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boldpanda

boldpanda on Hacker News

Re:Note from Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @05:55PM (#11584896)
Facebook takes a 40% rake from advertisers. Ouch!

$2B income from $5B in ad revenue.

Hopeful businesses just keep running ads and lining Facebook's wallet. If Mark really wanted to give back, he'd give us more clicks per $.

Re:Gobble (YC W14) Raises $10.75M for Its 10-Minute Dinner Kits on Thursday October 29, 2015 @04:49PM (#10474176)
$12/meal + shipping. Price is obfuscated on the website. I'd imagine that Gobble will struggle with the same things that every food delivery business in the world struggles with - low margins.

People just aren't willing to pay high margins for food that gets delivered. There is constant pressure to offer more food at lower prices.

Their most likely exit strategy is to build a brand strong enough that they can get a line of frozen prepared meals picked up by major grocery retailers or sign a licensing agreement to do something similar.

Re:Reddit: A Nine-Year Case Study in Absentee Management on Thursday August 06, 2015 @09:54AM (#10016384)
As a Reddit user and advertiser, I was disappointed when they doubled their ad CPM's in June without notice to advertisers (as mentioned in the article).

I can understand incrementally increasing the price with demand, but doubling the cost of CPM's without notice is a big fuck you to advertisers.

Now they're more expensive than Facebook and with less targeting capability and you can't change or edit your ads once their live.

Ask HN: How can a SAAS win a chargeback dispute?

Posted by boldpanda on Sunday July 26, 2015 @02:48PM
from the ask-hn dept.

My SAAS business has had over 3000 transactions and only a couple of chargeback requests.In both cases, I provided the customer what they paid for and it was a case of an employee using a personal credit card and then quitting the company and filing chargebacks instead of just emailing my support email and requesting a refund.I sent all the documentation of receipts and email correspondence...

( Read More... | 2 comments | 6 points | on HN )

Tell HN: Reddit doubles CPM and quadruples ad spend minimum

Posted by boldpanda on Friday July 17, 2015 @11:55AM
from the self-post dept.

I started advertising their 2 years ago and it was $0.75/1000 CPM and $5 minimum spend.Now it's $1.50/1000 CPM and a $20 minimum.Most of the increase in prices seems very recent.Advertising business is the only one where you don't need to tell your existing customers that prices are going up I guess.It's no longer a good deal.

( Read More... | 1 comment | 2 points | on HN )

Ask HN: Web design a depreciating asset?

Posted by boldpanda on Monday June 29, 2015 @11:26PM
from the ask-hn dept.

High-priced web design seems like a bad investment to me.Decent designers ask a minimum of $100/hr but no designer wants to be held accountable or be compensated on the basis of driving actual business results.More often than not a company will spend $50,000 on a web design and get 0 business results.Then the design itself becomes outdated over time and is less and less valuable for...

( Read More... | 5 comments | 4 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: How many email subs must you get to make writing a blog pos... on Thursday November 06, 2014 @09:33AM (#8567126)
Yes, can be used when you have a larger list.

Quality will be better than average because it will be only topic interested subscribers.

Ask HN: How many email subs must you get to make writing a blog post worth it?

Posted by boldpanda on Wednesday November 05, 2014 @07:49PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I've got a startup that solves the content dilemma: http://www.listhike.comYou spend hours writing and formatting a blog post but have no guarantee that'll generate traffic, email subscribers, & sales.I created something that smartly promotes your post for you (without spamming) and guarantees you atleast 100 email subscribers per post.Is 100 email subscribers enough for a blog post to be...

( Read More... | 3 comments | on HN )
Re:Uber's playbook for sabotaging Lyft on Tuesday August 26, 2014 @06:56PM (#8230039)
So Google, Facebook, and Apple are bad because they come to secret agreements to not poach each other's employees and now Uber and Lyft are bad because they'll do everything in their power to poach each other's employees?

Make up your minds.

This sort of poaching is good for the drivers, and this sort of ruthless competition is a good indication of a market that is good for riders.

Re:It's not too late to ditch the ad-based business model and build a ... on Friday August 15, 2014 @01:39PM (#8183241)
I must be getting downvoted by Facebook employees.
Re:It's not too late to ditch the ad-based business model and build a ... on Friday August 15, 2014 @10:49AM (#8182399)
Instead of complaining about Facebook and their ads, use it as a competitive advantage in your life. And by use it, I mean don't use it.

Just as gambling is a tax on the ignorant, Facebook is a tax on the bored and undisciplined.

If you can use Facebook even half as much as the average person, you'll have a huge productivity and happiness advantage.

Ask HN: Are PPC ads just legalized gambling for business?

Posted by boldpanda on Monday August 11, 2014 @06:52PM
from the ask-hn dept.

With FB & Google raking in billions and no "odds & payout" disclosures required on their advertising services, they are just cleaning out advertisers IMO.And yes, FB & Google are not alone. There are many other people offering ads with little chance of payout.As a small business owner and fairly experienced online marketer, I still think most PPC ads are a ripoff, especially for...

( Read More... | 1 comment | on HN )
Re:PDFy – Instant PDF Host on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @06:16PM (#8039438)
What do you mean by "Traffic is dirt cheap if you know where to look"

Are you talking about where to go find traffic for your website? Do you mind sharing?

Ask HN: What's the quickest and cheapest way to de-risk my startup?

Posted by boldpanda on Thursday April 17, 2014 @07:35PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I have a little startup doing $10K+ MRR and I've done nothing on the legal front in terms of having a lawyer review the business or my site. I haven't written a terms & condition on my website.I don't have any insurance.I haven't incorporated, etc. I run it as a sole proprietor & have no employees.So, I'm wondering what's the minimum effective dose to de-risk my business. I'm looking...

( Read More... | 7 comments | 6 points | on HN )
Re:Steve Jobs's response after getting a Google employee fired. on Wednesday March 26, 2014 @10:25AM (#7473542)
I don't think we should pile on these tech execs. It happens elsewhere. I'd speculate it's rather widespread.

I worked for a Fortune 500 market research / consumer data company and I know for a fact that the Senior VP of our office would call Fortune 500 clients and kindly request they not "poach" our employees.

Most of it is done casually and "innocently". I doubt most execs even thought they were breaking the law before this came to light.

Re:Bitcoin Reaches 1000 USD on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @10:50AM (#6808703)
I'm assuming Bitcoins can be bought in fractional denominations?
Re:What if successful startups are just lucky? on Monday November 25, 2013 @12:01PM (#6795232)
The only startups that are "lucky" are those that never validate before development and still find traction.

I define validating as getting 3 paying customers before building a viable app.

You could have built an abridged or simpler version of your game and asked people to pay you to play it. If that posed problems, you could have pivoted to a different premise for the game.

Re:How my startup got paying customers despite a bad website on Sunday November 24, 2013 @11:12PM (#6792444)
Thanks for the feedback. Scaling to 4,000 is goal as that'll bring me to the $100K revenue mark. It should be interesting. I have ~75 customers.

The website doesn't play well with office managers who are a big target customer. I want to sell and ship the jerky to offices who want healthier snacks that don't put employees in a food coma or spike their insulin.

It also falls flat among strangers who don't trust a one-pager and a paypal link.

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