by withoutfriction on 5/20/11, 1:14 PM with 306 comments
by patio11 on 5/20/11, 2:45 PM
These days BCC is in maintenance mode (i.e. I respond to emails, cut checks, and put out fires, but I don't do active development or marketing). It works out to a bit more than my old salary for roughly 69.5 less hours of weekly work.
I have two other businesses: I do consulting and I have Appointment Reminder. Appointment Reminder pays its own way now, but doesn't put a meaningful amount of money in my pocket. Consulting does (egads), but distracts quite a bit from working on AR.
by jashmenn on 5/20/11, 4:05 PM
We completed the game from idea to app store in 3.5 weeks and it is now, by far, our most popular game. * face palm *
EDIT: We split the revenue 50/50, so the revenue (after apple's cut) on this game is around $4k/mo.
by alexkearns on 5/20/11, 2:05 PM
I am currently operating TikiToki as a side project from my main business as a freelance web developer. Aim to go full time with TikiToki at start of July.
This will be a bit of a gamble, given that what I earn from subscribers via TikiToki for a full month is less than what I would earn in half a day as a freelance developer!
We do it for love as much as the money!
Edit: If we want to go into detail, I should also add that I also earn about $80 a month from Adsense for a blog my wife and I run (http://www.casualgirlgamer.com) and about $25 a month via Big Fish's affiliates scheme. Peanuts really but it all adds up...
by throwaway1074 on 5/20/11, 9:06 PM
I'm currently making between 90k and 110K a month in revenue as a sole employee running a fairly large active Web community (< 2500 Quantcast). The focus of the community is a niche market with very little competition but we fare well by providing good value to our community.
Our revenue sources breaks down as follows:
* 40/50K/month in subscription revenue
* 25K/month in adsense revenue
* 4k/month in other ad revenue (Ebay, Amazon, Viglink etc)
* 30K/month in license and royalty revenue
As the sole employee, my primary responsibilities are all of the development of the platform, all system administration, all marketing and business activities, financials, and I also provide all the primary user support for the site. We have approximately 120 administrators and moderators who are volunteers, and we also have 4 individuals who are independent contractors who receive a set amount every month to lead different parts of our site and lead those volunteers.
Our platform is primarily based on Amazon Web services but includes physical servers from other hosting platforms. Platform as a service providers that we use include Cloudkick, Chartbeat, Geckoboard, Dynect, and SendGrid.
The reason why we have been so successful is we cater to a hobbyist market and operate on a very generous freemium model. Our subscription revenue is solid and predictable, and we experience very few chargebacks because we have consciously decided not to do automated renewals. Our license and royalty revenue is due to licensing agreements we have with third parties who utilize our content and services and APIs, as well as mobile device makers who serve our content (primarily to the Android and iOS market).
All of the above is a full time job and I rarely ever have a day off, although I have a tremendous amount of flexibility with my schedule.
by DaveChild on 5/20/11, 2:51 PM
by ja27 on 5/20/11, 2:59 PM
60% is from Adsense on a sports-related niche website. I make most of that during a couple bursts related to sports seasons - playoffs, spring training, opening day, March Madness, etc. I absolutely stumbled upon that niche from seeing traffic on a related blog post I made. If I really did the SEO and worked on the site I could probably make 5-10 times as much, but I couldn't really grow to other niches.
39% of that is from Amazon affiliate links on a niche gift shopping site. That occasionally lands a sale throughout the year, but it booms from October to early December. This is something I could easily grow to lots of other niches - if I built out the automation. It doesn't really excite me, but shoveling Amazon affiliate links onto dozens or hundreds of niche shopping blogs should be lucrative. I would only focus on the Christmas shopping season though, unless you targeted different holidays like Mother's Day.
1% of that is from a few photos on iStockPhoto. That's where I actually want to put more of my effort going forward. I like the challenge of taking good photos and I like the idea of making my photography hobby self-supporting. But I also think the stock photography (and video) I produce will have a longer sellable life than anything else.
by jdvolz on 5/20/11, 4:37 PM
I had just started to seriously follow this path but I was earning between $100 and $375 per month in commissions from the test runs of my software that creates stores. I am in negotiations with them concerning turning my accounts back on.
I plan to expand this into a series of blog posts about lessons learned both business and technological. Upvote if that sounds like something you want to read.
by strick on 5/20/11, 4:57 PM
To be honest, the blogs did have some crappy content. I would be happy to pull the ads off the bad blogs and put them back on dodgit, a service I have lovingly maintained for 7 yrs. Sadly there appears to be no way to appeal to Google once they drop the axe.
I'm pondering next steps. I know a few people who work at Google but haven't contacted any of them yet. I've played around with adbrite and some other ad networks, but none of them seem to generate money the way adsense can.
