hiteho

I know a few private charter pilots who are massively excited this morning. The iPad Mini is the only iOS device that is big enough to use at arms length, small enough to fit in a cramped cockpit, and approved by the FAA. They use a handful of apps during flight for planning, weather, approach data and whatnot. There has been a lot of fear among the local pilot community that the Mini would be discontinued. While the device might not be mainstream, for their admittedly specialized use-case, no other computer will do.

No, it uses the open source Discourse forum. https://www.discourse.org

I appreciate the use of Discourse for this project, but unless the community is substantially similar to HN I don't see the value. A nontrivial number of links on HN deal with health (I'm thinking about recent stories related to dietary habits, sleep quality, and depression). And while these also appear elsewhere (Reddit, Twitter e.g), what I really value are the comments from this community that are well-moderated and on-point. Without the HN community the links on their own yield little value.

> taking hours to explain how web hosting works, and that no, we can build a custom ERP system on your godaddy account that you prepaid for 4 years in advance last week when you bought your domain name, and that if this really is a "million dollar idea", you will need to spend more than $200 for an MVP.

You joke, but I was in this exact position on Wednesday. It's natural to think that web consulting is dying or that there's a race to the bottom on pricing, until you come face-to-face with the level of ignorance many business owners (even successful ones!) have about technology. The world of business software is mysterious to many people. And while it's easier than ever to build a solution that replaces clunky .xls files or (worse) paper -- that can still be a major hurdle for someone not familiar with it.

I think the solution to OP's question is to see yourself as not just a developer but also a tour guide. Educate your customers without judgement. Teach them why what you do matters (translation: market to them!) Lots of people won't see the value and will never pay $100+/hour. But some of their competition will. And that's how you build a consultancy of your own.

Right. A common thought among small business owners is "I should have a website because everyone else does." The details like content freshness, design aesthetic, or site speed don't even matter. So long as my-business-name.com goes somewhere familiar. But this line of thinking escapes the opportunity to drive business over the web.

In my experience, there's plenty of money for the consultant who teaches a business how to stop settling for their website as a commodity and start seeing it as an extension of their "brand".