[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 - Show and
       tell
        
       Previously asked on 2020 -
       https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24947167
        
       Author : deadcoder0904
       Score  : 367 points
       Date   : 2022-01-19 15:49 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
       | oleksii88 wrote:
       | Working on https://folge.me - desktop app for creating step by
       | step tutorials and guides. Unlike modern SaaS businesses I
       | decided to charge one time price, which makes revenue very
       | unpredictable, but usually keeping around 400-500 USD per month
        
         | robtherobber wrote:
         | Although I see the benefits of SaaS, I very much like this
         | model.
        
       | sergei_ws wrote:
       | I'm working on http://talevideo.com - The easiest way to create a
       | video of your SaaS or website. It's not subscription, but got
       | about 300$ in revenue from January.
       | 
       | Talevideo - is a desktop application where you can create video
       | directly from website, without screen recording. And animate any
       | element on page, like fadeIn and etc.
       | 
       | Example result of video/gif at my github:
       | https://github.com/ssleptsov
       | 
       | Example_2 video directly from reddit website:
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/ra7inj/app_to_...
        
         | challenger-derp wrote:
         | Looks cool!
        
           | sergei_ws wrote:
           | Thank you so much!
        
         | 0x008 wrote:
         | Great job! Any hints what technologies you are using?
        
           | sergei_ws wrote:
           | Thanks! Yea, sure.
           | 
           | It's Electronjs with vue3/typescript, threejs, tailwind2 and
           | konvajs for timeliner(because canvas render much faster then
           | html update, so it's keep high FPS on edit mode). And vitejs
           | for tooling.
        
       | consultantrhys wrote:
       | I run getrhys.com
       | 
       | I productized myself and made myself on-demand (easily available)
       | to struggling SaaS businesses.
       | 
       | Currently doing $5K+ per month for working one day a week doing
       | short 30 min calls with clients.
        
       | porsager wrote:
       | I created an enhanced multilingual T9 keyboard[1][2] for iOS in
       | 2014 to play around with Swift. It's been doing 600$ on average
       | since then, still going strong. Still use it everyday myself and
       | can't live without it [1]
       | https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/typenine-ultimate-t9-style-k...
       | [2] https://medium.com/porsager/a-better-iphone-typing-
       | experienc...
        
       | syngrog66 wrote:
       | beware of copycats, folks. this post can be a trap for the
       | gullible
        
       | adamcao wrote:
       | I started making Power-Ups (add-ons/plugins) for Trello in July
       | last year: https://www.tinypowerups.com
       | 
       | It just hit $500/month on Monday and it seems to be increasing by
       | $100 in MRR per week.
       | 
       | I'm only charging $1 per user per month for unlimited access to
       | all of my Power-Ups. I'm thinking about increasing this price to
       | $2 or $3 next month (existing customers get to keep the $1 price
       | tag).
       | 
       | Some of the Power-Ups I offer:
       | 
       | - File Manager: lets you search through and bulk download files
       | on a board.
       | 
       | - Board Chat: adds a simple chatroom to your Trello board
       | 
       | - External Share: creates a link and snapshot of a Trello board
       | that you can send to clients so they don't need to sign up for
       | Trello to see the board.
       | 
       | - Office File Viewer: lets you preview .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx
       | files directly in Trello
       | 
       | - Card Approvals: adds a "approve" and "decline" section to a
       | Trello card
        
       | nyellin wrote:
       | If anyone has a devops/Kubernetes related project that _isn 't_
       | making money but has decent traffic/users, please consider
       | messaging me!
       | 
       | We (http://robusta.dev) are interested in sponsoring open source
       | projects and popular Kubernetes bloggers to raise awareness about
       | what we do. It's a rare win-win. We're mostly open source and
       | extremely flexible if you have any special requirements.
        
       | ghostbrainalpha wrote:
       | I make a little under $500 selling sunglasses for Dogs and Cats.
        
       | vittor1o wrote:
       | I've launched a couple months ago https://linkz.ai
       | 
       | Linkz.ai is hyperlink auto-previews that keep visitors on your
       | website. It's heavily inspired by Wikipedia & Google Docs link
       | preview popups with special extras. For example, when you click
       | on a YouTube hyperlink, it does not take you to Youtube website,
       | instead it opens lightbox with Youtube video on your website. All
       | with just one line of code.
       | 
       | $500+/m in a first month
       | 
       | Demo page: https://linkz-ai.webflow.io
        
         | vasilakisfil wrote:
         | this is really good idea, how comes not many
         | sites/companies/people use it?
        
           | vittor1o wrote:
           | I've just started this product late last year; the response
           | has exceeded my expectations.. give it a few more months for
           | sites/companies/people to adopt :)
        
         | idreyn wrote:
         | This has some neat use cases but I dearly hope it doesn't
         | become the norm...
        
           | vittor1o wrote:
           | Can you elaborate a bit?
           | 
           | Technically rich link previews save visitors from the tab-
           | overload.
        
             | idreyn wrote:
             | The rich previews on hover are great. I was referring to
             | the "Immersive Previews", and for the things demoed on your
             | landing page like short forms and Youtube videos, they're a
             | nice experience. I worry about a world where every "sticky"
             | web platform gets caught in an iterated prisoner's dilemma
             | and all decide it's in their best interest to do this. In
             | this world, whenever I want to click a link off of
             | Instagram or Twitter or NYT I end up in an "Immersive
             | Preview" iframe of the site I expected to navigate to.
             | Google AMP everywhere.
             | 
             | I would _love_ a world where this kind of thing is closer
             | to a first-class feature of the web -- thinking of Xanadu-
             | style transclusions or even Google's abandoned(?) <portal>
             | element. I would love deep-linking from
             | Github->Jira->Github in the same tab, and this points the
             | way towards that. But if there are a dozen implementations
             | of it floating around, and users have no control or warning
             | over when a link behaves this way, it's just another way to
             | wrest control of the browsing experience away from them.
             | 
             | Please be mindful about how you advertise this, is what I'm
             | saying.
        
         | asadlionpk wrote:
         | how do you get your users?
        
           | vittor1o wrote:
           | A few channels right now:
           | 
           | - Participating in the web dev communities
           | 
           | - "Powered by Linkz.ai" footer in the Link preview popups
           | 
           | - Campaigns on Product Hunt, Reddit & similar
           | 
           | - Soon: Affiliate, LTD, targeted ads for Webflow/Squarespace
           | ecosystems
        
         | sambroner wrote:
         | Super interesting, I added this (albeit way less pretty) to my
         | personal site and generally got poor reviews. That being said,
         | I'm really enthusiastic about the idea.
         | 
         | Example here: https://blog-545pd1vjp-sambroner.vercel.app/
        
           | vittor1o wrote:
           | Try adding Linkz.ai previews on your blog posts, and get
           | another round of feedback :)
        
       | dools wrote:
       | I have 2:
       | 
       | BenkoBot is like wayscript but with a focus on making Trello
       | automations (although you can use it for generic HTTP API
       | interaction):
       | 
       | https://app.benkobot.com/
       | 
       | And BenkoPhone is the only virtual mobile number outside of North
       | America that does voice, TXT and pictures:
       | 
       | https://www.benkophone.com/
        
       | codegeek wrote:
       | https://cronhub.io (a project I just took over). Makes about
       | 1k/month for now.
        
         | andreygrehov wrote:
         | This is cool. What's the story behind taking the project over?
        
         | josephd79 wrote:
         | I use to follow the original creator of this app. Nice to see
         | its still around.
        
       | dirtyhand wrote:
       | Stock market and crypto currency bot for Slack and Discord
       | https://beeper.fyi/
        
         | davidsawyer wrote:
         | How does this make money? I don't see any pricing info on the
         | site.
        
         | elliottcarlson wrote:
         | How are you earning revenue on this? Don't see any pricing or
         | signup requirements
        
       | par wrote:
       | I built Meta Meme, an iPhone meme making app. It nets approx
       | $3-5k monthly. https://metameme.app/
        
         | typon wrote:
         | A really good app and generally adding positivity to the world
         | :)
        
       | montenegrohugo wrote:
       | I start tons of projects, and it's always a bother naming them. I
       | didn't find existing domain generators at all useful, and since
       | my background is in AI, I made my own.
       | 
       | - https://www.namy.ai
       | 
       | It currently has a modest but pretty consistent 200-300 users
       | daily, almost all of it direct traffic (my SEO skills are very
       | lacking). I'm assuming people recommend it to their friends, and
       | that's where the traffic is coming from.
       | 
       | It's not yet at $500/mo, but it's getting close. Server costs are
       | significant though, since running an AI model is a bit expensive.
       | 
       | Ideas and feedback are welcome.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | coder543 wrote:
         | "Only show available" doesn't seem to work except on the
         | homepage... but I think it's because the homepage is the only
         | place where any domains are actually marked as already being
         | registered. (when _most_ of the suggested domains on search
         | results seem to be registered already, based on a quick
         | sampling.)
         | 
         | On the same line of thought, it would be awesome (but probably
         | difficult/expensive) if you could show the price of each domain
         | directly in the results.
         | 
         | Otherwise, it seems like a neat tool!
        
           | montenegrohugo wrote:
           | You guys are overloading the domain checking API :(
           | 
           | Good problem to have I suppose ^^
        
         | ramoz wrote:
         | Love it. Explainability would be a nice feature. I.e word
         | definitions, origins, etc.
        
         | davidatbu wrote:
        
         | cheriot wrote:
         | Looks really cool. The first two results I clicked on where
         | registered a long time ago, though.
         | 
         | https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?doma...
         | 
         | https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?doma...
        
           | montenegrohugo wrote:
           | Thanks! Yeah, I did NOT expect HN's traffic. It's overloading
           | the domain checking API and making it fail
        
         | thom wrote:
         | I'm getting a lot of false positives but this has already
         | generated some great ideas!
        
           | montenegrohugo wrote:
           | I'm sorry! I didn't expect the HN hug of death. About 200
           | concurrent people right now, so the domain check API is
           | failing :(
        
         | cploonker wrote:
         | Works surprisingly well.
        
           | montenegrohugo wrote:
           | Thanks! Was a fun project to do. I have a bunch of ideas to
           | make it better, but I decided to let it rest for a bit and
           | focus on other stuff. Might put in a bit more effort if it
           | keeps getting the interest it's getting now!
        
         | adamddev1 wrote:
         | That is fantastic, I wish I knew about it earlier. I used
         | another popular name-finding site (can't remember what it was)
         | but it wasn't nearly as intelligent and the results were not
         | that good. It also would be great to check for the availability
         | of the name in Twitter/YouTube/etc.
        
         | truculent wrote:
         | This is fantastic! If I may be crass, how does this make money?
         | Just through referral links?
        
           | montenegrohugo wrote:
           | Not crass, I like sharing! We're all here to learn from each
           | other.
           | 
           | The monetization model is just referral links to Namecheap,
           | where I get a 10% commission. I want to make that a bit more
           | elegant (especially for people with uBlock Origin, which it
           | doesn't track), and also add a few other referrals (logo
           | makers and maybe hosting).
           | 
           | Couldn't think of other ways to monetize this without making
           | it obnoxious (I hate ads, and making it pay-to-use also seems
           | restrictive to me). If you have any ideas, I'd be open to
           | hear them!
        
