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

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

#231

Post by jackschultz »

Might as well throw in Product Mentions (http://www.productmentions.com). Scraping reddit to figure out which Amazon links are mentioned, and displaying them on the site. I was going to add affiliate links, but didn't seem really correct. Still have the possibility of companies getting in contact about looking for mentions of their brands to make sure users aren't complaining. Obviously I'm sure there are other companies who do this, but always could be an option that I already have the code for.

And also planning on throwing in HN Amazon link mentions using the API. Even if making no money, always fun to see what people are talking about on sites like Reddit.

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

#232

Post by samuell »

I made a udemy-course called "Drastically improve your speed on the Linux commandline" [1].

It has generated enough to cover the a bunch of domain names, but not much more, and I have many times questioned whether it was worth burning 3 weeks of more-than-full time work one summer vacation I was otherwise supposed to spend with wife and kids.

In a way I'm happy I tried, but I have also learned that making any substantial money requires tons of work.

I guess the topic is kind of narrow, with a quite small audience consisting of (I assume) mostly productivity/ergonomics-geeks ... out of which not everyone scouts around for courses at Udemy.

I was planning to add a few more courses around it and give some discounts for taking course packages etc, but never really found another uninterrupted bunch of weeks like that summer when this course was created.

Ideas and feedback always welcome.

[1] https://www.udemy.com/command-line-productivity/

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

#233

Post by arcatek »

darksh1re wrote: post #101
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?

Yup! Languages and frameworks: Angular (1.2.X) for the client-side code, Node with a custom framework for the server-side code, and C/C++ for the emulators (then compiled to asm.js).

The initial emulators were handmade in Javascript, but the asm.js-compiled ones ended up much faster in practice.

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

#234

Post by etewiah »

Been working on this for about a year now.

http://propertywebbuilder.com/

Everyone says open sourcing it was a mistake but I really don't enjoy marketing. I tried selling it as a closed source SAAS product but hated that. Right now its gaining traction so I'm hoping in a year or so it will be well know enough that I can charge for a premium version.

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

#235

Post by westoncb »

djstein wrote: post #212
westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

While I watched the videos I could not help but be impressed, it looks really great. Just letting you know!

Thanks! Much appreciated.

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

#236

Post by albertgoeswoof »

westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

Get it in front of users now. You're probably wasting your time on a tonne of things that aren't relevant.

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

#237

Post by roryisok »

danielsg wrote: post #226
squiggy22 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of http://nanowrimo.org Find out where these people hang out including hashtags etc. Huge community of starter writers.

I've been trying a similar approach. I developed an Electron app called First Novel App which is supposed to help writers silence their inner editors. It's available free to download at http://www.firstnovelapp.com which redirects to a Gumroad store.

That's a really interesting concept - the snippets idea reminds me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. No chapters in that book, only paragraphs

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

#238

Post by westoncb »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #236
westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

Get it in front of users now. You're probably wasting your time on a tonne of things that aren't relevant.

Haha yeah... You're probably right, but I feel like it's still not quite actually usable, and just around the corner it will be. Maybe that's just how the trap feels though ;)

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

#240

Post by roryisok »

logfromblammo wrote: post #155

I wrote, edited, and published-as-EPUB an entire fiction novel. It made about $22, before taxes. I then decided not to bother publishing it in print, due to obvious lack of demand. It didn't really cost me anything but my leisure time, though. I'm still working on a second one (but I don't feel quite so motivated to finish it in a timely fashion). If I cared at all about making money off of it, I'd have to hire someo…

The majority successful authors don't get their first book published, or their second, or sell any copies of their third.

This is normal, please don't give up!

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