Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#101

Post by darksh1re » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:40 PM UTC

arcatek wrote: post #25

I built http://start9.io three years ago - the idea was to somehow manage to show video game publishers that a 'professional' vintage gaming platform was something that could attract users. I wanted it to be the Netflix of the retrogaming. Unfortunately, I never managed to find cofounders that were as much motivated as I was - each one I worked with was working on it as a hobby more than anything else, and I usually…

This idea is awesome. What language(s) did you use? And it saves your games and can be played from anywhere with an internet connection?

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#102

Post by dizzystar » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:40 PM UTC

I built a large inventory, product management, CRM, channels management etc etc system. The idea is to integrate all the non-talking and buggy systems needed to run a small e-commerce business (most small e-commerce companies are using money-losing systems and "fixing" the issues with Macro-enabled Excel books). It was also open-source because there is zero way I'd ever take the whole market alone.

The idea, I think, is sound. I worked on the system for over a year, and there are many interesting ideas. The big problem is that it took way more resources to launch than I could ever do alone. I would need sales, support, sysadmin, developers, designers, etc. Everyone calls it my billion-dollar idea, but I truly couldn't and can't do it alone.

The lesson learned is, think big, but not so big you can't handle the work-load. If you are working every day and falling behind two days, the side project is far too large.

https://github.com/dt1/itemhut

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#103

Post by dejv » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:42 PM UTC

I've build complex app for managing vineyards and wineries. It has tons of features: time tracking, input tracking, harvest and production features, mapping, tons of budget/cost analysis.

It turned out, it is hard to convince farmers to ditch their trusty excel sheets and notepads and start typing all those info into computer program. I managed to find few customers, but they haven't stick for longer than one year.

I spent about one year of fulltime work (spread over two years). I always tried to expand the product: I started with vineyard management software, then add the production part and then started coding all the CRM, POS and warehouse management. I hoped to attract more users with more complex solution, but I was wrong.

After three years I am still using it daily (I do own winery), but I am only active user right now and I did give up trying to sell it. I do some occasional development, from time to time when I need something in my farm, but thats it.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#104

Post by ineptech » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

shallot_router wrote: post #96

ineptech wrote: post #89

I made Word Nazi, which is essentially just a dirty version of Taboo (in the same way that Cards Against Humanity is a dirty version of Apples to Apples) in app form. Lessons learned: * I should've paid someone to do some decent graphics, turns out "minimalist aesthetic" is not the same as "no effort put in to design" * Making it a free demo, with the full game available as an in-app-purchase, sounds like a good deal…

That's an awesome website. Some highlights: >Here is a small sampling of our Services offerings: >GUID duplication >Lamp stacking >Despondency injection >We're hiring! If you're a best-in-breed, 10x, full-stack rock star, we want to talk to you about joining our "posse". Here's what we're looking for: >Senior Java Developer - Develop 15-20 Senior Javas per day Maybe you should try to monetize fake companies instead.…

Thank you! I had a ton of fun with that, so there are a lot of cute details to find. (For example, check out where the social media "share" buttons on the blog posts go)

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#105

Post by BleachNut » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:45 PM UTC

arcatek wrote: post #25

I built http://start9.io three years ago - the idea was to somehow manage to show video game publishers that a 'professional' vintage gaming platform was something that could attract users. I wanted it to be the Netflix of the retrogaming. Unfortunately, I never managed to find cofounders that were as much motivated as I was - each one I worked with was working on it as a hobby more than anything else, and I usually…

This is beautiful. What exactly is preventing you from monetizing through ads? Also, did you post the site on r/gaming and /v/?

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#106

Post by ghettosoak » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:48 PM UTC

http://lickth.is/new

I built the first version of LICK in 2015 because I was frustrated with the (then) state of distributed note taking. And because I wanted Sublime Text-like editing capabilities. I... didn't really have a business plan, but I guess I had hoped to retrofit features into later versions. Being a (not) starving bootstrapping developer filled a fun space in my life, but then life got in the way.

I made the 'new' version to prove a point last year, but it's riddled with bugs and flaws. I still use it religiously to plan my smaller projects, and my shopping. If I had to do it all again, I would have shipped sooner. Duh. Maybe someday, it'll dethrone the mighty Evernote – but until then, it's my glass castle... :)

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#107

Post by tomschlick » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:49 PM UTC

https://zonewatcher.com After having multiple clients change their DNS settings without warning and then email us when shit hits the fan I knew I needed some type of warning system. This checks every X minutes and saves each version so you can see the revision history for all your DNS zones across many providers.

I make ~$50 a month right now with it, which is enough to cover the hosting. I haven't really marketed it much beyond my twitter circle of friends but hopefully others will find it useful.

It took about 3 weekends worth of work to complete and is based on Laravel Spark.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#108

Post by hellbanner » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

chrisdbaldwin wrote: post #84

hellbanner wrote: post #68

Arcade game developer here. I loved the game concept of ABA's "Defeat Me": http://wonderfl.net/c/9ykQ . SHMUP where each enemy is a copy of you. Round 3 you fight a clone of Round 1, Round 2, mirrored. but I disagreed with several major design decisions: 1) Rounds were too difficult (a deadline came in very fast, the bullets were nearly the size of the ship) 2) Player movement & weapons changed rapidly (speed & numbe…

Have you tried reaching out to physical arcades? It requires a physical cabinet, but most arcades in the US that I've been to are very receptive to indie arcade titles.

I've looked at it a bit! Got interest from 1 local arcade.

Cabinets are expensive to build + take effort to maintain (replacing parts) so it would have to be calculated.

I've done a little bit of prototyping in "play games on a shared screen with your cellphone" that I think might be more conducive to the barcade scene. Something I might look into further; right now my next focus is on a GPS-based ChooseYourOwnAdventure + some tools for indie developers.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#109

Post by ikeboy » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

I spent a grand or two building Icanpriceit.com, but never launched/promoted it.

If I did it again, I would set aside a lot of time promoting it and focusing on it. Eventually it just took away from my main business and even though I love the idea I stopped thinking about it. Maybe I'll go back one day.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#110

Post by stevekemp » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

ianleeclark wrote: post #4

I have a project which may never generate revenue, despite the fact I spent 2 months after hours working on it. I did a dumb thing and dove directly into the project without first finding a fit or customer base for it. More or less, it's a scheduling application that allows a user to set when they're open and allow anyone to book that time for however much the original scheduler valued that slot of their schedule. It…

Due to a bizarre series of accidents one of my hobbies is taking picture of escorts, for their websites. (Getting paid as a photographer is hard, and they're a consistent and reliable group of people who are willing & able to do so.)

If you're not averse to the niche scheduling appointments for such people could be an interesting thing to work on. That could cover both men/women working "at home", and those who are going on tours to various cities (something that is pretty common).

Depending on where you're based this might be an immediate non-starter, but I've talked to a lot of people who hate the established publishing platforms, and scheduling is a recurring source of pain I hear about.