Mitchella

Here are the problems with only spending $30 on ads.

#1. Ads are experiments both is where they're located but also the text, target, etc. IE: you didn't spend nearly enough and try enough possible ads to get anywhere.

#2. You're only charging $.99 - This just flat out doesn't work as a model unless you're a novelty that goes viral. Even then though, the majority of apps that achieve this are running at a $.99 price point in order maximize downloads and not revenues because they capture an audience to their brand or via social networks and eventually market expansions, in app purchases, or other materials (the moron test is a great example of this).

Like another user said your purchase rate isn't going to drop horribly when doubling to $1.99. Once a user has made the decision to purchase an application, by which I mean spend any amount of money, the difference of a dollar in the mind is minimal. It's the hurdle between free and paid that creates a huge barrier in conversions.

Example: Currently you have ~4% conversion rate (with that demographic at least). This means that at $1 price point (and because of apple fees, $.70 profit) you'll need to spend less than $.027 per click to the page to break even.

Now under the assumption that you drop down to a 3% conversion rate when doubling your price. You'll make $1.39 per purchase, meaning you can spend $.042 per click to break even.

Lastly, while still on this note... you're unable to ever offer a 'sale' unless you'd like to go temporarily free. Sales, while not a huge deal for applications that no one has really heard of... they do still drive people to purchase through impulse if they were already thinking about it.

Warning: While I say this and it tends to be true... test it... always test it! Play with different prices and see what happens.

#3. Offer upgrades/in app purchases. If someone has already come to pay $1 for the application, they're likely to invest more into the game.

To be honest... just upload any image and move on. If you need help I can provide detailed instructions about using a "file upload" system.

Hacker News is not ALWAYS about tech and programming. It's a means of sharing stories with people of a similar interest. It just so happens this became a big deal and everyone found it important to make sure everyone was aware.

Additionally, this does actually reference technology and programming and the web. "Online freedom" is a big deal for everyone here. Major websites like Facebook and Twitter being used to track what we are doing by one or many Nation's governments is something to discuss.

It appears as though the author is unaware that this feature has been here the entire time. This 'leaderboard' has always been accessible to anyone and everyone. In the past it was an out of app mechanism, I would have to go to the site and go to made up example url: snapchat/user/Mitchella to find the information but it would still show my 'score' and my 'most snapchatted to list.

The Yahoo inbox has been broken for years. It's one of the main reasons I switched over to google. Honestly I'm impartial to the idea of them using it for targeted advertising, the majority of sites I visit have a retargeting system or something else.... plus, I'm a facebook users.

This new email targeting change is making me believe more and more that the purchase of tumblr was in fact related to yahoo's shift towards improving revenues from advertising.

You should not be 'angel investing'. Here is why: you don't have pre-established terms and contracts that state the exact terms.

If you gave me money with the only requirement being that I 'pay you back', all that means to me is. Give me $XX... I'll give you EXACTLY that amount back later on. No more, no less.

I built this automated twitter account: https://twitter.com/SEOguru101

It uses RSS feeds to spit out content. I've only sent maybe 5 tweets in the accounts entire life.

The beer online is the part that's most likely to be illegal. Even if legal it's risky. If someone underage faked their ID and you sold to them anyways and something were to happen that could come back very negatively in many different ways (IE: lose of licenses, lawsuits, potential criminal charges).

This is a legal/finance question. Go talk to legal/finance guys about this issue. Why am I passing your question off onto someone else. 1. Getting it wrong by listening to a random forum poster could bankrupt you. 2. Answering questions like this can get people into trouble if "1." happens. 3. Each company needs something different and is unique in structure so your case needs to be looked at due to unique factors you may be subject to that we do not know about from a 4 line message.

'Merica!

Have a lawyer read it to make sure there aren't any clauses that are 'over the top'. A basic NDA should only tell you to not tell anyone the 'secret sauce' and to not talk to press without consent of the company. These aren't things you should really be doing anyways, just now there is a contract reminding you not to.

What was the before and after? Sorry, i'm not familiar with your business.

This is a slightly ignorant claim to make. There are plenty of startup companies who have different business models than just "make a program and sell it".

Additionally, you're assuming that every startup is also a saas startup. Most aren't, meaning they might have a thousands in lets say production molds and an order of 10000 units from retailers. They'll need the investment money to help them fulfill orders and grow.

Lastly for many other startups there are costs that exceed past general development. Security is a good example of one of these large costs especially if you're dealing with money or private data in any way. These additional necessary costs could be minor but for many startups they're large and unable to be paid for by the hopeful entrepreneur.

You can always try adding some type of affiliate plan to your page that has a product relative to your content.

