Indie News - Top 10 This Week

Hey guys, I'm a long-time reader of HackerNews (https://news.ycombinator.com/). Many of the articles there are tech-related, however, there are some AMAZING articles that are very relevant to bootstrappers. Furthermore, their comment section is world-class and has amazing advice / insights.

With that being said, I've decided to compile the top 10 articles (according to me) I think are useful / relevant to indie hackers. Let me know what you think:

1. "ASK HN: What did you learn the hard way?" (237 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18132736

Most of the advice is from a bootstrapper perspective. To see all the different unique threads, just click next to the "-" button next to each comment. All the replies to it will be collapsed.

2. Did I just waste 3 years? (904 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18092108

This is a guy who who invested 2600 hours making an indie game and made $27. He describes the lessons learned while doing that. The HackerNews comment section is filled with VERY USEFUL insights if you're planning to go into indie game dev.

3. How a Website Exploited Amazon S3 to Outrank Everyone on Google (427 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18094328

An amazing case study of how coupon sites rank for keywords, using the power of the Amazon domain.

4. Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business? (138 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18160618

Very useful advice if you plan on getting into this industry.

5. Growing Our SaaS to $1M+ ARR: 7 People, 3 Years, No VC Money (409 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18106768

How a guy from Belarus bootstrapped his way to 1 mil. He answers questions in the HackerNews comment section.

6. Hetzner removes traffic limitation for dedicated servers (236 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18120500

While reading IndieHackers interviews, I've noticed that many founders started a successful business as a result of a big player making a major change (introducting a feature, adding something to their API and so on.) This is such a change. Hetzner is introducing UNLIMITED bandwidth option for servers, for as low as 18 euros.

7. Ask HN: Should I incorporate a company for software side projects? (72 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18155107

Useful arguments for/against incorporating.

8. How I Made $2k in a Month from One Medium Article (72 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18162838

How a guy wrote an article on a popular blog post, and the marketing channels he used to rank it. Now he's making ~2k/month from it.

9. Ask HN: How to start a startup that requires a high amount of initial capital? (149 poits)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18137132

You may have an idea, but don't have the initial capital for it.

10. How Our Marketing Team Spends Money Each Month (75 points)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18149706

An excellent post from Buffer.

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If you guys liked this list, upvote it or let me know, and I'll make another one next week!