         | hooande wrote:
         | great site, well made. congrats
        
       | rozenmd wrote:
       | I'm not quite there yet, but I'm up to $300/mo iteratively
       | building an uptime checker: https://onlineornot.com/
       | 
       | I started with literally just a Lambda function that checks if
       | static websites were still online, added an email alert if it's
       | offline, wrapped authentication around it, integrated Stripe, and
       | shipped it.
       | 
       | Eventually, I added Slack/Discord/SMS alerts, team invites,
       | support for checking APIs for both uptime and correctness,
       | support for checking JavaScript apps, and more.
       | 
       | My trick for launching into 200 competitors providing the "same"
       | service and still getting customers?
       | 
       | - I work two hours a day, every weekday on OnlineOrNot, and no
       | other side projects. I've had this streak going for about nine
       | months now.
       | 
       | - I focus particularly on features that solve my customer's pain
       | (and I ask my customers what that pain is)
       | 
       | - I'm ruthlessly iterative. If I can't get a feature done in two
       | hours, I figure out how to cut scope down to a two hour block,
       | and ship that. Then iterate on it.
        
         | vram22 wrote:
        
         | endomorphism wrote:
         | What was your motivation for building it? As you said, there's
         | a lot of competition, did you anticipate that it would be
         | difficult to differentiate?
        
           | rozenmd wrote:
           | I didn't see any competitors in the space solving the problem
           | the way I would solve it (good UX + a focus on developer-
           | experience), I wanted an uptime monitor that didn't piss me
           | off with my own freelance clients, and I figured if there was
           | room for a 200th competitor, chances are there would be room
           | for a 201st.
        
             | endomorphism wrote:
             | That's great, thanks!
        
             | quickthrower2 wrote:
             | Nice. I am also interested in the consulting -> discover
             | problem -> saas route. I reckon your customers really are
             | buying for their existing trust in you.
        
         | wkimeria wrote:
         | Ok, this is really cool! (I also love the ruthlessly iterative
         | mindset)
        
         | barcoder wrote:
         | I admire you diligence with cutting down features to hit the
         | self imposed deadline.
         | 
         | I've been ferociously learning game dev and have allowed myself
         | unlimited time to jump down rabbit holes. Now that I'm actually
         | building a game I need to remind myself to just build it with
         | what I know.
         | 
         | It's an interesting switch in mind set. Still learning
         | obviously, only now I'm pulling together knowledge buried deep
         | within rather than from tutorials.
         | 
         | I'll keep in mind scope and remember your inspiring diligence
         | next time I'm tempted to peek in a rabbit hole.
        
         | nahtnam wrote:
         | Do you use any tools like Linear, Notion, and/or Github
         | Projects to keep track and organize new features?
        
           | rozenmd wrote:
           | I've tried a few tools, the only one I kept using habitually
           | was Trello.
        
       | robmerki wrote:
       | I wrote a book about adult ADHD last year & make ~$500/mo from it
       | between Amazon, Audible, & Gumroad: https://adhdpro.xyz/
       | 
       | Recorded the audiobook myself too.
        
         | jason_riddle wrote:
         | The site looks very polished! What did you use to build it?
         | 
         | Also, what did you use to write your book? And how long did it
         | take to write?
        
           | robmerki wrote:
           | Thanks! I built it with Gatsby + TailwindCSS. Sent a lot of
           | time tinkering & editing copy over and over.
           | 
           | I wrote it with Microsoft Word. I initially tried a few
           | different apps but all of the organizational tools they
           | provided got in the way. I broke most conventions and just
           | wrote the book straight from start to finish, and re-read it
           | countless times until I felt satisfied. Then I sent it to a
           | ton of friends who helped me edit. A professional editor
           | would've been a better idea, but I didn't really have the
           | money for that at the time.
        
         | metadaemon wrote:
         | Do you by chance sell the audiobook outside of the Audible pro
         | subscription?
        
       | throwaway74657 wrote:
        
       | motyar wrote:
       | https://bruzu.com
       | 
       | API to generate images on the fly.
       | 
       | Sample https://img.bruzu.com/?a.text=HN3
        
         | skurtcastle wrote:
         | I wont use bruzu till you're one billion MRR. haha jus jokes.
         | I've been following Bruzu since the start. Great product, great
         | dev who is open minded for feedback, etc.
        
           | motyar wrote:
           | So small small world. Thanks
        
         | conqrr wrote:
         | I've been thinking of building something similar in the past.
         | Did you use Imagemagick or similar for the backend or is it AI
         | based?
        
         | johneth wrote:
         | Very nice. Noticed a small typo - the footer link to Pinterest
         | is misspelled.
        
           | motyar wrote:
           | Thanks, Fixed.
        
         | cinntaile wrote:
         | > I am a developer, Do I need this API? No, if you can build
         | your own rendering system with all these features and able to
         | make it run this fast. You don't need this API.
         | 
         | Your FAQ is great hahaha!
        
           | motyar wrote:
           | Yes, every developer thinks the same about almost every
           | API/service, that they could build it over weekend.
        
             | brimble wrote:
             | Building it is one thing. It's not even uncommon for people
             | to be _right_ about that part.
             | 
             | It's the maintenance, support, training, operations, and
             | documentation that will kill you, if you think you can
             | "just" write some service and then move on to other tasks.
        
             | jjice wrote:
             | I like how you addressed this in the FAQ, because this is
             | such a classic take by some users of HN. It's fine if you
             | don't want to use it, but a lot of people would love to.
             | Nice product by the way.
        
             | IceWreck wrote:
             | And in some cases, they probably can. But reliability,
             | scalability and most importantly quality is harder.
        
           | ASalazarMX wrote:
           | For the curious like me:
           | 
           | Q: I am a developer, Do I need this API?
           | 
           | A: No, if you can build your own rendering system with all
           | these features and able to make it run this fast. You don't
           | need this API.
        
         | zerop wrote:
         | Can this be done in Pure JS solution within browser? Why need
         | backend?
        
           | dahfizz wrote:
           | An API allows you to create images from things that are not
           | browsers.
        
           | goshx wrote:
           | The product is an "API to generate images on the fly". How
           | would you create an API with no backend?
        
             | zerop wrote:
             | Not the API, I meant this functionality of rendering text
             | on image, can this be done in JS only?
        
               | udbhavs wrote:
               | One barrier is if you load an image from a source that
               | doesn't allow CORS the canvas becomes "tainted" and
               | exports are blocked (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
               | US/docs/Web/HTML/CORS_enabl...)
        
               | motyar wrote:
               | Yes its way easier in browser on front-end.
               | 
               | But you need API for the things that happens off browser.
               | Like if you want to create images inside your code.
        
               | harperlee wrote:
               | It can be done, but this is already done, so you can just
               | pay with money instead of dev time.
        
               | karqt wrote:
               | Sure it can, and I'd say it's much cheaper to do it in JS
               | than using API (with quite small quota, even for paid
               | plans)
        
               | dudus wrote:
               | Yes but then you can't post it to social media as easily.
               | Unless you export it as an image from JavaScript.
               | 
               | This is good for social media managers that want to
               | automate a lot of account posts.
        
               | finnx wrote:
               | Yes, HTML5 Canvas. ctx.drawImage() ctx.fillText()
        
       | eximius wrote:
       | https://hoppy.network Hosted WireGuard as a Service with static
       | IP assignment.
        
         | asaddhamani wrote:
         | What's your server location?
        
       | jonkratz wrote:
       | My side project, FormTester 365 https://www.formtester365.com has
       | been doing a little over $700/mo now. Many customers are agencies
       | who want to be alerted if a client's web forms stop working.
       | 
       | It tests website forms daily (currently as a Gravity Forms plugin
       | add on) and confirms that they were successfully submitted. I'm
       | working to add support for general web forms in the next few
       | months. Feel free to send me an email if you're interested in
       | being notified when that feature rolls out -- jon (at)
       | creativeculturemedia.com
        
       | sarora27 wrote:
       | We launched this last year: https://kbee.app
       | 
       | Kbee turns a Google Drive folder into a searchable wiki for you
       | and your team. We're currently doing ~$1500/month in MRR
        
         | 0x4a42 wrote:
         | What is MRR?
        
       | sippndipp wrote:
       | We're doing an newsletter dedicated for Android developers:
       | 
       | https://androidweekly.net/
       | 
       | - it was four years without making any money
       | 
       | - with ~100k subs it's generating money
       | 
       | - everything grew organically
        
       | maxencecornet wrote:
       | My side project https://playtoearn.one/ is not making $500/month
       | yet, but it's getting there: a tiny bit more than $400 for this
       | month
       | 
       | It's getting around 250-300 visitors a day, and in a high paying
       | niche
       | 
       | I started using "classic" ads - which were/are making next to
       | nothing - but just signed a deal with a direct client for 400$
       | for 3 weeks of displaying his game on the site, on the top banner
       | 
       | There are so many play-to-earn games popping up at the same time
       | that projects are fighting for visibility, which playtoearn.one
       | can bring
       | 
       | So now, I've hired a designer to make a great looking UI and I'm
       | getting motivated to turn this side project into something more
       | than this
       | 
       | EDIT: Traffic for the past month:
       | 
       | https://simpleanalytics.com/playtoearn.one?period=month&coun...
        
       | pyrrhotech wrote:
       | Monetizing the algotrading models I've built over the last 2+
       | years: https://grizzlybulls.com
       | 
       | I've traded them with my own capital successfully since April,
       | 2020, and I've averaged 75%+ annual returns with much lower
       | volatility than the overall market. My starting capital was small
       | (500k) so in addition to growing with my own capital, I'm now
       | providing the signals (3 free, 4 premium).
       | 
       | 105 total members, MRR is currently $1397/month, just launched
       | exactly 1 month ago today. Still in the google sandbox so I'm not
       | seeing much organic traffic. We have a small community on reddit,
       | rest of users from social media, Seeking Alpha and Stock Twits.
        
         | RyanShook wrote:
         | Just curious, why sell your model if it's working so well for
         | you?
        
           | pyrrhotech wrote:
           | I've thought about this a lot, and to answer 100% honestly,
           | I'm not sure I always will, but for now:
           | 
           | 1. These are not HFT models. They trade once every 2-4 weeks
           | on average. They scale to billions in capital, so selling
           | them does not inhibit my own returns. 2. There's a lot of
           | demand. Part of the reason I decided to launch is I had some
           | friends IRL begging me to let them use my models as well.
           | Seeking Alpha has over 15M MAU and hundreds of thousands of
           | premium subscribers, and in my opinion this service provides
           | more direct value and wastes less of your time with noise. 3.
           | All the money I make from this goes back into my own bot and
           | compounds. Sure the $1400/month doesn't add up to much right
           | now, but 1000+ premium subscribers one day would make a huge
           | difference to me financially. 4. I believe we are at a
           | precipice with passive investing, and the next bear market
           | which could be right around the corner will dishearten a lot
           | of folks. The more money investing smartly in the market at a
           | reasonable fee makes the markets and overall economy less
           | fragile. More automated smart investing saves society the
           | drag of lots of suits on wall street mostly playing a big
           | marketing game without producing much alpha or liquidity or
           | any other measurable benefit in contrast.
           | 
           | Also, on a lighter note, running a business is just a lot of
           | fun. I love seeing people use my product and get value from
           | it.
        
             | bmitc wrote:
             | Who would you describe as your target audience? For
             | example, would someone with some software and mathematics
             | skills but limited financial knowledge (but growing
             | interest) be able to turn the signals into a trading
             | system?
        
       | waterside81 wrote:
       | Personalized kid's e-books http://www.littleheroes.com
       | 
       | Web + app store purchases
       | 
       | Up for sale if anyone's interested
        
       | consultantrhys wrote:
       | I run getrhys.com
       | 
       | I productized myself and operate as an on-demand marketing
       | consultant for SaaS businesses.
       | 
       | Currently do $5K+ per month working one day a week taking short
       | 30 minute calls with my clients.
        
