Help HN: Want to build small web app for learning and side income.

Hi Guys, I am long time HN follower. I always been benefited from HN community.

I am a full time developer and can code in ASP.NET (both web form and MVC), PHP (also i am beginner in ruby).

I want to build web app from which i can earn $200 - $400 per month.

Its not a big amount but it gives me following benefit which is more valuable for me.

1. Motivation for bigger move. 2. Getting experience in running SaaS based apps. 3. Side income. 4. Good learning about business, marketing and other non programming things.

I know i can make these kind of money though some freelancing but that option i am not looking for now.

I can invest my time 2-3 hours on weekdays and 5-6 hours on weekends (around 20 hours in week). Also i can invest up too $300 if i have to do buy some sort of services/hardware etc.

Problem is I am not been able to think about any web app idea which solves some problem. Please give me some idea about any web app which I should build.

I am not from US or Europa.

I am having high hopes from HN community.

Thanks in advance.

For a design / template start out by using something off ThemeForest.net, then once you're making some money, hire someone to redesign it!

Second this, GAE is the default platform for almost all of my side projects because of how quickly you get up and running, and due to the generous limits.

There are some very clever ideas in there. Number 4 ("A website that you can submit your design and work with vendors to manufacture your own clothes line") is something I'm sure my wife would take advantage of.

I wonder how much of a market there is for something like this, or how many people want to be a micro-boutique?

Numbers 1, 2 and 4 are very easy to satisfy. Several people have already posted lists of ideas that they and others maintain. I seem to recall Y-Combinator posting lists of the types of projects they wish to look at in the future too, so it would be worth searching for them. If you can't self host then .NET hosting is going to cost you around US$10 a month, although there are deals to be had - I think I pay $35 for 6 months of web and SQL Server hosting with a company that is passable for what I need it for. Unless you have a real passion to learn something new, I'd stick with the languages you now, it will be much quicker to get to where you need to go than if you learn a whole new language.

But the problem is in monetization. Firstly if you can get an idea from start to making money in 6 months (for example) then I don't think there is really a cap on what you can make, I can't see a reason why $400 per month would be all you would want to make, and if you make something that can make money you should always be able to find new users (an exception to that might be if you made something very specific to only a few people and had an easy way to market it - eg something 100 HN users might like and no one else).

But defining a web app that you can develop and easily make money is not easy. Most people's "idea lists" have lots of very interesting ideas, few of them I can ever imagine making a penny. My suggestion would be to look around you, you have a job, is any of the software you develop something you can clone and sell to other businesses (there are legal issues there, but you can often work around them and it depends where you are). Are there everyday tasks that people are using spreadsheets or Access DB's or paper to do that you could create a system for and charge $10 a month? Find an idea like that, spend 10, 20 or 50 dollars on Google Adwords pointing to a fake sales page and see if you have a market. Good luck.