Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#151

Post by nhebb » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 6:59 PM UTC

famousactress wrote: post #131

nhebb wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think an avatar photo business would be a good idea. Think of all the twitter users with resized photos of themselves that are unflattering, cryptic, or just plain bad.

When I travel to SF (where the startup I work for is based), I often end up shooting headshots for folks who have talks to give, or need bio photos, etc. Someone could definitely corner the PA/SF entrepreneur headshot market, without much trouble I think. The trick with headshots is enough finding people (close to you) willing to pay enough money to make it worthwhile. That usually means actors, authors, or executive…

There was a story a while back about two guys who set up a badge printing service at SF trade shows. Something similar could be done for the headshot biz.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#152

Post by edawerd » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 7:15 PM UTC

singer wrote: post #144

edawerd wrote: post #37

As my Android apps started becoming more popular, I started seeing piracy of my apps skyrocket. At the time, Google didn't have their application licensing system in place, so I built my own. With the licensing system in place for my apps, I was also free to distribute and sell my application binary on my own, without fear of it being pirated. After seeing piracy drop dramatically and talking with other Android devel…

What happens if someone bypasses your client library in the APK file? Also, will the application fail to launch if it cannot reach androidlicenser.com (or wherever it goes) to verify the user when the app is launched?

As always, the APK needs to be obfuscated to prevent hackers from decompiling the code and bypassing the client library.

If internet connection is unavailable or androidlicenser.com is unreachable, it is completely upto the developer to determine what to do next. My best practice recommendation is to allow the user to continue to use the application.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#153

Post by edawerd » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 7:17 PM UTC

shareme wrote: post #102

edawerd wrote: post #37

As my Android apps started becoming more popular, I started seeing piracy of my apps skyrocket. At the time, Google didn't have their application licensing system in place, so I built my own. With the licensing system in place for my apps, I was also free to distribute and sell my application binary on my own, without fear of it being pirated. After seeing piracy drop dramatically and talking with other Android devel…

Looks like a useful too in android dev arsenal with Amazon Appstore launching..is there some type of blog post, etc as I would like to do some type of post for ChicagoAndroid.com which I am a member of..

You can learn more about AndroidLicenser at blog.androidlicenser.com

These are some good posts to start at:

http://blog.androidlicenser.com/selling-shovels-to-android-g...

http://androidandme.com/2010/10/news/android-licenser-looks-...

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#154

Post by phirephly » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 7:24 PM UTC

thekevan wrote: post #107

phirephly wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://kennethfinnegan.blogspot.com/ Text ads, top banner and bottom of right bar. $300 a year; as a college student, yeah, that's worth it.

I reloaded your blog after disabling adblock and barely noticed the ad. I don't blame you for keeping it there. Why don't you have any ads on your C Programming Tips site? I'd be interested in the number of hits that gets compared to your blog.

The C site does has ads, actually. Far right, right under the Contact Us link.

Hits in last 31 days (5 month running CTR avg):

http://kennethfinnegan.blogspot.com/ - 4,574 0.33%CTR

http://ctips.pbwiki.com/ - 544 0.14%CTR

http://www.ducttape.pbwiki.com - 1,073 0.14%CTR

http://kwf.dyndns.org:5821/ - 164 (Mostly script kiddies attacking my Chumby) 0.86%CTR

The C tips site was a half-finished project. There was a lot more work to be done and I never promoted it.

And yes, all of them are very stale unformatted html pages. Web development isn't my interest or skill, and plain pages like those have never bothered me. Most of it is useful notes to myself, which I think others will find useful.

The Duct Tape site actually pays much better than my blog per page view, bringing in 2-3 cents per 1k, where the blog almost never brings in anything per 1k, but the blog pays $0.30-$1.50 per click, where the tape site only brings in 5-15 cents per click, so the blog brings in about 95%, the tape site the next 5%, and the C site brings in 2 cents on a good month.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#155

Post by sstrudeau » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:00 PM UTC

il wrote: post #5

A couple years ago I created a small international proxy service. The service was targeted at advertisers who wanted to advertise in other countries but didn't have an easy way to see international ads or landing pages from competitors(most landing pages in this niche were geotargeted and would redirect based on your IP). It probably took less than 10-15 hours to hack together in PHP. I didn't have a freemium model o…

I spent a lot of time searching for a service exactly like this and considered building one myself. Does it still exist?