       | HEHENE wrote:
       | My side project currently grosses close to $1,400 per month
       | through Patreon.
       | 
       | I run a modded Grand Theft Auto: V roleplaying server with around
       | 1,500 members (around 300 really dedicated MAU.) If you're not
       | familiar with GTA RP, it tries to emulate real life as closely as
       | possible while still recognizing that GTA is an arcade game.
       | Players live lives as if they were real people, buying cars and
       | houses, holding jobs, opening businesses, receiving medical
       | treatment, being arrested, etc.
       | 
       | I've spent around three years working on the gamemode and spend,
       | on average, 30-60 hours per week on it. It's really a pure
       | passion project. Players support the project through Patreon in
       | exchange for priority queue access (when the server is full,
       | players are held in a queue until a slot opens up for them),
       | custom license plates on their vehicles, custom phone numbers,
       | and other cosmetic perks.
        
         | mrbad101 wrote:
         | My son plays FiveM almost exclusively when he is on the
         | computer gaming. He has been enamored with it for years now. As
         | a parent who is also a gamer, I can't help but chuckle when I
         | hear the conversations going on between everyone. Although it
         | is not my cup of tea now, when I was that age, I would have
         | killed to have such a world available for me to engage with.
         | 
         | Thank you for such a killer "side" project!
        
           | HEHENE wrote:
           | The conversations can be interesting to put it mildly. When I
           | get the chance to play, I mainly play a police officer and it
           | has caused more than one moment of confusion when I didn't
           | realize my partner had taken a work call and their co-workers
           | could hear me barking out "lawful orders" from the other
           | room.
           | 
           | Roleplaying games are really great for exercising your social
           | skills and creative expression though, that's for sure.
        
         | swyx wrote:
         | you should rebrand your server as a Metaverse and sell it to
         | Microsoft for 1.4 million
        
           | Arubis wrote:
           | I mean, yes, you're being flippant, but this is _not a bad
           | idea_
        
         | krat0sprakhar wrote:
         | Wow, this sounds really interesting. As someone who used to be
         | an avid GTA V player, I can imagine how much fun this can be.
         | Do you have any videos on the mod and/or on the playing
         | experience?
        
           | HEHENE wrote:
           | FiveM is the most popular platform for this type of modding,
           | and is the one I use. nopixel is the most popular server on
           | the platform and usually a good place to start getting a feel
           | for what's possible on a modded GTA server.
           | 
           | If you check out https://nopixel.hasroot.com/, they maintain
           | a list of all Twitch streamers currently streaming nopixel.
           | 
           | nb: I have no affiliation with nopixel.
        
         | Drblessing wrote:
         | This is so cool! In my free time I love watching GTA RP,
         | especially NoPixel.
        
       | heneryville wrote:
       | I've made about 50 Amazon Alexa skills. The most popular 5 earn
       | rewards: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/alexa/alexa-skills-
       | kit/gr...
       | 
       | At first it was around $2500 per month, but has slowly ramped
       | down over the past 4 years to about $900 per month. Totally
       | passive income at this point.
        
         | jacobrussell wrote:
         | Do you mind sharing what some of them do?
        
           | heneryville wrote:
           | Sure. Some of my most successful are:
           | 
           | Bark Like a Dog -- https://www.amazon.com/Iguana-ASD-Bark-
           | Like-Dog/dp/B07C1BKWK...
           | 
           | Truth or Dare -- https://www.amazon.com/Mitchell-Harris-
           | Truth-or-Dare/dp/B073...
           | 
           | The Song that Never Ends -- https://www.amazon.com/The-Song-
           | That-Never-Ends
           | 
           | and my personal favorite, but doesn't make much is Rap Battle
           | -- https://www.amazon.com/Mitchell-Harris-Rap-
           | Battle/dp/B0742JQ...
        
       | mmmmkay wrote:
        
       | konschubert wrote:
       | I make this e-paper calendar: https://shop.invisible-
       | computers.com/products/invisible-cale...
       | 
       | It syncs with Google Calendar.
       | 
       | To be fair, I currently does > 500$/month in _revenue_ not
       | _earnings_.
       | 
       | If it doesn't count let me know and I will delete my comment.
       | 
       | EDIT: I am currently out of stock sadly. If you want to be
       | notified when I am back in stock, you can leave your email here:
       | https://forms.gle/tNcCcYrNBu5nWKgJ9
        
         | jliptzin wrote:
         | Awesome
        
         | Lucasoato wrote:
         | If it was available, I'd buy it right now! :)
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | If you sign up here I will let you know :)
           | 
           | https://forms.gle/tNcCcYrNBu5nWKgJ9
        
         | financetechbro wrote:
         | Looks like your form is restricted to org members only
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | Whoops, is it fixed now?
        
             | judge2020 wrote:
             | Yes.
        
         | drodil wrote:
         | I made one too with inkplate. The software is open sourced.
         | More details here: https://link.medium.com/DeyY5FlcXmb
        
         | challenger-derp wrote:
         | I like how minimalistic it looks. Families might want a larger
         | sized one to hang somewhere prominent in their home hah.
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | Yea, I keep eying bigger displays but they are $$$$$
        
         | zzixp wrote:
         | Oh man I love this! Definitely keeping my eye on it. Any chance
         | at Outlook integration?
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | I can say it's in the backlog, but I can't say if and when.
        
         | joshu wrote:
         | does this connect directly to google or is there a proxy?
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | It goes through a proxy that handles the authentication
           | towards Google.
        
         | abider wrote:
         | have you thoughts about offering this as software service for
         | something like the Remarkable?
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | I haven't thought about it, no. Not sure if that would be a
           | good spot to be in, as a business.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | moralestapia wrote:
         | Hi man, beautiful product, if this were an external monitor, or
         | at least a website kiosk, I would buy it in a heartbeat. :D
        
         | davidsawyer wrote:
         | Nice!! How big are those displays, and if you don't mind
         | sharing, how much do those displays cost from your supplier?
         | Last time I checked, e-paper displays were pretty pricey on
         | their own.
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | The display is 7.5 inches, from Waveshare. I pay retail.
        
         | dionidium wrote:
         | Just a heads up: my company blocks this site as malware
        
           | kylecordes wrote:
           | I wonder if there is a service that (somehow) detects your
           | site has been flagged in various categories by big company
           | firewalls, and alerts you. Wild guess: whatever system feeds
           | into the lists that get blocked in this way probably has a
           | lot of false positives.
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | shop.invisible-computers.com?
           | 
           | Any idea what could be causing this? I am at a loss.
        
             | MattSayar wrote:
             | I have an extension called FakeSpot that I use to detect
             | fake Amazon reviews. To my surprise, it flagged your site
             | as well with the following note: "Please research the
             | seller because: * Limited Internet presence * Website is
             | missing common professional website attributes * Limited
             | Internet presence and history"
             | 
             | It doesn't expand on any of those points, that's all it
             | says.
        
             | zknicker wrote:
             | Wild guess, but perhaps it's the - (dash)?
        
         | Graffur wrote:
         | This is awesome. I would 100% buy a battery operated version
        
           | FernandoMax wrote:
           | 100% I agree. Makes non-sense the eInk (low consumption) but
           | power cord.
        
         | andi999 wrote:
         | I agree, very cool. Here what I do not like so much:
         | 
         | a) the wood frame seems to be too large (probably there is a
         | technical reason for this), but still. Not much too large
         | though, just maybe 25%?
         | 
         | b) the wood (at least from the pictures) looks cheap (plywood?)
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | It's multiplex. The device in the last picture has plywood
           | but it's an older version.
           | 
           | Multiplex is actually nice since it's cross laminated and
           | thus retains its shape. I experimented with solid wood and it
           | started arching after a few weeks.
        
         | jacobmarble wrote:
         | Very cool product!
        
         | rPlayer6554 wrote:
         | very cool! I absolutely want one.
        
         | servercobra wrote:
         | Oh my gosh, I love this. I even love the name. My fiance and I
         | were even talking about how we wanted to move the house towards
         | more "invisible technology" (magic mirrors, things like this,
         | maybe the Frame TV if we get a good deal and figure out a good
         | spot for it, etc)
        
           | evanlivingston wrote:
           | Recheck the frame tv. I wanted one until I realized it's just
           | a thin tv thats motion activated to stay on/turn on and show
           | a static image.
        
         | RussianCow wrote:
         | Wow, this is great! I was actually just thinking about hacking
         | something like this together on my own, but $200 seems really
         | reasonable for a pre-built product, and it looks much nicer
         | than it would if I built it! :) Any plans to support non-Google
         | calendar accounts?
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | I would like to support other formats, caldev, outlook etc. I
           | am limited by time and money, not imagination :D
        
         | tych0 wrote:
         | This is pretty cool, though it would be nice if it worked with
         | caldav instead of just google calendar :)
        
           | konschubert wrote:
           | I think so too :D
           | 
           | It's definitely something I am having in the backlog, but I
           | cannot promise if and when it will be implemented.
        
             | VectorLock wrote:
             | I wanted to let you know that I find your approach to
             | future features refreshing, in contrast to the typical
             | over-promising you typically see.
        
               | vram22 wrote:
        
         | searchableguy wrote:
         | That's pretty cool. Love to see a hardware project.
         | 
         | What's the profit margin like?
         | 
         | E-ink displays are expensive. That price point seems not enough
         | to generate decent income.
        
           | kylecordes wrote:
           | I read somewhere that the e-ink expense is because the
           | company which controls the intellectual property chooses to
           | make it a low volume, high cost product. Not that it is
           | inherently expensive, and I am surprised they don't try the
           | opposite strategy, make it cheap and everywhere.
        
             | axg11 wrote:
             | Would love a link/source for this if you have one.
        
             | vxNsr wrote:
             | I was under the impression that standard black/white e-ink
             | is no longer patent encumbered, could totally be wrong tho
        
           | hyperbovine wrote:
           | > E-ink displays are expensive.
           | 
           | I was curious... from what I can find online the wholesale
           | price of an e-ink display is not that much cheaper (if any)
           | than buying an equivalently sized Kindle. What is the
           | viability of a business model that involves rooting a Kindle,
           | loading whatever calendar display software you need, and
           | shipping it inside a pretty wooden frame?
        
       | timmaah wrote:
       | Previously from 26 days ago:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29667095
       | 
       | That said, this seems to be the extent of my marketing desire.
       | 
       | I screen scrape campground registration websites and alert you
       | when someone cancels on a date you want to go camping. Fabulously
       | successful. Now back to my day-job.
       | 
       | https://wanderinglabs.com
        
         | Arubis wrote:
         | This feels like a good balance to me--you're giving people a
         | heads-up that there's an open block that they can book, without
         | doing the "value add" of blocking it off and then scalping the
         | slot. More power to you.
        
       | dana_janssen wrote:
       | We built https://tadum.app, an online meeting agenda that rolls
       | forward incomplete agenda items to the next agenda. This ends up
       | creating a low effort paper trail, saves on meeting prep time,
       | and keeps agendas consistently formatted/organized. It's intended
       | for recurring weekly/monthly/quarterly meetings--we built it
       | based on how we run meetings with our clients and are happy to
       | see other teams jump in and have success with it.
        
       | thrwy_ywrht wrote:
       | I made a background noise website and app
       | 
       | https://asoftmurmur.com
       | 
       | There are a lot of improvements I want to make, but due to life
       | commitments it has been stuck in maintenance mode for far longer
       | than I'm comfortable with
        
         | ahmed_ds wrote:
         | This is a pleasant surprise. I remember using your app ages
         | ago. I want to say at least 7 years ago when I believe you
         | launched your website first on reddit. My memory is a bit hazy.
         | 
         | I really liked your app. We had a construction project going on
         | for the longest time and I would mix up your rain, storm, sea
         | and the singing bowl sound everything together and blast it on
         | my soundbox!!
         | 
         | Thank you.
        
