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Why not just build something people will pay for?

Quit building little one-day hobby projects that don't do anything useful, and instead build software that people with money will pay for. It's not that difficult a concept to understand, yet every day you see another half dozen unjustifiable little web startups appearing with no hope of ever making money.

  - Build something good.
  - charge money for it.
  - Sorted.


Although I agree entirely, the direct answer to your question is: Because that's much more difficult.


Actually I suspect the real answer is: Because it's not as much fun.

S3stat pays my rent, and it took a weekend to build. It's dead boring, but there's a market for it so people pay money.

Blogabond is still fun to play with 4 years in, was technically hard when I built it, and thousands of people use it and love it. When I tried putting ads on it, it brought in maybe two bucks a day.

So yeah, boring stuff makes you money, even if it's not that difficult.


Seems like you managed to find some time for fun while working on S3stat :)

http://www.s3stat.com/web-stats/cheap-bastard-plan.ashx


That's actually a great idea for a simple, low-tech affiliate scheme


That's a very good point.

As a side note, my goodness please tell me you're putting more time and effort into S3Stat. I think you are seriously undervaluing it. Dressing it up with something prettier than webstats would, in my mind help you pay for a lot more than rent.

Good work.


I had no idea S3Stat was made by someone on HN! I've been a customer of your nifty service for about six months now.

Good to hear I'm doing my part to put a roof over the head of a fellow hacker ;]


Not just difficult to build, but also difficult to come up with a decent idea.




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