I built a URL shortener on a weekend and it's making $500 MRR

[jo3y]

@bobby613 What do you like about this vs aws. What services were you using in AWS for this and what was the cost difference?

 

[bobby613]

@jo3y Huge cost diference... In AWS I am paying for Instances, Load balancer, Route 53, RDS, Data transfer and IPv4 for each project

 

[godschild71960]

@bobby613 That stack is probably more expensive than necessary. You could use API GW, Lambda, and DynamoDB instead and depending on the number of requests you’re getting you may stay in the free tier.

 

[beautifulchristianone]

@nhungthientai +1

 

[setrace]

@bobby613 That sounds incorrect and not likely your MOAT. I use https://short.io which provides analytics and API both in lifetime free tiers. There are many more.

 

[ibcbet]

@setrace Folks sometimes over think moat. It's okay to take all small piece of the pie without a moat or a "blue ocean strategy". Friend of mine had a PDF converter tool for like 12 years. Made enough to buy a home for himself.

 

[bobby613]

@setrace Their paid plan staring pricing is $16 per month.

 

[setrace]

@bobby613 I'm not shooting down your sideproject here, just highlighting whatever you mentioned what "None of the other software provides" as your differentiator is available in other url shorteners like short.io for free.

That being said, I checked your product, maybe your differentiator is better UX and cheaper plans for you. good luck

 

[henry25]

@bobby613 How do you update your IP tables for accurate placement of the ip? I know only of non-free solutions for accurate placement.

 

[iamtheman]

@bobby613 powa.link does this and also has qr-code access and it is free to use

 

[melsako]

@anon2424 Spamming*

 

[clairesdad]

@bobby613 What did you use to promote your project?

 

[bobby613]

@clairesdad I did following to promote :

1. Running one Google Ads campaign for targeting keywords
2. Launched on Product hunt (1 customer, 680 clicks on Launch day),
3. Submitted as Show HN on YC

 

[kimberlyboudreau]

@bobby613 What types of kws are you targeting with Google ads? We recently launched a sales tool and are looking into different strategies for Google ads

 

[bobby613]

@kimberlyboudreau URL shortener, Link shortener etc. with exact match and campaign goal as Conversion

 

[slfunk]

@bobby613 How much do you invest on AdWords?

 

[bobby613]

@slfunk $8 to $10 per day.

 

[slfunk]

@bobby613 And what's your ROI?

 

[bobby613]

@slfunk Very low, Google ads is broken