           | thrwy_ywrht wrote:
           | Haha thank you for the nice memory! I've been running the
           | site for 8 years, it's crazy that it's been that long
        
         | abetusk wrote:
         | Do you mind going into where your main revenue stream comes
         | from and how it breaks down? Is it mostly apple users? Google
         | play? Do you get any revenue from the website itself?
        
           | thrwy_ywrht wrote:
           | The basic model is people pay for access to more sounds. For
           | the last few years this bas been separate transactions on the
           | ios app, android app and for the web version. Ideally I'd
           | move to a single subscription-based account that worked
           | across all devices for extra sounds.
           | 
           | Revenue breakdown is roughly equal between android, ios and
           | web, somewhat surprisingly. Android converts worse but has
           | higher user numbers. Web converts much worse, but converts at
           | a higher price (justified by the fact that
           | hosting/maintaining the web stuff take a lot more time and
           | money)
        
             | abetusk wrote:
             | Thanks, that's pretty interesting to hear!
             | 
             | Can you talk about how you advertise and got traction
             | enough to get to $500/month?
        
               | thrwy_ywrht wrote:
               | > Can you talk about how you advertise and got traction
               | enough to get to $500/month?
               | 
               | Pure dumb luck. I made the site to scratch my own itch
               | many years ago, and then it took off because there were
               | few similar sites at the time (that let you mix together
               | different sounds). Only promotion I did was mention the
               | site on reddit a few times. Users were prepared to
               | tolerate a lot of rough edges at first.
               | 
               | There has been zero advertising. The site gets a regular
               | influx of new users because it's been featured on a
               | number of discover-interesting-website portals (the
               | modern versions of StumbleUpon). This happened with no
               | input from me. I assume it's a good match for these kinds
               | of portals because it's immediately usable without any
               | kind of instruction, signup etc.
               | 
               | I only made the decision to monetize after a long period
               | of the site getting lots and lots of organic traffic with
               | no input from me.
        
         | gateless wrote:
         | I'm curious about how much work goes into recording high-
         | quality, looping sounds like this?
        
           | thrwy_ywrht wrote:
           | > I'm curious about how much work goes into recording high-
           | quality, looping sounds like this?
           | 
           | When I started the site, I mainly used CC0 licensed sounds
           | others had recorded.
           | 
           | Then I started recording my own sounds. How much work it is
           | is very situational - if you regularly find yourself in an
           | environment which has the sound you want to record, and not
           | many other sounds around, then it's pretty trivial. For
           | example, you want to record rain in the forest, and you
           | regularly walk in a forest where it rains and there aren't
           | many other noise sources (e.g. other people, planes overhead,
           | singing birds, etc). The actual recording itself doesn't take
           | much work, because I shoot for a level of sound quality that
           | will satisfy 80%-90% of people, rather than a real
           | "audiophile" quality level.
           | 
           | On the other hand, if you want to record something that only
           | happens occasionally and with lots of other noise sources
           | nearby, it can be a ton of work. For example, you want to
           | record the sound of thunder, but you only get occasional
           | storms, you live in a city with lots of other background
           | noise, and it usually rains when it storms and you want rain
           | on the recording. In that scenario, you might have to travel
           | far and burn a ton of time trying to get the right conditions
           | for recording.
        
         | juancampa wrote:
         | I've been using it for hours and hours for the past few years.
         | Thank you!
        
         | 2pir wrote:
         | I use this all the time, and I tell everyone else to as well.
        
         | shepherdjerred wrote:
         | I used your app constantly before I picked up Sonos speakers
         | and had to restort to Spotify playlists!
        
         | voiprodrigo wrote:
         | Amazing, didn't know this existed. This plus my NC headphones,
         | bliss. Enjoying it while I type this. Thank you!!
        
         | michaelbuckbee wrote:
         | Just wanted to say how much I enjoy the site.
        
         | notamy wrote:
         | I use this constantly, oh my gods. Thank you so much for making
         | it!! <3
        
       | BorisTheBrave wrote:
       | I sell an game development tool on the Unity Asset store. Since
       | the peak died down, it's now somewhat under $500/mo, but still
       | does well in occasional sales.
        
       | StayTrue wrote:
       | I make visualization tools for bicycle wheelbuilding and I'm
       | making >$500 profit but not enough to live on. My site is
       | https://www.islandix.com
        
       | udfalkso wrote:
       | My brother started Podcast Notes in 2015. I help out on the tech
       | side. We now have a growing community of Premium Members, 35k
       | Twitter Followers, 25k email subscribers.
       | 
       | https://podcastnotes.org
        
         | akudha wrote:
         | There is a typo in the URL :)
        
           | udfalkso wrote:
           | Thx, fixed!
        
       | funksta wrote:
       | Made around $1500 in a month from https://hyperpaper.me/
       | 
       | It's a customized dayplanner pdf for large eInk devices like the
       | reMarkable 2. I built it for myself initially but realized I
       | could provide a customized build for other folks. There's still a
       | small amount of manual work to generate them, but I should be
       | able to automate it end-to-end soon.
       | 
       | I don't expect it to make much at all over the next 10 months,
       | but I'm already excited about other things I'm planning to add
       | for the 2023 version
        
       | kareemm wrote:
       | I make https://www.savio.io.
       | 
       | We help SaaS CS and Product teams use product feedback from
       | Intercom, Zendesk, Hubspot, Help Scout, etc to understand and
       | build what customers are asking for.
        
       | qnk wrote:
       | I've been working on Newsletterss, a newsletter reader for web,
       | iOS and Android. I'm making about $2k/m with about 30% of that
       | going to ads and infrastructure costs.
       | 
       | You can check it out at https://newsletterss.com
        
       | jason_zig wrote:
       | I build products to help improve my main e-commerce businesses so
       | I think this counts as a side-hustle. The latest (earliest stage
       | one is):
       | 
       | https://www.zigpoll.com
       | 
       | "Bite sized" polling software as a service that I use for post
       | purchase surveys, contact us forms, and email campaigns when I
       | want feedback on what to do next. Most customers are currently
       | through our Shopify App but have a few SaaS businesses that
       | integrated it independently.
        
       | scarecrowbob wrote:
       | I play music in bars. Or busk an accordion. Fun times. Definitely
       | not passive income, but it's work I like.
        
         | midiguy wrote:
         | Hey fellow accordion busker! I find my busking income has
         | diminished vastly with age, despite my skill rising. Everyone
         | wants to toss a coin at the 10 year old playing decent
         | accordion. Not so much the 30 year old playing good accordion.
        
           | vorpalhex wrote:
           | I realize you can't exactly do exit interviews but have you
           | tried talking to "users"?
        
           | scarecrowbob wrote:
           | Well, I'm 43....
           | 
           | Not to say that this is your issue, but I find it helps if I
           | dress up a lot.
           | 
           | I have nice, embroidered pearl snaps, custom cowboy boots,
           | fancy hats, and a couple nice vests.
           | 
           | That is to say, it's pretty easy for folks to confuse me with
           | panhandlers. I have no problem with folks panhandling, but my
           | tips are way better if I look like a performer.
        
         | anonymouse008 wrote:
         | Are you using Venmo for tips? I used to have an itch for
         | digital tip jars, but never figured out the right set of
         | features to really drive adoption...
         | 
         | This was well before Patreon, and PayPal was pretty much the
         | only API game in town. Since then, I've felt like Venmo handles
         | 9/10ths of the live performance problem (unleash the
         | appreciation (money) locked in digital form).
        
           | scarecrowbob wrote:
           | TBH, I am not super on point about that-- on some level I
           | still rationalize busking as a mode of practice where I don't
           | have to annoy the neighbors in my apartment.
           | 
           | I should probably look into that... it seems like a
           | reasonable idea.
           | 
           | I will say, the one time that someone asked me directly about
           | it, when I told them I didn't have venmo they gave me a $100
           | bill. Not to say that will ever be repeated.
        
           | 650REDHAIR wrote:
           | I never have cash on me and when I see a QR code I usually
           | give 2-5x more than I would if I was carrying cash on me
           | because it feels weird to "drop in" $1-4 on Venmo and I guilt
           | myself into more.
           | 
           | Anyway, accordion OP you should get a QR code for tips :)
        
             | anonymouse008 wrote:
             | Yup ^ that was also the idea. Unlock so much more value for
             | the performer
        
       | nakodari wrote:
       | https://jumpshare.com
       | 
       | Visual communication tool with screen recording, screenshots and
       | GIFs for macOS and Windows. Fully native apps without using
       | Electron. I started Jumpshare as a side project many years ago
       | and turned it into a full-time job.
        
       | kouteiheika wrote:
       | I'm running a website for people learning Japanese and currently
       | making ~$590/month from Patreon donations: https://jpdb.io/
       | 
       | This is an entirely spare-time project on which I've been working
       | publicly for the past year.
       | 
       | Here's some info about the tech stack I'm using:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26693959
        
         | jjice wrote:
         | Looks fantastic, and I especially love the simple tech stack.
         | How do you handle updates out of curiosity? scp and rerun?
        
           | kouteiheika wrote:
           | Yep. Copy the executable (plus another file which is a big
           | blob containing the dictionary, examples, etc.), and then
           | just do `systemctl restart`.
           | 
           | There's nothing extra running on the server; no reverse proxy
           | (the app itself automatically fetches/renews the HTTPS cert),
           | no database, nothing. Just the app, the SSH server and the
           | default system services.
        
         | mzmoen wrote:
         | This is quite cool. One suggestion would be to have the
         | pronunciation listed in addition to the kanji and audio (at
         | least when I searched I didn't see it, so the only way to learn
         | to pronounce is to use audio). Do you know of something similar
         | for Chinese by any chance?
        
           | kouteiheika wrote:
           | > One suggestion would be to have the pronunciation listed in
           | addition to the kanji and audio (at least when I searched I
           | didn't see it, so the only way to learn to pronounce is to
           | use audio).
           | 
           | Sorry, I'm a little confused? The pronunciation _is_ listed
           | for every word; that 's the hiragana next/on top of the
           | words. (:
           | 
           | > Do you know of something similar for Chinese by any chance?
           | 
           | Alas, I do not. Maybe I'll make something like that in, like,
           | 20 years if I'll ever be able to make a living off of this.
           | (:
        
         | asdf3243245q wrote:
         | Wow, that looks great!
         | 
         | My main complaint is that I haven't known about this until now.
         | I frequently search for Japanese resources and specifically did
         | searches to find pre-made decks of Japanese content from
         | Japanese language media, but never encountered your site.
         | 
         | Thank you for the effort to revamp the Heisig kanji keywords -
         | makes me wish I didn't already learn it the RTK way. The way to
         | teach new kanji by introducing the enclosed primitives first is
         | smart - it's a good compromise between "primitive first" and
         | "usage first" approaches.
        
           | kouteiheika wrote:
           | Thanks!
           | 
           | Yeah, it's still pretty much a very niche resource that many
           | people do not know about. (:
           | 
           | Indeed, Heisig's keywords can be janky. Mine are not perfect,
           | but in general they should be better than Heisig's. Well, at
           | least for most of the really common kanji; I still need to
           | change/improve the keywords for some of the more rare kanji
           | and tweak a few more common ones. (As you can imagine doing
           | that manually for a few thousand characters is a lot of work,
           | so it has been slow going.)
        
         | cmeacham98 wrote:
         | Hi, if you're still around:
         | 
         | jpdb looks really cool, but will it work for somebody who is a
         | complete beginner?
         | 
         | I want to learn Japanese, and intend to commit time to doing so
         | sometime in the upcoming 2-3 months. However, right now, I'm
         | literally at zero.
         | 
         | Is there somewhere else I should go to learn things like basic
         | grammar and sentence structure first, or will jpdb help with
         | that sort of thing too?
        
