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Ask HN: Why did my free tools site with 600 tools make almost $0 after 2 years?

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Ask HN: Why did my free tools site with 600 tools make almost $0 after 2 years?

#1

Post by KodyBerns99 »

I launched a free tools site called Kody Tools (https://www.kodytools.com/) almost two years ago as a side hustle. It features over 600 tools, a clean and responsive design, and I invested a lot of effort into promotion. I assumed monetizing with ads or selling ad space would be straightforward.

But despite all that, it only pulls in about 7-10k visitors a month, and the revenue is practically zero. Hosting costs me around $20-$40 monthly, making me seriously reconsider my approach.

I’m curious to hear how you’d tackle this kind of situation. What worked for you when monetizing a free tools site without driving away users or ruining the experience?

Any tips or strategies would be hugely appreciated!

Re: Ask HN: Why did my free tools site with 600 tools make almost $0 after 2 years?

#5

Post by benoau »

Make an app-version of the website with ads + pay-to-remove-ads and focus the website on promoting that.

Make it easier to share results with people so they visit your website too, this would need presentation changes to emphasize the result like looking at your amortization calculator the answer is just a plain number tucked over to the side of the page even if I could share my calculation with someone I'd probably have to tell them where to look.

Re: Ask HN: Why did my free tools site with 600 tools make almost $0 after 2 years?

#6

Post by KodyBerns99 »

benoau wrote: post #5

Make an app-version of the website with ads + pay-to-remove-ads and focus the website on promoting that. Make it easier to share results with people so they visit your website too, this would need presentation changes to emphasize the result like looking at your amortization calculator the answer is just a plain number tucked over to the side of the page even if I could share my calculation with someone I'd probably…

Thanks for that idea, i really appreciate that.

Re: Ask HN: Why did my free tools site with 600 tools make almost $0 after 2 years?

#8

Post by dotcoma »

dotcoma wrote: post #7
KodyBerns99 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

adsene and affiliate banners

That’s why!

Have you not learned from Google and Facebook?

You need to sell space as “promoted tool” for a week.

You also need more traffic. Do you have returning users or not ?

Re: Ask HN: Why did my free tools site with 600 tools make almost $0 after 2 years?

#9

Post by benoau »

KodyBerns99 wrote: post #6
benoau wrote: post #5

Make an app-version of the website with ads + pay-to-remove-ads and focus the website on promoting that. Make it easier to share results with people so they visit your website too, this would need presentation changes to emphasize the result like looking at your amortization calculator the answer is just a plain number tucked over to the side of the page even if I could share my calculation with someone I'd probably…

Thanks for that idea, i really appreciate that.

Also allow customization, most people probably want specific tools repeatedly nobody will want everything or to wade through it all. You could do this through browser storage mechanisms pretty easily but it also gives you a reason to provide accounts, then you could offer groups shared space for the tools they need and the answers/results they need, and charge subscriptions too.
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