5 ms·

Show/Ask HN: My side project for over a year; should I take it on full time?

32 points by makeramen 16y ago

aschobel 16y ago
Very slick app, but discovery on Android can be tough. Shoot me an email, aschobel (at) catch.com and I can put you in touch with our Google Developer advocates, you definitely want to get featured. What are you thinking of using for online sync/backup? RTM? Google lets you backup blobs using BackupManager, might be worth looking into. Good luck!
- dpcan 16y ago
  I've always wondered how they chose their featured apps. Any more insight?
  - aschobel 16y ago
    You need to contact them and they have a team decide if they will feature you. They look at how closely you follow the Android HIG, level of polish in the app, have you been recently featured, etc. We also send them beta version of our apps and they give us great feedback.
    - shareme 16y ago
      Thank you! I was wondering how that works even though I have contributed some bug fixes to the android sdk before... Is there a google page with the addy to send the betas ? Once again thanks for the info
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
      - aschobel 16y ago
        shrug I haven't seen any online page to send betas and such. Meet a few of the dev advocates at IO, SXSW, and a bunch of the Android events around SF.
        shareme 16y ago
        I just found another way.. several of my Angel VC contacts are friendly with Google Android Dev Advocates..
- makeramen 16y ago
  Wow thanks! I'll send you an email right now.
MicahWedemeyer 16y ago
As someone who's been doing the nights-and-weekends thing for a long time, my advice is: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Do you really, really hate your job? Is it coming to a point where you have to choose one or the other? Quitting your job and jumping onto your app full time might accelerate development, but it probably won't accelerate revenue, at least not a lot. Keep growing it on the side and take the leap when it's not a huge step down from your current income and when sales are steady enough that you feel comfortable.
mattm 16y ago
In my experience, when I am thinking about doing something (no matter how big or small), it generally turns out better when I do it instead of when I don't.
RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Throws an SSL error/warning: This is probably not the site that you are looking for! You attempted to reach market.android.com, but instead you actually reached a server identifying itself as *.google.com. This may be caused by a misconfiguration on the server or by something more serious. An attacker on your network could be trying to get you to visit a fake (and potentially harmful) version of market.android.com. You should not proceed.
- aschobel 16y ago
  Seems to be back to normal, using Chrome 9.0.597.107
bherms 16y ago
Depends on how much $ you're making from it and what sort of growth you think you can achieve. I checked out the app and it looks very nice. I will be buying soon.
- makeramen 16y ago
  I'm making anywhere from $500-$1500 a month, it really varies based on sales. The biggest leap I want to make is to offer a web version with sync, but that would be a rather large effort. Ideally I'd like to see it become a Web+Device synced version of Things that actually exists.
  - dpcan 16y ago
    Why $2.99? Have you tried other price points?
    - makeramen 16y ago
      It was originally at .99, then raised to 1.99, and eventually 2.99 without seeing significant decrease in sales numbers. But at 2.99 I did start getting comments saying it was expensive, so I decided that was a good price to stay at.
  - shareme 16y ago
    off-hand sounds like if you do a limited-feature free version you could bring up that amount at least double it or maybe even 5x it..
    - reubenyeah 16y ago
      Like this? https://market.android.com/details?id=com.makeramen.todolist&feature=more_from_developer https://market.android.com/details?id=com.makeramen.todolist...
  - bherms 16y ago
    That's not too bad really... If you think you can live on it and whatever savings you have, are young, don't have many commitments, and can dedicate the time, then I say go for the risk.
dmix 16y ago
Catch.com will bring you some tough competition since they raised a few million in capital and their app is free. I've tried out a ton of todo list apps on Android theirs was the best. Syncing with their site is key. I can type out a grocery list at home on my laptop onto their site. Then at the store pull out the phone and its there. That would be a great feature to offer.
- aschobel 16y ago
  Kinda, we are trying to make it easier to capture what matters (things, people, places) and be able to pivot on that data. Productivity is a nice onramp for that. Folks have been asking for ToDo functionality for a while now, I want to keep the productivity features to an absolute minimum.
- makeramen 16y ago
  I agree, web app + sync is the big push I would need a lot of time to commit to. And I've definitely seen catch/3banana before. I feel like they are more competitors to Evernote than to me. Simplenote's recent addition of a list feature has me more troubled, even though they don't have an android client yet.
  - mr_november 16y ago
    You're right, simplenote doesn't have a native android client but I am a simplenote user and use mNote on my galaxy s; no complaints, syncs flawlessly (haven't used 'lists' though). Just posting in case you haven't seen the app. Good luck, I'm going to give your app a go.
seanalltogether 16y ago
Here's my opinion, build another app, or better yet build 3 other apps and diversify your income. 1 mobile app is not enough to require full time dedication, but having 3 or 4 apps to cycle between will keep you busy and should provide good money.
- aschobel 16y ago
  Depends on the app, but for us one mobile app is more than enough to keep one of our folks busy full time. It takes a heck of a lot of work and dedication to make a solid app. I really wish we had a few more folks hacking on Android! cough we're hiring cough :P
- makeramen 16y ago
  I upvoted, and you're not the first to suggest this either. But I must argue that to have 3 or 4 well-ranked apps with a solid income is easier said than done, especially for a single developer. I wish I had the insight to know exactly what 3 or 4 other apps to write so I can have a steady income. But chances are by the time I finish writing 3 good apps a year from now, I'll be lucky if one of them has as much traction as this one. The other choice would be to take this app that already has traction (from only my part time work) and pour more time an energy into it to see how big it could really get. Thoughts?
  - shareme 16y ago
    I am facing the exact same decision set in many respects. 1. I have one good app in dev process in a market segment that is hot, Custom HomeScreens 2. I know that I need some more apps, was thinking some quick 2d games via using andengine. 3. I do have some fulltime inquiries that might work as base income to fund the full 12 month weekend-evening dev cycle. Pull Tim Bray's recent blog posts on making money in the android market. There also was some recent HN articles on android dev's making $120,000 yearly with a paired free and paid approach. BTW, what dev processes are you using thus far? I am switching to combination TDD and BDD approach using robolectric and robotium/android-mock to take some of the pain out.
mrchess 16y ago
Diversify. The mobile app market is very volatile, and you don't want to put your eggs in one basket. As many others suggest here you probably want to make a few other apps which have traction just in case your big one fails. There's a lot going against you as time goes on. Other people roll out apps, technology changes which could suddenly cut your income -- so yea, highly recommend you diversify.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
vicngtor 16y ago
WHY DID NO ONE MENTION RTM? It's by far the best list out there

