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

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

#511

Post by deanmoriarty » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:18 AM UTC

After reading all this, I admit I feel kind of silly for working so hard (50-60h a week on average) to earn my Silicon Valley FAANG comp.

I am wondering how much survivorship bias is at play here, some ideas look relatively simple compared to the amount they bring in. Or maybe one really has to take the leap of faith and trust that there is demand for virtually anything?

Maybe it’s not so simple, my partner opened a small e-commerce store selling some genuinely nice craft she produces, and has been seeing $0 revenues even with some aggressive ads campaigns, so go figure.

My job currently compensates me above $1M a year depending on stock price (public FAANG company), so I never even considered it worthwhile to invest my evening/weekend time in a side project, and always funneled every second of non-recreational time back into my job. But maybe I’ve been doing it all wrong when I see people bringing in several thousands a month for minimal time investment after the product is stabilized.

To somewhat answer the thread: my “side project” is my investment portfolio of boring index funds, where I funnel all my savings. This year is up about 15% (unrealized gains) and realized income of ~$50k via dividends.

Certainly huge congratulations to the business owners, very humbling thread.

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

#512

Post by schnebbau » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:20 AM UTC

seanwilson wrote: post #47

This grew out of a side project of mine: https://www.checkbot.io/ > Checkbot for Chrome finds SEO, speed and security problems before your website visitors do. Test 100s of pages at a time for broken links, duplicate content, missing titles, invalid HTML/CSS/JavaScript, insecure pages, redirect chains and more. I started working on it for myself to help automate common checks I was having to do manually when working…

This looks like a slam dunk. You're only making $500/month from this?

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

#513

Post by sydthrowaway » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:20 AM UTC

deanmoriarty wrote: post #511

After reading all this, I admit I feel kind of silly for working so hard (50-60h a week on average) to earn my Silicon Valley FAANG comp. I am wondering how much survivorship bias is at play here, some ideas look relatively simple compared to the amount they bring in. Or maybe one really has to take the leap of faith and trust that there is demand for virtually anything? Maybe it’s not so simple, my partner opened a…

Jesus christ, what is your role and level of experience?

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

#514

Post by no_time » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:20 AM UTC

vladstudio wrote: post #439

I've been drawing pictures and publishing them as desktop wallpapers for ~20 years now, selling Vlad.studio accounts with unlimited access to downloads [0]. In 2021, I earned $4761, which means ~$400/month. It's not horribly little amount, especially for Russia (where I live), given it's a side project. However, I feel I need to do something more active, rather than just drawing new pictures. Promoting and marketing…

I never thought you could earn money with something so abundant and easy to download as non commissioned desktop wallpapers. Good job nonetheless!

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

#515

Post by deanmoriarty » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:22 AM UTC

sydthrowaway wrote: post #513

deanmoriarty wrote: post #511

After reading all this, I admit I feel kind of silly for working so hard (50-60h a week on average) to earn my Silicon Valley FAANG comp. I am wondering how much survivorship bias is at play here, some ideas look relatively simple compared to the amount they bring in. Or maybe one really has to take the leap of faith and trust that there is demand for virtually anything? Maybe it’s not so simple, my partner opened a…

Jesus christ, what is your role and level of experience?

Tech lead on backend systems at a FAANG that has been experiencing significant stock growth. 11 years of experience, mid 30s.

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

#516

Post by sydthrowaway » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:23 AM UTC

seaman1921 wrote: post #508

gvv wrote: post #505

I invested 10k in PCS ( https://pancakeswap.finance/pools ) and getting around $460/month. High risk tho.

thats not a side project

Reading all the cranks crypto garbage and avoiding scams pretty much make it a project

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

#517

Post by lucasus » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:24 AM UTC

I'm working on Community Questions, which is Q&A plugin for Confluence Cloud. Think of it as Stack Overflow for Teams, but for companies that are using Atlassian suite. With slow but steady increase of customers I've recently reached $1000/month. I love working on this project so hopefully it will grow even more :) https://questions-answers-community.com/

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

#518

Post by _3u10 » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:24 AM UTC

deanmoriarty wrote: post #511

After reading all this, I admit I feel kind of silly for working so hard (50-60h a week on average) to earn my Silicon Valley FAANG comp. I am wondering how much survivorship bias is at play here, some ideas look relatively simple compared to the amount they bring in. Or maybe one really has to take the leap of faith and trust that there is demand for virtually anything? Maybe it’s not so simple, my partner opened a…

Why not pay someone to develop your side project?

More importantly if you want to put survivorship bias on your side, never develop anything until you have a working sales funnel.

Put $1000 aside a month on a design and site for your idea, followed by a marketing person w/ a budget.

The screen following getting their card should be a page letting them know you aren’t onbaording new customers, their card hasn’t been charged and you’ll let them know when you’re taking on more customers (eg. The product is built)

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

#519

Post by sydthrowaway » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:24 AM UTC

seangp wrote: post #235

Friend and I have recently launched a side project where we give away high quality, royalty-free music. Early days but we’re making ~$800 per month from YouTube’s content ID payments alone. https://bluefoxmusic.com

So you learned to make electronic music?

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

#520

Post by Rastonbury » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 10:24 AM UTC

deanmoriarty wrote: post #511

After reading all this, I admit I feel kind of silly for working so hard (50-60h a week on average) to earn my Silicon Valley FAANG comp. I am wondering how much survivorship bias is at play here, some ideas look relatively simple compared to the amount they bring in. Or maybe one really has to take the leap of faith and trust that there is demand for virtually anything? Maybe it’s not so simple, my partner opened a…

How is that silly monetarily? If extra work get's you even a 5% raise, that's $50k year pre-tax that will compound (with future pay bumps/stock grants). What is the equivalent amount of time to build a side project to that level? That said, if you spend extra time that does not translate into extra pay, it's essentially opportunity cost of a side income.