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

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

#271

Post by zatel » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 11:50 PM UTC

winrid wrote: post #107

I don't talk about my side projects at work hours, even if someone asks. However, I built Pixmap for Android to learn Android dev. It makes a couple dollars a month... :) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winricklab... I built FastComments as a tool for myself, but it's starting to gather bigger and bigger customers. https://FastComments.com

FastComments is really cool looking and so simple (it reminds me of brutalist web design).

Could you explain a little on how you do limiting of page loads? I've been trying to add this kind of functionality to my own projects but can't think of a way to track it without storing in a db which seems like a bottleneck process if every page load is a write

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

#272

Post by taphangum » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 11:52 PM UTC

Stevvo wrote: post #122

I work ~4 hours a week making aircraft add-ons for X-Plane, releasing one product every 3 months, net profit ~$5k a month total. It's fairly simple: 1) Commission Russian 3D artist to make model of aircraft -$1000 2) Commission Audio Engineer to do sound - $500 3) Tweak model to work well with simulator + animation - 12 hours 4) Paint model in Substance - 12 hours 5) Set up flight model in X-Plane's "Plane Maker" - 8…

I LOVE little niches like this. Good job man.

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

#273

Post by dguo » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 11:55 PM UTC

I got tired of reading bad READMEs and made https://www.makeareadme.com/ on a whim. Over the past few years, it has climbed up the Google search rankings. It's usually in the top three hits for "readme" now.

I serve developer-focused ads with CodeFund (and Carbon as a backup when CodeFund doesn't have an ad available). I get about $45 in revenue per month. Hosting costs are $0 because it's just a static site served from Netlify, so the only cost is the domain.

I never intended to make any money off of it, and I care much more that it's hopefully a helpful resource for some people. But it is nice to get a little bit of passive income.

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

#274

Post by grogenaut » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 11:55 PM UTC

vram22 wrote: post #209

grogenaut wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food dehydrators are a fun rabbit hole. Florists use them for wedding bouquets. You will also find a TON of info about scrappily acquiring them on prepper websites. I've seen several posts by Mormon families (food preservation and supply is encouraged by the religion), and a lot of the good ones get into taste, methods for preparing food, and doing it in bulk (which you'd care about). But the se sites will have a lar…

What are "se sites"?

Misspelled. Shtf. Shit hits the fan. Type of prepper who is worried about full failure of society and all services. Stockpiling ammo, guns, plate armor, etc.

As opposed to say someone who keeps a month of food, water, fuel, meds, entertainment on hand, which looks pretty normal now.

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

#275

Post by gkoberger » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 12:00 AM UTC

dguo wrote: post #273

I got tired of reading bad READMEs and made https://www.makeareadme.com/ on a whim. Over the past few years, it has climbed up the Google search rankings. It's usually in the top three hits for "readme" now. I serve developer-focused ads with CodeFund (and Carbon as a backup when CodeFund doesn't have an ad available). I get about $45 in revenue per month. Hosting costs are $0 because it's just a static site served f…

Ah, my SEO nemesis!

Really, though, your site is awesome. I just emailed you about sponsoring it, if you're interested :)

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

#276

Post by Melting_Harps » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 12:11 AM UTC

awillen wrote: post #198

ta17711771 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I commented elsewhere about an East Coast presence... your comment above has me thinking about CBD infusion options, too. Something I'm very familiar with for treating older woofs in pain, and spazzy "I hate the vet" woofs, haha! Hope to hear from you.

I just don't feel like I'm nearly educated enough on CBD in dogs to start using that as an ingredient. I know it's become very common very quickly, but I'd have to read all the research before I could consider it.

> I just don't feel like I'm nearly educated enough on CBD in dogs to start using that as an ingredient. I know it's become very common very quickly, but I'd have to read all the research before I could consider it.

It's been done:

https://www.carolinahempcompany.com/products/lalas-cbd-dog-t...

When hemp was still in the grey area they got hit with shut down by CDPHE at the behest of an undisclosed pharma giant. The creator of those treats was a friend of my co-founder and a regular at our parent company's events in CO where she sold her products. She might have gotten an award at the hemp awards, I'm not sure.

The efficacy of CBD is well understood, what isn't is the standardization and practices for effective administration be it in Humans or animals. My guess is you'd get into issues with freezing the hemp oil/extract infused cbd effectively. I mean you could use shatter, if you were really motivated.

Also, this could subject you to bank account shutdowns and business license delays if your bank(s) find out.

Source: Ex fintech founder with hemp farmers, and ex biodynamic farmer that studied hemp and its various properties during apprenticeship and biologist.

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

#277

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 12:12 AM UTC

dguo wrote: post #273

I got tired of reading bad READMEs and made https://www.makeareadme.com/ on a whim. Over the past few years, it has climbed up the Google search rankings. It's usually in the top three hits for "readme" now. I serve developer-focused ads with CodeFund (and Carbon as a backup when CodeFund doesn't have an ad available). I get about $45 in revenue per month. Hosting costs are $0 because it's just a static site served f…

[deleted]

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

#278

Post by smacke » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 12:13 AM UTC

I built a small library for synchronizing subtitles with video (https://github.com/smacke/ffsubsync) at a hackathon, and a couple of users appreciate it enough to sponsor me for $11 / month, which comes to $22 / month after Github matches contributions :)

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

#279

Post by awillen » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 12:15 AM UTC

Melting_Harps wrote: post #265

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…

> Right now I'm working on a dog treat business Interesting, I'm a chef (ex?) and a friend of mine wanted to start a dog food company in 2016-17 but never got around to it. Your approach looks pretty straight forward, for some reason I thought you'd have to be at a commissary kitchen and have food handlers paperwork on top off all the stuff you mentioned. I'll share your link with them and maybe they get re-intereste…

Yeah, I also thought there would be a whole lot more red tape to get through before I started looking into it. I can't imagine starting a human food company with everything that's required for that.

I'm happy to chat with anybody in the space - I'm very early on, so it may be too early for any kind of collaboration, but definitely never hurts to talk to other folks who are interested in this kind of thing.

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

#280

Post by awillen » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 12:16 AM UTC

widforss wrote: post #264

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 love the idea, and will see if I'm able to buy some later. But trans-atlantic shipment and tariffs adds up, unfortunately. And I'm unsure if customs would let animalia get into the EU without special license. Edit: I see now that your comments indicate that you're US only. Just to make sure you're aware, your site calculates and suggests shipping to Europe.

Ah, thanks - I'll have to look into that. I'm not opposed to selling internationally, but to your point I probably need to do a whole lot more research before I do.