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I hate having to be vague here, but suffice it to say there exist a few developers-oriented web applications which did one small thing well apiece. One day, a

by patio11 12y ago

I hate having to be vague here, but suffice it to say there exist a few developers-oriented web applications which did one small thing well apiece. One day, a Silicon Valley company tired of paying $500 per lead to AdWords just sent them bolt-out-of-the-blue offers. Suffice it to say that the numbers involved were fat yearly salaries for nights-and-weekends style projects. If you want to catch a bolt out of the blue, getting together a coherent commercially valuable audience increases your chances. That said: the easiest and best way to make money is to make something people want and trade it to them for money. If you're smart enough to build something that 50k web developers use every month then turning that into six figures is straightforward. P.S. "They do not offer enough value to charge for" is a solvable problem, either by adding value or by using equivalent engineering time to build solutions to problems that matter to people with money. I mean, it's not like BCC's for loop and random number generator are a commandingly high bar of technical prowess to justify the $29.95 price tag.

xyby 12y ago
If you're smart enough to build something that 50k web developers use every month then turning that into six figures is straightforward. How? I have 50k visitors interested in other topics, but wouldn't know how to turn that into any money at all. BCC's for loop and random number generator What is BCC?
- zrail 12y ago
  patio11 built a downloadable and then web application named Bingo Card Creator. He tends to downplay it as "just a random number generator". He documented the development process from soup to nuts here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/start-here-if-youre-new/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/start-here-if-youre-new/
- unwind 12y ago
  BCC is Bingo Card Creator (http://www.bingocardcreator.com/ http://www.bingocardcreator.com/), part of patio11's portfolio.
- davidw 12y ago
  BCC is Patrick's Bingo Card Creator.
- patio11 12y ago
  BCC is Bingo Card Creator. The broad strokes of making money from a tight, commercially relevant audience: collect their email addresses by promising you'll send them something valuable, send them something valuable, continue doing so, offer them the opportunity to purchase something one step more advanced than that for a meaningful amount of money. This may or may not be achievable from the position you're in, since "50k visitors across a portfolio of websites" is possibly quite different in character from "50k highly paid professionals with congruent interests who make a habit of coming to your site to solve a problem which implies the existence of a second problem that has an active market in solutions available and lots of money sloshing around in customer acquisition budgets among them." All of the sub phrases there suggest valuable things to shoot for in new projects, by the way. Given the choice between a website which could be used by anyone in St. Louis or anyone in a well-paid profession of equivalent size, pick the second. Given the choice of serving nail artists or lawyers, pick lawyers. Given the choice of solving a problem which is peripheral to their interests or one which is more central, pick the central one. Given the choice of "totally noncommercializable" versus "abuts a very commercial field", pick the second one. etc
- nickdandakis 12y ago
  50k visitors is not the same as 50k visitors that are all web developers. What patio11 is saying is that you need to either add more value to your product, or make sure your simple product is used by people that see value in your product.
- hluska 12y ago
  If I were in your shoes, I would go to patio11's website (kalzumeus.com) and sign up for the email list at the very top. Trust me...
bhousel 12y ago
Maybe I don't understand how AdWords works, but I thought the top CPCs hovered around $50†. How is that different from a "lead" and who is paying $500 for that? † http://www.adventureppc.com/most-expensive-adwords-2014/ http://www.adventureppc.com/most-expensive-adwords-2014/
- rafaelm 12y ago
  I'm guessing he's spending $500 per lead. As in, for every $500 spent on adwords, they are getting a lead.
- mod 12y ago
  If it takes X number of clicks to get one (real) lead, they could add up to $500+. I worked for a company that managed adwords for a mainframe software company and they would pay a lot of money for clicks before getting a conversion. Maybe you guys are just using different terms here.
deleted 12y ago
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by patio11 12y ago

xyby 12y ago

If you're smart enough to build something that 50k web developers use every month then turning that into six figures is straightforward. How? I have 50k visitors interested in other topics, but wouldn't know how to turn that into any money at all. BCC's for loop and random number generator What is BCC?

zrail 12y ago
patio11 built a downloadable and then web application named Bingo Card Creator. He tends to downplay it as "just a random number generator". He documented the development process from soup to nuts here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/start-here-if-youre-new/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/start-here-if-youre-new/
unwind 12y ago
BCC is Bingo Card Creator (http://www.bingocardcreator.com/ http://www.bingocardcreator.com/), part of patio11's portfolio.
davidw 12y ago
BCC is Patrick's Bingo Card Creator.
patio11 12y ago
BCC is Bingo Card Creator. The broad strokes of making money from a tight, commercially relevant audience: collect their email addresses by promising you'll send them something valuable, send them something valuable, continue doing so, offer them the opportunity to purchase something one step more advanced than that for a meaningful amount of money. This may or may not be achievable from the position you're in, since "50k visitors across a portfolio of websites" is possibly quite different in character from "50k highly paid professionals with congruent interests who make a habit of coming to your site to solve a problem which implies the existence of a second problem that has an active market in solutions available and lots of money sloshing around in customer acquisition budgets among them." All of the sub phrases there suggest valuable things to shoot for in new projects, by the way. Given the choice between a website which could be used by anyone in St. Louis or anyone in a well-paid profession of equivalent size, pick the second. Given the choice of serving nail artists or lawyers, pick lawyers. Given the choice of solving a problem which is peripheral to their interests or one which is more central, pick the central one. Given the choice of "totally noncommercializable" versus "abuts a very commercial field", pick the second one. etc
nickdandakis 12y ago
50k visitors is not the same as 50k visitors that are all web developers. What patio11 is saying is that you need to either add more value to your product, or make sure your simple product is used by people that see value in your product.
hluska 12y ago
If I were in your shoes, I would go to patio11's website (kalzumeus.com) and sign up for the email list at the very top. Trust me...

bhousel 12y ago

Maybe I don't understand how AdWords works, but I thought the top CPCs hovered around $50†. How is that different from a "lead" and who is paying $500 for that? † http://www.adventureppc.com/most-expensive-adwords-2014/ http://www.adventureppc.com/most-expensive-adwords-2014/

rafaelm 12y ago
I'm guessing he's spending $500 per lead. As in, for every $500 spent on adwords, they are getting a lead.
mod 12y ago
If it takes X number of clicks to get one (real) lead, they could add up to $500+. I worked for a company that managed adwords for a mainframe software company and they would pay a lot of money for clicks before getting a conversion. Maybe you guys are just using different terms here.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]