4 ms·

I built a network of agricultural communities. Making a decent living from Adsense revenue. There's a substantial secondary revenue stream in the form of paid c

I built a network of agricultural communities. Making a decent living from Adsense revenue. There's a substantial secondary revenue stream in the form of paid classified ads in niche marketplaces. I could make more money by going after advertisers myself, but I don't like the sales aspect. I am currently developing a turnkey website platform for companies in my niches, fully integrated with my other platforms, Twitter and Facebook. I will hire a sales person when that's finished. Right now I work from home so that I can take care of the kids when my wife is at her job. Because the revenue stream is mostly passive I still take some consultancy projects, but that's not quite necessary.

fiatjaf 10y ago
Please, share a link.
- spiderfarmer 10y ago
  There are 45 in total, my biggest communities are Dutch. Hope it's not against HN guidelines to post these links: https://www.tractorfan.nl/ https://www.tractorfan.nl/ (mechanisation) https://www.prikkebord.nl/ https://www.prikkebord.nl/ (dairy farming) https://www.truckfan.nl/ https://www.truckfan.nl/ (transportation) https://www.vastgereden.nl/ https://www.vastgereden.nl/ (bloopers! good for the views) https://www.boeren.nu https://www.boeren.nu (combination of the above) http://quotum.nu/fosfaatrechten/ http://quotum.nu/fosfaatrechten/ (niche market, covers the trade in phosphor quota licenses)
  - appleiigs 10y ago
    With so many websites, would it be better combining them all into one parent website, like Reddit and their sub-reddits? I see you have links to your other sites, but maybe Google rank for a parent site would be more prominent since the one parent address would have a lot of traffic. Maybe have a parent site that lists/links out your 45 (or just the a group of related sites) and maintain the individual addresses. Then have a link back to your parent. I guess this is more of a branding idea. Google Parent Alphabet, with Google Mail, Google Drive. Also, honda.com (You obviously know what you are doing, so take this is just a question, not a suggestion)
    - spiderfarmer 10y ago
      I kinda have that in boeren.nu. But my reasoning was that you can't be everything to everybody. A farmer might enjoy reading about tractors and cows, whereas a mechanic couldn't care less about the cows. I could make it easy to add interest to your profile, but only 20% of my visitors are logged in. Also, while I certainly think of Google when I build things, I think of my visitors quite a bit longer. I always look at Google as the company that tried to replace me with their silly Google+ communities, as well as the company that sends me 40% of my traffic.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
tunnuz 10y ago
This sounds really interesting, care to share a link?
52-6F-62 10y ago
I come from a rural community and live in a large city now (in Canada). The rural/agricultural regions here are so vast and spread out between each other. This is an absolutely fantastic idea! (Now that _some_ form of internet has made it most places.)
instakill 10y ago
How did you go about growing the communities?
- spiderfarmer 10y ago
  I listened to what they wanted to do with it and I am in the lucky position that I can develop whatever they want. But that was a slow, 10 yr long process.

fiatjaf 10y ago

Please, share a link.

spiderfarmer 10y ago
There are 45 in total, my biggest communities are Dutch. Hope it's not against HN guidelines to post these links: https://www.tractorfan.nl/ https://www.tractorfan.nl/ (mechanisation) https://www.prikkebord.nl/ https://www.prikkebord.nl/ (dairy farming) https://www.truckfan.nl/ https://www.truckfan.nl/ (transportation) https://www.vastgereden.nl/ https://www.vastgereden.nl/ (bloopers! good for the views) https://www.boeren.nu https://www.boeren.nu (combination of the above) http://quotum.nu/fosfaatrechten/ http://quotum.nu/fosfaatrechten/ (niche market, covers the trade in phosphor quota licenses)
- appleiigs 10y ago
  With so many websites, would it be better combining them all into one parent website, like Reddit and their sub-reddits? I see you have links to your other sites, but maybe Google rank for a parent site would be more prominent since the one parent address would have a lot of traffic. Maybe have a parent site that lists/links out your 45 (or just the a group of related sites) and maintain the individual addresses. Then have a link back to your parent. I guess this is more of a branding idea. Google Parent Alphabet, with Google Mail, Google Drive. Also, honda.com (You obviously know what you are doing, so take this is just a question, not a suggestion)
  - spiderfarmer 10y ago
    I kinda have that in boeren.nu. But my reasoning was that you can't be everything to everybody. A farmer might enjoy reading about tractors and cows, whereas a mechanic couldn't care less about the cows. I could make it easy to add interest to your profile, but only 20% of my visitors are logged in. Also, while I certainly think of Google when I build things, I think of my visitors quite a bit longer. I always look at Google as the company that tried to replace me with their silly Google+ communities, as well as the company that sends me 40% of my traffic.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

tunnuz 10y ago

This sounds really interesting, care to share a link?

52-6F-62 10y ago

I come from a rural community and live in a large city now (in Canada). The rural/agricultural regions here are so vast and spread out between each other. This is an absolutely fantastic idea! (Now that _some_ form of internet has made it most places.)

instakill 10y ago

How did you go about growing the communities?

spiderfarmer 10y ago
I listened to what they wanted to do with it and I am in the lucky position that I can develop whatever they want. But that was a slow, 10 yr long process.