I have been working on Castup, a podcast editing startup since Jan 2019 and it's been an amazing journey so far. We crossed the $500/month profit mark after the first six weeks and now the team has expanded quite a bit.
Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
571–580 of 866 posts
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#572I built a free reverse geocoding api about 4 years ago ( https://api.3geonames.org ) Usage grew steadily sometimes crashing the server. So I loaded the software on GCP and AWS Marketplaces. Those needing a dedicated api launched their own servers for a fee. It has made an average pf $500 a month since I made those machine images available on https://3geonames.org/api about 2 years ago.
this is pretty awesome -- may use it for some hobby projects. how does it work?
Yes, of course you can use it. The API is free, does not require an api key. The only issue is when many use it and the server crashes. It runs on a t2.micro free tier EC2 instance.
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#573Earlier quoted context omitted.
The GP comment is an app for macOS. Do you know of any good, reputable blockers for iOS?
The GP’s comment is for macOS and iOS. On iOS, Firefox Focus (a single tab browser) comes with a content blocker. Hush is another good content blocker. Of course, Magic Lasso (free or paid).
I've only experienced the dictatorial context of Chrome on Android, so would never have fathomed something like this would ever pass policy. Hence I didn't quite pay proper attention to the copy on the website, which does note that it works on iOS. Thanks.
And wow.
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#574I help elementary schools place students into classes. classplacer.com. This involves some clever algorithmic work and turns out to be a very interesting mathematical problem. I only work with two schools since I don’t have time to expand this and I’m right around that $500/month amount but it’s more like $6k-ish per summer. It still requires some active attention on my part but maybe 10 hours of work per summer since most of it is automated.
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#575My little hardware book, Computer Engineering for Babies launched on Kickstarter a few months ago and blew my mind by raising almost $250k. It’s a simple book with buttons and LEDs to demonstrate different logic gates. I just shipped out the first batch of books a week ago and now waiting for the next batch of books. It’s gotten pretty demanding pretty quickly but I’m really excited about it. I’m hoping I can soon em…
Looks so cool! Do you have any blog or writing to share on the actual process of producing the physical books, which are very customised? I.e. this isn't something someone could fulfill using Amazon's publishing service.
That’s on my todo list. The tldr is that I designed the circuit myself and just started messaging people on alibaba, and that’s how I found my PCBA shop and my book manufacturer.
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#576I have two! An app for making wedding place cards that does about $1000/mo https://www.placecard.me/ A boilerplate for making SaaS apps with Python/Django that does $5k/month (highly variable) https://www.saaspegasus.com/ I also have a third that does around $150/mo. It's an app that adds analytics to GroupMe which is a WhatsApp alternative. https://chatstats.co/ I keep complete revenue and effort data here if you're…
This is awesome! Your dashboard is awesome too. I’ve been wanting to track time spent on my side projects, but I’ve never implemented anything. You have a chart for your time spent! So I’m wondering what you use to track that with?
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#577Earlier quoted context omitted.
Teach me your ways. Any major tips besides getting lucky?
No tips, it’s truly all about luck. My job is not particularly difficult or anything, I mostly herd cats all day without producing much, as I am at the whims of massively over engineered systems that are almost impossible to comprehend. The only thing I would say that can affect your luck is to always say yes to any opportunity that has a chance of taking you forward, even if it is incredibly uncomfortable. A couple…
Thanks. I'm mid career in FAANG, don't make nearly as much as you.. how did you negotiate such a good compensation package?
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#578Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Why would anyone ever sign such a contract? Because they want a job?
That is not justification enough. And given this particular industry, there shouldn't be a need for anyone to give away that much to their employer. Simply walk away and find another position. And before it is mentioned, ofcourse there are niche situations where that one and only position with this requirement is available and nothing else. But those are outliers and not worth mentioning.
>But those are outliers and not worth mentioning.
What an entitled and out of touch attitude.
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#579Have various sport result apps. Generating roughly 100k dollars a month. No team. Conpletely solo. Started in the very first days of apps. Even had Java apps on windows mobile back in the days. Now only iOS and Android.
I also have a non apps company with +25 employees now. Couldn't have started that without the other business
Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell
#580http://codereview.doctor/
It's static analysis SaaS that detects bugs and code smells and offers the fix right inside the GitHub PR, so no need to context switch - just click commit and continue with your day