           | kouteiheika wrote:
           | A complete beginner? Nope. Well, at least not yet!
           | 
           | Eventually I _do_ want to make it a one-stop-shop which will
           | teach you _everything_ and take you from a complete beginner
           | to someone who can immerse in native media as soon as
           | possible. We 're not there yet, and the site works best if
           | you're _at least_ an advanced beginner. The bare minimum
           | requirement is that you know hiragana and katakana already.
           | 
           | Your best bet would be to start with a textbook of some kind
           | and/or some actual lessons with real teachers to learn the
           | basics. The more of a beginner you are the more the human
           | touch helps; the more advanced you are the more you can
           | depend on apps.
        
         | wodenokoto wrote:
         | Thumbs up for revising the keywords of remembering the kanji.
         | 
         | I don't follow his book but I do refer to it when studying and
         | sometimes his keywords really can be far out. If I remember
         | correctly he never clarifies if the kanji for "can" is "can do"
         | or "can of soup".
        
         | NTARelix wrote:
         | Upon initial login I'm definitely impressed by the interface,
         | the existing content, and the potential to finally brush up on
         | my Japanese.
         | 
         | I ended up linking to my Google account, but I spent a long
         | while trying to "sign up" with my email only to be given an
         | message about failing to meet the password requirements (no
         | mention of character limit and no special characters allowed).
         | At first I thought I just needed to adjust my password
         | generator to get a valid password (usually 64 chars with alpha-
         | numerics and special characters), but even the simplest
         | passwords failed with the same error message.
        
           | kouteiheika wrote:
           | > I ended up linking to my Google account, but I spent a long
           | while trying to "sign up" with my email only to be given an
           | message about failing to meet the password requirements (no
           | mention of character limit and no special characters
           | allowed).
           | 
           | This is strange; I don't really have any special password
           | requirements. What's the _exact_ error message you were
           | getting? The only requirements are that it 's at least 6
           | characters long and different than your username, and in each
           | case it should tell you exactly what's wrong.
        
       | astroalex wrote:
       | I made ~$1000 in earnings in a weekend selling algorithmically
       | generated posters of my art: https://spacefiller.space/prints
       | 
       | This was a test run that went surprisingly well. I paused sales
       | so that I can focus on reworking my process (it was very manual,
       | hoping to make it completely automated) and design more posters.
        
         | nati0n wrote:
         | Curious what the rough process is to generate art
         | algorithmically... I've heard of ML that attempts to generate
         | art based on its training pool. What concepts does this sort of
         | art use?
        
           | astroalex wrote:
           | Thanks for your question! I began writing a technical
           | explanation of the art here:
           | https://notes.spacefiller.space/living-wall/
           | 
           | It's a very early draft, but hopefully provides a glimpse
           | into the techniques I use.
           | 
           | (tl;dr: it's way more low-tech than ML generated art.)
        
         | yumaikas wrote:
         | These are a amazing pieces of computational art!
         | 
         | Might I ask what you built it with?
        
           | astroalex wrote:
           | Thank you! They're made with Java-based Processing
           | (https://processing.org/), although I have a new
           | JavaScript/WebGL version in the works.
        
         | idiotsecant wrote:
         | If you want to restart with someone to do the grunt work let me
         | know :P
        
           | astroalex wrote:
           | If you're serious, send me an email at
           | alexmiller@spacefiller.space! I would honestly love to hire
           | someone to do a bit of grunt work.
        
       | ahmed_ds wrote:
       | Not a product or something exciting, it is a service. I run a VA
       | firm (tbh I work as the VA) and I kinda almost make $500/month.
       | https://www.ITNAdigital.com
       | 
       | Trying to scale up the business to cater to data and software
       | businesses. But working in real estate industry for a while now.
        
       | nunez wrote:
       | I made two LinkedIn courses. One has paid off its royalties; the
       | other is on its way there. Should be >$500/month combined soon!
       | 
       | I'm also working on an app that allows you to set a universal
       | status across multiple platforms. I use it to automate my Slack
       | statuses from my TripIt trips, but I want to add integrations for
       | Google Calendar and WhatsApp. It's really rough right now but my
       | future intent is to find a way to monetize it when it's cleaner.
        
         | bmitc wrote:
         | What does it mean that one has "paid off its royalties"? Do you
         | have any description or advice for the general process for
         | teaching a LinkedIn course?
        
       | arilotter wrote:
       | I made a p2p NFT trading webapp that's totally free & open-source
       | over the course of a month or so of evenings and weekends, and
       | I've received a couple thousand $ in various cryptos as donations
       | from my in-site donation link.
       | 
       | https://vaportrade.net/
        
       | davidkuennen wrote:
       | I'm working on an event based stock portfolio/investment tracker.
       | Currently at 10k MRR.
       | 
       | https://stockevents.app
       | 
       | Edit: Just noticed this thread was merged/resubmerged? Now I have
       | a duplicate answer here. :-/
        
         | throwawayffffas wrote:
         | How do you monetize? Ads? Subscriptions?
        
           | klohto wrote:
           | IAP
        
           | davidkuennen wrote:
           | Yearly subscription. Some users asked me to make it free and
           | serve ads, but I refused. I wanted to make it ad free with
           | regards to privacy.
        
       | crazypython wrote:
       | AI that explains code, at a high business logic level. I
       | originally designed it while working on a complex physics system
       | for a game engine, and needed to understand it myself and also
       | explain it to non-technical people. Try it on your own code:
       | https://denigma.app
        
       | henning wrote:
       | I sell covered calls on Robinhood.
        
         | chillel wrote:
         | how much does that make you?
        
           | bradwood wrote:
           | Getting rekt mostly?
        
             | henning wrote:
             | I have unrealized losses on the collateral shares in the
             | current market correction, but that makes my call options
             | tank like rocks and helps me get them to a satisfactory
             | level for buying to close much faster.
        
         | showbufire wrote:
         | one of us :)
        
           | henning wrote:
           | #thetagang
        
       | perakojotgenije wrote:
       | sshreach.me - a Zero-Configuration, remote-controlled, secure
       | tunnels to your computers.
       | 
       | https://sshreach.me/
        
       | ryanyl wrote:
       | Working on a few projects, but the ones that actually took off
       | and make money are:
       | 
       | Commotion (https://commotion.page), Forms + Mail Merge for Notion
       | 
       | Reslant (https://reslant.com), Discussion Boards for Customer
       | Feedback
        
       | ryangilbert wrote:
       | I am currently making >$1,000 per month with sponsorships for my
       | twice-weekly newsletter https://www.workspaces.xyz/
       | 
       | Workspaces brings you inside the workspaces of entrepreneurs,
       | designers, developers, etc.
       | 
       | Currently a mix of inbound and outbound work to gather the
       | sponsors for each edition.
        
         | boeingUH60 wrote:
         | May I ask how you get sponsors? I have a newsletter/blog with
         | reasonable traffic (>100k page views per month) but can't seem
         | to find any direct advertisers..
        
           | ryangilbert wrote:
           | Definitely!
           | 
           | I recently added a "call for sponsors" blurb in the intro of
           | one of my newsletters once I felt I hit a level of
           | subscribers where it made sense. I immediately had a few
           | readers reply with interest that ultimately led to my first
           | few sponsors.
           | 
           | From there, I did some cold outreach via Twitter DMs and
           | email. My newsletter is very workspace item/tools centered so
           | I put thought into what sort of sponsors made sense there and
           | it led to the next batch. Think: companies who would
           | organically be featured by a guest anyway... show them the
           | value.
           | 
           | I'm pretty transparent with the growth/numbers on Twitter as
           | well so I think that helps when doing the Twitter outreach
           | for sponsors. They are easily able to look back at the
           | Twitter engagement if they don't already know what Workspaces
           | is.
        
       | buf wrote:
       | I make about $50k/mo on https://www.closingcredits.com
       | 
       | I found that most teaching platforms for voice actors out there
       | are run by a bunch of celebrities who are pushing edutainment,
       | not education.
       | 
       | So I wanted to make something specific for voice actors. I will
       | try to branch it out to other creators later.
        
         | holler wrote:
         | Very cool, how long did it take from idea to working v1?
         | Anything you'd do differently in terms of getting it to PMF
         | faster, tech choices, or lessons learned?
        
           | buf wrote:
           | I already had a different side project with 300k users so it
           | was incredibly easy to find PMF fast because I just emailed
           | them.
           | 
           | Tech choices: I never reinvent the wheel. I just take working
           | pieces from other work that I've done and glue it together.
           | Anything custom, I'll read how others do it.
           | 
           | Lessons: I probably should've chosen a different market. If I
           | had targeted companies and taught their employees
           | professional education rather than poor amateur voice acting
           | hobbyist, I'd probably be making $20M ARR. But I don't mind,
           | this is still fun.
        
             | holler wrote:
             | > But I don't mind, this is still fun.
             | 
             | Read your blog, hopefully you aren't telling yourself that
             | right before you fire yourself! In seriousness thanks for
             | the insightful reply. I agree w/tech choices, I'm always
             | thinking about reusability as I piece together my own
             | projects.
        
             | jasondigitized wrote:
             | What was the original side project that had 300k users?
        
         | DantesKite wrote:
         | On your website you say you were pardoned out of a felony
         | conviction. What was it for?
        
           | buf wrote:
           | Assault w/Deadly Weapon - took 15 years to get it pardoned
           | and expunged. The hardest battle I've fought in my life. It
           | makes startups look easy. I'll write more about it one day,
           | but I don't want to screw it up.
        
             | DantesKite wrote:
             | Looking forward to it. Subscribed to your newsletter
             | because I thought your essay about money being the most
             | important thing in life was right.
             | 
             | It really can solve or at least, begin to solve, every
             | problem in an individual's life.
        
         | nati0n wrote:
         | Dug a little into your background, read some of your posts.
         | Appreciate the different perspective with "Choose Money First."
         | I think a piece of that will stick with me forever now, just
         | because it hit a little different. So I guess just.. thanks for
         | the thoughts.
        
           | cercatrova wrote:
           | Link?
        
             | BadCookie wrote:
             | Here's the specific article:
             | https://siliconvict.com/choose-money-first
        
             | buf wrote:
             | https://www.siliconvict.com
        
           | buf wrote:
           | Thank you! In person I'm a bag of laughs, but on text I
           | really come off as aloof, so it feels good to read that
           | someone was impacted by something I wrote.
           | 
           | I've got so much more that I'm afraid to publish. Might have
           | to reconsider.
        
             | RustyConsul wrote:
             | Your writing style is entertaining and inspiring.
             | 
             | i'd love to read more of your work so i say do it! if not,
             | rhoades.lorenzo@gmail.com and i promise not to share them
             | ;)
        
         | jckahn wrote:
         | Wow, congrats on the success! Is this a solo project for you,
         | or are you working with a team?
        
           | buf wrote:
           | Just me, but I do revshare with the instructors and I have a
           | support staff on contract to handle tickets.
        
         | Chinjut wrote:
         | You make $600k a year from a side project?
        
           | buf wrote:
           | Technically I don't work currently, so I'm not sure if this
           | is a side project.
           | 
           | I was the founding engineer and Head of Eng at Reforge the
           | past 4+ years while I was building Closing Credits. I left in
           | August 2021. So, it was a side project for nearly 5 years.
           | 
           | If I have 3 side projects and no full time job at this exact
           | moment, where do I stand? I'll delete my post if I'm
           | violating the side project rule.
        
             | erosenbe0 wrote:
             | I think you're being accurate but maybe also quote the
             | numbers from August when you still had a full-time gig.
        
             | friendly_chap wrote:
             | Did you not sign away the IP while you were there? If so by
             | this comment you implicate yourself.
        
