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Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

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41–50 of 79 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#41
Based on your skillset, and some suggestions posted here, one possibility to generate recurring revenue would be to leverage your "highly targeted marketing" abilities and offer them to existing merchants, instead of trying to learn to do it yourself.

You could either resell / drop ship, or (better IMO) partner with the merchants, maybe on a commision basis? (no upfront cost for them, recurring revenue for you).

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#42

Buy a couple duplex properties in an inexpensive midwestern or southern state. You'll have to save up some money to do this, and depending on that amount your margins may be nonexistent. Being a landlord is a lot less work than running a business and far less speculative, and the profit margins show it. But you asked about income, not profit.

Why go for less populated areas? It seems to me that that would increase the risk since it will is easier for a small town to start dropping in population as opposed to a big town. Also land is cheaper and there is more room for development so less people need to rent.

Not small towns, but medium sized cities. Margins are higher in places like Columbus, Ohio compared to Los Angeles because property is cheaper.

Here is a heat map for rental returns. http://www.realtytrac.com/content/news-and-opinion/best-and-...

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#43
post #13

Isn't this what the whole entrepreneurial spirit is about? No. "Entrepreneurial spirit" is abut identifying a problem that people have and providing a solution it, and then building a sustainable business around that solution. It's not just cobbling together something so you can cash in. Even though the case market is saturated, with targeted ads I'm thinking it would be possible. The first thing you should do is res…

Actually, that's the start-up fantasy. In the real world, the vast majority of entrepreneurs create their business out of necessity - not out of some lofty goals to improve anyone else's situation.

Source: helped a professor with research on entrepreneurship and small business teamwork for 2 years.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#44

The reason you are getting down voted is because of the wording in your title. "Sure-fire" invokes bullshit get rich quick schemes, the opposite of what the "entrepreneurial spirit" is about. If there was a sure fire way to generate $5k profit monthly, everyone would do it, and then it would not be profitable anymore. That's just basic market equilibrium. If you really just want some ideas, don't use the "sure-fire"…

The other reason is, everyone want to make money, whatever situation they are in. Why would we care about how much some other individual cares to make?

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#45

-please put up an email address in your profile if you want people to contact you. And trust me--if you're starting a business, email just became your new best friend. -read everything @patio11 has ever written. Use your brain and research ability to understand his wisdom. Ignore this advice at your own peril. -start high end markets first. Better margins, better customers. -think about what products suck! Talk to af…

Thanks for sharing, some really useful resources here that are new to me.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is probably some valuable information there but anyone who recommends Tucker Max seriously should be taken with a grain of salt (if not simply disregarded). People love to posture like they know it all (usually not the tech founders that HN funds)... Look for little things like recommending Tucker Max that suggest maybe they are in fact posturing, because they're trying to grow their brand here or whatever reas…

If you don't mind me asking, what is wrong with Tucker Max? I was, perfectly honestly, hurt by your harsh words. I'm trying to search to figure out what I've done to wrong you, and I'm struggling. Can you help me understand what our shared goal is in this conversation so I have the right frame of reference to continue this conversation, if we are to have it? EDIT: added comma for clarity

Damn sealion...

http://wondermark.com/1k62/

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is probably some valuable information there but anyone who recommends Tucker Max seriously should be taken with a grain of salt (if not simply disregarded). People love to posture like they know it all (usually not the tech founders that HN funds)... Look for little things like recommending Tucker Max that suggest maybe they are in fact posturing, because they're trying to grow their brand here or whatever reas…

If you don't mind me asking, what is wrong with Tucker Max? I was, perfectly honestly, hurt by your harsh words. I'm trying to search to figure out what I've done to wrong you, and I'm struggling. Can you help me understand what our shared goal is in this conversation so I have the right frame of reference to continue this conversation, if we are to have it? EDIT: added comma for clarity

Damn sealion...

http://wondermark.com/1k62/

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#48
As someone that tried a similar idea with imported phone cases I won't recommend this path at all. It can be possible, but there are several challenges with this market. There is too much competition, the amount of stores and private sellers that exist will crush the profit margin and some of these private sellers aren't paying any taxes at all.

Another major challenge is the hundreds of devices and colors that exist and that you will have to stock in order to fullfil the orders on a timely manner.

Finding reliable suppliers is also a challenge, I've had a few experiences with chinese suppliers that I've found on Alibaba and they weren't the best. Inconsistent product quality, incorrect models\amounts shipped, lack of proper invoicing which made me have some issues with customs along with additional fees.

I tried some targeted ads with several groups, but it didn't help.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#49
post #7

I see this done all the time: Build websites for a couple dozen clients. Charge hosting fees and maintenance each month to keep sites live. Marking up AWS hosting to $50 / mth and charging some hourly here and there at $100 / hr adds up quickly.

That only lasts so long until the client figures out they are being fleeced. My wife hawks those businesses that are way overpaying for their web hosting and the like (maintenance each month to keep sites live).

Indeed, I've found the sweet spot for managing and hosting a website for a small business or individual to be around $10/month and I net maybe $5/month/client out of that after hosting fees and time invested. There's a plethora of "build it yourself" hosts out there who use economies of scale to offer simple shared hosting for under $5/month with a site builder engine that's good enough for the masses. Look at A Small Orange[1] as a great example of how to thrive while offering a good but cheap service.

It can be done, but given the small scale it's basically pocket money, not any sort of real income, unless you can build a brand and scale it up. That's the secret sauce: Marketing.

[1] http://asmallorange.com

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#50

The reason you are getting down voted is because of the wording in your title. "Sure-fire" invokes bullshit get rich quick schemes, the opposite of what the "entrepreneurial spirit" is about. If there was a sure fire way to generate $5k profit monthly, everyone would do it, and then it would not be profitable anymore. That's just basic market equilibrium. If you really just want some ideas, don't use the "sure-fire"…

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