Pud, a startup founder who ran Blippy, writes about building products, getting users, handling theft, and his own projects.
HN commenters praise his post "Why Must You Laugh at My Back End" and his advice on getting users, and call him a nice person.
You're going to hate this answer, but it depends.
Reddit has good CPC and engagement rates, so long as you have content or an application that appeals to that crowd. (See Gabriel Weinberg's post on the topic).
StumbleUpon has a more mass-market appeal, but relatively high cost-per-view with low engagement.
Adwords is expensive unless you spend a long time honing in on niche keywords. Even then it is expensive.
There was a great post on ASmartBear this morning (guest post) about how effective cold-calling can be. And that's essentially free (not counting your labor hours).
Pud has a great write-up on this topic: http://pud.com/post/5239917032/users
This is something I struggle with too, so I'll be interested to see the other responses.
Me too, especially when the presentation of the contract indicates that the other party desires information asymmetry (e.g. they look impatient and try to rush you, or they have a huge contract in a tiny scrolling window on their site). You have to be ready to walk away from the deal too, or why bother?
Still, I see some totally one-sided (and what I believe to be unenforceable) terms sometimes and I may sign anyway. For the other party to actually get what they want requires a lot more work than just getting my signature, and I'm firmly in the "Fucking sue me" camp. Classic blog post from Pud that everyone worried about contracts should read: http://pud.com/post/10103947044/fucking-sue-me
Pud, as I said here (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3520013) 80 days ago, the way you keep putting out quality products is great. It's funny that your post on getting users (http://pud.com/post/5239917032/users) isn't even a year old (although you don't seem to be using a lot of those methods for this project).
Do your project ideas (big and small) just come to you or do you have a process?
And any thoughts on doing a small post on a day/week in the life of Pud? Like how much time you spend on projects (planning, coding, designing), and whatever else you do like jamming. You clearly know at least a little about time management and/or avoiding procrastination.
Why do you suppose it is difficult to hire smart PHP developers? Facebook seems to be doing just fine, and as far as I know, most of their codebase is still straight up PHP. Bottom line, build something that customers want. The customer cares that the solution solves their problem, not that your technology stack is bright and shiny.
This is worth reading:
http://pud.com/post/9582597828/why-must-you-laugh-at-my-back-end
Pick the right tools for the job. If you're doing an MVP web app, NodeJS, Rails, PHP, Django, ColdFusion (N other frameworks here) will all get it done.
Yes, I said ColdFusion. That thing that was hot the 90's.
This post reminds me that customers don't care what stack you use, as long as it solves their problem: http://pud.com/post/9582597828/why-must-you-laugh-at-my-back-end
Met @pud once while he was CEO of Blippy. Very nice guy and great to talk to. I also absolutely love his post: "Why Must You Laugh at My Back End" (http://pud.com/post/9582597828/why-must-you-laugh-at-my-back-end). He's built lots of crazy impressive stuff by himself and DistroKid is no different.