               | buf wrote:
               | +1 That's a great point to make for people who are
               | building side projects. Make sure you list your side
               | projects in an exception in the IP clauses of your
               | employment contract, like I did.
        
         | chainwax wrote:
         | The discussion around this thread got my attention, and you've
         | gotten a fan. Looking forward to reading through your blog
         | posts.
        
           | buf wrote:
           | Thank you. :)
        
       | c_ma_gee wrote:
       | My wife always compained that there was no suitable time tracking
       | app for breastfeeding our little baby. Within three weeks I
       | developed a simple app with proposals from her which fits her
       | needs. After a few weeks using it we were suddenly overwhelmed
       | with inquiries from our friends searching for such an app as
       | well.. Within another week, I made it ready for the AppStore and
       | the PlayStore and now it does around 400 EUR a month :-)
       | 
       | https://www.stillapp.de - although the page is in german the app
       | is translated into english as well.
        
         | AussieWog93 wrote:
         | Any reason you haven't translated the page into English? Sounds
         | like you've got a popular app!
        
           | c_ma_gee wrote:
           | Just didn't find the time to do it :-) But you are right - I
           | should do it!
        
             | AussieWog93 wrote:
             | Haha, I'm in the same boat. Have needed to set up a VAT
             | number in the UK for almost a year, still haven't done it!
        
               | c_ma_gee wrote:
               | Your comment was a good reminder: I just translated the
               | page into english as well :-) - Thank you for your
               | comment!
        
       | d33k4y wrote:
       | Does it count as a side project if I have been in grad school
       | full time while I proposed and developed this application?:
       | Environmental flow monitoring application:
       | https://dkhydrotech.com/entry/11/. I wish I could share more info
       | / visuals but alas.
        
       | niftylettuce wrote:
       | Forward Email - Email Forwarding Service
       | 
       | We're the only service that respects your privacy and never
       | stores your emails.
       | 
       | https://forwardemail.net
        
         | kerryritter wrote:
         | i <3 forwardemail. thank you for building this!
        
       | daibo wrote:
       | Not really a side project, but I haven't quit my job for it so..
       | 
       | I'm building a Search as a Service like Algolia. Currently
       | earning $700 a month from an early customer. Anvere.net
        
         | elikoga wrote:
         | CORS apparently breaks the site for me
        
       | brandnamehq wrote:
        
       | qecez wrote:
       | I'm trying to dispel the myth that all good dotcoms are already
       | taken and/or unaffordable with https://zlipa.com
       | 
       | It's passive income in the sense that I add new brands in the
       | weekend and mostly doing this for fun.
        
         | dionidium wrote:
         | This looks really cool! Nice job.
        
       | Fermat963 wrote:
       | Twitter Archive Eraser https://delete.tweets.app/, allows users
       | to reliably delete old tweets.
       | 
       | Makes around $5k/month now (down from $7k/mo previously), fully
       | passive income as I haven't worked on any new features in the app
       | for the past 1.5 years or so.
        
         | 2bitencryption wrote:
         | Wow, this is kind of the ultimate side project for passive
         | income.
         | 
         | It does one thing, that people need, and does it well, for a
         | fair price. I assume it requires minimal maintenance, except to
         | keep up with Twitter's API (honestly I don't know if this
         | requires much work, I guess it depends on how much the API
         | fluctuates).
        
         | pbowyer wrote:
         | Nice work, this looks like something I need.
        
       | camgas wrote:
       | I retrofit old phone-based intercoms with software-only solution:
       | https://www.DropBy.io
       | 
       | a bit above $500/month ARR, stable and sticky. Started a few
       | years ago, now have 2 other partners.
        
         | FlyingAvatar wrote:
         | Your pricing page seems to have no prices on it and your sign
         | up page doesn't load for me.
        
           | camgas wrote:
           | We removed pricing, one reseller wanted that out. But good
           | point, I think we should add it again and be transparent
           | since his business is good but not good enough to do so.
           | 
           | What happened when you git Sign up?
           | 
           | Thanks a bunch for the feedback!
        
             | camgas wrote:
             | Added pricing back, thanks again for the feedback!
        
       | antonhag wrote:
       | I built https://blunders.io, a profiling tool for JVM
       | applications. I think that I have a decent product but I'm not a
       | great salesman :)
        
       | joelrunyon wrote:
       | 15 minute mobility routines - https://movewellapp.com
       | 
       | Basically - everyone has a foam roller. No one knows how to use
       | it. Pick a routine based on what your goals are (working out,
       | recovery, general low back pain) and we show you the movements to
       | guide you through a routine in 15 minutes or less.
        
         | noja wrote:
         | I like this, but I am reluctant to start paying for it without
         | a trial. There are a few non-pro workouts, but could you
         | consider a day pass or three day trial?
        
       | DanHulton wrote:
       | I make Nodewood: https://nodewood.com/
       | 
       | It's a SaaS starter kit/boilerplate written in Node.js and Vue 3.
       | Made almost _exactly_ $500/month last year. Would have/should
       | have made more with proper marketing, but I've been doing
       | probably too much engineering instead. The next release should be
       | the one to take it out of "beta" (honestly, an arbitrarily-chosen
       | label, especially compared to some competitors with fewer
       | features/work put into them), and then it'll be a bit easier to
       | work with some potential partners who would prefer to promote
       | non-beta software.
        
       | kalev wrote:
       | Offtopic: funny to see the first five or so links I followed were
       | all marketing websites made with TailwindUI. It's a bit like a
       | decade ago when all websites looked like a Bootstrap website.
        
       | shtack wrote:
       | I've run http://olodolo.com (it mostly runs itself) since 2018,
       | which lets people buy things on AliExpress using crypto. I often
       | describe it as the only non-scam crypto website :)
       | 
       | It's badly in need of fixes and updates, but I still do about
       | $1500-2000 in sales and $300-400 in profit monthly.
        
       | goatherders wrote:
       | I'm not an engineer outside of the occasional WP site, but that's
       | enough. Cold email is my bag and I'm a good (and proficient)
       | writer. In October I started cold emailing internet, marketing,
       | and SW companies asking if they needed any help with their blogs.
       | In the intervening months I've added 7 clients that pay, on
       | average, $700/month for various help with content. MOst of it is
       | blog posts but I also do press releases, eBooks, etc.
        
       | bojanvidanovic wrote:
       | I run a nerdy product discovery website: https://devandgear.com
        
       | dutchbrit wrote:
       | Correction, previously asked 26 days ago:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29667095
       | 
       | Obviously still nice to see what people have built who missed the
       | last post!
        
       | Jack5500 wrote:
       | [snip]
        
         | 2pir wrote:
         | Be honest, were you inspired by Drawful?
        
       | mgz wrote:
       | I built an app to control what my kids watch on Youtube:
       | https://kidstv.family Makes $1500/month
        
         | ghostbrainalpha wrote:
         | How long did it take you to build this? Do you do any
         | advertising?
        
       | squaregrouper wrote:
       | im an embedded software developer, and would love to get a side
       | hustle going. does anyone on here do embedded development
       | freelance? are there any embedded developers that have a side
       | hustle going, that wouldnt mind sharing what they do?
        
         | zh3 wrote:
         | Really common to do it in spare time as an intro to doing it as
         | a consultant. Esp. if you have electronics skills it's not hard
         | to find work. As a "side hustle" though, it's generally about
         | selling a hardware product, a tool, or your skills (SkillaaS).
         | 
         | Embedded is a broad term though, say a bit more about your
         | experience and interests and maybe someone will pop up with
         | pointers.
        
         | chasd00 wrote:
         | I know the guy (well know online) who made these altimeters for
         | the rocketry hobby.
         | 
         | https://flightsketch.com/store/catalog/flightsketch-mini_1/
         | 
         | he went from idea to prototype in 6 months i think. Pretty
         | amazing if you ask me.
         | 
         | Edit: oh i was just looking at the images scroll by and saw a
         | screenshot. I did a rework of the mobile app for him, i totally
         | forgot about that. (i used ionic)
        
       | thedangler wrote:
       | I have a side business that does payment processing. I clear an
       | extra $2k-$3k a month. Currently looking for outside sales reps
       | while I develop open source payment options that aren't available
       | yet. If you are a developer, good at sales, or want to try it,
       | let me know.
        
         | jasondigitized wrote:
         | Do you have a link?
        
       | careersaas wrote:
       | We have built a remote job search
       | https://app.careersaas.com/portal that scrapes and indexes more
       | than 2 million jobs. Currently offering sponsored listings - lets
       | a user define a location for their job and whomever is searching
       | near that geocode will see the result, according to their job
       | experience, etc.
        
       | AwkwardPanda wrote:
       | Built Shopping Saga:
       | 
       | Real-time Online Shopping Deals by Product Category | Thoughtful
       | Gifts for Every Occasion, Recipient, Category
       | 
       | Gifts:
       | 
       | 1. Daily-updated gift products catalog 2. Direct Amazon and Etsy
       | product links for gifts and deals 3. Browse and filter by price,
       | category, recipient, occasion, popularity
       | 
       | Shopping Deals:
       | 
       | 1. Grab online shopping deals as soon as they are available 2.
       | Category-wise segregation of deals 3. Deals updated half-hourly
       | 
       | Initially, it was only web and android, but now I have released
       | iOS app as well.
       | 
       | Android:
       | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mysticpeak...
       | 
       | iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1604578567#?platform=iphone
       | 
       | The web version was pretty basic, so I've taken it down
       | currently. Learning Vue JS to enhance the frontend/UI.
       | 
       | The apps have pretty clean UI.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | 800+ comments recently
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29667095
        
       | qrohlf wrote:
       | I run a design asset generator based on my open source library,
       | Trianglify:
       | 
       | https://trianglify.io/
       | 
       | It currently does about $500/mo from a combination of asset
       | purchases and ethical (Carbon Ads) non-tracking advertising.
        
       | enraged_camel wrote:
       | I previously posted about PriceTable (https://pricetable.io),
       | where I'm the cofounder:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26855726
       | 
       | Since then we've gotten up to $3,500/mo. and will be hiring our
       | first salesperson soon. Exciting and nerve-racking at the same
       | time! (If you know anyone, please have them reach out to me at
       | ege@pricetable.io)
        
       | brandonhorst wrote:
       | I wrote and maintain Lacona, a Mac productivity App
       | (https://lacona.app). The majority of my revenue comes from being
       | a part of the Setapp subscription service.
        
       | Melatonic wrote:
       | I used to have a decent side hustle making this much money but
       | the tax changes this year have de-incentivized my work ethic
        
         | UncleOxidant wrote:
         | What tax changes?
        
           | Melatonic wrote:
           | Previously companies like eBay, Venmo, Paypal, etc were not
           | required to officially report transfers to the IRS. A few
           | years ago they changed that rule where if you appear to be
           | making more than $20,000 dollars in a year period then they
           | send forms to the IRS directly. If it is only for personal
           | use (like say you are sending money via Venmo to a roomate)
           | there is no tax to pay. But for actual sales you would be.
           | 
           | This year they lowered that $20,000 to $600. So anyone who
           | receives more than $600 in one calendar year will trigger
           | Venmo/Paypal or whoever to send the IRS the proper tax forms.
           | If it is for personal use of course you are still not
           | required to pay any tax.
           | 
           | As far as I know none of the loopholes for taxing the uber
           | rich have been changed so this is really just going along
           | with the IRS' current policy of increasing revenue from small
           | time outfits vs going after the bigger fish (who can often
           | afford to hire expensive accountants and lawyers to fight the
           | IRS)
           | 
           | I am not against paying taxes but having to wrangle the info
           | from a bunch of different sources and then also deal with
           | manually adjusting for other factors just makes this whole
           | thing a huge pain.
        
