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Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:38AM (#21332522)
I run https://pageflows.com and have been living off it full time for a little over a year.

The business makes a bit more than what I was earning a few years ago as a junior developer in London, so it's not a huge amount of money, but it's enough.

It's a fairly boring business to run and not as predictable or sexy as some sort of micro saas, but it's I'm happy with how things have been so far. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by 44Aman on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:12AM (#21333058)
This is great! I assume most of your customers will be businesses, so why not offer a bulk "@domain" subscription for $999 (lifetime) so that anyone in the business can use it without restriction. Restrict the other packages to personal use and you should be able to drive up your income.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:26AM (#21333132)
Most customers are indeed businesses. Great shout on some sort of team/business plan - it's on my to-do list!
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by agopaul on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:50AM (#21332585)
Nice project! I keep onboarding screenshots for most Sass/web apps I use to get inspiration later for my own projects so I definitely find this very useful (bookmarked!).

How do you monetize the project? I can't see any paid plans in the public website

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:54AM (#21332609)
I've commended to a response below with the business model, but yeah I've just started trialling a freemium model yesterday so need to update the rest of the site with clearer pricing plans etc.

Until yesterday there was no freemium access, it was just paid up-front to access all the content. $39 per quarter or $99 per year.

Your use case is kinda where the idea came from, most product people do something similar. The hard part is adding enough relevant content on Page Flows for enough people!

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by edraferi on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @03:24PM (#21337935)
Maybe allow & incentivize people to add their own videos? Eg you get a month free for every high-quality flow video.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by leowoo91 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:36AM (#21332861)
Very interesting idea, I didn't notice kind of need for designers until now. When I code for a game, I also check for other games, it might be too opinionated but they also have some common experience at their navigation and I find it quite helpful.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:40AM (#21332883)
Yeah I certainly think there's room for something similar for the gaming world, especially as some gaming categories are so competitive.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by sejtnjir on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:46AM (#21332571)
Neat! What's your business model?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:50AM (#21332587)
I literally just switched to a very limited freemium model yesterday (just trialling it for now), but before then it was just pay to access.

It's $39 per quarter or $99 per year for access to all the content.

Quite a low priced product with decently high churn, so I've been trying to find ways to increase the value.

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by deevus on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:55AM (#21332620)
Bonjoro is great for reducing churn. https://www.bonjoro.com

Check out how Matt Ragland from ConvertKit uses it here: https://www.bonjoro.com/uses

Disclaimer: I'm the CTO

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by taneq on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:11AM (#21332715)
Honest question, doesn't this creep people out? I mean, I'm obviously not the target market but I find it awkward enough when sites pop up those "Hi I'm <name>, how can I help you?" chat windows even though I know they're just a script. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I'd bought something a while back from a site and I got a personalized video from the person running it.

(Then again I did buy a Klein bottle a few years back and it came with basically a photo commentary of it being shipped and that was absolutely awesome, so...)

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:00AM (#21332648)
Bonjoro is such an awesome idea! I was aware of it, but never thought to actually try it out myself. I'll look into it!
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by Freeboots on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:05AM (#21335356)
So, how exactly does this work? You get a notification that a customer has triggered your bonjoro, and then you record a video and send it to them via email?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by deevus on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:51PM (#21340256)
Generally it works like this

- Discrete event (new signup, product purchased, new blog subscriber etc)

- Task is created in Bonjoro

- Bonjoro user records a video and it is sent to the person who caused the event

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by Havoc on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:39AM (#21332874)
Higher pricing than i would have guessed. But I guess it solves a professional pain point so worth it
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by icebraining on Thursday October 24, 2019 @03:49AM (#21342536)
Seems cheap for a business case. Even when I worked in a low-wage EU country, that would easily fit into my training budget.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:40AM (#21332889)
What would your guess have been?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by Havoc on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:26PM (#21336221)
Probably around 60% of that.

But as I said if professionals are willing to happy then no point in being shy on pricing

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:31PM (#21336857)
I was just curious to know your number - it's an interesting data point. I have experimented with pricing, but not enough, so it's something I have to do at some point.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by stanislavb on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:55AM (#21332959)
Nice one. It's on SaaSHub, you should verify it https://www.saashub.com/page-flows.

Do you know who are your top competitors?

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by pc86 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:06AM (#21334740)
What benefit does verifying it provide to the business owner?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by sagarpatil on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:14AM (#21333376)
Sounds like a neat idea. How do you acquire customers?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by khuknows on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:26AM (#21333448)
Thanks! I started a related newsletter a few years ago that has good reach (https://uimovement.com) and that drives some traffic. SEO is also a decent source, plus some content marketing and word of mouth.

I've recently started experimenting with ways to grow the traffic above the base level, but it's slow going tbh.