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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#651

Post by DanHulton »

e-_pusher wrote: post #394
DanHulton wrote: post #135

I made Nodewood ( https://nodewood.com/ ), a SaaS starter kit/boilerplate. An unlimited-app license is around $500, so a single sale a month puts me into this territory. It could probably be higher, if I were any better and/or more persistent about marketing, but right now I'm focusing on the last two releases I have scheduled on the roadmap before releasing "1.0" (easy scripting and an easy deploy system), then I'll…

Cool! What is the tech stack behind it if you don’t me asking?

I don't mind at all!

The back-end is Node.js, Express, and MassiveJS for DB access, while the front-end is Vue 3.

I'm really happy with my choice of MassiveJS especially, instead of an ORM, since it allows me to make Models in Nodewood as simple JavaScript objects that can be populated either from the database or from API responses. This means that you can use the same model in the front-end and the back-end, with the same business logic, the same validation logic, etc. Saves a lot of time writing (and maintaining) a lot of code in two or more places!

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#652

Post by abustamam »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #638
thegypsyking wrote: post #633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are much luckier and more of a “survivor” than any of them I feel. I also work at Faang, but only graduated college last year and only make 200k a year, barely. I will never reach your income at a job with where the stock market is at now, and how much the competition increased, you rode the wave all the way to the top of the corporate slaves pyramid. So I’ll quit next year to start something because otherwise I’…

I am not entirely sure your premises are correct, but it certainly boils down to personal opinions so no point in debating. Just for fun, I went back to my 1040 tax statements for the first three years of my career, about a decade ago: $35k, $65k, $89k. The fact that you are starting with $200k is fabulous and not to be taken for granted imho. If you are able to put the majority of your after tax savings in the marke…

$200k is a lot, but it doesn't really go far in the bay area if you don't want to cohabitate.

That being said, people have done more with less under similar circumstances, and thinking $200k is not enough is harmful. I used to make $130k, then I made $90k, and now I make $300k and I don't feel any different, even though I once thought it would make me happier. I don't regret focusing on my career, but I now spend time doing things that make me happy instead of working all the time.

As the saying goes, "you can afford anything, not everything." it's important to determine what brings you most joy. For me, it's being able to buy meal kits so I don't have to worry about cooking (save time).

Of course, saving / investing money is important too.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#653

Post by [deleted] »

barthom wrote: post #618

For the past 2 and a half years I've been running a YouTube channel with semi-automated content. The content in question is threads on AskReddit. I know a lot of people look down on content like that (tbh myself included) but to be fair most content on YouTube is very low-effort. It's not getting close to the views it used to, but now it makes an average of about $1k/month. Our content is a lot higher quality than mo…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#654

Post by mattwilsonn888 »

mahoneycutt wrote: post #115

I've earned about $1500 a month for the last ten years helping senior citizens use Windows PCs. I also sell refurbished laptops for about 1/2 of what new laptops costs. I've sold over 200 laptops in the last 3 years. All it takes is a little patience. I only charge $25 an hour and have more work than I can handle.

How do you get started doing this? I think I have a suitable temperament and the skills required.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#655

Post by pigcat »

bmitc wrote: post #308
pigcat wrote: post #113

I run an e-commerce store as a side-hustle: https://drinkyourdailywater.com/ We sell glass water jugs targeted at desk workers, to help remind you to drink enough water. I created it because I wasn't drinking enough water. Running paid ads has been very hit or miss, and I don't have a knack for the marketing. But word-of-mouth has been good for us and we get the odd corporate sale here or there.

That's pretty brilliant. I have the same problem, and I think the time gradations are a perfect solution. I saw your other comment about down-selecting factories. How do you do quality checks? For example, as a wild hypothetical, how do you know the product isn't made in hazardous environments or isn't safe?

Great question!

I did do a bit of QA myself: dishwasher cycles; hot & cold liquids (a good test of borosilicate glass); drop tests from very low heights (it is glass after all).

Most factories worth their salt also undergo some third party testing and I asked for these certificates which detail the chemical breakdown of the glass. Granted, I suppose these could be forged, and I would have no way of knowing.

Finally, there is quite a lot of back and forth with videos on Whatsapp, where you see the factory floor, and get a sense of the type of show they're running.

Part of the down-selection process is also just how willing each factory is to engage with these types of questions!

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#656

Post by mattwilsonn888 »

sliceform wrote: post #244

I started a 3D printing company generating on average about 2k/month printing small plastic clips and connectors for collectors as well as a few other adapters and jigs sold on eBay. I'm now working on building out a 3D printing course teaching others how to do the same.

I've heard of people doing this with RC car parts. What printer do you use?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#657

Post by pigcat »

nlh wrote: post #640
pigcat wrote: post #113

I run an e-commerce store as a side-hustle: https://drinkyourdailywater.com/ We sell glass water jugs targeted at desk workers, to help remind you to drink enough water. I created it because I wasn't drinking enough water. Running paid ads has been very hit or miss, and I don't have a knack for the marketing. But word-of-mouth has been good for us and we get the odd corporate sale here or there.

This is awesome. Great idea, great execution, and great story. You scratched your own itch and turned it into a business. Thanks for sharing the project and background.

Thanks so much for the kind words!

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#659

Post by littlestymaar »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #384
Nexxxeh wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This literally made me say "WTF?!" when I went to the page. I think you're burying the lede here. It's only $29 inc worldwide shipping ! WTAF, that's awesome. I'll be ordering one as soon as Christmas is out of the way. Any plans to add an EU or UK distribution point? I'm prepared to wait the 2-3 weeks for free UK shipping tbh, but if you're adding more local distribution early next year I'd hold on.

>It's only $29 inc worldwide shipping Oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out. The one time I'm not in a shilly mood (Christmas and all) and the post actually gets interaction. Murphy's Law! >Any plans to add an EU or UK distribution point? Sorta kinda maybe. I did have one, but a whole lot of VAT compliance bullshit caught up with me. In most countries, GST/VAT is handled automatically by large eCommerce platforms (if…

> However, the EU requires every single individual business with any stock located on EU soil to register and file individually in every single country where the stock is distributed regardless of revenue. I can only assume this is to create jobs for bureaucrats.

You've just misunderstood what EU was it's not a . You have to file individually in every country because they are individual countries: you wouldn't expect to file for VAT also once for all Asia, would you?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#660

Post by silexia »

hayksaakian wrote: post #4

I run several amazon affiliate websites like https://www.hayksaakian.com Basically we find the top rated products and summarize why people might like them. It's nothing too fancy, and I got into it mostly to see if I could do it without investing more than 1 day a week into it and outsourcing the rest. I'm more focused on my main thing right now (marketing agency) so the side project's been pretty stagnant. It's real…

I absolutely hate seeing these near zero value added listicle pages everywhere in search.
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