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Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

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61–70 of 186 posts

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#61
I love that there is so much opportunity in the indie space, and hope it doesn't go away.

There are a ton of great apps to be made, with better UIs and functionality than existing entrants that aren't made by big companies because they don't offer enterprise-sized war chests and moats. Can't make enough to pay for a bunch of MBAs, managers, and SEO, Creative, and Engineering teams, so they don't get made. But it's certainly enough for a few driven people.

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#62

A question, from someone who used to start lots of projects, but now finds himself busy from all of those (some now quite successful) projects: How much daily "mental load" does something like this take? Are you able to work on it when you want, and otherwise ignore? Any tips for starting a small project that doesn't require ongoing mental effort?

The fact that I'm not running a service does make it a lot better. But being somewhat of a perfectionist, I do stress out a lot when a user email me with a bug.

Being a user of the app myself reassure me that it's working and that even if there might be bugs, it's probably working well for the vast majority of folks.

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to push back against this a little. He gets $500/month now, there is no guarantee he will keep receiving that number when he stops maintaining and improving his app. I would assume the number will go up if he keeps improving it, but if he stops it will eventually become 0$/month.

There's no guarantee $150k invested will have 4% returns either.

No, but if I had to bet on one over the other, I'm going with 4% returns.

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#64
> I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this, but this whole mini-journey was worth it for me, and I hope it will be for you too, should you embark in a similar one.

You have a new fan. Hearty congratulations and wish you a continued success!! You are an inspiration :-)

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#65
post #48

Congrats! Downloaded. Relevant to today's discussion, did you use SwiftUI or the ol reliable UIKit? Here's the url for those who are looking: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240

The app is built using Flutter, but I'm using SwiftUI for the home screen widget.

why did you use Flutter?

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#66
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6000/0.04 = 150 000 Essentially, those 6K a year is the equivalent of a 150K portfolio

I want to push back against this a little. He gets $500/month now, there is no guarantee he will keep receiving that number when he stops maintaining and improving his app. I would assume the number will go up if he keeps improving it, but if he stops it will eventually become 0$/month.

Doesn't time value of money decrease this effect? Assuming a fixed revenue over time, future revenue is much less relevant, so is its loss.

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#68
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app is built using Flutter, but I'm using SwiftUI for the home screen widget.

why did you use Flutter?

I wanted to give it a shot. The instant hot-reload got me hooked. I was already super familiar with Dart too (I worked on Google Ads before, front-end is in Dart).

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#69
Congrats on the launch! Its always inspiring to see small indie tech projects solving real life problems for real people, and getting paid for it! That's the magic of technology! I too loved Ben's tiny projects and appreciate the love that's goes into making these!

Re: Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

#70
post #11

Excellent, congrats! Can you elaborate on IAPs (or other insights)? The app is free, yes? Then what can users buy while using the app?

https://fivethreeone.app/

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