Comment by muhammadusman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by muhammadusman | Hacker News Reader

I'm thinking of mostly online things that come to mind that seem to be used by a lot of devs but don't have huge marketing budgets OR are not flashy in the typical sense:

- Google analytics alternatives, like Fathom, Plausible, Simple Analytics, Umami.

- Uptime monitoring services

- Logging, server-side logging, but these seem to be larger companies now like NewRelic, DataDog, Pagerduty

- Niche-specific file hosting, like UploadThing for Next.js, essentially a super simple way to host/upload assets for your Next.js project that removes some of the annoyances when dealing with uploading.

- For this one, I think startup costs might be high but I feel like being a domain registrar is a boring business that could have long term passive possibilities.

- For a web dev HN user, I think one of the more "boring" ideas is to have a web dev agency that focuses on an offline business whose owners are not tech savvy or care not to be. I'm in Portland, OR and I've noticed a few web dev agencies being the main ones creating basic/static websites for clients ranging from plumbing business, landscaping, and other home related repairs. Or for family run business that just care about a simple online presences (hours, contact info, some basic details about their business).

>a web dev agency that focuses on an offline business whose owners are not tech savvy or care not to be.

That is a very good idea, the problem I find with that is that is a FB, Twitter and/or IG page are actually going to drive more business than a website as for as word of mouth and referrals, which is where the real growth is. So then if you are to continue with them, you are getting into social media management and higher fees, which they didn't want to begin with.

The website does help with Google searches and is a general must have box to tick off.

At first I thought so too, a few months ago I got myself into a kitchen remodel and the most common way to find information about local businesses was their websites. Most didn’t have some social sites, a lot weren’t on Yelp (or the ones on Yelp were bad and paid to be on the top), and some didn’t even have up to date websites.

I have been experimenting with a website that might work for this but convincing people to sign up for it has been a wall to climb.

Do social media ads (as in Google and Facebook ads, not management as in posts) for some niches, like car detailers for example.

Yeah small businesses is a think an area where there is quite a bit of money being left on the table. Theoretically squarespace should be taking it, but clearly they're not. I see a lot of local businesses missing the super table-stakes stuff like a maps page with hours and a picture of the exterior. The kindof of stuff that really bumps you in search results and drives first-time visits. Another one is almost every restaurant does not have their menu items synchronized between the different takeout platforms (and their site if they have one), so they're missing sales or disrupting operations there definitely.

It's an annoying business to be in I'm sure, since you're dealing with lots of small clients directly, and there's data-entry stuff. The way to go is probably you focus on sales and automation and farm out the data-entry to less skilled labor? I think the premise that you're a real local human being who can be reached for support, and you can save them from lock-in by zipping up a static site for their nephew to run could be compelling for some small-business-owners. Hopefully you can stay competitive with the nephew since you amortize all the administration stuff over a bunch of tiny, low-traffic pages.

They are small businesses for a reason. They've already been contacted by tons of people who offer to help them with their obvious flaws, and already told those people to f off. Just because somebody has a business doesn't mean they have a brain.

Is it possible to be a domain registrar at all for an average guy? How much is the upfront cost? What services do I need to provide? Eg dealing with DNS?

There are some giant flat fees that ICANN charges to be a registrar:

> What you will pay to ICANN:

> US$3,500 application fee, which is non-refundable regardless of whether the application is approved, denied, or withdrawn. Following an initial review of completed application materials, ICANN will contact applicant with instructions on how to submit payment.

> US$4,000 yearly accreditation fee due upon approval and each year thereafter.

https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/financials-55-2012-02-...

They also require you to prove that you can immediately obtain up to $70,000 under extreme circumstances, although exceptions are sometimes granted if you're a special case or particularly well-off.

And then there's also fees if you want to register cctlds, e.g. Internetstiftelsen which manages the .se & .nu TLDs requires 10,000 SEK for applying and then 5,000 SEK per year, along with having to meet certain criteria (regarding it security, data protection, etc.)

Is that really all? Those numbers are pretty low even for a small business.

They wouldn't be low for just one dude, but a business sure. ICANN isn't really extorting anyone, tbh.

If that's it, then it's more approachable that I thought. This is cheaper than many franchises.

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