Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9508528

by tagabek • 11 years ago

52 31 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It can be a SaaS app, a mobile app, or any side project that is netting you recurring revenue.

gamechangr• 11 years ago

I would guess that not many are making a $1,000 a month on side projects. Most of my friends have side projects where they make $100-$300, but when they get to over $500 they consider making that the primary project.

Some games make that but you have to continue to update them or they loose their ability to continue to sell, so it's misleading when people say "I make $1500 a month from my games" they should also say "I spend a couple hours a week making sure they are updated to the new versions".

But you may already know that.

I will follow you're question to see if you get much response. I would love to be surprised!

galooph• 11 years ago

There was a thread about this not so long ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8844083

vijayr2• 11 years ago

Like the hiring/looking for jobs threads, may be this should be a monthly thread.

Osiris3• 11 years ago

I wrote a battery laptop monitor : http://batterybarpro.com . I get about 1k uniques a day and net about $1500/mn in sales of the Pro version.

CyberDildonics2• 11 years ago

How do you get the word out on a utility like this?

Osiris3• 11 years ago

I started with a free version that I posted on various freeware software sites and as many forums about laptops as I could find. I also watched referral URLs can tried to engage users. Eventually users started spreading the word themselves. I've tried AdWords a few times but the ROI hasn't been great.

Jayd2014• 11 years ago

What stack did you use?

Osiris3• 11 years ago

It's written in C# with PInvoke code to call the underlying Win32 APIs for the battery status.

eonw• 11 years ago

I have a few games on the iOS store that still generate some money each month.

My main side project income comes from simple sites I build using public data and my SEO skills. Essentially its all ad sales.

dangrossman• 11 years ago

This same thread from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9423592

sgnelson• 11 years ago

Money?

bemmu• 11 years ago

There's an ebook written by HN user riskish on this topic: http://www.sideprojectbook.com/

gtheme2• 11 years ago

I built Premium Ghost Theme marketplace http://www.gtheme.io/ to sell premium ghost themes. I designed most of the themes because I have chicken and egg problem. Now I get about $100-$300/m revenue.

Most people still dont know what is Ghost https://ghost.org/ yet. It is CMS that like Wordpress, but built on NodeJS.

EDIT: Added what is Ghost

CyberDildonics2• 11 years ago

A ghost theme market place you say? I went to the site and sure enough, it's ghost themes. Premium ghost themes in fact. I still have no idea what the fuck ghost themes are though.

gtheme2• 11 years ago

Most people still dont know what is Ghost https://ghost.org/ yet. It is CMS that like Wordpress, but built on NodeJS.

dturnbull• 11 years ago

I wrote a book about the Meteor JavaScript framework, which is available for free, but I also sell a video training series that's based on the book: http://meteortips.com

gordonzhu4• 11 years ago

I made a video course that teaches you how to build apps with AngularJS.

http://angularcourse.com

glitch2732• 11 years ago

How did you do the reddit quote thing? Custom made or is there a website that formats it for you?

mattchamb• 11 years ago

Looking at the source, its an iframe for this site: //www.redditmedia.com/r/angularjs/comments/2f7ziz/i_quit_my_job_to_teach_you_how_to_launch_a_full/ckbhk0m?embed=true&context=0&depth=1&showedits=true&created=2015-05-04T04:25:24.511Z&showmore=false

gordonzhu4• 11 years ago

Click embed under a comment and it will generate embed code for the comment.

Example: http://www.reddit.com/r/angularjs/comments/2f7ziz/i_quit_my_...

alaskamiller• 11 years ago

I used this last winter to learn AngularJS! Make a React course if you can!

gordonzhu4• 11 years ago

Oh wow small world. That's awesome.

Email me at gordon[at]watchandcode[dot]com. Would love to get your feedback on what I can improve and what other things you'd like to learn!

BTW This is the fourth time today someone has asked if I'm doing a React course. I am thinking about it :)

vijayr2• 11 years ago

Seconded. Also Reactive Native please.

gordonzhu4• 11 years ago

I should mention that this is a side project that became a main project. It currently makes several thousand a month on a consistent basis.

siquick• 11 years ago

$2-300 per quarter from affiliate sales from a vinyl record shop that is linked to from http://soundshelter.net

It's completely automated so any time spent on it is time I want to spend (other than a few user queries).

Should really put up some Adsense but don't want to piss of the loyal users.

danuker• 11 years ago

You could place Adsense if the IP/user/user agent is one you've never seen before (or seen rarely).

andersthue• 11 years ago

I (still) make >1000 on my watermarking windows program at www.watermark-image.com - yes an old skool installer that you dowbload :)

I am using the money to stairstep (as Rob Walling talks about) into the SaaS world with my sleep and happiness improving way to work called TimeBlock (http://timeblock.com)

adzeds2• 11 years ago

I generated a football betting algorthm > http://betalyst.com/

Gained a decent user base that gives it a strong MMR from ads etc

adzeds2• 11 years ago

Sorry, Meant to put Monthly Revenue not MMR

tixocloud• 11 years ago

It's a brilliant idea. Just curious but which data sources do you use?

Was diving into football analytics awhile back but was having trouble getting beyond the usual statistics (e.g. goals, wins, losses, games played, etc).

Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?

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