32 points by makeramen 16y ago

Very slick app, but discovery on Android can be tough. Shoot me an email, aschobel (at) catch.com and I can put you in touch with our Google Developer advocates, you definitely want to get featured. What are you thinking of using for online sync/backup? RTM? Google lets you backup blobs using BackupManager, might be worth looking into. Good luck!

dpcan 16y ago
I've always wondered how they chose their featured apps. Any more insight?
- aschobel 16y ago
  You need to contact them and they have a team decide if they will feature you. They look at how closely you follow the Android HIG, level of polish in the app, have you been recently featured, etc. We also send them beta version of our apps and they give us great feedback.
  - shareme 16y ago
    Thank you! I was wondering how that works even though I have contributed some bug fixes to the android sdk before... Is there a google page with the addy to send the betas ? Once again thanks for the info
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - aschobel 16y ago
      shrug I haven't seen any online page to send betas and such. Meet a few of the dev advocates at IO, SXSW, and a bunch of the Android events around SF.
      - shareme 16y ago
        I just found another way.. several of my Angel VC contacts are friendly with Google Android Dev Advocates..
makeramen 16y ago
Wow thanks! I'll send you an email right now.

MicahWedemeyer 16y ago

As someone who's been doing the nights-and-weekends thing for a long time, my advice is: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Do you really, really hate your job? Is it coming to a point where you have to choose one or the other? Quitting your job and jumping onto your app full time might accelerate development, but it probably won't accelerate revenue, at least not a lot. Keep growing it on the side and take the leap when it's not a huge step down from your current income and when sales are steady enough that you feel comfortable.

mattm 16y ago

In my experience, when I am thinking about doing something (no matter how big or small), it generally turns out better when I do it instead of when I don't.

