News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:11AM (#21334237)
I run https://onlyusedtesla.com/ its an online marketplace to buy / sell a Used Tesla.

I have been living off the income this whole year. This is my bread and butter. I do not have a 9-5.

I launched the business with 4 listings in 2016. I live in New York. My main goal is building brand equity.

Business Model.

Private Seller

$199 to list

$299 to list with a social boost

Dealer: $99-list

I do not use cookies. No Tracking. No google adsense.

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by es-hn on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:35AM (#21335027)
> I do not use cookies. No Tracking. No google adsense.

Very cool. The whole thing is cool but I like that best of all.

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by jndsn402 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @04:02PM (#21338344)
What's involved in building a site like this? I am subscribed to an industry forum in the beverage space where people buy and sell equipment using forum posts - t's really inefficient and I often think they could use a simple marketplace site.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Saturday October 26, 2019 @05:04PM (#21366175)
You should build a landing page for your idea and start testing. Spend your money to find a legit copywriter, have him write out the copy to communicate your business value prop ( clearly). You need a logo. Design, Dev, CMS ( wordpress) for payment processor use STRIPE. Make sure your site is stupid fast and keep it simple with a focus on clarity. Next, you need to start testing, testing , testing and then iterating weekly or monthly until you start making money. Try to make money from the jump.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by bgdkbtv on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:35PM (#21340177)
Mate, the first thing you do when you find a forum that sells things where there is no actual market place, you build that marketplace!

Flippa is one example. There used to be a forum where users used to buy/sell websites. Forum admins saw an opportunity and built flippa (it was called something else before that, can't remember what it was) and now raking in the dough.

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by mattmaroon on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:17AM (#21335483)
Great site. For some reason, when I switch listings to "for sale" I still see one "sold" in the list.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:07PM (#21336625)
Thank you. It maybe a bug i told my dev. I am working on the v2 so should work out some of the kinks on the site.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by committed on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:29PM (#21336249)
How do you drive traffic to the website?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:06PM (#21336621)
To be honest, The customers do that now. they share my site whenever they see someone looking for the best spot to sell a Tesla. I don't sell personal info to marketers. I also have a guy to write a blog post a few times a week.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by babycake on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:23AM (#21335551)
How did you gather teslas to have something to sell on the website initially?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:04PM (#21336609)
I hit up a bunch of forums where tesla owners hang out , ask for help like best spots to sell thier teslas without being tracked and i listed for them for free and asked for $50 when / if they found a buyer. This was back in 2016. It was all the honor system. I actually didn't plan anything. I just kept experimenting over and over and over jacking up the price / testing all day and night. I think there was a LOT of luck too.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by acoyfellow on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:41AM (#21334512)
Awesome work. What does your overhead look like roughly?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:49AM (#21334596)
Rent. Food. Utilities. $3,500-month Server $150-month Facebook $35/month
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by HatchedLake721 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:12PM (#21339616)
I had to read your comment 3 times before pressing “reply” asking you how do you spend $3.5k a month on a server, then realising it’s for rent, food and utilities. May the commas be with you
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by icebraining on Thursday October 24, 2019 @04:00AM (#21342574)
Same here, my heart skipped a beat when reading that.

Even $1800/y seems high, but I can't argue with success.

Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by listenallyall on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:48PM (#21340918)
Very impressive, any reason you haven't cloned the site for other car makes? Porsche, BMW, Audi...
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? by adamqureshi on Thursday October 24, 2019 @08:09AM (#21343777)
Yes I am working on it. https://onlyev.com/