SomeoneAtHN

dang mentioned in this thread[1] about a monthly side project thread. But I haven’t seen one for June, so I thought I’d post one.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23170881

Clickable: http://blog.riverofnewsapp.com/2010/10/how-much-money-can-yo...

That was very impressive. Did you guys just spread the word through friends and do a lot of marketing at first?

I saw you've got a good amount of advertisers on the site already (as well as the cabin). Is it because the cost of hosting & S3 that makes it still not profitable?

Just curious, how did you find your initial paid customers?

Yeah, I think if your app is listed on top 10 of all paid apps, you can make a lot of income very quickly.

Just some math: $2.99 * 2500 copies/day * 30 days * 70% to LB = That is a whopping $156975 a month!

Wow. That is impressive. Few questions:

1. How long did it take to write the plugin? 2. How did you find your paid customers? From what I heard, most WordPress users don't want to pay for themes or plugins. 3. And why did you decide to sell it for that kind of high price? Were there troubles at the beginning because it was a free download before?

Thanks!

The site looks great! Just curious, how did you find your initial paid customers? Is it just through word-of-mouth or did you do anything more specific?

For MailFinch, does it take a lot of time to operate since you have to print the paper out and mail it?

How long did it take for Basecamp to take off and become profitable?

Yeah, that's what makes the internet a great place to start business. You don't have the risk to lose tons of money if your business falis.

Just created a related discussion: Side Projects Gone Deadpooled http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1772903

That was a great topic to discuss. I've created an extra HN thread, Side Projects Gone Dealpooled, for those of you who are interested: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1772903

Great to hear that! Just an extended question:

For both Gravatar and GitHub, did you put in any marketing efforts and money while they were still in the "side project" stage?