Small Tech Business #3 - Protecting passwords, Cost of running an app, Online advertising mind map
Week of 9/13/2020
Small Tech Business is a weekly newsletter for people looking for inspiration and learning around starting their own small internet or technology business.
Content of the Week:
1) We Didn't Encrypt Your Password, We Hashed It
by Troy Hunt - Article 📰(6 min)
Security is something every internet business should spend some time thinking about. Many concepts around security can be pretty technical and unless you have worked with it in a previous job or business, it may be pretty daunting to tackle and learn on your own. Troy’s article does a great job explaining differences between MD5 hashing, bcrypt hashing, and encryption.
A password hash is a representation of your password that can't be reversed, but the original password may still be determined if someone hashes it again and gets the same result.
2) Costs of running a Python web app for 55k monthly users
by Caspar von Wrede - Blog Post 📰(4 min)
An interesting quick read that gives you insight into the breakdown of costs for a solo founders web application. Spoiler alert: the monthly cost is $171 per month, a good portion of which the author notes is excessive and could be further optimized. Even with the excessive costs, running an internet business for just over $2K a year that is able to reach tens of thousands is a great example of how lean small tech businesses can be. The scalability allotted by the internet is immense and it allows for small, inexpensive web applications to scale to many users for very low costs. Just need to make sure you have a sound monetization plan!
3) Online advertising mind map + other tips (Reddit)
by u/Salaciousavocados - Reddit Post 🌐
If you are new to online advertising (Google ads, Facebook ads), this mind map is a great way to get exposure to key concepts.
Topics covered:
Landing Page CRO - Some standard frameworks & best practices
Neuromarketing - Basic psychology of learning modalities, limbic system functionalities, nonconscious motivators, etc...
Facebook/Google ads - targeting, content, ad types, etc.. all based on the buyer journey phase.
4) At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on
by Elliot Dallen - Article 📰(6 min)
This is a bit of an outlier in terms of content we normally have, but I found this to be an incredibly well-written and thoughtful piece from an author writing from the cusp of what many of us fear. Life is short and precious, this article is a great reminder of why it is important to not delay on trying to achieve your goals.
Nobody should lament getting one year older, another grey hair or a wrinkle. Instead, be pleased that you’ve made it. If you feel like you haven’t made the most of your last year, try to use your next one better.
5) Who has successfully used "engineering as marketing" as a strategy? (Twitter)
by Corey Haines - Twitter Thread 🌐
“Engineering as marketing” is when a software company builds a (usually free) digital product with a goal to provide users value but also act as a marketing funnel for their main product. It is a bit like next-level content marketing. If any of you have used Unsplash (beautiful, quality free stock photos), you might be surprised to learn it actually started as an engineering as marketing project. Anyways, this twitter thread is a great collection of engineering as marketing examples.
In the News: Top Companies Experimenting with 4-Day Work Weeks
by Nicholas Rempel - Article 📰(3 min)
A growing trend that has been somewhat accelerated by the current pandemic is that companies are increasingly embracing a 4-day work week. I personally love that trend as I have always felt that 9-5, 40 hours per week is an inefficient model for most office jobs. A worker’s productivity is not tied to the number of hours they sit at their desk, but instead it is driven primarily by internal motivation. Certainly a cool trend to see companies like Shopify and Shake Shack try to improve on the status quo.
From the Archives: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company
by Wenbin Fang - Article 📰(5 min)
A fun dive into the tech stack of a solo-run tech company, Listen Notes. The author covers details such as AWS deployments and even what React libraries he uses for the audio player. A lot of technical founders have a dream of running a solo company, this article gives an interesting glimpse into what it may look like.
Instead of optimizing for spending more time & saving money, I optimize for spending less time & making money
I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter, please subscribe and check out last week’s if you haven’t already!