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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

#661

Post by pigcat »

greplogic wrote: post #269
pigcat wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found a factory on Alibaba. I started with a list of about 40 factories that seemed legit and might accommodate a small order (MOQ in their terminology). Since it was a custom shape that I wanted, I shared my designs, and after a bit of back and forth, I eventually settled on 4 factories. I paid for a sample from each, and one factory was far superior. I then had to negotiate down from a MOQ of 2000 units to eventu…

ahh very awesome! i do have one other question at the moment. is it common for the factory to provide individual packaging already for certain size of products or is it more like sending a pallet over and packaging is sourced elsewhere? thanks so much for entertaining this - this thread has been really cool!

That's a good question.

As a disclaimer - I don't have a lot of experience manufacturing in China, but I can tell you what I learned from my experience! And from what I can tell it is extremely common, yes.

Our factory works with other factories they know to provide that kind of thing. For our first order they gave us a choice of plain cardboard boxes or white glossy ones. These boxes were clearly custom shaped because they fit the product perfectly. After selling the first 600 units, I then asked them if we could customize the packaging with a design, and they sent us what's called a "dieline" (google it). Our designer did up a nice design on top of the dieline and that's what we're still using.

From memory, I think it was something like 45 cents more per box for the colour printing.

Another example is a little info page that we include. At the beginning I was printing them at a print shop, then opening each box, putting it in, sealing it back up, etc. I eventually asked the factory if they could do that as well, and they did (for a small additional fee)

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

#662

Post by pigcat »

_nnxj wrote: post #294
gxespino wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been looking for something like this. Just ordered one!

I bought one too. I tried to make the giant water bottles work and they just don’t for me. They’re too clunky to use. I like that this pitcher is made of borosilicate glass and has a good profile for desk usage. Good job OP.

Thank you!

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

#663

Post by jack_pp »

vegesm wrote: post #565
binwiederhier wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really cool. Thank you for sharing. It's kind of shocking though that 1 million downloads equals "only" $500 in ad revenue. I would have expected a much higher value. May I ask what the install base is?

As others said, the active number of downloads is way lower (50k). Even then, I'm pretty bad at marketing and have no idea how to grow it or optimize the monetization. It seems from 10 ideas 9 doesn't work and even the 10th brings only modest results.

Probably because the user base is by definition pretty small. I never used a graphing calculator and neither see any use for it but those who do use it and know what it is have probably found it already. Seems to me marketing for such a niche product has very fast diminishing returns.

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

#664

Post by barfingclouds »

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…

Maybe you have a case of “the grass is always greener.” 1 million dollars a year is a lot. Couldn’t you pretty easily save up and take 5 straight years off if you wanted? What’s to stop that from happening?

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

#665

Post by pigcat »

asdev wrote: post #339
pigcat wrote: 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.

how did you get your first customers?

My life-partner and I both used to work in separate WeWorks, for our full-time jobs. My colleagues (and hers) were very supportive and bought a couple, then people would see them around on desks and word-of-mouth kind of just spread that way! The product benefitted from a bit of a viral effect in the pre-pandemic days :P

Also, one thing I'm really proud of is that a lot of our sales (around 12%) come from repeat customers. I've reached out to many of these customers and a lot of them tell me they buy the first one for themselves, and then the next orders are gifts for their friends.

Eventually I started running facebook ads. That worked pretty well for a while but I really noticed a change after the iOS privacy ads opt-in change. I've run experiments with reddit/pinterest/facebook/instagram ads since, and paid ads are overall just not profitable, at least the way I'm running them! We stopped running paid ads entirely two months ago, and I wish I had stopped a long time ago.

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

#666

Post by mlengineerio »

I have a medium publication and an online ML course. On average, I make about 1.5k per month. Mostly passive. I've been working on it less than 12 months.

When I started, I want to make about $300 per month. Now that I make more, I struggle to find a way to scale. I'd be much more content when I reach $10k per month.

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

#667

Post by daveguy »

littlestymaar wrote: post #659
AussieWog93 wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's only $29 inc worldwide shipping Oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out. The one time I'm not in a shilly mood (Christmas and all) and the post actually gets interaction. Murphy's Law! >Any plans to add an EU or UK distribution point? Sorta kinda maybe. I did have one, but a whole lot of VAT compliance bullshit caught up with me. In most countries, GST/VAT is handled automatically by large eCommerce platforms (if…

> However, the EU requires every single individual business with any stock located on EU soil to register and file individually in every single country where the stock is distributed regardless of revenue. I can only assume this is to create jobs for bureaucrats. You've just misunderstood what EU was it's not a . You have to file individually in every country because they are individual countries: you wouldn't expect…

Well, if there was a standard VAT across all of Asia because of an economic alliance... Yeah.

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

#668

Post by duck »

vneur wrote: post #642
duck wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like a fun game, I'll pass that on to some climber friends. Curious - where did you get the cards printed at? Working on a card game myself, but have been putting off researching that much after getting overwhelmed with options.

Depends on scale. For our initial play-testing I bought a bunch of plastic card sleeves and regular playing cards, and then printed out the 3"x5" game cards on my home printer. The playing cards are to make the card sleeves stiff and this way you can really quickly swap out your cards while play testing. For prototyping the box and the demo copies we tried a few different print shops that operate in the US. The easie…

Thanks for the information and details! Yeah, we're using blank poker cards now and just drawing on them for play testing and that has worked well. I'll check out Game Crafter as a next step as I want some nicer sets to send to friends to help play test.

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

#669

Post by silexia »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #429
silexia wrote: post #425

I make $10,000 a month on a side business I started in July, less than six months ago. I partnered with the guy who helped me build a fence to start a landscaping company. He was making $23 / hour prior to working with me. I provide all the capital equipment (diesel truck, 14' dump trailer, Kubota tractor), and I do the marketing, recruiting, accounring, legal, management. He handles all bids and actual jobs. It curr…

Great comment, thank you! I've been thinking about a similar approach. > I partnered with the guy who helped me build a fence to start a landscaping company. How did you identify him as a reliable candidate for a business partner? Would love to hear more. Thank you!

What I like most about my partner is his humble attitude, desire to learn more, reliability, and hunger for a better life for his family.

He had done lawn mowing and some landscaping for several years prior, but the primary work we are doing now he had not done before.

I strongly think the best opportunities for side gigs that make a lot of money are in the construction trades. Providing a service that people desperately need makes sales pretty darn easy.

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