For 30 years it was playing music. Doesn't pay well - it was basically my food budget. I kept at it for 9 years anyway after I retired as a programmer. Some of the gigs were fun, and most of my friends are musicians.
Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
461–470 of 744 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is my favorite side project that I've ever heard of. It's so cool how you stumbled into it and there's a lot of scope for other products too!
I know a guy who runs a multi-million dollar business making replacement parts for a particular type of business machine that you find in a lot of places. There are only a few OEMs and they all stopped making a similar (critical) component for their older models. He was originally in the business of repairing these machines and then discovered he could no longer buy these parts from the OEMs so he learned CAD and CNC…
I used to know tool and die makers that did that back in the day. Sadly, a lot of manufacturing was sent off to China. I assume there are Chinese people doing similar things.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#463I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians: https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/ I'm an avid saxophone player and am taking evening classes in theory, so I made this to solve a problem that I myself had. Nothing else like it on the market! Every part of this notebook is automatically generated with a bunch of python scripts: the cover design, the interior, the line placement, the margins. The program basica…
This sounds awesome! I've been looking around at printing specialized notebooks (for various worldbuilding tasks) lately. Do you use local print shops and/or have any you'd particularly recommend?
I feel like the hardest part to get into would be finding a way to keep costs and shipping times down without maintaining a large floating inventory. Have you found that is a problem at all?
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
> metals (I have silver wedding rings I got printed there) was it to save money? or for some unique design?
The goal was the unique design, but they were cheap too for wedding rings. I recorded each of us saying something to the other, then took the waveforms and made a ring from each one. Printing came to about £40 for each ring. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMECi57zKtD6arv_-sL83gp...
That's really cool, is there any way to scan it from your phone and hear it?
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#465I run a popular weekly newsletter that makes fun of the tech industry. Think: The Onion meets TechCrunch. Newsletters can generally charge a much higher CPM than a social media accounts or even podcasts in some cases. You can start making beer money with only a few thousand subscribers. We’re also thinking of hosting a few live events as well once our audience is large enough. (P.S. for the curious, the newsletter is…
I love your newsletter
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#466Nothing, my day job is already enough. Rather spend time with family and friends. However, if I was forced to change job for whatever reason, probably something related with cooking.
+1 Who needs a side project when the day job is enough and there are loved one with whom we have limited time. Live is short. Take time to enjoy it.
A side project might end up meaning you don’t need a job.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#467Launched in 2016 for free. Started making money in 2018 with $3,000+ MMR. Referral only (side) business. I work full-time as an engineer/principal in growth. I conduct a form of ethnography, embedding myself in the lives of consumers the way Margaret Mead did among Samoans. I interviews my subjects and the people around them, itemizing the contents of their home (photographing and videotaping), and accompany them as…
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm interested in your service. How should I contact you to discuss details? Thanks.
Right now it is referral only but you can start here [0]. I'll reach out to you for a preliminary hearing/meeting.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#468Probably going to be downvoted, but I do adult webcam stuff, mostly with private already established regular clients. My net profit can be as high as $1200 per week, $800 on the low side, for a few hours of “work”. I generally use it as a fall-back income when I’m in-between tech jobs but I do it if I’m employed or not to keep my paying client list fresh for when I need it. I could make a lot more, I have a “cam friend” who makes $5k/week regular but he does it full time and markets himself and such. I put the minimal amount of time & effort into it.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know a guy who runs a multi-million dollar business making replacement parts for a particular type of business machine that you find in a lot of places. There are only a few OEMs and they all stopped making a similar (critical) component for their older models. He was originally in the business of repairing these machines and then discovered he could no longer buy these parts from the OEMs so he learned CAD and CNC…
I used to know tool and die makers that did that back in the day. Sadly, a lot of manufacturing was sent off to China. I assume there are Chinese people doing similar things.
I'm willing to bet the quality of a lot of these is shite, though. Plus people in the US would most likely want to buy from a seller in the US (faster shipping + implied better quality).
There is a solution to so many problems here (creating usually unavailable parts for machines/devices/products) but the problem is knowing which parts are in demand and currently have no supplier.
A maker would need to have an interest or hobby in such a device & discover a need for the item for it to come into fruition. But just think of how many general 3D printed parts could be printed as solutions for so many products out there that are going unmade.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#470I established DamnInteresting.com in 2005, a place where myself and handful of others produce original long-form non-fiction in article and podcast form. Despite plenty of traffic, it didn't reach the break-even point for several years, because I despise advertisements and I refused to add them to my site. I funded the project in other ways, such as donations, publishing a book, licensing content, etc. Nowadays it st…
Hah I just wound up on that site a few days ago randomly. Used to be on it more. Thanks for the contribution to the world!