Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 257 posts

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#81

Post by CoryG89 »

streptomycin wrote: post #53
deepaksurti wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is brilliant. May I ask you a question? I assume you are not using real team names or real players. If you are using real names, how do you handle the licenses? Sorry, not a baseball enthusiast hence could not figure if your team / player names are real.

Yeah, that's the reason I don't use real players :) A lot of similar games simply ignore the law and pray they don't get sued (or that the publicity from a lawsuit would actually be good). But I do have support for uploading custom leagues, and people have made them with various real leagues like the NBA https://github.com/alexnoob/BasketBall-GM-Rosters/releases/t... and the Philippine Basketball Association http://w…

This seems like a good idea. Surely you can't be sued for user generated content which uses licensed team/player names.

I had previously mulled over trying to make a fantasy sports site using bitcoin, but since I am based in the US, the gambling laws are too prohibitive, even just using bitcoin.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#82

Post by docsapp_io »

coleifer wrote: post #74
docsapp_io wrote: post #37

I built my side project "Documentation Hub for Developers" DocsApp.io ( https://www.docsapp.io/ ). I spent 1 year+ to build it. Current revenue around $800 per month. Now I still spending night time and weekends to enhance it. HTTPS for custom domain powered by LetsEncrypt is on roadmap. The project started because there is always need for documentation for software projects (in my career), and a lot companies are no…

I'm one of the cocreators of readthedocs.org, in the interests of improving this free platform, what features does docsapp provide that aren't available on rtd?

One of the features I think RTD missing is DocsApp support upload swagger.yml file and auto generate API browser (https://demo.docsapp.io/docs/swagger-api) as well as API Tester (soon).

Another one is DocsApp is using markdown editor instead of pulling docs from SCM (git). Which good for users that do not know to use git.

DocsApp also support generate Github release page (https://demo.docsapp.io/docs/github-release) so users able to download artifacts without leaving DocsApp.

PS: I never use RTD so I might wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#84

Post by imaginenore »

quirkafleeg wrote: post #73
imaginenore wrote: post #2

I have a project making $200/month, 100% passively (I just renew the domain every couple of years). But I think it would be so dumb to just tell what it is here. Why would you invite more competition to your niche?

Anyone who visits your site (who are more likely to be interested in and knowledgeable about your niche than random people here) could copy it if they wanted to. By posting here you may increase your traffic/ad revenue, now and/or in the future (not everyone cares about or has the time to rip off every site they see), and you may get some constructive, helpful comments or advice. Totally your choice, just giving poss…

But if you visit my site, you wouldn't know if it makes money and how much. So you don't know if it's worth days of work copying it.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#85

Post by eLobato »

I no longer make that kind of money through any side project but I did during ~ a year of college. It was one of the worst projects (coding wise) I made, and I made it all through ads.

It was just an Android soundboard app for a very popular TV show in Spain. You could tap a button and it'd play some funny sentence from a character from this show. Long press, you could share that sound.

Revenue model: a little ad bar on the bottom of the screen.

It grew from 60$/month to > 1000$ in around 6 months, only through word of mouth. That lasted another 6 months or so until the show became less trendy.

Probably not very sustainable as I was piggybacking on the popularity of the show, but it taught me that making money was 100% not about writing 'the bestest codes'.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#86

Post by mutatio »

Created http://encycolorpedia.com a few years ago, kind of neglected it until recently (it's looking very dated), a version implemented in Rust is 90% complete - cheaper to run (more beer money, thanks Rust team!) & more features than the node.js implementation it will hopefully replace in the coming weeks.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#87

Post by thearn4 »

Not a "side project" in the usual sense, but I teach as an adjunct professor (mathematics) every so often, and at a rate of about $1000 - 1200 per credit hour (depending on the institution) I can make a little under a grand a month after taxes. Teaching can be fun for many people, and I think it keeps me grounded in the fundamentals, where my day job is entirely application oriented.

The trick is that after a few times around, the courses require a bit less preparation.

Adjuncting is an absolute nightmare if you are trying to do it as a full-time job. But as a side thing for beer money when there is a staffing need? It's pretty light on stress. Since I am not gunning for tenure track (or even a full time position), there are little to no stakes involved.

Weirdly, I think the folks in my position (teaching as an adjunct as a side gig) along with the tenured full-professors on the opposite end of the academic spectrum are actually very similar in that regard.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#88

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

patio11 wrote: post #68
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #60

You guys are making cash off your side projects? Jeez. I usually just release them for free. I should get in on this. ...Assuming that I ever finish a side project. ...And that I ever come up with a side project somebody would pay for. Neither is very likely.

Being able to successfully ship things is a useful muscle to develop. People who can program radically overestimate where the bar is for being able to charge money for things. (And underestimate how much money businesses pay for just about everything.)

Well, right now, I'm working on a MUD engine, and an online version of Thud.

I might get sued for selling one, and nobody would pay for either, especially given how many implementations of both are free.

But yes, I should work on shipping code.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make?

#89

Post by GavinMcG »

eLobato wrote: post #85

I no longer make that kind of money through any side project but I did during ~ a year of college. It was one of the worst projects (coding wise) I made, and I made it all through ads. It was just an Android soundboard app for a very popular TV show in Spain. You could tap a button and it'd play some funny sentence from a character from this show. Long press, you could share that sound. Revenue model: a little ad bar…

IANAL, nor am I in Spain, so I don't really know what I'm talking about. My sense, though, is that in the US the TV show owners could sue me for copyright infringement, and I'd be on the hook for up to $150,000 in damages for each "infringing work" – I'd think that means audio clip, in this case.

There's a "fair use" defense to that (where I'd say that the clips didn't impact the market for buying the original work) and they might not go after me anyway, since it would presumably reinforce the popularity of the show.

Was any of that stuff you ran into? Or is there no similar copyright concern in Spain?

Post reply on HN