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Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

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191–200 of 257 posts

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#191

I started a (strictly e-book) publishing company. We publish public domain titles on Amazon, and Apple's iBookstore. GooglePlay has gone by the wayside just like all of their "cool projects." We don't just copy-pasta public domain titles. We actually go through it, and create a really nice table of contents, include flourishing images to chapter headings, link any footnotes, and re-typeset so there's pleasant vertica…

How do you get sales? Do you have any customer analytics on cross-selling through amazon's recommendation engine or anything?

Amazon doesn't give you access any kind of information about your customers. I just see raw sales figures for each e-book. Apple is the same way. The reason for this is they benefit the most by keeping you and your customers separated, so you can't wiggle your way in between them and "cut out the middle man."

So for us, we don't really have any kind of marketing plan other than trying just trying to make a great reading experience.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#192

I am but I don't know how long it will continue! My side project is: "How to Make an RPG" ( http://howtomakeanrpg.com/ ) which I released in June. It's a collection of code samples, art and digital book that shows the reader how to make an old-school, Japanese-style RPG. So, it's super niche! I wrote a little about my process here: https://medium.com/@DanSchuller/my-first-side-project-part-1... There was supposed to…

I wonder if there's enough interest to run a webinar on the topic? Or offer a higher tier that gives access to one-on-one with you if they get stuck during the course?

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#196

I've been working on a side project for the last 3 months and it has finally gotten to the point where I am making more than $1000/month with more than 25 active customers 100% through word of mouth. I am working on a Show HN with some of my learning from the process so I won't get too deep into it here but here are a couple of highlights: * You do have time. I work a time consuming job, have a wife and kids, and sti…

Got any tips on recognising a bad idea early?

Actually, yes! Again, your milage may vary but I have had a few things that have been an indicator of a bad idea. Some of this has to do with process as well.

First off, if no one wants to talk to you about your idea at all, then it's probably a bad idea. I know this one is fairly obvious but I missed it a number of times. It's important to make sure you always are trying to get customers or users. If you can't get anyone at all then you're basically not making something anyone cares about. Psychologically you may say to yourself "if I only add another feature people will listen". Life is short. They probably won't. Try another idea.

Second, if people will talk to you but won't buy your product until you add a new feature, and everyone has a different new feature, you have a product no one wants. I have tried so many times to just add the next feature that will make everything sell. It has never worked for me. I should have just stopped and found a new idea.

Third, you have a product that you don't want to sell. I know, this one sounds silly but I have had amazing product ideas but I couldn't drive myself to want to talk about it with anyone. Maybe I made myself feel better by making a landing page and crying about no one buying it every though "I was doing everything I could". But, it wasn't everything I could do. This one is a funny one because I might have been able to sell the product, I just couldn't bring myself to get up and do it. If that's the case, you have the wrong product idea FOR YOU. Stop, think of another idea, and move on.

Those are my biggest three categories right now. It all comes down to selling the product. If you can't sell it, then it's not something to work on. With my current product I love talking to customers and potential customers. I am excited and the sales line up with that excitement. They are excited to use the product. They enjoy the product and while there have been feature requests they are either a) after the sale is complete and I have money in my pocket or b) the same requests from every customer so I can tell it's a market need and not just a customer want.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#198
post #104

Here in Mexico, you get an XML for your invoices, which you must keep in order to be tax deductable. However, it gets messy very quickly, as it must have your Tax ID, it has to exist in the tax office's database and then you must keep it for 5 year. It is a chore. I run http://www.boxfactura.com , an email service for your digital invoices. It has been quite a journey because everyone I speak to has some kind of trou…

Felicitaciones, un muy buen sitio.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#199
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any plans for a linux release? Or a windows?

Well, I don't think Linux would be my target market. I feel like Linux users are tech savvy enough to use open source scripts like Gmvault etc. I must think about Windows however.

Gotcha. But I must say that not all are savvy enough, a lot of new people are coming to linux fleeing windows. They will need different solutions on linux soon, though there are bigger problems on linux than not having a mail archive browser.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#200

https://standupjack.com is a side project I started earlier this year on my own. It's making more than $1k/mo now :-)

I really like the prominent screenshots, makes it easy to understand how the bot works.

How did you promote your bot? Just through the Slack store?

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