Hacker News: shakermaker83

New comment by shakermaker83 in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"

shakermaker83 — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 22:31:39 +0000

I've been having fun building out a link-in-bio tool / micro-site builder in my spare time. It started out as just something that a solo-dev could build without a lot of experience... but it's turned out to be more complicated and interesting than I thought! Right now I'm working on getting embeds and other 'fancier' types of blocks built out. Also… if any SEO wizards are lurking, I would love tips on getting more Google impressions/CTR, lol. If you want to check it out (would love some feedback!):

https://soc.bio

New comment by shakermaker83 in "Ask HN: How did you get your first users with zero audience?"

shakermaker83 — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 01:57:49 +0000

I think the reality is no one really knows. You’ll hear things like post on socials, blog/content marketing, build a presence on Reddit…

But to me it seems like the lottery. You try enough things, in enough of the right places, for long enough and eventually something sticks and you get some traction. Most people don’t stick with it long enough to find something that connects for them though.

Ideally you’re working on a product where you already have some legitimacy, thus avoiding the cold start problem.

New comment by shakermaker83 in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

shakermaker83 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:50:39 +0000

Thanks for checking it out! That’s such a clear improvement to the landing page that I’m a little embarrassed that I missed it,lol. I’ll have to update that later tonight.

New comment by shakermaker83 in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

shakermaker83 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:16:56 +0000

A really simple link-in-bio service:

https://soc.bio/

Mostly just wanted to learn Django and Vue and see if I could get something working online. Have a handful of free users, so that’s kind of exciting!

New comment by shakermaker83 in "Ask HN: How do you find / validate niches for an online business?"

shakermaker83 — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:32:53 +0000

A little more context of it helps.

By day I’m an actuary. I went to school for math and computer science. I know Python, Django, Vue… am comfortable with pandas, SQL, experimenting with streamlit. All of my industry knowledge is in large insurance companies that have their own internal IT departments. The exact opposite of who will go for a scrappy solo developer.

But, I love solving problems, and have always wanted to run / own my own business or app. So this is me reaching outside myself for the genius of the masses ;-)

Any insights, tips for getting outside that sphere a little and finding problems that people want/need solved would be amazing.

Ask HN: How do you find / validate niches for an online business?

shakermaker83 — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 15:58:53 +0000

How do you find problems to solve / niches to target? We’ve all heard the generic tips, but I have found it challenging to search for those problems that people want solved. Anything beyond idle scanning of subreddits, google trends, or ahref keywords?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47741236

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by shakermaker83 in "Apple Arcade – Game subscription service"

shakermaker83 — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 18:47:06 +0000

You can turn off the Apple Music tab in Music. Go to Settings > Music > Show Apple Music and turn it off :-)