Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#81

Post by guohuang » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:30 PM UTC

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #58

guohuang wrote: post #29

I have been working on a side project to show all the most mentioned books from hacker news, stackoverflow, reddit. http://toptalkedbooks.com we are still struggling on marketing, no revenue yet.

I'd recommend you create a blog where you write interesting posts on different trends, analysis, etc. from all the data you're collecting. I'd be interested to know if current events drive the frequency of certain book recommendations in different forums. This will help bring people to the site, build links to improve SEO, etc. Also, make the email capture more prominent.

Thank you so much for your advise, this is a great idea! we are currently busy on cleaning up the data.(comics books) we want to keep our focus on tech related books. After that we will be creating more analysis to the community. stay tuned.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#82

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:30 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#83

Post by joeax » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:31 PM UTC

I wrote a science fiction novel, The Final Six Days. I had been kicking around the idea for 5 years, working on technical side projects until I decided to shift course toward writing. I'm in the process of writing out the rest of the series (books 2-4).

As far as money, I've made close to a thousand on months that I am promoting it heavily. Right now I have pulled all advertising and promotion until book 2 is in pre-order.

http://timecrossers.com/

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#84

Post by Xixi » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:32 PM UTC

Two side projects: Tomotcha and Requires.io. Tomotcha (https://tomotcha.com) is a Japanese green tea subscription service (inspired by Bemmu's Candy Japan). Requires.io (https://requires.io) is a spin-off from a now defunct Continuous Integration service to track python dependencies.

As a software engineer Tomotcha is more challenging to work on, as it doesn't involve much tech at all: it's all about logistic, customer service and marketing. I will admit that I'm not very good at it yet, but improving slowly. I think a side project is the perfect opportunity get outside of one's comfort zone. For instance we are currently completely reviewing the packaging of our tea shipments... It should be ready for either November or December.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#85

Post by billwear » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:33 PM UTC

Making ~$500+ per month designing handbags, word of mouth / text / facebook posts. Not just sewing bags mind you, unique bags designed to fit each person. Problem is throughput -- I'll have to hire soon or keep it smallish.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#86

Post by donohoe » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

https://article.rocks

Started it in 2014 or 2015 and just keep rebuilding it every 3-6 months. Its a curation of news and articles that I personally like. Its a mix of scraping, automated curation, rough sentiment analysis, randomness.

I built it for my commute, eventually giving it its own domain.

Its no longer hitting that per month since I intentionally scaled back the custom ads that earned referral fees. Its just Amazon now. Money is not a goal.

This side project is more focused on keeping my coding skills going and playing around with ideas in media/publishing and ads.

For example, I redid things so it would get a 99 or 100 PageSpeed score:

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=...

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#87

Post by lxmorj » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

DonaldTrumpDogPoopBags.com pulls in about $500 in revenue per day after some FB ad tuning. I acquired the site from a client when he decided to shut it down. It's moreorless break even until his earn-out is complete after a few hundred more orders.

Fortunately running the site break-even supports main business, and e-commerce fulfillment company (MonthlyBoxer.com)

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#88

Post by BacktestMarket » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

https://www.backtestmarket.com/ - since 2015, we started a service collecting historical financial data to help retail traders getting high quality information.

In 2016 we started offering Expert Advisors we started for personal necessity, and now we are earning around 1.5k per month.

BacktestMarket will come out with a new version of the website on October 2017 with new products and new services

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#89

Post by vladdanilov » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

Getting close with Optimage for Mac [1], a visually lossless image optimization tool.

[1] http://getoptimage.com

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2017 – Show and tell

#90

Post by FloayYerBoat » Fri, Sep 01, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

https://www.planeol.com

I wrote a subscription service that notifies IT administrators when software they have purchased is coming up on End of Life. Helps plan and manage budget and for security reasons.