I've also created a number of websites that generate revenue over the years, that aren't dependent on adsense in any way. I'll definitely make more!
by ryanmarsh on 5/20/11, 3:47 PM
by throwaway9898 on 5/20/11, 2:46 PM
Using a throwaway account for this because I'd rather not share our numbers publicly yet, but in about 2.5 years since our hosted web app went live, we're generating just under $10,000 per month in revenue. That's working on it part-time for the first couple of years and, more recently, full-time.
It's targeted at developers/designers, and the growth has been very slow and steady. There's never been a break-through moment as revenue has grown at an average rate of about 3.5% per month since we launched.
by callmeed on 5/20/11, 5:17 PM
Of the 4 businesses I've founded or co-founded (BIG Folio, APF, NextProof, and 2 Tablespoons), the first two generate approximately half of their revenue from recurring fees (we also have setup fees). That adds up to high 5-figures per month for each (more in a good month). Of course, they both have the highest overhead in terms of labor and servers. For me personally, the recurring revenue results in a monthly draw/dividend that is now higher than my (good) salary. I spend most of my time (40 hours between the 2) on these two.
NextProof is a purely recurring/transactional revenue business. It currently makes in the low 5-figure range per month on subscription fees + about the same in transaction fees. User base is growing at about 3% per month. Overhead is fairly low (mainly hosting at EngineYard) and I work about 5-10 hours/week on it. I take a quarterly draw/dividen on this (not too big). As someone else said, if I really worked on some SEO and properly ran some campaigns/tests, it could probably grow at 10% or more.
2 Tablespoons is my newest venture and, so far, generates about $30 a month from one iPhone app (epic, I know). Launching a restaurant website service this month. Hoping to take everything I've learned from these other businesses–and from HN–and generate some solid recurring revenue without too much overhead. Haven't thought about goals, but getting to $2k/month by the end of the year sounds reasonable.
by flyosity on 5/20/11, 3:01 PM
by mfjordvald on 5/20/11, 2:16 PM
by dpcan on 5/20/11, 3:35 PM
(EDIT: Was at $15k per month last October before the competition started getting crazy)
About $2.5K per month hosting websites.
Then consulting income - I keep consulting because I feel like at any moment, the Android Market ranking algorithm will change or competition will wipe me out, etc, it's just to day-to-day to walk away from good old consulting.
by pcestrada on 5/20/11, 3:00 PM
by udfalkso on 5/20/11, 3:12 PM
by pmichaud on 5/20/11, 6:03 PM
I sell a combination of e-books and physical books, I have a few dozen titles.
by code_duck on 5/20/11, 7:02 PM
Living in a relatively expensive place, I'm satisfied with that for now as it enables a modest yet comfortable standard of living. The usual benefits - flexible hours, can work in any location with internet access, complete choice of technologies, etc. go a long way.
We could do a lot better, though and I'm aiming to do that. The current business I have can't grow due to the unique situation (it's based on another company's API, and that company is atrocious in every way imaginable - including developer hostility). It's been a blessing, though and I'm looking to build some great new stuff this year.
by pkamb on 5/20/11, 6:41 PM
http://www.onehandkeyboard.org
It's based on the same muscle memory as two-hand typing, so any two-hand typist can learn to type with one hand in minutes. Good for a programmer with a broken arm, for example.
by swah on 5/20/11, 5:34 PM
by endlessvoid94 on 5/20/11, 4:35 PM
by acangiano on 5/20/11, 4:31 PM
by wolfrom on 5/20/11, 3:02 PM
When I tried to start over with a more general gift affiliate site in 2009, I found that the game had changed so much that it would likely take over a year to get back to the earlier level using organic SEO.
So I've put it on hold, hoping to relaunch using social discovery for customer acquisition.
by dangrossman on 5/20/11, 4:01 PM
The sites have similar revenue despite the freemium one having over 1000 times more total users.
by AlexC04 on 5/20/11, 4:15 PM
If I put hours in I can do better - If I submit links to gaming sites it can earn a few dollars a day :)
I couldn't figure out how to scale the traffic, so I've left it on autopilot while I try building other sites. I have a blog that earns about the same and am working on a new idea now that I hope will be 'the one'
My overall goal is to build an autopilot site (or portfolio of sites) that earns ~$90/day. Then ... become a sci fi author.