             | MisterSandman wrote:
             | I agree with your point of it being a hassle, but I never
             | understood the huge outcry about this. If I work part-time
             | at Burger King and make $10,000/year, I would pay taxes on
             | that. Why should the IRS not be taxing side-hustles that
             | make 10k/year?
             | 
             | The argument of them not taxing the rich is sad, but also
             | irrelevant; they didn't add a new tax on side-hustles, just
             | re-inforced an existing one. You technically should've been
             | paying this anyway.
        
               | Melatonic wrote:
               | $10,000 would still be reasonable - the point is $600
               | really is not.
        
       | anilshanbhag wrote:
       | I run Dictanote (https://dictanote.co) and Voice In
       | (https://dictanote.co/voicein/)
       | 
       | Dictanote is a note-taking app with built-in voice-to-text
       | integration. Writers use it to write their books, students use it
       | to take notes, etc. Dictanote automatically syncs your notes to
       | the cloud and makes them available on all your devices.
       | 
       | Voice In is a chrome extension that lets you use dictation to
       | type on any website in Chrome. Use it to type emails in Gmail,
       | enter data into Teladoc, write blogs in WordPress, etc. Think of
       | it like budget Dragon Dictation.
       | 
       | Currently makes about $7000/m net - somewhere between a full-time
       | job and a hobby project. Figuring out how to grow it.
        
         | jasondigitized wrote:
         | What does your stack look like? Curious how you don't go broke
         | while offering a free plan.
        
       | combyn8tor wrote:
       | I make around $500 per month running a gaming VPN service -
       | https://www.aussievpn.com.au
       | 
       | I initially built it to route PUBG players in Australia (myself
       | included!) onto the fastest links to overseas servers as the
       | Australian servers did not have enough players. It was strung
       | together with OpenVPN and a Discord bot as I never expected more
       | than around 20 people would use it... mostly figured it would be
       | me and my squad mates. Within three months I had around 350 users
       | by word of mouth paying $5 per month. Most of my users came from
       | established competitors as my service was a lot simpler to use.
       | The user numbers died down over the following year mostly due to
       | competitors offering an aggressive referral system and I was
       | focused on other projects.
       | 
       | Last year I decided to expand to other games and regions. I
       | rebuilt it as a standalone Electron based Windows app using a
       | kernel network driver that can route individual Windows apps
       | through my WireGuard VPN servers. I built everything except the
       | network driver which was done by a Windows networking specialist
       | - https://ntkernel.com
       | 
       | I currently support PUBG, DOTA 2, iRacing, Apex Legends, Rocket
       | League, Final Fantasy XIV, Super People in Australia/New Zealand
       | and PUBG and Rocket League in North America.
       | 
       | The service is stable and relatively scalable so this year I'm
       | hoping to focus on the marketing in between other projects. Part
       | of that will probably include a name change as I figure it
       | doesn't make a lot of sense to people outside Australia
        
       | x13pixels wrote:
       | RemedyBG, a from-scratch Windows debugger.
       | https://remedybg.itch.io/remedybg
        
       | justsocrateasin wrote:
       | I have a fondness of writing summary articles on to cap off a big
       | work project (for instance, completing a database migration). A
       | few of them get 'traction', but mainly I like the challenge of
       | eloquently describing my problem/solution and giving myself a
       | zitgeist of work I've done. It's satisfying.
       | 
       | Recently, I had an old colleague of mine reach out and ask if I
       | had the time to be a part-time contractor/advisor for his tech
       | consulting start-up, since their client needed to do a database
       | migration. He had remembered me because of the articles I wrote.
       | It's a nice bit of money on the side ($500-$2.5k a month
       | depending on how much I work) and I'm always learning something
       | new.
        
       | jimaek wrote:
       | https://anycasted.io/
       | 
       | A niche product, I gather data about anycasted IP addresses and
       | sell the database. No idea how to market it but it makes more
       | than $500/month
        
         | ade5hmukh wrote:
         | naice! curious about the customers/target audience though?
        
       | buttscicles wrote:
       | We're making about $600/mo right now working on Oku, which we're
       | building as a social book tracker (and more) and hoping to
       | replace Goodreads with.
       | 
       | https://oku.club
       | 
       | Here's my profile for example: https://oku.club/user/joe
        
         | ghostbrainalpha wrote:
         | I like the design, but what's would you like to improve over
         | Goodreads?
        
         | snarkypixel wrote:
         | Looks neat. Why do you think oku will replace goodreads?
        
         | shepherdjerred wrote:
         | Do you provide a way to export data in case the site closes
         | down? I don't use any app/site to track what books I read, but
         | I see that it could be interesting.
        
           | buttscicles wrote:
           | We do but it's not fully automated just yet, it'd involve
           | sending us an email.
           | 
           | Similar story with csv imports, it's half supported but not
           | in the UI yet.
        
         | agacera wrote:
         | That is pretty landing page!
         | 
         | Just read that the meaning of oku [1] is 1) private, intimate,
         | and deep; 2) exalted and sacred; and, 3) profound and recondite
         | 
         | anyway, your brazilian users will find this funny since oku has
         | the same sound of "o cu" that literally means "the butt hole".
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oku_(theory)#:~:text=3%20Boun
         | d....
        
         | DarkCrusader2 wrote:
         | What is the source for book data? I was recently looking for a
         | TMDB equivalent for books but couldn't find a good one. There
         | is OpenLibrary but they don't have covers and only do dumps
         | once a month.
        
       | cushychicken wrote:
       | I launched www.rtljobs.com in October and had my first month of
       | $500 in revenue in December.
       | 
       | It's a job board that caters to a very specific subset of
       | electrical engineers - specifically, ones that work with FPGAs
       | and logic design for chips.
       | 
       | Need help hiring FPGA or RTL engineers? Let's talk.
       | fpga.rtl.jobs@gmail.com
        
         | 1thrasher wrote:
         | How do you generate revenue if you only aggregate jobs or post
         | them for free?
        
           | cushychicken wrote:
           | By selling Featured Posts, which get prime real estate on the
           | site for 30 days, and a blast out to our mailing list.
        
         | rthomas6 wrote:
         | Please add Huntsville, AL to your board. I'm an FPGA engineer
         | currently working there, and there are a lot of us, at a lot of
         | companies.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | handzhiev wrote:
         | Looks cool, I love this kind of niche projects. How do you /
         | did you drive traffic and job postings to it?
        
           | cushychicken wrote:
           | Indexing hiring companies' job sites, and providing helpful
           | comments to people who are seeking jobs in the sector
           | (primarily on Reddit). More on that here:
           | 
           | https://cushychicken.github.io/grow-your-mailing-list-by-
           | bei...
           | 
           | We're seeing a steady and growing trickle of organic traffic,
           | too.
        
         | specialist wrote:
         | Cool. I predict (hope) specialized jobs boards will become more
         | the norm.
        
           | axg11 wrote:
           | This is an interesting thesis. How would
           | HR/People/Recruitment teams work effectively in a world where
           | there are many specialized and actively used job boards?
           | 
           | Today, HR teams usually post jobs on LinkedIn and perhaps one
           | or two more platforms. A world of fragmented job boards would
           | be difficult to navigate for non-specialists.
        
           | cushychicken wrote:
           | It's a thesis I'm banking on myself.
        
       | dheera wrote:
       | I do a lot of landscape astrophotography which involves a TON of
       | signal processing to get rid of various sources of noise.
       | 
       | https://instagram.com/dheeranet
       | 
       | People ask to buy prints from time to time. Not quite $500/month
       | just yet but getting there.
       | 
       | Then there's this web-based function plotter I made in 2007:
       | 
       | http://fooplot.com/
       | 
       | It once made upto $900/month but since then, mobile apps have
       | gotten better, and today it makes about $100-150/month in ad
       | revenue.
        
         | Melatonic wrote:
         | I have seen your astro work for awhile now and it is awesome -
         | had no idea you could reliably make anything close to that
         | money wise. Sounds like I need to actually take my processing a
         | bit more seriously and actually create the new site I have been
         | meaning to work on.
         | 
         | Personally I am going to probably focus less on getting the
         | perfect processing (generally I just do a few stacks for noise
         | and sometimes combine with a star tracker) and more on getting
         | to unique locations most people do not have the skills to get
         | to. That is more my personal preference though given I really
         | enjoy backpacking and mountaineering already.
         | 
         | Have you ever messed around with the automated pano heads? I
         | was recently looking at buying a used gigapan (one of the
         | smallest ones) given that mirrorless cameras are so much
         | lighter now. Shooting stacks + a manual pano head can get a bit
         | tedious when you are already far out into the backcountry and
         | tired and just want to relax. I believe Daniel Stein uses them
         | and his work is pretty spectacular!
         | 
         | What I really want though is something that is both a star
         | tracker AND can automate the panos themselves. As far as I know
         | that does not exist and one basically has to put something like
         | a gigapan on top of a star tracker and of course make sure that
         | its all capable of controlling the camera itself.
         | 
         | edit: Now that I think about it you might even be able to make
         | a decent side hustle providing a "processing as a service" type
         | thing to other astrophotographers
        
           | dheera wrote:
           | I haven't played with automated pano heads, but I made a DIY
           | scanning digital back for a 4x5:
           | 
           | https://dheera.net/projects/4x5/
           | 
           | My original intention for this is gigapixel images, but I ran
           | into some issues cancelling the CRA correction that the Pi HQ
           | cam does, and also, my newly bought Sony A7R4 can shoot 240
           | MP shots with pixel shift so it's suddenly less interesting
           | again since it's already within an order of magnitude of a
           | gigapixel, and if I got a shift adapter mount and shot with a
           | medium format lens I could probably easily exceed a gigapixel
           | with the A7R4. I might try to shoot 4x5 film some time
           | though.
        
       | outcoldman wrote:
       | https://loshadki.app, between $800 to $2000 a month. Year ago
       | decided to learn macos development. Made 4 apps, two of them make
       | the most OpenIn and ShellHistory.
        
       | pbnjay wrote:
       | Things have tapered off quite a bit since 2021, but it's still
       | over the threshold: https://virtualpostersession.org
       | 
       | It's a platform for virtual scientific and research-oriented
       | poster session hosting. Pretty simple but desperately needed when
       | all the conferences were cancelled!
        
       | dawiddr wrote:
       | I've been making $500-1000/month on an iOS app for work time
       | tracking - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flexishift-work-hours-
       | pay/id11...
       | 
       | When I started the project, the category seemed quite crowded
       | already, but I couldn't find anything good for tracking my hours
       | in a flextime arrangement. I had no iOS experience at that time
       | (I was a C++ developer) and now I do iOS development as my full-
       | time job too.
        
         | MisterSandman wrote:
         | How long ago did you start this project?
        
       | TheJoeMan wrote:
       | I went super niche with an iOS vehicle counting board for civil
       | engineers to conduct intersection studies,
       | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/traffic-count-tmc/id1553635289
       | 
       | I never did any advertising and it was gaining traction, but
       | lately plateaued at a handful of downloads / day. Not sure where
       | would be a good place to spread the word haha.
        
       | ronyfadel wrote:
       | I'm making ~$4k a month, from a small macOS and iOS app
       | portfolio:
       | 
       | - macOS apps: https://fadel.io/
       | 
       | - iOS apps: https://apple.co/3fqcWfO
        
         | TrueGeek wrote:
         | I bought Batteries For Mac when my mouse died without warning.
         | It's funny how much a simple little widget actually helps out.
        
