I've observed that HN seems most interested in rags-to-minimum-wage stories, and rags-to-riches stories, but not much in between
If anyone has any ideas/pointers, I'd love to hear them.
Hi, original post author here! :) I think the main difference between our two posts is that mine goes into more detail about how I created the app and bought in revenue, whereas your posts lists only that you're already making serious dough (incidentally, congratulations! :)), and how your revenues have grown - not a lot about how to get there in the first place.
Why is this $500/mo (after 1.5 yrs) essay so popular
I'd like to take issue with this point, although please do correct me if I'm seeing criticism where none was intended :) This is obviously not a full-on startup - I don't work eight hours every evening on it; in fact I barely put in that many hours on it per month. Maybe I need to clarify this in my next blog post. Either way, I don't understand why you're knocking it for being 1.5 years old.
Hey, mootothemax, I wasn't knocking you! Sorry if it came across that way. I only added the time frame because our time frames were the same.
If we look at stories like ours PURELY as inspiration fodder (vs personal sagas), wouldn't you prefer to read about somebody who ended up with a hundred thousand instead of a hundred? :) That's not to downplay your success at all, because you've gotten what you've wanted in the way you wanted. That's what success is about, IMO.
Thanks for the tip about the specificity, I bet you're right & will try that approach next time.
Leaving aside such issues as time of the day/week when articles were posted (I have no idea if that has played a factor in this case) I agree that the specificity issue is likely to be applicable.
> wouldn't you prefer to read about somebody who
> ended up with a hundred thousand instead of a hundred?
How about if it's presented as "$100,000 with full time hours" compared with "a $100 with a few hours"?
From my perspective at least, I view an article about how to achieve "a $100 with a few hours (spread over a year)" as seeming more attainable and accessible than one about "$100,000 with full time hours (spread over a year)". I'd think "Hey, maybe I could do that" about the former and more "That'd be cool to do that" about the latter.
I like that you've got a "mission" to show that what you've achieved is attainable for others as well and I look forward to reading more about how.
Thanks for the feedback! You actually told me something very important, indirectly -- our SaaS app got to $1500/mo (start) to about $4,500 on a very part-time basis, before we put much time into it. Clearly I should talk about this part of the story more.
If anyone has any ideas/pointers, I'd love to hear them.
Hi, original post author here! :) I think the main difference between our two posts is that mine goes into more detail about how I created the app and bought in revenue, whereas your posts lists only that you're already making serious dough (incidentally, congratulations! :)), and how your revenues have grown - not a lot about how to get there in the first place.
Why is this $500/mo (after 1.5 yrs) essay so popular
I'd like to take issue with this point, although please do correct me if I'm seeing criticism where none was intended :) This is obviously not a full-on startup - I don't work eight hours every evening on it; in fact I barely put in that many hours on it per month. Maybe I need to clarify this in my next blog post. Either way, I don't understand why you're knocking it for being 1.5 years old.