(LOL ... damn you Tim Ferris! I wasn't miserable in my work-a-day life until I read your damned book - two years later I'm still trying to achieve those dreams of freedom!)
by benhoyt on 5/20/11, 3:06 PM
by WalterGR on 5/20/11, 3:51 PM
The site was collateral damage in Google's Panda update (which was hoped to reduce the prominence of content mills, etc. in search results) so that number has been greatly reduced the past 2 months.
by davcro on 5/20/11, 6:52 PM
by cullenking on 5/20/11, 4:14 PM
by DavidTO1 on 5/20/11, 2:53 PM
by matt1 on 5/20/11, 7:21 PM
Preceden's been in maintenance mode for about a year now, as most of my free time is spent working on a new web design tool called Lean Designs (formerly jMockups) [2]. Lean Designs isn't profitable yet, but it's getting there. Preceden, meanwhile, continues to grow organically. Lean Designs is more of a swing-for-the-fence project, but I've got high hopes for it.
Plan is to transition to full time sometime in the fall of next year.
[1a] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1114834
by michaelleland on 5/20/11, 2:28 PM
by larrik on 5/20/11, 2:28 PM
[Edit: I didn't actually say it, but these are iPhone apps]
On average, almost all of my income is from app sales, and not from ads or In-App Purchases.
I had a Lite version of the paid app, but that seemed to do more harm than good.
I have In-App purchases (both to unlock some extra content and remove ads in the ad-based app, and to unlock each feature of the paid app into the free app), but these have been rather slow to sell (maybe 1 or 2 a week?)
My best paid app sales month was about $900. (This was actually Christmas and a strong early January, which was all reported as January) No other months have come close (although I've only been up since December, really)
I DON'T advertise of any kind. Even my official website gets zero traffic, so I don't bother to keep it up to date.
P.S. I honestly expected my apps to spike in sales and then drop down to a couple a week. In fact, all of my apps continue to be very steady. Even my highs and lows tend to be distributed across all three apps, implying (but not proving) that it's the market itself moving up and down, rather than anything I'm doing.
[EDIT: Responding to replies:] [EDIT: Responded to wallflower]
statictype
-I don't openly connect myself to my apps, mostly because they are a little embarrassing. Maybe I'll write a blog post tell-all.
-They started earning steadily from the beginning, almost entirely through searching for solutions in the app store. I should point out that the paid app is actuall $2.99 so $300/month is really only an average of 4 sales per day or so.
hello_moto
-As for getting started in the iPhone business, I came into it as a young but seasoned programmer who had an idea for a market that was somewhat established, but under-served. Since then, my opinion on that market and my initial idea have completely changed, but I don't have any better ideas for iPhone apps at the moment.
As for rules and regulations? I haven't registered a business yet, so Apple treats me as an individual developer. I tried to hide my real name when I set it up, which half-worked, but took like a week.
I've run into IP infringement cases for my apps, and have even had a DMCA take-down against it, which was resolved very quickly by both sides (at the expense of my app becoming hideous). Apple actually reviewed and approved my changed app within 2 hours of me submitting it, which was awesome. I actually only had a single day of zero sales through all that.
I had an app take about 2 and a half months to get through review. Apple is MUCH slower with free apps than paid apps.
wallflower
The graphic design/presentation was absolutely awful for a long time. Now the app itself is decent enough looking (no where near "Apple" pretty, but the logo is still awful).
none Completely unrelated to your responses, I'm planning on submitting my fourth app this weekend (which is an optimistic estimate, to say the least).
by burke on 5/21/11, 5:18 AM
Generates about $125/mo from 30-60k pageviews per day.
by throwaway94818 on 5/20/11, 2:58 PM
by nhangen on 5/20/11, 7:32 PM
We're working to improve both products and fix bugs. It's not easy to stay on top of it as an indie shop, especially in between consulting gigs and new product development.
I also make another 300-500/month from ebooks and other digital products. Working on some software that I hope will make this number triple.
by hnsmurf on 5/20/11, 3:31 PM
by kadavy on 5/20/11, 3:57 PM
An online dating tips blog that I started over 3 years ago under a pseudonym very recently started bringing in a few thousand a month from affiliates as well. SEOFTW.
There's lots of potential to bump up the revenue on the online dating blog, but I'm finishing up my book on design, so that's more important.
by peteretep on 5/20/11, 3:26 PM
It started off as a Digg-esque site for the vast quantity of dating-related articles on the net based on some custom Perl I hacked together, but I quickly realized that while that was getting me linked by 'dating experts', the traffic it was bringing in didn't convert, where traffic to very generic articles ("How to meet girls at the gym") converted much better.
I tried to make sure it was updated every day, and finding, sourcing, and writing the articles took an hour a day. I ended up selling the site for ~ $16k when I needed some money to pay a tax bill quickly.
