
Bingo Card Creator (etc) Annual Report - patio11
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/12/17/bingo-card-creator-etc-year-in-review-2010/
======
il
Thanks for sharing your numbers, they are refreshingly honest.

I wonder if conversion rate from free to paid accounts is similar in other
industries.

If so, the numbers are quite sobering.

If even a successful, highly targeted and well marketed SaaS product with 100K
users and millions of pageviews makes as much profit as someone working for
minimum wage flipping burgers, it seems that most startups don't stand a
chance of ever getting ramen profitable.

I'm not deliberately trying to be negative, but I'm wondering why your
revenues are so low even with such a massive amount of traffic.

Is your free offering so good that most people don't feel the need to upgrade?

~~~
rms
I have an 8% conversion rate to sale per unique visitor. I wish I knew what I
was doing right.

~~~
steveklabnik
I think it has to do with your product, frankly. I imagine there's a lot of
buying intent there.

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patio11
If you have any questions, feel free. I can't answer the obvious juicy ones
regarding acquisitions or clients, but other than that, I aim to please.

~~~
ig1
Do you use Facebook Ads ?

I've been spending a lot of time optimizing Facebook ads for my own startup
over the last month or so, and I've been shocked at how poor the information
out there is regarding it.

In a month of doing my own tests I've probably got more info on how to
optimize Facebook Ads than is on any blog / website out there.

Given your love for A/B testing it be great to hear if you've any experiences
with Facebook ads that you'd like to share ?

~~~
patio11
"Like setting money on fire." describes everything I know about it.

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jeremydavid
Hey Patrick,

I don't have a question, but I just want to say that you're a huge
inspiration... and I'm so close to getting ready to take the plunge, get off
my ass, and start working on my own projects.

Thanks for being so open with your experiences.

~~~
alex_c
>so close to getting ready to take the plunge, get off my ass, and start

How close is that again? :p

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pwim
We started going down the whitelabeling path with Doorkeeper, but ran into the
issue that we were competing for mindshare with the whitelabeled version. I'd
be interested to hear how you plan to approach the whitelabeling of
Appointment Reminder.

------
dminor
Seems like there's a bunch of recurring credit card payment services out there
now; what made you choose Spreedly?

~~~
patio11
A recommendation on a Rails blog. Investigated: sane pricing, painless API,
worked with Paypal. That was my shopping list.

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xiaoma
Have you ever tried making software targeted at the Japanese market? From what
I understand, you might find a lot of niches as of yet unserved.

~~~
patio11
I had an agreement with my employers that I would not, prior to quitting my
job recently. I think there are likely huge, huge unexploited opportunities
here, but the language barrier (I speak Japanese, but I speak English _very
well_ , which rather helps when doing copywriting) and my lack of familiarity
with the contours of the Japanese-speaking Internet (I couldn't name a major
Japanese blogger if I tried, for example) always make me reach for the USA
first.

~~~
rgrieselhuber
The agreement was that you wouldn't work in the Japanese market at all? I
agree with you about the huge, unexploited opportunities. ;-)

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rumpelstiltskin
Patrick, considering your chops (I think anyone who's read your posts on HN
for a while will agree that you're in the '10x programmer' range), is there a
reason why you won't launch a full fledged startup? Maybe even try out for HN?
BCC is clearly at a point where it can be run on the side and that can take
care of your 'ramen' needs while you focus on building something great.

~~~
patio11
AR looks an awful lot like a "real" startup I'd you squint at it the right
way. If I were willing to commit to the growth curve (and implied lifestyle)
that taking investment commits you to seeking, I'd do it and start hitting up
people for money. At present, that doesn't fit in with my plans at the moment,
but if I ever decide to roll the dice YC will be among the first to know.

------
bradly
Patrick,

I'm curious why you worked as a salary man for the time that you did. You
enjoy spending time with family/friends and money isn't a huge motivator, so
why submit your self to the 70 hour work weeks and 3 hour commute?

And as other have said, thanks for the inspiration and information.

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shushan
If you had to live only from BCC's profits alone (25k~ this year), would you
be able to?

~~~
patio11
Yep. Ramen profitable for me is about $2k a month, counting taxes. Japan would
be cross with me, though: the unofficial "below this line you are stealing our
jobs" mark is three million yen a year. It is not maximally relevant to
Immigration that I created the job to steal it.

~~~
ido

        the unofficial "below this line you are 
        stealing are jobs" mark is three million 
        yen a year.
    

Still a bit below the mark here (~2.4-2.5k euros/month for Austria, which is
~3.2-3.3m yen/year).

Kind of annoying when you have enough money to not need a job but not enough
to not lose your work/residency permit.

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jeffiel
"Aside from frightening my bank a few times when I got large wire transfers
from America, charging a lot of money is a great idea in every possible way."

That is a classic, congrats Patrick!

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ameyamk
I am know AR is still new, but can you shade light on traffic numbers related
to AR?

~~~
jacquesm
Go to the lower third of the article.

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tropin
Matasanos is the Spanish slang for doctor (literally, means "healthy killer").

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kschua
Thanks for sharing

