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Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

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Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#81

Post by petercooper »

Not now, but I did. Back in the 00s I blogged a lot and had AdSense on my there. I'd done a quick review of a popular route planner in the UK (back when Google Maps hadn't taken over) and thought little of it until it started making hundreds of dollars per day. So then I did a quick review of several other popular route planners in the UK..

For about 18 months, I was making $2-10k a month from people typing in "whatever route planner", reaching my blog post, then clicking straight out to the real planner on the AdSense unit. It died off after a while as the real route planners improved their SEO but it paid for my wedding and more besides, so I couldn't complain :-)

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#82

Post by [deleted] »

h4t wrote: post #10

Yep I've been pushing ref links for cryptocurrency exchanges for several years. I make around 60k a year just off other people trading. For US based traders go here and make affiliate accounts so you yourself can disperse. https://primexbt.com/?signup=97540 https://www.binance.us/?ref=35057005 and then I also push bybit referrals which is a 2 step process first you have to create a bybit account: (requires vpn that d…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#83

Post by [deleted] »

hbarka wrote: post #61
awillen wrote: post #2

I really don't like talking about my side projects, so I guess they all qualify, but I'm particularly excited about one at the moment. Right now I'm working on a dog treat business - I make a treat mix that you add water to and freeze for a meat-based frozen treat. I feel really good about the product and the packaging design (and this is the first time I've ever worked on any kind of a physical product, so it's real…

Sincere question—how do you handle legal, especially with consumables?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#84

Post by awillen »

hbarka wrote: post #61
awillen wrote: post #2

I really don't like talking about my side projects, so I guess they all qualify, but I'm particularly excited about one at the moment. Right now I'm working on a dog treat business - I make a treat mix that you add water to and freeze for a meat-based frozen treat. I feel really good about the product and the packaging design (and this is the first time I've ever worked on any kind of a physical product, so it's real…

Sincere question—how do you handle legal, especially with consumables?

On the safety side, I've had crude analysis done (which is the standard nutritional testing for pet food in the US and was $250 per flavor), and I've consulted with a couple of vets to make sure the product is safe.

On the legal side, I've got business insurance, which thankfully isn't that expensive. I've been holding off on forming an LLC since that's gonna run me about a grand here in CA including the cost of setting it up and LLC tax, but if there's continued interest in the product, I'll do that soon.

Edit: Also AAFCO is a group that has standards for this sort of thing that are pretty straightforward: https://petfood.aafco.org/Portals/1/pdf/eight_required_labei...

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#85

Post by awillen »

jolmg wrote: post #72
hbarka wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sincere question—how do you handle legal, especially with consumables?

I wonder if the FDA (or equivalent in awillen's jurisdiction) would care about non-human consumables.

The FDA does regulate, but much more lightly - from their site:

"The FDA’s regulation of pet food is similar to that for other animal food. There is no requirement that pet food products have premarket approval by the FDA. However, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) requires that pet foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled."

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#86

Post by petercooper »

awillen wrote: post #2

I really don't like talking about my side projects, so I guess they all qualify, but I'm particularly excited about one at the moment. Right now I'm working on a dog treat business - I make a treat mix that you add water to and freeze for a meat-based frozen treat. I feel really good about the product and the packaging design (and this is the first time I've ever worked on any kind of a physical product, so it's real…

I don't have a dog, so this is just a random question I'd be asking before buying if I did.. what's the smell like when making these? You say it's fun for the family but I would immediately be worried about it stinking like dog food and making my kids reek all day :-D Other than that, looks like a great idea and is the sort of thing I'd consider if I did have a dog!

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#87

Post by awillen »

petercooper wrote: post #86
awillen wrote: post #2

I really don't like talking about my side projects, so I guess they all qualify, but I'm particularly excited about one at the moment. Right now I'm working on a dog treat business - I make a treat mix that you add water to and freeze for a meat-based frozen treat. I feel really good about the product and the packaging design (and this is the first time I've ever worked on any kind of a physical product, so it's real…

I don't have a dog, so this is just a random question I'd be asking before buying if I did .. what's the smell like when making these? You say it's fun for the family but I would immediately be worried about it stinking like dog food and making my kids reek all day :-D Other than that, looks like a great idea and is the sort of thing I'd consider if I did have a dog!

Honestly, the Beef and Cheddar smells a little funky but not too bad (especially for people who are used to having dogs around), and the Turkey and Cinnamon smells pretty good because the turkey isn't that pungent, so the cinnamon masks it.

That said, when you're taking freeze dried meats and putting them in a food processor to turn them into powder, it stinks to high heaven and you end up with a light dusting of meat powder all over your kitchen. I don't recommend trying it :P

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#88

Post by petercooper »

awillen wrote: post #87
petercooper wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a dog, so this is just a random question I'd be asking before buying if I did .. what's the smell like when making these? You say it's fun for the family but I would immediately be worried about it stinking like dog food and making my kids reek all day :-D Other than that, looks like a great idea and is the sort of thing I'd consider if I did have a dog!

Honestly, the Beef and Cheddar smells a little funky but not too bad (especially for people who are used to having dogs around), and the Turkey and Cinnamon smells pretty good because the turkey isn't that pungent, so the cinnamon masks it. That said, when you're taking freeze dried meats and putting them in a food processor to turn them into powder, it stinks to high heaven and you end up with a light dusting of mea…

Haha, rather you than me :-) This might be partly why I don't have a dog though! Good luck with this, seems a nice business!

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#89

Post by seanwilson »

cdiamand wrote: post #33

I've probably been promoting it too much lately, especially on here. I'll pass on this one, but just wanted to say thank you to everyone who shares a project. It really does help others to see what is possible. Sidequestion: Does anyone have any recommendations on simple guides to SEO? I'm realizing the power of search traffic to bring in visitors to sideprojects.

> Sidequestion: Does anyone have any recommendations on simple guides to SEO?

I run a Chrome extension that will crawl your site and give on-page/technical SEO suggestions: https://www.checkbot.io/.

The SEO best practices it checks for are explained + justified in a simple fashion here: https://www.checkbot.io/guide/seo/

I know a lot of developers are skeptical about SEO advice (e.g. keyword density stuff, experiments that try to reverse engineer how Google does ranking), but the rules from the guide above are linked to things Google have directly recommended. Most on-page SEO best practices align with what would benefit a regular user also.

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#90

Post by secondaryditto »

emptysea wrote: post #36
welanes wrote: post #26

I started building Lanes ( https://lanes.io ) in 2016 as a way to learn how to code. Don't talk about it because it's way overdue for an update. But it plods along, earning enough to cover the bills for my second project, Simplescraper ( https://simplescraper.io ). With Wunderlist shut down this year it was the perfect time to relaunch Lanes 2.0 to try capture some of those task-manager migrants. But if there's a sin…

lanes.io has a firebase error for me on Safari 13.1 > FirebaseError: Messaging: This browser doesn't support the API's required to use the firebase SDK. (messaging/unsupported-browser).

not even safari 12.1
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