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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#302

I designed a healthier men's dress shoe and was able to gain close to $100K in preorders in a Kickstarter this past September; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oaka/oaka-the-worlds-he... . Hopefully it doesn't stay a side project for too much longer, fingers crossed.

I wish I had seen this when the kickstarter was still open. Looking forward to being able to buy these.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#303

I don't know if I can even call it a side-project any more. I stopped working professionally 3 years ago. Bought an e-commerce business that was making ~$2k/mo profit and ran it on the side while I had my DevOps job. That project has now turned into ~$30k/mo profit, and I've bought two more e-com businesses that average ~$10k/mo between the two - these are early and I expect them to scale up once I smooth out a few b…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#304
post #185
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the question is how to get comfortable with the mining software stack and the pooling services. I poked at it a bit earlier this year and, possibly just due to my own paranoia, I felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards. I don't know why, I just felt like there was no ground truth from which to build a framework of trust in the tooling and the services and I was suspicious of everything.

In the world of cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency mining you really have to wade through the mounds of sh%# and scammers. In terms of trustworthy sources here are a few trusted YouTubers that are very experienced, they taught me a lot about mining, mining safety, and general crypto knowledge: ChumpChangeXD, Red Fox Crypto, Red Panda Mining, brandon coin, Son of a Tech.

This is super helpful, thank you!!!

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#305
post #270

Pretty simple Shopify app, sitting at about $2700 after expenses. I started it back in 2013, and it slowly grew but has now leveled off. Pretty sweet considering I only answer a handful of customer requests a month now.

what do you sell?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#306

Homechart ( https://homechart.app ) is my solution to "app fatigue": too many productivity apps (todos, calendar, recipes, shopping, budget, etc), no integrations, few self hosted, painful monetization. Take every personal productivity app and put it into an all in one, integrated experience. Available for free (self-hosted container) or in the cloud. No ads, written in Go/Typescript. I look at working on Homechart a…

Neat! If you don't mind sharing, what's the stack?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#307

Homechart ( https://homechart.app ) is my solution to "app fatigue": too many productivity apps (todos, calendar, recipes, shopping, budget, etc), no integrations, few self hosted, painful monetization. Take every personal productivity app and put it into an all in one, integrated experience. Available for free (self-hosted container) or in the cloud. No ads, written in Go/Typescript. I look at working on Homechart a…

Congrats on this! I've also though about this kind of app to a solution for the "app fatigue". I really like the design, simple and fast.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#308
post #113

I run an e-commerce store as a side-hustle: https://drinkyourdailywater.com/ We sell glass water jugs targeted at desk workers, to help remind you to drink enough water. I created it because I wasn't drinking enough water. Running paid ads has been very hit or miss, and I don't have a knack for the marketing. But word-of-mouth has been good for us and we get the odd corporate sale here or there.

That's pretty brilliant. I have the same problem, and I think the time gradations are a perfect solution.

I saw your other comment about down-selecting factories. How do you do quality checks? For example, as a wild hypothetical, how do you know the product isn't made in hazardous environments or isn't safe?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#310

I don't know if I can even call it a side-project any more. I stopped working professionally 3 years ago. Bought an e-commerce business that was making ~$2k/mo profit and ran it on the side while I had my DevOps job. That project has now turned into ~$30k/mo profit, and I've bought two more e-com businesses that average ~$10k/mo between the two - these are early and I expect them to scale up once I smooth out a few b…

If you don’t mind me asking, what are the e-commerce sites? Also, how does one get into such a business? Were you interested in this space beforehand or did you simply acquire a business that looked promising?

In my personal interactions with people in the e-commerce/drop shipping space, the odds of them telling you what they sell is extremely slim. The barrier to entry for anyone else is very low, so once someone has a winning product, they remain very tight lipped about what exactly it is.
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