There are now so so so many sites farming this kind of content, I think it'd be very hard to reproduce in this field. That said, the affiliate commissions are pretty good - one guy would pay you $40 for every $20 ebook of his that was sold as a result of you (because he figured you'd sent him a paying customer who'd end up spending a lot more with him).
by sktrdie on 5/20/11, 2:44 PM
Continuously expanding with some marketing, hoping to reach the $500/month mark someday.
by iconfinder on 5/20/11, 3:58 PM
by rms on 5/20/11, 4:44 PM
by ericabbott1 on 5/20/11, 5:04 PM
For those curious, the apps are "US Tax Receipt" (free) and "Candy Counter - The Candy Jar Estimator" ($0.99)
by robert00700 on 5/20/11, 7:08 PM
$100-$200 a month selling virtual weapons in SecondLife (Used to be around $800 a month a few years ago)
$200 a month with my two iOS apps developed using Unity3D. Each took around 1 week to make! Seriously was worth the $300 license, I doubt anybody could match the development speed natively.
by limedaring on 5/27/11, 5:35 AM
by netchaos on 5/20/11, 5:18 PM
I do freelance web development. Even though not consistent, it's my main revenue source.
I believe there are very good opportunities to make a good income from online businesses but in my case, my acute procrastination issue is preventing me from making anything considerable.
by trowaway87654 on 5/20/11, 7:32 PM
by doubleconfess on 5/20/11, 5:41 PM
Sadly I am an American and that is no longer possible.
by malingo on 5/20/11, 6:33 PM
by dangravell on 5/20/11, 4:58 PM
The main sales channel is SEO, but I have also had success by trying to integrate, both technically and marketing-wise, with other products and services. Referrals from blog reviews and forum posts also help a little. Adwords is very low, and is something I'm trying to improve all the time (thanks patio11 for the blog posts).
by luke_osu on 5/20/11, 7:18 PM
I would love to expand on it or market it more, but time does not permit right now. I've started playing with Google Adwords, so we will see how that goes. We are also working on getting the site redesigned.
by lutorm on 5/20/11, 1:58 PM
by dennisgorelik on 5/21/11, 3:18 PM
1) 377 * $20/month subscriptions http://www.postjobfree.com/premium-membership
2) ~$1000/month in AdSense
Expenses: ~$4000/month
by metaprinter on 5/20/11, 6:58 PM
The site is built on wordpress so i've been thinking about some kind of amazon affiliate plugin but i haven't pulled the trigger yet, haven't read any outstanding reviews on amazon plugins either.
by RobertKohr on 5/23/11, 4:49 PM
by bnenning on 5/20/11, 7:32 PM
by rabbitonrails on 5/20/11, 3:59 PM
by withoutfriction on 5/21/11, 7:36 AM
I'd like to set up some sort of group where we get ~10 people together and then each week set things we need to do, and then next week we make sure the other people completed their goals.
If you are in, post your email as a reply to this. I'm going to use a posterous group to accomplish this - though if there is something else that would work better let me know.
by Coscorron on 5/20/11, 9:43 PM
by h4xnoodle on 5/20/11, 3:31 PM
by designsourced on 5/20/11, 5:25 PM
Also, I see there are a lot of app developers here. I mainly do logo design http://www.designsourced.com and have worked on a few apps. Any HN folks that want a custom app icon designed for a good price or % of future sales let me know
by techbio on 5/20/11, 7:20 PM
by arandomJohn on 5/25/11, 4:53 AM
More would be nice, but I have done a terrible job at marketing it.
by joshowens on 5/20/11, 4:55 PM
Nothing major, but certainly room to grow!
by ohashi on 5/20/11, 4:32 PM
by zefhous on 5/20/11, 2:18 PM
If you're curious: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nations/id386514813?mt=8
by ka010 on 5/20/11, 6:13 PM
Although this requires a good amount of time, I'm still able to do some freelancing on the side which makes a pretty sweet addition to the above, works out just great.
by satanIsMyCpilot on 5/20/11, 5:26 PM
I see a lot of posters making over $1K/month. How long did it take to reach that level of income?
by mdonahoe on 5/21/11, 4:08 AM
rrrrthats5rs.com
by rytis on 5/20/11, 3:01 PM
Bear in mind it's been flying solo since 2007 with only a single facelift about 6 months ago. No marketing or anything. Pays for the server, but that's it.
by baconner on 5/20/11, 9:58 PM
by wasigh on 5/20/11, 3:21 PM
by sahillavingia on 5/20/11, 5:55 PM
by vascoconde on 5/20/11, 7:23 PM
by herval on 5/22/11, 10:12 PM
by gonepostal on 5/20/11, 2:12 PM
That is from rental properties I own.
by vgurgov on 5/20/11, 8:24 PM
by toumhi on 5/21/11, 4:49 AM
by noodle on 5/20/11, 2:26 PM
edit: on the "takes money to make money" front, i make several hundred bucks on dividend-returning stocks.
by joelackner on 5/20/11, 2:43 PM
by jcollins on 5/20/11, 9:24 PM
by brk on 5/20/11, 3:51 PM
by Hisoka on 5/20/11, 6:17 PM