers get confused with ongoing stories without context. Often times, cases lose their media coverage and don't know if justice was done. Some thing that represents in a timeline way hilighting important events and links to (news) sources. Users can follow and platform would deliver notification upon updates.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#513

Post by jm4 » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:40 PM UTC

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #368

bekman wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question, my career is very important to me. It gives me an identity. I just can’t sit at home all day. I’m gonna die with boredom.

I don't think I'll ever quite understand this mentality that "not having a job"=="sitting at home all day". Do people not have hobbies of any kind? They really only find meaning in pursuit of money?

Not necessarily pursuit of money. Work. The world is built on work. If we stop working we go back to living in wilderness - literally and figuratively. Hobbies are fun, but they aren’t work. Work provides a different kind of satisfaction.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#514

Post by crazypython » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

justaguyhere wrote: post #142

jfoster wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your job is less than 10% of your income, why keep it?

Not OP, but some reasons could be: What happens if he gets banned by Adsense? In many countries, people don't understand the concept of lifestyle business (even if it brings multiples of salary in revenue, like this case). It is considered "prestigious" and safe to have a job (It doesn't make sense, but it is how it is).

There are other ad networks.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#515

Post by m4tthumphrey » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

My friend recently sold his lead generation business for around 5m GBP. It was making around 140k a month. I built the website and did some maintenance but was basically just him.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#516

Post by elorant » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

Darkphibre wrote: post #511

elorant wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you use phones for that? Couldn't you do the same through headless browser sessions?

I've wanted to automate posts to Instagram / find a way to post without using the phone (I spent a 8 months doing daily photography posts, then life happened). Turns out their API TOS is pretty strict, and requires posts to come from a phone. A low-cost social media posting service is intriguing.

If you change the user-agent in your browser Instagram will think you use it through a phone, thus allowing you to upload posts and/or videos.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#517

Post by FragrantRiver » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

adrienjarthon wrote: post #146

I run https://updown.io since 2012, a website monitoring service I created. I'm working about 5-10 hours per week on it. It makes about $6,000 per month and is still growing linearly. I also keep a full-time job alongside for now as an engineering manager. The key for me is to take time, make something useful, delight your clients, and don't try to become uber or airbnb.

WOW! This exactly what I've been looking for :D And if the pricing calculator is correct, it seems way to cheap :D

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#518

Post by xeornet » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #515

My friend recently sold his lead generation business for around 5m GBP. It was making around 140k a month. I built the website and did some maintenance but was basically just him.

Lead generation for local business? Or sales orgs?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#519

Post by magma17 » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:51 PM UTC

bekman wrote: post #129

I run a popular Quiz website. I make around $6,000 per month from Google adsense. I work between 2-3 hours a week usually posting quiz links on my Pinterest page. My only expense is hosting which is around $20 per month (Digital Ocean). I have never advertised my website and it gets all the traffic from Pinterest Organically. Compare to my salary, I'm an IT Administrator in my day job and make $400 per month. I live…

I make $100k per month with clickbaits. Life is great.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#520

Post by kulahan » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 10:53 PM UTC

jm4 wrote: post #513

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I'll ever quite understand this mentality that "not having a job"=="sitting at home all day". Do people not have hobbies of any kind? They really only find meaning in pursuit of money?

Not necessarily pursuit of money. Work. The world is built on work. If we stop working we go back to living in wilderness - literally and figuratively. Hobbies are fun, but they aren’t work. Work provides a different kind of satisfaction.

Maybe it provides satisfaction for you. My most satisfying projects have always been the ones I was passionate enough about to do at home on my own or with a small group of like-minded people. I'd have done a lot more if I weren't balancing it with the necessary evil of a paying job.