Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @08:29AM
(#21333858)
I run https://updown.io since 2012, a website monitoring service I created. I'm working about 5-10 hours per week on it. It makes about $6,000 per month and is still growing linearly. I also keep a full-time job alongside for now as an engineering manager. The key for me is to take time, make something useful, delight your clients, and don't try to become uber or airbnb.
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Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by annamargot on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:17AM
(#21334297)
Awesome job. This type of service is critical for e-commerce businesses like mine.
Just curious, I see you accept payment in crypto. What percentage of customers pay with crypto, and how has that changed since 2012?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:09AM
(#21334764)
Thanks
Haha, less than 1% now that the trend is over, when I added it (2014) it was around 5%.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by ChicagoBoy11 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:35AM
(#21335023)
Hope you kept those coins -- must've made a decent chunk of change on the valorization of those alone!
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:42AM
(#21335769)
I kept only a small part, I sold most of them right away as there were already over-valued to me ^^
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by justinchen on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:58AM
(#21335930)
Awesome! Happy updown.io customer here. We use it for https://www.pickfu.com Always happy to support fellow entrepreneurs.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by breakerbox on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:52PM
(#21337062)
Ironically, your pricing page is down. Starting an updown competitor now!
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by outime on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:57AM
(#21335924)
I just checked it and looks awesome! I’d have used it in a previous startup job if I just knew about your product back then.
Special mention goes to the landing page as you list all the features right away, no bs and a clear cost calculator. Couldn’t ask for more :)
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:01PM
(#21335954)
Thanks <3
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by FragrantRiver on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:50PM
(#21339887)
WOW! This exactly what I've been looking for :D And if the pricing calculator is correct, it seems way to cheap :D
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Thursday October 24, 2019 @07:22AM
(#21343469)
It is quite cheap indeed, I try to keep a fair pricing :)
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by aspyct on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:28AM
(#21335612)
Ha neat! I was actually looking at your product a few hours ago. Might use it in the not-so-far future.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:43AM
(#21335779)
Sounds great ;) let me know if you have any question.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by kingkongjaffa on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:23PM
(#21336779)
Can you explain who you customers are and why they want to know the stats for uptime and would be willing to pay for it?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by AdamGibbins on Thursday October 24, 2019 @04:07PM
(#21348654)
I am a customer, I run a bunch of personal sites and hobby projects. updown.io is wonderfully cheap, the pay as you go model is perfect for my monitoring needs. I have no need for the stats, just the monitoring which it does well.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by Insanity on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:52PM
(#21339427)
Just waging a guess here, but people / businesses who depend on data from those websites?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by MiSeRyDeee on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:21PM
(#21339683)
I'm curious too. Tracking your own website makes sense but there're definitely better ways if that's your own website. Why do people want to track other website regularly?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by tbyehl on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:39PM
(#21340870)
I think you're giving too much weight to what's in their example image. I use a competitor's free tier to monitor my own stuff. Using a SaaS is better for several reasons:
1. Don't have to install / maintain anything.
2. Who monitors the monitoring?
3. Monitoring from inside my network doesn't always fully approximate end-user availability.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Thursday October 24, 2019 @07:26AM
(#21343492)
That's pretty much it, my customers are people who have websites and want to be the first to know when there's an issue on it so they can fix it, in which case a SaaS solution is usually better than some internal tools because it eliminates setup/maintenance, keeps working when all your infrastructure is down and monitors everything (including internet link). Some other clients monitor website they do not own when they depend on it, for example as a vendor I could monitor Amazon if I sell products on it to be aware of any issue, or if I'm a digital customer engagement platform (what my full-time job does) I can monitor services I interact with like facebook API, twitter API, etc.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by XIVMagnus on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:25AM
(#21335572)
how much time do you spend maybe talking to people who are constant clients? or is there little interaction?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by adrienjarthon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:00PM
(#21335947)
Probably half of the time (~2-3h per week) is spent answering questions/requests from clients or helping them diagnose downtime. I try to improve the product to make sure my clients don't need me so that when they do I can help them properly.