Off-topic but I'm looking to launch a side project myself, and I like the inspiration in this thread. Does anyone have some advice on how to 'get out of your bubble' and find an interesting problem someone has that is worth solving?
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?
#392I'm the only dev behind qr-tools, a python library to work with QR codes, and QtQR a GUI that uses the lib and let's you create and different types of QR codes and decode QR codes easily from images, the web or your webcam. Both projects are OpenSource and mainly targeted to Ubuntu users. I haven't been actively developing them, just some maintenance. They seem to have a pretty good use base but is hard to tell with this type of projects.
I've never talk about it because is not a usual conversation topic, QR codes are not use that much where I'm from and less on the desktop.
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
I paid an Italian guy experienced in the fashion industry. He organized all of the bikinis for one upfront purchase price, which also included service fees for him. But that was a pity later on when I ran out of bikinis and didn't manage to hire him again.
This guy sounds like the key angle on your business. How did you find him in the first place?
Yes, when he couldn't broker another delivery, I stopped selling. He was crucial to the business.
I knew him through a shared friend. I lived in Asia for some years, and that's where most westerners go if they want to create a manufacturing business.
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
This guy sounds like the key angle on your business. How did you find him in the first place?
Really interested in this question - am looking at a particular clothing niche and wondering whether to just get a run of cheapy print-on-demand clothing, or look for a batch of better quality custom produced stuff.
It's like $12 per print on demand versus $2 per screenprinted ahead of time.
Plus screen printing tends to have much stronger colors and feel more valuable than the offset printing used in on-demand production.
I'd suggest a Kickstarter to finance a 100+ shirt bulk order at $15 per shirt. That way, you have good profit margins and good quality.
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#395I started up a botanical brewery. We make non alcoholic drinks from medicinal mushrooms and we’re about three weeks away from launching our chaga based drink. We were supposed to launch in March, but COVID threw a spanner into the works. You can check it here: https://borealbrewing.ca Putting out a real product has been an insane amount of work, from getting the brand designed to finding somebody to actually help wit…
First off, it looks like you've really worked hard at this, and it looks really interesting. It's something that I would try if I saw it in a store. I would expect to find it at any of the health food stores locally. I mean the following constructively: Why the focus on ditching alcohol? It's a big turn-off and I'm not even a regular drinker. Seems like the wrong messaging immediately. Sell your product on its own me…
I stopped drinking alcohol three years ago because, as I was getting older, it wasn't working for me anymore. Two or three beers and I would feel it the next day.
The drink was born out of the desire to create an alternative to alcoholic drinks.
Also, there is a big movement away from alcohol right now, with people looking for alternatives and I was hoping to tap into this.
But, looking at the site with a fresh eye, I think you're making a good point. Perhaps it comes across as a little judgy.
Thanks for pointing this out, I'll do some thinking.
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#396My side projects are primarily for myself meaning: - intellectually stimulating - excuse to acquire toys (cnc, miter saw, linoblocks and inking supplies, etc) - can be used a fun projects/learning experiences for my kids. My project that has generated the most revenues has been selling (in very low quantities) a limited edition wordclock that I designed and build. Except for the Qlock2 all the wordclocks I’ve seen ar…
I don't know if you'd be willing to say or not but roughly how many of the clocks do you/have you sold? And does the website/online promotion bring you customers or is it more of a word of mouth/knowing the right people effort?
I'm always curious about the limited run, higher-quality, higher-cost items because it's so outside the typical buying habits I see and I imagine would be closer almost to art dealing than the usual business paths we see on HN.
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#397My side projects are primarily for myself meaning: - intellectually stimulating - excuse to acquire toys (cnc, miter saw, linoblocks and inking supplies, etc) - can be used a fun projects/learning experiences for my kids. My project that has generated the most revenues has been selling (in very low quantities) a limited edition wordclock that I designed and build. Except for the Qlock2 all the wordclocks I’ve seen ar…
I don't know if you'd be willing to say or not but roughly how many of the clocks do you/have you sold? And does the website/online promotion bring you customers or is it more of a word of mouth/knowing the right people effort? I'm always curious about the limited run, higher-quality, higher-cost items because it's so outside the typical buying habits I see and I imagine would be closer almost to art dealing than the…
Great question! I’ve sold 5 clocks so far with essentially no marketing effort other than very limited social media posts. The plan was for my spouse to spend about 1 day a week marketing them but for various reasons, we haven’t had the chance to do that. We promote the website, but all of our sales have been through Etsy (which was a surprise for me). 2 sales were people we knew. Hopefully, by years end we’ll be able to spend more time marketing. It would be great to get to 1-2 units a month.
I’ve paid for the cnc I bought and all the other miscellaneous tools so far. I’m not yet accounting for My time spent. But currently that’s still intellectually interesting since I’m learning how to fabricate things better and still experimenting. I’d say that if I sell 2 more I’d be at break even even if including my time.
More importantly my kids 4 and 7 are really excited about making things and are constantly coming up with projects that use the cnc machine (I obviously design the thing and run the machine) but my oldest “helps” me set up and even made a video explaining to their kindergarten class how the machine works. I found that ad a big win.
I also REALY like making various presents for family and friends as I wrote in this blog post: https://www.finewordclocks.com/blog/2019/10/10/what-is-the-m.... To me that is worth a lot and nearly all kids birthday party presents for the last 2 years have been home made and VERY highly received.
I agree this is very different that what most side projects posted here are. Atm I’m not really focused on making money as I am doing something interesting. If I was optimizing on money, I’d have a different day job. Though I’d certainly love to have more money, I don’t need it and my quality of life would likely be much different (worse).
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#398In this virus season alone I've made $8000 in sales. You'll find various subreddits where people are buying around 5-10spools a month. Imagine how much virgin plastic is being added like that to the environment. I've been creating filament and selling it: https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-ho... This activity also help recycle waste plastic. Production cost of filament is $7.5 per 5kg and filam…
Wow awesome idea. How many rolls do you produce a day? How about recycling plastic waste ground on the beach?
Recycling plastic is hard because it will be degraded to various levels, will be of different plastic types, will be dirty, will have custom additives, etc.
If you are interested in plastic recycling: https://preciousplastic.com/
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#399Off-topic but I'm looking to launch a side project myself, and I like the inspiration in this thread. Does anyone have some advice on how to 'get out of your bubble' and find an interesting problem someone has that is worth solving?
Solve problems for yourself. Then see if it’s valuable for others.
Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?
#400I had an affiliate marketing website when I was a kid, mostly for fun and learning with some friends, that made some money off backpack recommendations and Amazon links. We didn't feel too good about it after a while so we shut it down. I now hate SEO powered advice blogs. More recently, I've started making adult videogames, one of which being an interactive fiction that had a lot of traction, but is now on hiatus du…
Interactive fiction in video games? Interesting, any examples?