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I'd love to just make $1000 / month profit. I don't "need" the money per se, but definitely "want" it. Maybe for no other reason than to just to do it. I jus

by fm2606 2y ago

I'd love to just make $1000 / month profit. I don't "need" the money per se, but definitely "want" it. Maybe for no other reason than to just to do it. I just can't seem to come up with an idea. It has been said/written multiple times "scratch your own itch". It seems that I don't have an itch. If it takes me X-amount of steps or time to do some task, I don't ever look at how to reduce it, I just go with the flow. In the grand scheme of life I am very satisfied. I don't NEED anything and for that I am grateful. However, I am a worrier and I do worry about the future and retirement (I'm in my mid 50s), specifically healthcare. Anyway, better quite here and stop blathering on

cedws 2y ago
I have the same problem. When I see the kinds of simple products printing HNers money I think “people pay for THAT?” Any ideas I do have I convince myself nobody needs, wants, or will pay for.
- PaulRobinson 2y ago
  So in future, build a landing page, start shipping it around and see if you can get some early potential customers interested. Or, choose a small thing you can build in a few weekends, get it built and try shipping it. If you get no traction, you learned something. If you do, you can now invest more. This is the whole idea behind lean startups: don’t assume tou have a winner or a stinker, go find out and adapt based on feedback.
  - htamas 2y ago
    > start shipping it around Can you elaborate on this?
    - PaulRobinson 2y ago
      Share it on social media, talk to potential customers about it, give people something to sign up to, in order to learn more.
- albertgoeswoof 2y ago
  Ok here is the playbook: - Go here https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&aws-products-all.sort-order=asc&awsf.re%3AInvent=*all&awsf.Free%20Tier%20Type=*all&awsf.tech-category=*all https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=it... - Look at the list of products - Copy one of them - Do it a bit better (e.g. cheaper, faster, hosted in EU, targeted at some specific segment of users etc.) - Launch asap (no longer than 3 months of coding) - Reach out to potential users everywhere you can, until you get a few dollars of recurring revenue in - Write blogs, and long form content, integrate with other libraries and systems - Automate everything, pay for services that aren't core to your business (e.g. payments, backups, etc.) - Do everything you can to help all your early users, keep improving the product every week - Wait a few months/years, till it compounds up to 10-20k MRR
  - fm2606 2y ago
    Thanks. I'll definitely take a look.
  - bsima 2y ago
    actually a pretty good playbook, would probably work
  - sakopov 2y ago
    Are you suggesting to copy one of AWS services? This seems like fool's errand.
- meiraleal 2y ago
  It is all about execution. There are people making 10k/month++ right now with apps to take notes or newsletter
- Workaccount2 2y ago
  What blows my mind is that people tolerate paying monthly for what is a static service. A service routine monitor doesn't need to be updated every month to function, so why would anyone pay every month to use it?
  - quest88 2y ago
    Offer a cheaper solution and find out! Servers cost money each month, as do the services they use.
  - LVB 2y ago
    "Tolerate" is an odd way to describe a totally voluntary transaction in a market with plenty of alternatives. The service is either worth the price or not for each person, regardless of the COGS.
    - Workaccount2 2y ago
      If only plumbers knew the value of having a toilet inside your house.
  - charles_f 2y ago
    You've got a backend as well, and support?
reassess_blind 2y ago
One of my products makes well over that amount, and it’s an identical clone of one of about 500 identical products in the same (large) niche. If all you want is $1000/mo, you don’t necessarily have to solve a new problem, you can solve a problem that already has solutions (ideally doing it slightly better, but this isn’t required). If your product is identical to the competitors, then you can carve out a small percentage of the market just be being the first solution the user tries, e.g via paid ads putting you at the top of the search. Best of luck!

by fm2606 2y ago

cedws 2y ago

I have the same problem. When I see the kinds of simple products printing HNers money I think “people pay for THAT?” Any ideas I do have I convince myself nobody needs, wants, or will pay for.

PaulRobinson 2y ago
So in future, build a landing page, start shipping it around and see if you can get some early potential customers interested. Or, choose a small thing you can build in a few weekends, get it built and try shipping it. If you get no traction, you learned something. If you do, you can now invest more. This is the whole idea behind lean startups: don’t assume tou have a winner or a stinker, go find out and adapt based on feedback.
- htamas 2y ago
  > start shipping it around Can you elaborate on this?
  - PaulRobinson 2y ago
    Share it on social media, talk to potential customers about it, give people something to sign up to, in order to learn more.
albertgoeswoof 2y ago
Ok here is the playbook: - Go here https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&aws-products-all.sort-order=asc&awsf.re%3AInvent=*all&awsf.Free%20Tier%20Type=*all&awsf.tech-category=*all https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=it... - Look at the list of products - Copy one of them - Do it a bit better (e.g. cheaper, faster, hosted in EU, targeted at some specific segment of users etc.) - Launch asap (no longer than 3 months of coding) - Reach out to potential users everywhere you can, until you get a few dollars of recurring revenue in - Write blogs, and long form content, integrate with other libraries and systems - Automate everything, pay for services that aren't core to your business (e.g. payments, backups, etc.) - Do everything you can to help all your early users, keep improving the product every week - Wait a few months/years, till it compounds up to 10-20k MRR
- fm2606 2y ago
  Thanks. I'll definitely take a look.
- bsima 2y ago
  actually a pretty good playbook, would probably work
- sakopov 2y ago
  Are you suggesting to copy one of AWS services? This seems like fool's errand.
meiraleal 2y ago
It is all about execution. There are people making 10k/month++ right now with apps to take notes or newsletter
Workaccount2 2y ago
What blows my mind is that people tolerate paying monthly for what is a static service. A service routine monitor doesn't need to be updated every month to function, so why would anyone pay every month to use it?
- quest88 2y ago
  Offer a cheaper solution and find out! Servers cost money each month, as do the services they use.
- LVB 2y ago
  "Tolerate" is an odd way to describe a totally voluntary transaction in a market with plenty of alternatives. The service is either worth the price or not for each person, regardless of the COGS.
  - Workaccount2 2y ago
    If only plumbers knew the value of having a toilet inside your house.
- charles_f 2y ago
  You've got a backend as well, and support?

reassess_blind 2y ago

One of my products makes well over that amount, and it’s an identical clone of one of about 500 identical products in the same (large) niche. If all you want is $1000/mo, you don’t necessarily have to solve a new problem, you can solve a problem that already has solutions (ideally doing it slightly better, but this isn’t required). If your product is identical to the competitors, then you can carve out a small percentage of the market just be being the first solution the user tries, e.g via paid ads putting you at the top of the search. Best of luck!