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

Throws an SSL error/warning: This is probably not the site that you are looking for! You attempted to reach market.android.com, but instead you actually reached a server identifying itself as *.google.com. This may be caused by a misconfiguration on the server or by something more serious. An attacker on your network could be trying to get you to visit a fake (and potentially harmful) version of market.android.com. You should not proceed.

aschobel 16y ago
Seems to be back to normal, using Chrome 9.0.597.107

bherms 16y ago

Depends on how much $ you're making from it and what sort of growth you think you can achieve. I checked out the app and it looks very nice. I will be buying soon.

makeramen 16y ago
I'm making anywhere from $500-$1500 a month, it really varies based on sales. The biggest leap I want to make is to offer a web version with sync, but that would be a rather large effort. Ideally I'd like to see it become a Web+Device synced version of Things that actually exists.
- dpcan 16y ago
  Why $2.99? Have you tried other price points?
  - makeramen 16y ago
    It was originally at .99, then raised to 1.99, and eventually 2.99 without seeing significant decrease in sales numbers. But at 2.99 I did start getting comments saying it was expensive, so I decided that was a good price to stay at.
- shareme 16y ago
  off-hand sounds like if you do a limited-feature free version you could bring up that amount at least double it or maybe even 5x it..
  - reubenyeah 16y ago
    Like this? https://market.android.com/details?id=com.makeramen.todolist&feature=more_from_developer https://market.android.com/details?id=com.makeramen.todolist...
- bherms 16y ago
  That's not too bad really... If you think you can live on it and whatever savings you have, are young, don't have many commitments, and can dedicate the time, then I say go for the risk.

dmix 16y ago

Catch.com will bring you some tough competition since they raised a few million in capital and their app is free. I've tried out a ton of todo list apps on Android theirs was the best. Syncing with their site is key. I can type out a grocery list at home on my laptop onto their site. Then at the store pull out the phone and its there. That would be a great feature to offer.

aschobel 16y ago
Kinda, we are trying to make it easier to capture what matters (things, people, places) and be able to pivot on that data. Productivity is a nice onramp for that. Folks have been asking for ToDo functionality for a while now, I want to keep the productivity features to an absolute minimum.
makeramen 16y ago
I agree, web app + sync is the big push I would need a lot of time to commit to. And I've definitely seen catch/3banana before. I feel like they are more competitors to Evernote than to me. Simplenote's recent addition of a list feature has me more troubled, even though they don't have an android client yet.
- mr_november 16y ago
  You're right, simplenote doesn't have a native android client but I am a simplenote user and use mNote on my galaxy s; no complaints, syncs flawlessly (haven't used 'lists' though). Just posting in case you haven't seen the app. Good luck, I'm going to give your app a go.

seanalltogether 16y ago

Here's my opinion, build another app, or better yet build 3 other apps and diversify your income. 1 mobile app is not enough to require full time dedication, but having 3 or 4 apps to cycle between will keep you busy and should provide good money.

aschobel 16y ago
Depends on the app, but for us one mobile app is more than enough to keep one of our folks busy full time. It takes a heck of a lot of work and dedication to make a solid app. I really wish we had a few more folks hacking on Android! cough we're hiring cough :P
makeramen 16y ago
I upvoted, and you're not the first to suggest this either. But I must argue that to have 3 or 4 well-ranked apps with a solid income is easier said than done, especially for a single developer. I wish I had the insight to know exactly what 3 or 4 other apps to write so I can have a steady income. But chances are by the time I finish writing 3 good apps a year from now, I'll be lucky if one of them has as much traction as this one. The other choice would be to take this app that already has traction (from only my part time work) and pour more time an energy into it to see how big it could really get. Thoughts?
- shareme 16y ago
  I am facing the exact same decision set in many respects. 1. I have one good app in dev process in a market segment that is hot, Custom HomeScreens 2. I know that I need some more apps, was thinking some quick 2d games via using andengine. 3. I do have some fulltime inquiries that might work as base income to fund the full 12 month weekend-evening dev cycle. Pull Tim Bray's recent blog posts on making money in the android market. There also was some recent HN articles on android dev's making $120,000 yearly with a paired free and paid approach. BTW, what dev processes are you using thus far? I am switching to combination TDD and BDD approach using robolectric and robotium/android-mock to take some of the pain out.

mrchess 16y ago

Diversify. The mobile app market is very volatile, and you don't want to put your eggs in one basket. As many others suggest here you probably want to make a few other apps which have traction just in case your big one fails. There's a lot going against you as time goes on. Other people roll out apps, technology changes which could suddenly cut your income -- so yea, highly recommend you diversify.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

vicngtor 16y ago

WHY DID NO ONE MENTION RTM? It's by far the best list out there