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Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#51

Post by glitchcrab »

tayo42 wrote: post #46
cmews wrote: post #27

If you are good at security, try bug bounty hunting. Make the web safer and earn some money!

I tried this, maybe I just suck. But my experience was pretty bad. It seems swarmed by people in 3rd world countries running scripts endlessly already. If you do find something there is still the chance the company will find a way out of it. The whole thing felt like a scam in a way, people show off their massive payment bug find, but in reality its hours of work for almost no payout

My experience tallies with this, used to work for a hosting company and we got plenty of emails from guys in India, Pakistan etc who had 'run burp suite against X and found Y'. We had no bounty program as we were fairly small fry so we said thanks and fixed the bug. You can't compete against the volume. And the big payouts take a lot of time and skill to find and exploit.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#52

Post by criticas »

ferennag wrote: post #19
lun4r wrote: post #2

You could consider apiculture. Yes, that's right, beekeeping. You might wonder how this is relevant to your 11 years of development experience, but let me explain. Beekeeping can offer a relaxing, nature-oriented antidote to the stresses of coding, and moreover, there is a burgeoning market for smart apiary technology. Bee mortality rates have increased over recent years for numerous reasons, and technology is beginn…

Wow this is a very interesting idea, thank you. Unfortunately I am living in a house with a very small yard, so at the moment it is impossible for me to pursue bee keeping. But, where can I learn more about this? What are the best resources?

If you're in the US, there are many resources. Many states have a beekeeper's association that offer mentoring, training, and apprenticeship programs. If you have a child, 4-H probably has a program. The US Department of Agriculture, Country Agricultural Extension, or State Universities often sponsor workshops. Try searching on "Learn Beekeeping in ".

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#53

Post by igotajob »

I’ve been trying to do this as someone who doesn’t have a CS career. I have a good full time job but wanted to learn something different and keep my brain engaged. So I learned iOS development, again no CS degree, made an app and got it into the App Store. The goal is to get going on a second app and get that in the store as well.

The issue for me is that, since I’m not in the development world, I don’t have any mentors or people to talk to and bounce ideas off of. I’ve been looking into getting an internship at a software company but those are rare for evening time remote work since that’s all I would be able to lend my self to because of my full time job.

I think I’m heading the right way but there’s just hurdles that need to be jumped over.

All that to say, try a different field than software development? A reverse of what I’m doing?

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#56

Post by ferennag »

gsaines wrote: post #31

If you're already a software engineer earning a normal salary in the US (several assumptions there), it's really hard to find side hustles that pay at or above the hourly wage that your employer has already committed to. I personally think that it's a good idea to focus on building a small lifestyle software business over the course of several years. I wrote a long series of blog posts about this over here: https://o…

I would love to come up with a business idea, and slowly grow it to be profitable.

My problem is I am very bad at coming up with a business idea in the first place. (or app idea, or website idea...) I am not sure why, probably my brain is wired differently.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#57

Post by ferennag »

igotajob wrote: post #53

I’ve been trying to do this as someone who doesn’t have a CS career. I have a good full time job but wanted to learn something different and keep my brain engaged. So I learned iOS development, again no CS degree, made an app and got it into the App Store. The goal is to get going on a second app and get that in the store as well. The issue for me is that, since I’m not in the development world, I don’t have any ment…

Funny you say that, I actually started learning iOS/MacOS development recently, my goal was to release some apps on the App Store.

I don't have problems with learning and building the apps, my problem is how to come up with an app idea that people would actually use, and I could monetize it somehow.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#58

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

mndgs wrote: post #9
lun4r wrote: post #2

You could consider apiculture. Yes, that's right, beekeeping. You might wonder how this is relevant to your 11 years of development experience, but let me explain. Beekeeping can offer a relaxing, nature-oriented antidote to the stresses of coding, and moreover, there is a burgeoning market for smart apiary technology. Bee mortality rates have increased over recent years for numerous reasons, and technology is beginn…

I read "bookkeeping" instead of "beekeeping" and then thought: what, how is bookkeeping calming, relaxing activity? Well, maybe to someone...

On one hand, being a bookie sounds like a super interesting optimization problem. How to draw the line in such a way that you are always net positive, regardless of game outcome.

On the other hand, you have the two worst possible problems: staking your money daily + chasing clients for money.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#59

Post by justinram11 »

gsaines wrote: post #31

If you're already a software engineer earning a normal salary in the US (several assumptions there), it's really hard to find side hustles that pay at or above the hourly wage that your employer has already committed to. I personally think that it's a good idea to focus on building a small lifestyle software business over the course of several years. I wrote a long series of blog posts about this over here: https://o…

I didn't realize the creator of Skritter was on HN! Just want to say that I've really enjoyed your app, and it's helped immensely with trying to learn Chinese

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#60

Post by ferennag »

n_ary wrote: post #42

Disclaimer: Unpopular advice. Seek out local folks who wants to go online selling their tupperware, tobaco, small services, books, photos, small mom-n-pop coffee/fastfood shops etc and offer to build them a site they can maintain. Then buy them a subscription on no-code sites(wix, weebly, squarespace etc) and get a commission for the initial setup. Worked for my nephew who just wanted something he could do on the nig…

Not sure why would this be an unpopular advice. I think it's a good advice.

I tried this before, but the problem is, the reason many people/businesses have shitty websites is that they are not willing to spend money on it. I approached a few local shops (e.g. a comic book store) to create a cool website for them for a few hundred bucks, but they wanted it for free. If I would be a junior developer looking for stuff to my portfolio, sure. But I'm not, and not willing to work for free for anybody.

However, I might have given up too easily. I think I'll give this another shot

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