Hacker News Reader

Comment by zrail | Hacker News Reader

I wrote a book[1] a year and a half ago that just recently crossed $42k in total revenue. These days it consistently earns $1.5k/mo without much further input from me, other than tweaks to the landing page copy and updates once in awhile when Stripe or Rails changes significantly.

[1]: https://www.masteringmodernpayments.com

Edit: If you'd like to read a preview, you can do so here: https://www.masteringmodernpayments.com/read

View on HN

I was thinking about doing something similar. Do you recommend using your own domain name (like nathan barry) or having a custom domain?

If you have a domain name already, use it. I launched with just a page on my blog and later moved it over to a separate domain. I don't think it matters in the long run, and in the short run you get a boost from your personal domain that people already know.

Why not both? Make a custom domain for the book, then treat your own site as if you were guest-blogging on it to pump link juice to the custom domain.

That way, your venture ends up with the combined page-rank of your personal brand and the exact-domain bonus. (Whereas if you just redirect from one to the other, you lose one or the other.)

What proportion of that revenue are you receiving?

I use Stripe (and sometimes PayPal) so I get 97% of the gross revenue. Monthly recurring expenses are a cheap VPS to run the app and Facebook retargeting fees.

Hi, are you an expert or at least well established in the community? Because that usually helps a lot to sell. Thanks!

Do you mind sharing how you advertised your book or made it popular?

I wrote an article[1] all about it a few months after I originally launched. There was some HN discussion about it too[2].

[1]: https://www.petekeen.net/adventures-in-self-publishing

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6320333

Reply on news.ycombinator.com