#writeas is great for this :) Supports custom domains / CSS, and works great as a headless CMS, in case you want to embed posts on your own site. Happy to help you get set up if you decide to use it!

At first I laughed, then went "wtf", then felt better because we each had different goals in mind. It was in 2016 when Telegram launched Telegra.ph, and #writeas had already been out for almost 2 years.

After I saw the launch, I actually posted Write.as to HN for the first time, and the next day it was surprisingly on the front page of PH. It didn't do as well as Telegra.ph, and I had to answer questions about how the two platforms were different now, but the PH launch sent my own product in a new (more upward) trajectory.

Overall, once I got over that initial worry of having to compete (something I never worried about before), I focused again on my own goals and then kept going. It's good when many options exist in the marketplace, whether you're making the products or consuming them.

So you know you're building something that real people will find useful.

If you need a simple blog (or 10) for all your projects, #writeas is only $40 / year 😁

I've had good luck with a few posts around 7:30-8am Eastern US time (12pm UTC) on weekdays. Otherwise there's nothing really special you need to do. If you've hung around that community for a while I think you can get a good feel for what people like. Of course the more relevant the post is, the better it'll do.

Personally I'd rather pay right before data processing so I can be sure the product will do what I want / expect. But some people will probably be sold on it before they do all of that. So why not offer both choices? Make payment optional when signing up, making it convenient to enter payment info while someone is already filling out their account info -- and letting all the unsure users through to try out the product.

Depending on what payment backend you're using (thinking Stripe here), you could even just save the payment info on signup (encouraging everyone to enter it right away), and always wait to make the charge at that final moment before data processing.

Here's what I found about that -- not sure if there's a better way.

But the install process is incredibly easy on a plain VPS. I've been running it for 2 years now without problems. My only suggestion is putting it behind nginx instead of Apache so you can stay on a smaller instance for longer, and reduce the report generation frequency when things start slowing down around 100K hits / month.

I was always most motivated when my side business was really growing and getting attention -- people telling me they loved it, getting new customers, etc. But the majority of the time that motivation didn't land in my lap; I just had to sit down and do it. I'd usually do a weeknight or two of staying up till 3am, just working for 8 hours straight after the day job so I could push my stuff forward a bit, and that helped.

Ultimately it doesn't matter if it's a side hustle or art or whatever you're doing, you just have to find a way to do it and not worry about time or motivation. Here's a good video on the subject that explains it really well.

LLC, because I didn't need lawyers to set it up -- just filled out the form and paid the state.

I think the answer is doing both, thedomain.hack (because it's shorter and better) and thedomainhack.com. As an aside, I've encountered some people who don't realize that domains exist outside of .com, so it's thrown them off when they want to email me on one of my non-dotcom domains.