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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#491

Post by kingcharles »

buf wrote: post #322
DantesKite wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On your website you say you were pardoned out of a felony conviction. What was it for?

Assault w/Deadly Weapon - took 15 years to get it pardoned and expunged. The hardest battle I've fought in my life. It makes startups look easy. I'll write more about it one day, but I don't want to screw it up.

Cool to see another jailbird here turning things around. I just did 8 inside. How long were you locked up for?

p.s. I would love to fix the audio on your intro video - the hum and echo is killing me. I used to be married to a voice actor and I set up her studio and recording pipeline. [Audacity and Audition both have a quick filter to remove background noise]

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#492

Post by rozenmd »

grwthckrmstr wrote: post #468
rozenmd wrote: post #156

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm up to $300/mo iteratively building an uptime checker: https://onlineornot.com/ I started with literally just a Lambda function that checks if static websites were still online, added an email alert if it's offline, wrapped authentication around it, integrated Stripe, and shipped it. Eventually, I added Slack/Discord/SMS alerts, team invites, support for checking APIs for both uptime a…

Love your focus and commitment, especially the 2 hours a day every weekday for nine months streak. I'm going to try building a similar discipline with my side projects. Not much would get done in 1 day obviously, but the amount of things that can get done over a longer timeframe like 6-12 months is huge! Thank you and wish you the best!

Cheers!

Especially worth noting how things can snowball after several months of consistent shipping.

You're not just starting from scratch every two hours, you've already got work to build on top of, to keep you growing.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#493

Post by rozenmd »

halpert wrote: post #483
rozenmd wrote: post #156

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm up to $300/mo iteratively building an uptime checker: https://onlineornot.com/ I started with literally just a Lambda function that checks if static websites were still online, added an email alert if it's offline, wrapped authentication around it, integrated Stripe, and shipped it. Eventually, I added Slack/Discord/SMS alerts, team invites, support for checking APIs for both uptime a…

How did you acquire your customers?

Scrappily - any way I can, whether that's content marketing (my preferred means), commenting on forums, twitter, facebook, broadcasting my domain URL via my phone's hotspot, merch/stickers, etc.

I'd recommend the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg for ideas.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#494

Post by kingcharles »

santa_boy wrote: post #456
montenegrohugo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Yeah, I did NOT expect HN's traffic. It's overloading the domain checking API and making it fail

which is the domain checking API you use? looking for a cheap but reliable domain checking api :)

I think GoDaddy's one is used by a lot of sites?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#495

Post by kingcharles »

montenegrohugo wrote: post #87

I start tons of projects, and it's always a bother naming them. I didn't find existing domain generators at all useful, and since my background is in AI, I made my own. → https://www.namy.ai It currently has a modest but pretty consistent 200-300 users daily, almost all of it direct traffic (my SEO skills are very lacking). I'm assuming people recommend it to their friends, and that's where the traffic is coming from…

This is great! I tried "chicken burgers for aliens"* and it came up with some fantastic options.

* not currently a real business plan

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#496

Post by rozenmd »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #367
rozenmd wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see any competitors in the space solving the problem the way I would solve it (good UX + a focus on developer-experience), I wanted an uptime monitor that didn't piss me off with my own freelance clients, and I figured if there was room for a 200th competitor, chances are there would be room for a 201st.

Nice. I am also interested in the consulting -> discover problem -> saas route. I reckon your customers really are buying for their existing trust in you.

Highly likely.

I've also spent a year or two consistently writing about React and building an audience, and the service can monitor React apps too.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#497

Post by rozenmd »

starik36 wrote: post #411
rozenmd wrote: post #156

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm up to $300/mo iteratively building an uptime checker: https://onlineornot.com/ I started with literally just a Lambda function that checks if static websites were still online, added an email alert if it's offline, wrapped authentication around it, integrated Stripe, and shipped it. Eventually, I added Slack/Discord/SMS alerts, team invites, support for checking APIs for both uptime a…

Very cool. Looks very professional like there is a large team behind it. How do you market it?

Mainly content marketing.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#498

Post by sudoit »

I made a platform for publishing and purchasing photoshop files/effects, music, high res images etc. https://crate.as/

The main gimmick is that it’s a native Mac (and very soon Windows) app, so once you buy a file, you can drag it directly out of the app and into other programs as if it were file explorer.

I’m not at $500/month yet, but the project is well over 1k a month and I have a percentage of the income.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#499

Post by zeepzeep »

riantogo wrote: post #487
insaider wrote: post #445

I make $3-5k a month with my golf betting algorithm: https://www.golfforecast.co.uk I'm a data scientist/software engineer and I started the project 5 years ago as part of my masters thesis. Never intended for it to be gambling-oriented but that's just the best way to monetise! Questions/feedback appreciated - cheers

In the UK are you able to straight up create a gambling website/app? As an example, could I create a blackjack app and accept/payout money using, say, paypal or stripe? No other hoops to jump through?

As long as you don't have a UK company...

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

#500

Post by robinsoh »

kylecordes wrote: post #306
searchableguy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty cool. Love to see a hardware project. What's the profit margin like? E-ink displays are expensive. That price point seems not enough to generate decent income.

I read somewhere that the e-ink expense is because the company which controls the intellectual property chooses to make it a low volume, high cost product. Not that it is inherently expensive, and I am surprised they don't try the opposite strategy, make it cheap and everywhere.

> I read somewhere that the e-ink expense is because the company which controls the intellectual property chooses to make it a low volume, high cost product.

I've only read that here (repeatedly!) on HN and blogs that then cited throwaway HN posts which never respond to my requests for at least some verifiable evidence. Have a look through my comment history.

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