           | ronyfadel wrote:
           | Thank you for being a fan of Batteries! :)
        
       | strzibny wrote:
       | I wrote an ebook on web application deployment. It does over
       | $1000/month, but obviously it's not recurring revenue.
       | 
       | https://deploymentfromscratch.com/
       | 
       | I did a SHOW HN awhile ago which sold 100+ copies in a single
       | day:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29540808
        
       | MailNerd wrote:
       | I built an email forwarding service - not for your own domains, a
       | lot of those exist already - instead you can choose an email at
       | any of our 150+ domains and we forward it to your existing
       | account, no migration required. You can even send from this
       | address with many providers.
       | 
       | https://www.mailbox.my
        
       | nice_scott wrote:
       | I built an iOS sex tracking app, Nice.
       | 
       | https://nicetracker.app/
       | 
       | There were no sex tracking apps on the App Store that weren't
       | focused the menstrual cycle, so I built my own. It now includes
       | cool features such as syncing across iCloud devices, location
       | recording, STD/STI tests, and most importantly, stats!
        
         | xvector wrote:
         | Wait, people have enough sex with enough different people to
         | make this worthwhile? Damn, I'm missing out.
        
         | ronyfadel wrote:
         | I thought it was cute, then saw the number of reviews which
         | blew my mind! Is monthly revenue as low (<$5k) as SensorTower
         | suggests?
        
           | nice_scott wrote:
           | On average it brings in about 3k monthly, and then it always
           | doubles for the month of January. I suspect people set new
           | years goals/resolutions to have more sex.
        
         | ghostbrainalpha wrote:
         | The real question.... are you having more sex since it was
         | released?
        
           | nice_scott wrote:
           | funny enough, yeah! My wife loves trying to keep up a high
           | score and keep the 'longest streak' stat going.
        
       | data4lyfe wrote:
       | Originally a side project two years ago, now I'm full time on it:
       | https://www.interviewquery.com/
       | 
       | We help data scientists land jobs by being the Leetcode for data
       | science.
        
       | traverseda wrote:
       | I just sell this calendar puzzle online:
       | https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1012906584/wooden-calendar-p...
        
       | hansy wrote:
       | Web comic newsletter: https://funnies.page
       | 
       | Full disclosure - $500+/month in revenue, but not profit. The
       | majority (95%) goes to the creators I work with.
        
         | andkon wrote:
         | Oh man, you gotta charge more! This is insanely cheap. The
         | average substack charges $5 a month, and you usually get an
         | email a week at best.
        
           | hansy wrote:
           | Ha I appreciate the thought, but it's hard to compare novel
           | writing from thought leaders to funny images. I wish I could
           | charge more, but I don't think the value is quite there yet.
           | Maybe if I was strict about exclusive content (which I don't
           | want to be; I like giving artists flexibility on where/how
           | they distribute their work), I could get away with charging
           | higher as well.
        
         | agentdrtran wrote:
         | Wow, you only take about 2%? (assuming 3% for processing?)
        
           | hansy wrote:
           | Yup that's about right. I don't mind though; I view this
           | project as a labor of love.
        
       | tr3ntg wrote:
       | I'm building a journaling app for couples (iOS):
       | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/twig-journal-for-couples/id145...
       | 
       | I originally made it for my long distance girlfriend (now wife)
       | and myself. It averages $450 - $550 monthly.
        
       | matthall28 wrote:
       | A tiny API for embedding weather forecasts as an image:
       | https://weatherembed.com/
       | 
       | Makes around $500/month from various subscriptions through
       | RapidAPI. Built on a whim during the pandemic. Uses Google Cloud
       | Run + NodeJS.
        
         | xd1936 wrote:
         | Excellent idea!
        
       | nonrecursive wrote:
       | https://jobs.braveclojure.com/ - a Clojure job board! Usually #1
       | search result for "clojure jobs"
        
       | XCSme wrote:
       | I make between $500 and $2000 per month with UXWizz[0], a self-
       | hosted analytics platform that I have been working on for around
       | 9 years.
       | 
       | Hopefully I can grow it more this year as all the Google
       | Analytics related news should make more people consider self-
       | hosting their analytics. I stopped providing any cloud-hosted
       | version and focus purely on self-hosting.
       | 
       | [0]: https://www.uxwizz.com
        
       | yakshaving_jgt wrote:
       | I run a B2B lead generation SaaS for the UK market.
       | 
       | It provides up-to-date data from Companies House, but also allows
       | you to sort and filter businesses by:
       | 
       | - where they are located
       | 
       | - when they registered
       | 
       | - what SIC (standard industrial classification) code they use
       | 
       | - their operational status
       | 
       | - their accounts category
       | 
       | Businesses typically use this to find new businesses to try and
       | market/sell their services to.
       | 
       | It's written in Haskell and Elm, and it's been running for about
       | five years now. Several businesses have been happily paying to
       | use the service every month.
       | 
       | https://newbusinessmonitor.co.uk/
       | 
       | If you'd like to sell your services to UK businesses then do
       | write to me; I'd love to hear from you :)
        
         | Nilef wrote:
         | That's really interesting - Do you do all the letter-sending
         | yourself or outsource that?
        
           | yakshaving_jgt wrote:
           | Thank you, I'm glad you think so!
           | 
           | I don't handle the fulfilment myself. I wrote a software
           | integration that connects NewBusinessMonitor with a direct
           | mail company in the UK. They have special machines that can
           | print, envelope, and send all the letters automatically, at
           | large scale. The letters are printed in colour (on rather
           | nice quality paper), trimmed by guillotine (for full-bleed
           | printing), folded in half and inserted into a windowed
           | envelope, before being dispatched 2nd class, usually the
           | following business day.
           | 
           | I typically don't need to manually intervene in any part of
           | the process; I just try and do hand-holding with people when
           | I onboard them, because I think good business is about
           | building relationships with people, and many (most?) of my
           | users specialise in areas outside of computing.
        
             | Nilef wrote:
             | Very handy! I had visions of you sitting licking envelopes
             | shut every night lol
             | 
             | Are you making $500/month, or I'm guessing a little more
             | than that?
        
         | akudha wrote:
         | I wonder if it is possible to do this in other countries? I am
         | not aware of any API or data downloads for the U.S that is
         | available on a daily basis.
        
         | usgroup wrote:
         | You know it's illegal to use CH data for direct marketing
         | right?
        
           | yakshaving_jgt wrote:
           | To the best of my understanding, that is not true. It is
           | illegal to directly market to consumers without their prior
           | consent. It is not illegal to market to businesses, though it
           | _is_ illegal to send marketing communication that is
           | misleading, and it is not permitted to send direct mail to
           | businesses who have indicated they wish to not receive
           | marketing communication through the Mail Preference Service.
           | 
           | Do you have a source to support your perspective?
        
       | askhn000 wrote:
       | I sell repackaged open source software on AWS Marketplace and
       | Azure Marketplace and offer support as part of the monthly
       | software cost.
       | 
       | It's the same software but the Azure offer sells a lot better.
       | Monthly income is about $1000 from both.
       | 
       | Very few support requests come in, so it feels like mostly
       | passive income. All I have to do is answer the occasional ticket
       | and keep the images up to date.
        
         | cooldrcool3 wrote:
         | Thats awesome! Do you just rebrand the opensource software?
        
       | mjaques wrote:
       | A friend and I made a repository for high-quality, affordable
       | language learning flashcards around a year ago.
       | 
       | https://deckmill.com
       | 
       | Made using a mix of ML (translation and TTS) and human
       | translators.
        
         | hobo_mark wrote:
         | Cool, but I can't seem to find the pricing anywhere? Edit:
         | there it is, I must have gone blind.
        
           | Ostrogodsky wrote:
           | Get access to all our decks for just EUR14.99. All our
           | content for one low price - buy it and it's yours forever.
           | Forget trivial badges, locked levels and guilt-tripping owls,
           | and say hello to actual language skills.
        
       | yboris wrote:
       | I created _Video Hub App_ - browse, search, and organize your
       | videos -  "like YouTube for videos on your computer".
       | 
       | It's a commercial project / _charityware_ that is turning 4 years
       | old next month. I sell it for $5 per copy and give $3.50 to a
       | _cost-effective_ charity. If you go to the blog you 'll see the
       | history of sales. As of now I donated almost $13,000 to charity
       | thanks to this project. It's averaging around 100 sales per month
       | for over a year now.
       | 
       | https://videohubapp.com/en/
       | 
       | Also open source MIT: https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App
        
         | charles_f wrote:
         | Selling perpetual licenses for software that runs on your
         | machine?! How quaint!
        
         | disqard wrote:
         | I recently purchased VHA -- thank you so much for making this!
        
         | Ruthalas wrote:
         | Offering perpetual licenses is a huge plus in my book, and
         | often drives my purchasing decision. Thank you.
        
       | pranjal_soni wrote:
       | This is literally gold
        
       | msadowski wrote:
       | I run a robotics newsletter: https://weeklyrobotics.com/
        
         | blutack wrote:
         | Which is a good read if anyone is interested in
         | robotics/ros/drone stuff
        
           | msadowski wrote:
           | It depends what you are interested in. My latest find from
           | this week is the Introduction to Autonomous Robots open
           | source book: https://github.com/Introduction-to-Autonomous-
           | Robots/Introdu....
           | 
           | If you were looking for news then sUASnews is great for some
           | catching up on drones. For robotics I often find articles on
           | IEEE Spectrum and The Robot Report interesting.
        
             | blutack wrote:
             | Sorry I meant I'm a subscriber and it's a great newsletter!
        
         | lormayna wrote:
         | How do you promote a newsletter to become profitable? I have a
         | newsletter, but it's not getting traction.
        
           | msadowski wrote:
           | I've been rubbing it for over 3 years now and I'm approaching
           | 3k e-mail subscribers. I feature it quite a lot on LinkedIn
           | and Twitter and sometimes I would share some issues on
           | /r/robotics or HN.
           | 
           | So far the best way I've found for growing subscribers is
           | trading shoutouts with other newsletters but I didn't
           | experiment much with paid ads.
        
       | anon1094 wrote:
       | My side business, Freelancer's Handbook, currently does about
       | $10,700 ARR.
       | 
       | I've documented many of the stats here:
       | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QrN9ya-t7Vr42T-wL9q1-HX6...
       | 
       | It's a blog, community, and newsletter focused on useful and
       | practical content for remote freelancers.
       | 
       | I'm looking to pass over the mantle to someone passionate about
       | the freelance space and have been passively searching for a
       | buyer. Contact information in the Google Doc above.
        
       | jdlshore wrote:
       | My JavaScript screencast, letscodejavascript.com, made over $10K
       | net profit per month at its peak. It costs $25/month for
       | unlimited access to over 600 videos.
       | 
       | I stopped producing videos in April 2018, but the site is still
       | up, and still gets occasional new subscribers. (There's been an
       | influx lately, in fact, and I have no idea why. Maybe because I
       | have a new book out.) It's still netting more than $500/month,
       | although not by a lot. But it requires nearly zero effort from
       | me, so I'm happy with it.
       | 
       |  _Edit:_ To clarify, it wasn 't a side project when I was
       | producing the videos. But now it's passive income.
        
         | dqv wrote:
         | Do people ask for support? What I mean is like "x package isn't
         | working" or "I'm having trouble setting this up on my machine",
         | do you help them troubleshoot? Or is it just the videos.
        
       | daneeveritt wrote:
       | I've been making a pretty consistent amount off my open-source
       | side-project Pterodactyl through company sponsorships.
       | 
       | https://pterodactyl.io
        
         | rooster212 wrote:
         | I recently got Pterodactyl setup on my home server and I just
         | wanted to say that it's an incredible project and it works
         | great. I run various game servers on a whim and it's been easy
         | to spin them up. Many thanks for your hard work.
        
       | puregram wrote:
       | This feeling when only I make zero profit projects without
       | success :-)
        
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