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#156

Post by theambershow » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:12 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #99

danssig wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to hear more about this. I've been thinking of getting more into photography myself. It seems like wedding photography is a bad idea as it's way overdone. I was thinking architecture or portrait photography. What did you all end up doing?

I think an avatar photo business would be a good idea. Think of all the twitter users with resized photos of themselves that are unflattering, cryptic, or just plain bad.

Hey, my friend sent me this. I have such a business. Actually, I'm a photographer and I ran a special for the month of March, $100 "blogger headshots". It's a quick 20 or so minute session. I narrow down my picks to four images. I present them to the client sized at 1000 px. Folks then had the option to buy high resolution photos for $25 each if they wanted them for something else.

Normally a headshot session with me costs $250, lasts an hour, and includes multiple locations and clothing changes. A client would receive a few dozen shots, high resolution, on a disk. This is appropriate for actors and authors picking a photo, but unnecessary for bloggers or people who just want decent avatars for linkedin, facebook, twitter, etc.

OH! You can also market this to people who need photos for online dating.

It was stunningly successful. I was able to take a slow time of year and churn out a lot of business. Because it is a special, it got written up in blogs and people Twittered it a lot.

So I say go for it! Just make sure you can deliver with quality headshots.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#157

Post by phirephly » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:32 PM UTC

alphamale wrote: post #126

phirephly wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://kennethfinnegan.blogspot.com/ Text ads, top banner and bottom of right bar. $300 a year; as a college student, yeah, that's worth it.

Damn bro, Looks like you just stepped out of the 1970's Microsoft pic. Bro hit up my site for a makeover at alphamal.es

Really? Just from my head shot? I think the best you could do was "Damn bro, you need a hair cut, and I hate your brand new glasses"

But being rude wasn't even the point though, was it? This is really just blogspam...

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#158

Post by alphamale » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:45 PM UTC

phirephly wrote: post #157

alphamale wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn bro, Looks like you just stepped out of the 1970's Microsoft pic. Bro hit up my site for a makeover at alphamal.es

Really? Just from my head shot? I think the best you could do was "Damn bro, you need a hair cut, and I hate your brand new glasses" But being rude wasn't even the point though, was it? This is really just blogspam...

Look bro, quit being so sensitive. This isnt blog spam. That said, I stand by my first assessment. I suck at photoshop, but it appears to me and I bet everyone else, that you fit right in. Nothing to be ashamed about bro. You need to OWN your identity. Just Be you bro:

http://www.alphamal.es/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/msft.png

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#159

Post by alphamale » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:46 PM UTC

kirse wrote: post #141

alphamale wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn bro, Looks like you just stepped out of the 1970's Microsoft pic. Bro hit up my site for a makeover at alphamal.es

I never understood this, what sort of "alpha" male goes on the internet and looks for advice from other people on how to be a man? The first step in being a real man is not looking to others on how to be a man. (Or at least finding a mentor with true character, not Maxim magazine articles and other garbage) I still think your site has a great potential for an audience though, I fell for the same sort of BS when I was…

I'm sure I'll be making some changes as the site grows, but my target demographic is college kids and early adult males.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on any side projects that make "small/passive" income?

#160

Post by alphamale » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 8:49 PM UTC

alphamale wrote: post #127

Just launched my Guy's Lifestyle site. Q&A and advice from Alphas. Expect it to be HUGE bros. I will be building it up in my spare time. http://www.alphamal.es/

look bros I'm glad my post is way on the bottom. At least it won't get lost in the mix. Most people read the first post and then scroll alll the way down to the bottom. I checked analytics and alot of you stopped by. I don't have ads, so doesn't matter either way. Thanks for visiting my site though, I know there's a market for it!