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Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#41

Post by bayesian_horse »

jordanpg wrote: post #35
toomuchtodo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top notch comment.

Agree, but OTOH, this advice is pretty well disseminated at this point. It can be hard to find an opening to contribute in a decent OSS project that one can keep up with, especially as a beginner, with many others clamoring to do the same.

I think an alternative would be to create and finish a simple open source project yourself, for the purpose of showing off. Scratch an itch. But keep it finishable. It's not about being perfect, it's about showing you can solve many problems.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#42

Post by tiborsaas »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #31
3pt14159 wrote: post #21

What I've seen that has worked in the past is this: Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs. Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach…

Top notch comment.

Also, it's a very risky path to take. If you made an error in your assumptions about your open source investment, tech stack choice, etc, then you won't see any good return, but you burned through your savings.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#43

Post by timurlenk »

Do you think there are more people around you in your situation?

If there are, there might be strength in numbers. You could organise to deliver a signifficantly larger project than any of you could get done individually. You do not need to hire anyone - use the principles of a cooperative and get like minded people that share the profits in an equitable way.

Along the same lines there are companies that may be looking to expand to capture the avilable workforce in your geographical area but lack the apropriate contacts to get started. Your written communication skillks seem to be above average which I consider quite important for such an engagement. If this sounds interesting, do leave some contact details.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#44

Post by crc32 »

wokwokwok wrote: post #38
Gustomaximus wrote: post #10

My view is coming from someone who hires people last few years. 1) People hate on Freelancer sites, but get on them and and build a profile. If you are good it will show in time. Expect to work for peanuts at the beginning - consider it advertising. 2) Don't lie about what you can do. Always do a good job. I've tried a bunch of people from poorer countries and those seem to be the 2 main issues. Dont have a mentality…

> Expect to work for peanuts at the beginning - consider it advertising. This is terrible advice. Don't work for free, all you're doing is allowing other people to take advantage of you... which, they will. There's plenty of other great advice in this topic; this: "work hard and do a good job, for free and it'll be great experience / advertising / whatever the f" is total BS.

OP didn't say "work for free", they said "work for peanuts".

I agree that freelancer sites have some problematic aspects, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the idea that you need to start small and build a reputation/profile. This applies to any bootstrapped business, not just when working via freelancer sites.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#45

Post by bayesian_horse »

jdhawk wrote: post #18

Possibly an unpopular opinion on Freelancing work, but generally avoid anything that is highly saturated. Become a very deep expert in something older or niche. These can lead to opportunities to maintain older software, or work on very specific projects. I did well updating and maintaining ancient Microsoft Access databases for small and medium size businesses who relied on them for day to day operations. I'm curren…

Don't confuse high demand with oversaturation, or low demand with "niche".

One of the biggest problem OP has is that in his area probably not a lot of people have done anything like what he is trying to achieve. And people from around the world might not be able to give good advice on his particular situation.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#46

Post by tbran »

Some business-y ideas:

1) Build an affiliate site. Some of the older posts on /r/juststart [0] are helpful.

2) Organize information and sell it. See the stuff made by Pieter Levels [1] or BuiltWith [2]. I just put together LotsofOpps [3] (which is just bunch of information on online/offline ways to make money). There is lots of info out there that will be interesting to someone if you can find the right angle.

3) Unbundle Craigslist [4]. Craigslist is terrible for some things. I'm working on BuiltRigs [5].

4) Unbundle Zapier [6]. A great example is BannerBear [7].

None of these things are particularly easy. Marketing is the hard part, but it's most important to actually build something and release it quickly.

[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/juststart/

[1] https://twitter.com/levelsio

[2] https://builtwith.com/

[3] https://www.lotsofopps.com/

[4] https://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/345941486/the-spawn-of-c...

[5] https://www.builtrigs.com/

[6] https://kamerontanseli.ghost.io/first-it-was-craiglist-next-...

[7] https://bannerbear.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#48

Post by cancerSpreads »

3pt14159 wrote: post #21

What I've seen that has worked in the past is this: Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs. Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach…

I wish someone told me this sooner..

Instead people told me to do personal projects.

Sure they are impressive, but I can't get an interview.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#49

Post by [deleted] »

3pt14159 wrote: post #21

What I've seen that has worked in the past is this: Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs. Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#50

Post by [deleted] »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #10

My view is coming from someone who hires people last few years. 1) People hate on Freelancer sites, but get on them and and build a profile. If you are good it will show in time. Expect to work for peanuts at the beginning - consider it advertising. 2) Don't lie about what you can do. Always do a good job. I've tried a bunch of people from poorer countries and those seem to be the 2 main issues. Dont have a mentality…

[deleted]
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