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?

#401

Post by joshuaheard » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 1:36 PM UTC

shahbaby wrote: post #40

To own a firearm in Canada you have to pass a certain test. I made a simple quiz app ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca2.testprojec... ) that would help people prepare for that test. My main goal was to learn how to make apps. It did generate revenue in the beginning but it was enough to buy coffee a few times a week. Then the government updated the firearm regulations and now everyone has to take a m…

Expand the app so it complies with the mandatory course requirements. Now you are selling the mandatory course as an app.

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

#402

Post by dejawu » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 1:52 PM UTC

dotmanish wrote: post #398

dejawu wrote: post #332

I got fed up with Evernote Web and built my own: https://nanote.co It used to have a payment form but I felt like it wasn't polished enough, so now it just says to email me for a (free) account. I still use it every day for my own notes, so I suppose it was a success in that regard. I've also got a few friends on it too.

I liked the page and the clear explanation. Does it need to be an Evernote replacement, or can this be a Chrome extension / etc that eventually stores in your Evernote account itself? I did read the text at the bottom of the website, but one thing to do note is that people trust the 'Evernote' brand for their data storage. You can offer this on top of Evernote/Onenote as a separate extension/layer.

Ooh, I'd never thought of that. I suppose it's possible, but then I'd be at the mercy of the Evernote platform. Would their device limit affect me?

That's a really interesting idea though. Maybe I could make it cloud backend agnostic..

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

#403

Post by ux-app » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 1:53 PM UTC

neoterics wrote: post #350

throwaway2016a wrote: post #9

Not answering the question directly but one issue is that as a developer you can often make a product for almost free (and it might even be a really good product) but marketing is almost never free. Sure you can market with sweat equity. Forums, Show HN, Product Hunt, etc but to get real money you often have to advertise. And advertising is not cheap. I do actually have a product in this category but I don't want to…

I wish there was a better way to connect entrepreneurs of varying skills together. I am in a similar boat as you, but on the other end. I am a marketer and at times I have ideas (for websites or apps) that I would like to get built, but since I have to pay for that and since not all ideas are going to be winners it can become an expensive proposition. Although threads like this can be valuable since I can reach out t…

> reach out to them to see if there is any scope to work together

Hey, you don't have any contact info in your profile, but if you'd like to get in touch I'd be keen to have a chat, my email is eli@ux-app.com

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

#404

Post by nickcw » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 1:53 PM UTC

mailinatorguy wrote: post #211

http://clickrouter.com I built it because of a need and it's worked fabulously. It's hands down doubled my monthly affiliate revenue (i.e. to be clear, that's in the 4 figures). I think where it failed however is that it's really hard to explain and I sure haven't cracked it. I get a few signups a day, few use it at all. It's not for everyone - but it definitely works for me and it would work for anyone in the same b…

BTW http://clickrouter.com redirects to https://clickrouter.com. And this has a warning from chrome "This page is trying to load scripts from unauthenticated sources".

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

#405

Post by electriclove » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 2:06 PM UTC

garraeth wrote: post #63

I built itrackmine.com ( http://mashable.com/2008/12/26/itrackmine/ ). And its killer recommendation engine (books, movies, and music) -- we knew what you owned from all stores, not just what you //bought// at Amazon (or single store) so ours were extremely accurate. Along with a "user A is this similar to user B" system...and the whole tracking, sharing, mobile app, barcode-scan, manage-your-stuff-package. Made $10…

I'm very passionate about the collection management aspect but haven't found one that does it right... Tech has changed quite a bit and graph databases (which IMO are key to this) are much more accessible now.

I agree with your assessment of the potential and hope to work on this idea. If you are interested in focusing on the collector, let me know.

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

#406

Post by supermdguy » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 2:45 PM UTC

I made passagemaster.com, an online app for memorizing anything. It used a review system that focused on not only memorizing things, but not forgetting them. I mostly made it to learn about web development, but half hoped I'd get at least a few users. The only marketing I did was emailing a blog to ask them to add a link, which failed. It's been up for about 6 months now, and I currently have 0 regular users. I only spent about $40 on it, so it wasn't that much of a loss. I ended up using it when job searching, and I now have a full time web development job, so it was definitely worth it.

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

#407

Post by lpa22 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 2:59 PM UTC

seltzered_ wrote: post #121

Thimble for Mac ( https://thimblemac.com ) It's a plugin to bring gesture-shortcuts to graphic design tools (Sketch, Photoshop, etc.). I've worked on it in bursts of my spare time for a few years, and took a break from development the past several months. At some point I started calling it more of a 'passion project' because I just really wanted to see other forms of UI in the world outside of the sandboxes of gaming…

This looks awesome. Have you done any head-to-head speed tests of trying to complete identical sets of tasks with Thimble vs. traditional mouse and keyboard?

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

#408

Post by taway_1212 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 3:03 PM UTC

I built an online poker bot that was making around $500-$1000 per account. Maintenance was a bitch though (poker sites have a lot of bugs and my bot had to work around a lot of them) so I abandoned it and got a job instead.

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

#409

Post by Someone » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 3:04 PM UTC

codazoda wrote: post #152

scottLobster wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I can see fauxbuy losing customers. I'm not going put a "buy" button on a product page that doesn't actually allow people to buy said product... what would I tell them? "Smile you're on candid webpage"? "Thanks for your interest, we look forward to giving you this product in several months!"? If the product is ready to ship, then ship/market it and see how it does. If it's not ready to ship, then do what researc…

Yeah, I understand the anger part. The thing is, I've read this in at least a couple of books. I think Tim Ferris suggested it in The 4-Hour Work Week and I also think it's mentioned in The Lean Startup. Oh well; I like building stuff.

It doesn't require much to change that; just make it clear that people don't buy a product, but buy into a dream instead, and require your customers to inform would-be customers that they buy into a dream.

With such a change, sites like Kickstarter.com have people happily _pay_ to press that fake buy button.

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

#410

Post by oh_teh_meows » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 3:06 PM UTC

mandatory wrote: post #246

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…

I'm in love with this, I have nothing constructive to add but you should be really proud of this work. Reminded me of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pTEmbeENF4 Think you're on to something that this talk points out very well.

That video reminds me of a comic I sketched out years ago. It's about this rag tag armed group of hackers who specialize in intelligence espionage in the near future. There's a payload specialist, security specialist, data structure specialist, etc. Much of the drama unfolds in VR space where the hackers can be seen frantically querying/manipulating data structures directly by hand whilst evading detection. It's supposed to be educational as well, explaining CS topics through stories. Think the movie hackers plus GitS, but with attention to accurate portrayal of CS knowledge. It's basically my vision of what the future could be like.