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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#61

Post by unified101 »

sublinear wrote: post #37
unified101 wrote: post #2

The world is changed - given the low cost of reverse engineering and implementation, it would be product suicide to openly call out a money making product. I don't expect too many actual >500$ moneymaking projects to be listed. Would love to be proven wrong.

I offer some absolutes in reply and would also love to be proven wrong. The cost of engineering and implementation has always been low. Passive income has always been a subtle lie. The money has always been in providing a well-supported service. No customer has ever cared about implementation details beyond what is outlined in the contracts they have with you and the nth-order effects of the contracts they are under…

> The cost of engineering and implementation has always been low

With Opus and fable and sol at dozens of dollars for a month, i don't know how you can straight-faced say that. But you do you.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#62

Post by chasd00 »

qikouki wrote: post #53
chasd00 wrote: post #11

My work came up with a bonus structure around a certain set of industry certifications. I looked at all the certifications available and worked out a strategy to max the bonus each year. It comes out to about $2.5k/month. So my side hustle is studying and taking tests. Over the last 5 years or so of taking tests + investing I’ve built a nice chunk of change set aside to help pay for college for my two boys (age 14 an…

That is very nice of your company to pay for the workers' certifications. Do you think it is useful to your work?

It's useful for both me and the company, I work in consulting and these certs are an easy metric for clients to understand. The bonus structure was setup so that we can go to market with "X people certified in Y" as a feather in our hat. A certification by itself doesn't say much but when backed with a few years of project experience it's a powerful combination. So I take these tests for the bonus but they're also valuable to my firm and to me too, i'm always learning something new about a technology i thought i knew like the back of my hand.

/i've replied to every comment, i know this isn't an AMA and I hope it's not too off topic.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#63

Post by l__l »

bwb wrote: post #55

I'm building Book DNA to help people get book recommendations from humans (mostly authors and experts so far in our early days). -> https://bookdna.com/ We started with the website, and now we are building a full app: a private, personal way to track your reading and get personalized recommendations based on your tastes. -> https://building.bookdna.com/ We are aiming for a soft launch in a few months :) If you want t…

how does this differ from alternatives like Hardcover, Fable, etc.?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#64

Post by nikshepsvn »

neuroticnews25 wrote: post #52
nikshepsvn wrote: post #35

nokeep.ai - private, uncensored AI -- launched it cause most folks who want privacy or less censorship attempt to run models locally but that obviously doesn't work unless you invest in hardware / want speed etc.

Wow you're not lying about the uncensored part. What models does it really run? Did you do the abliteration yourself?

oss abliterated model! didnt have to do it myself since theres a lot of options

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#67

Post by xnx »

chasd00 wrote: post #62
qikouki wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is very nice of your company to pay for the workers' certifications. Do you think it is useful to your work?

It's useful for both me and the company, I work in consulting and these certs are an easy metric for clients to understand. The bonus structure was setup so that we can go to market with "X people certified in Y" as a feather in our hat. A certification by itself doesn't say much but when backed with a few years of project experience it's a powerful combination. So I take these tests for the bonus but they're also va…

> "X people certified in Y"

Let me know if your company wants to put me on staff at $0 salary and just get paid for the certs.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#68

Post by agotterer »

jcims wrote: post #30
agotterer wrote: post #19

A friend and I host a monthly dinner club for people interested in exploring ethnic cuisine on Long Island. We work with one restaurant each month to create an 8-12+ course all inclusive price fixe menu. The food is usually served family style (the ambitious ones individually plate everything) and is authentic to the region we are hosting. We typically host the dinners on a Tues and Wed when the restaurants in our re…

Love this idea! Any time I visit a place that specializes in a cuisine I'm not familiar with, I tend to struggle with what to order because I don't want to commit to just one entree. Having a curated tour of tastes, so to speak, targeted to folks exploring the cuisine would be absolutely perfect. Wonderful!

Thats the goal! A little taste of what tells the story of where we are traveling that month. Sometimes restaurants will make off menu items for us, which is a lot of fun and usually something a little more adventurous.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#69

Post by Aboutplants »

chasd00 wrote: post #62
qikouki wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is very nice of your company to pay for the workers' certifications. Do you think it is useful to your work?

It's useful for both me and the company, I work in consulting and these certs are an easy metric for clients to understand. The bonus structure was setup so that we can go to market with "X people certified in Y" as a feather in our hat. A certification by itself doesn't say much but when backed with a few years of project experience it's a powerful combination. So I take these tests for the bonus but they're also va…

I really appreciate your company’s mutual benefit bonus structure. It benefits all parties in a number of ways that is sadly uncommon these days

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#70

Post by Integrape »

stavros wrote: post #22

I had an idea in 2008 to make a website that emailed your friends when you die. I built https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ in a weekend, and it's been making money since. Around $1k/mo now.

I heard about your website about a decade ago. That's awesome you are still maintaining it and it's generating cashflow.
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