When I was doing ad based revenue on my apps one thing we did was play around with different advertising providers. Play around with the audience who could view the ads. Placement, etc. Take a day or two and play with the ads to see which gives you the best result. Whichever placement, rotation, etc. gives you the better result is obviously the better long term choice revenue wise.

I'd like to know which site this is, seeing it always helps. I don't understand why most people ask questions but don't provide their website.

Agreed, thats a very high CPM rate. He even states that of the 2M page views only $4000 is generated from ads.

I'm going to stick to a firm no on this one. For starters, this is very expensive to some. Second, not everyone owns or has internet access. So to say "billionS of people" is already incorrect. The second problem with this is competition, you're assuming that people will just line up in droves to come learn and this super company will have no competition. When you put a pricetag on something it becomes a harder competition to fight. The example of google being used as an 'empire' is comparable to that of Facebook. They're both free services, so the idea of using them is a no brainer. People will easily sign up for something that is free.

The final problem is most people don't care. I can say myself that I get nothing out of most education programs and learn more from experiences and communication. Of the people who are willing and able to sit down and educate themselves further on a regular basis with a paid program is a fraction of the population.

This is very hard to answer without more detail on the application.

Contact me on linkedin: Mitchell Abdullah if you don't want to reveal to many details publicly.

Yes that is me. I sent you an add.

In many ways though being a 'different'/'ethnic'/'cultural', whatever you want to call it, brand and marketing as such can be brilliant for a business. I come from an arab/white american background and everyone within that culture will stay loyal to anyone with a good business that is also arab(to some degrees of cultural diversity). With that comes your base market to keep your business going, then because of that loyalty you have people hear about it and come regardless of their backgrounds. If you're running a good business those people become loyal to your brand even if you don't sell hotdogs and hamburgers per se (the typical 'white american' food :P).

Add me on linkedin - Mitchell Abdullah I'd be more than happy to chat with you about your business to hopefully help you get out of your current downward trend.

In my state you have to file to have what is the equivalent of a 'finders license' to charge a fee, as well you're required to have a private investigators license. EVERY state is different.

Simple and smart idea. I believe that if you stick with the simplistic layout that your landing pages have for the whole app you'll make a lot of managers lives a lot easier. Something else to consider down the road is integration with whatever systems for employee time tracking and management they may be using currently. This may require a little research into which are the most popular and which allow for open integration into their applications/software.

I wish you the best of luck.

It helps me when I know what the site/business model is. Every niche and business is different and should take a different strategy because of this.

Odds are that yes these results were presented to you based on a click purchase on the term you inputed 'coffeemaker' but there are other variables in play here. In order for something to be entered into the google shopping page it must be submitted by the companies/sales sites. In this process definitions, tags, meta data, seo scores, etc are all thrown into play to come up with the most accurate and popular results. With Keurig being on of the biggest and most popular coffe maker producers in the US it makes sense that there is more traffic and requests around that particular coffee maker.

Which applications if you don't mind me asking?

Contact the client multiple times via different routes. Email, Phone, In person. I would give it 60 days at most. The amount of time that you let it slide should really be determined by your contracts, your business, and cashflow.

Tip: On Favilous lighten up the black just a little bit. It's unnaturally dark and is constantly drawing my attention thus preventing me from focusing on the text on the page.

If you have a strong project and all you need is a mac to get the project going then; 1. Find someone with a mac that will let you use it for a cut of the profits. 2. Rent one from someone. 3. Find family or friend investors that will loan you some money to get a good mac in return for profit sharing.

Agreed. Domain name availability is very hard sometimes. For others it might just make sense. Example: if I created a webapp and for some reason wanted to call it Sendio, sendio.com is taken but I can always get send.io and run my app from there with a cool url

Think like an investor and a normal job seeking employee when making these decisions. Is the idea going forward and the equity going to be worth a lot eventually. You might not be throwing $100k their way but you're investing your time, which has value, in the startup. The thinking like an employee is just like any other job hunt, find a place you want to work and will be happy there but be ready for layoffs, crashes, etc like any business can face.

Things to consider: -The leadership, is it someone you want to work for and if multiple people do they get along with one another. -How much you believe in the idea, if you're not all to crazy about the ideas you come across in your job search then you may be better off applying for a more stable company. -Their funding, if they are funded that makes it easier for them to pay you continuously. -Their offer to you, the questions that matter with this is how much of both cash and equity will you be receiving, how much you believe in the idea and what you believe that stock will be worth later on, and what your base salary is. If you're not head over heals in love with the idea and whole heartedly believe it's the next big thing with the original founder already having done market research/testing to prove that customers want the product then don't be the technical cofounder of a 'potentially' successful company.