augustflanagan

19 ms·

1. 121.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   I'm actually in Vancouver, B.C. which I think is somewhere in between those two. I've been calling mainly real estate agents all week, and am really surprised that they are the ones who perk up at hearing the word entrepreneur.
2. 122.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   $14,000 a year is actually a ton of money when you are traveling. I traveled/lived for two solid years in Central/South America and Asia for less than $20,000. It's pretty easy to do. Just don't fly much, stay in cheap rooms $5-6 a night w
3. 123.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   Agreed, as someone who started off as a non-technical person and realized the necessity to gain more technical skills, I can remember saying things like "Oh, this seems pretty easy, you can probably just do x, y, and z and be done with it."
4. 124.▲
   Watch Walmart Grow(projects.flowingdata.com)

   2 points by augustflanagan 16y ago|0 comments
5. 125.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   I would too! Unfortunately the teachers weren't interested in paying, just using it while it was free.
6. 126.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   Thanks. I really appreciate the feedback and advice (from everyone on HN). The whole "wondering how much longer I should give it" phase lasted from about February until early April. One of the first things that made me realize it might be
7. 127.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   I don't think the $2,000 mark is really of any significance in deciding whether to move forward or not. If we had a business model that I truely believed in I would be happy to invest a significant amount of money into it. As it stands at
8. 128.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   Yeah, I'm getting that a lot on here. I think it is a hard name for people who only speak English, or speak English and other languages that aren't latin based. (Our Spanish speaking members really like the name.)
9. 129.▲
   by augustflanagan 16y ago

   Thanks jayliew. I don't actually think I'M a failure. I was just trying to express the gamut of emotions that one feels when a startup doesn't work out.
10. 130.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    Just for the fun of it does anyone want to throw out some new names for the site? Lenguajero is pretty bad in English. I think we fell into the trap of speaking Spanish everyday and thinking that it just sounded cool (and a bit witty). I
11. 131.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    I would say almost none of our users are Spanish and English professors (presumably they speak both languages quite well ;)). The idea was to get them to use the tool in their classrooms, where their students would be the users. They woul
12. 132.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    Just to clarify. I'm not shutting down Lenguajero. It will keep on running (at least I'll still use it to practice my Spanish :)), and maybe we'll come up with an idea on how to monetize. One of the challenges we faced in monetizing the sit
13. 133.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    We tried a couple of different ideas, neither of which gained traction. The most promising was offering a paid tool to Spanish and English professors, who could sign up their classes and then monitor how their students were using the site.
14. 134.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    Thanks Vivtek. I appreciate the feedback. While we do have 7000 users I would say that really our "committed community" is much smaller. The site does pay for itself, and on average makes $100-$150 a month in profits from ad revenue. Bu
15. 135.▲
    What it feels like to fail(aflanagan.com)

    60 points by augustflanagan 16y ago|53 comments
16. 136.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    I did do a bit of search term research before I got started. There is not insignificant amount of traffic for terms like (banner ads, banner ad templates, custom banner ads, etc.) The idea for the site came about from a personal need. I ha
17. 137.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    Thanks for that! A couple of other people have told me more or less the same thing today. I'll make some layout changes.
18. 138.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    I suppose that's the million dollar question ;) No, I haven't. I launched last night, and turned on a $5 dollar a day AdWords campaign this morning (though I'm not getting any traffic from it yet). Basically all my traffic is coming from
19. 139.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    > 1) As already stated, increasing your range to appeal to a broad cross-section of customers and repeat customers. 2) A good marketing strategy. At this stage I'd say (1) should be your focus but you might want to start thinking about
20. 140.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    Yup, that is one of the two possible directions I would like to go in. The other would be building a set of tools so that customers could come to the site, choose a template they like (hopefully from a lot more than 6), and then dynamically
21. 141.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    You're right. That's one option I have thought of. In which case I would like to make it easy for designers to upload their own work to the site and display it. I don't mind being a middle man, as long as I can play that role passively. I
22. 142.▲
    by augustflanagan 16y ago

    Thanks for the feedback. You're definitely right about needing more templates. I am adding three more this week, and then want to see if any of them sell before I add even more. Currently there are no options for custom designs. I like th
23. 143.▲
    Ask HN: Will this site make $500 per month?

    11 points by augustflanagan 16y ago|17 comments