I've seen a couple of sites like this that have done well generating traffic from niche forum banner ads (http://toppppp.com is the one that sprints to mind immediately).
My worry with these types of passive income sites is the upkeep for pricing information. The OP's source looks like he's manually printed the price, and the same with my example except their prices are quite out of date by now. Does anyone have any ideas how best to scrape the price from the 3rd party site?
It's quite scary that a company like Google can come along and shit in a startup's cereal practically overnight.
I know we were all rooting for The 'Munk, but it seems that Google's use of Price x Duration matrix effectively steals the thunder from Hipmunk's agony filter.
I mean, it's not as if Google needs the affiliate revenue, and I bet the Hipmunk guys would have preferred it had Google decided to "organise the world's information" through an acquisition. I think I'd need a good cry if this happened to me :(
Can anyone comment as to the quality of these interviewees in relation to the proper YC applicants?
It seems that some of the guys wouldn't know their arse from their elbow. I appreciate how stressful it would be on stage, however a lot of them just didn't grasp the fundamentals of business or communicate a clear value prop.
Were past YC companies more polished during their first elevator pitches, or is it something that comes with practice?
Even though I usually scoff at pre-registration signup forms, I was very excited to fill this one in.
I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned about my own sampling bias and it might be time to rethink this stance (how ever hard it may be to recognise that people can actually find enjoyment in hearing about product launches and events!)
As someone who has yet to design their first site, this was a very valuable look into the mockup process.
Does anyone have links to similarly chronicled site experimentation with respect to HTML/CSS, revenue models, or a/b testing as I feel this would give a fascinating insight.
I realise that the ego-stroking scoring is the driver behind this site's popularity , but I would also like to see definitions of words that I missed. It's pretty daunting to spend hours copying and pasting words into Google (well, ahem, maybe it is for some of us!)
I imagine something like this would would have happened if the unabomber was really into maths.
I love the idea of this book and its humour, but it is quite hard to comprehend. I can actually see maths' popularity increasing as people begin to see it as a useful hobby, especially those who are learning programming.
I would willing to pay for lessons if learning maths didn't have to involve a dense textbook, but instead could graphically demonstrate the theory (think 3D modelling, moving sine waves etc.) and explain all the underlying concepts that were glossed over in formal education.
Videos or apps like this would be a great help to me, especially if it managed to retain this author's irreverence, Sal Khan's presentation style, but placing more importance on rehearsed & polished lessons, 3d animation and beautifully set typography.
Anyone know any resources that are along these lines?
Strange to find this on Hacker News, considering I was only discussing the EI programs with my entrepreneurship lecturer last week!
The March 11th deadline may be a bit too close at this stage, but I'm always willing to plot and scheme with Irish hackers!
I will shortly complete my business management degree, and as part of this I am consulting with a local online marketing/SEO firm. I've dabbled with learning programming to do my own startup, or maybe even starting my own marketing shop, but for the time being I have been lurking here for ages, absorbing all the business advice I can get my hands on.
If any Irish hackers want to have a chat, to let me know what you're working on, or need a business-head to compliment their hacking skills drop me a line (email in profile).
I really like the design and notice that another YC blogger Ilya Lichtenstein is using the same design on his site