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Ideas to make money as solo dev

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#21

Post by BWStearns »

purple-leafy wrote: post #4

I think more solo developers should build chrome extensions. Why? Because as a full-time developer wanting to do a side-project, you need to build what you can in a short time frame, with minimal maintenance, and without worrying about hosting costs. And you actually want users and minimal marketing. These are the smallest true solo dev projects you can build I think. I’ve built 10 in the last year (mostly for fun) m…

Do you have a good way to modify contenteditable divs from the extension? I'm working on one and we're having a hell of a time trying to come up with One Way to do input updates but everyone's contenteditables behave slightly differently.

Like I just want to be able to ask

* what is the content of this input field

* what is the selected text in the field

* please replace the content of the field with this new content

but the API there is really rough and there's tons of edge cases. Is there some library you use?

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#22

Post by altdataseller »

purple-leafy wrote: post #4

I think more solo developers should build chrome extensions. Why? Because as a full-time developer wanting to do a side-project, you need to build what you can in a short time frame, with minimal maintenance, and without worrying about hosting costs. And you actually want users and minimal marketing. These are the smallest true solo dev projects you can build I think. I’ve built 10 in the last year (mostly for fun) m…

That or integrations/apps for SaaS app stores and marketplaces. Think Salesforce apps, Shopify apps, etc

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#23

Post by pagade »

purple-leafy wrote: post #4

I think more solo developers should build chrome extensions. Why? Because as a full-time developer wanting to do a side-project, you need to build what you can in a short time frame, with minimal maintenance, and without worrying about hosting costs. And you actually want users and minimal marketing. These are the smallest true solo dev projects you can build I think. I’ve built 10 in the last year (mostly for fun) m…

Could you share some ideas or pointers on how to monetize an extension?

Also, probably a dumb question but what stops other developers to reverse engineer your extension and release a clone?

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#24

Post by authorfly »

purple-leafy wrote: post #20
authorfly wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A second question - must be your biggest newest fan sorry - how do you know which extensions will get approved? I built 4 and applied with 3. 2 got rejected and at the time (3-6 years back) the rules and reasons were not very clear. One was rejected for "doing multiple things" which I understand is in the rules, but those things were e.g. to translate/save transcript for highlighted text, in my opinion, pretty relate…

That’s okay I love discussing extensions! Most extensions get approved, I’ve had some quite complex extensions be approved as long as you can define their “single purpose”. I’ve even had YouTube ad blockers/Google ad-blockers approved. Honestly from what you’ve shared I’d expect your extension to be easily approved. Extensions that request permissions they don’t need won’t get approved. Lately though, extensions that…

Thank you for your response! That is valuable, I will note that down. Ah this might be it. I was doing auth and imported react too (following a tutorial on firebase + react in extensions) about 4 years ago (~2020 winter). How do you manage to keep track of credits or make money if your extensions don't have auth then, though? Send users to results pages which are on your site?

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#25

Post by purple-leafy »

BWStearns wrote: post #21
purple-leafy wrote: post #4

I think more solo developers should build chrome extensions. Why? Because as a full-time developer wanting to do a side-project, you need to build what you can in a short time frame, with minimal maintenance, and without worrying about hosting costs. And you actually want users and minimal marketing. These are the smallest true solo dev projects you can build I think. I’ve built 10 in the last year (mostly for fun) m…

Do you have a good way to modify contenteditable divs from the extension? I'm working on one and we're having a hell of a time trying to come up with One Way to do input updates but everyone's contenteditables behave slightly differently. Like I just want to be able to ask * what is the content of this input field * what is the selected text in the field * please replace the content of the field with this new content…

Hmm this isn’t something I’ve dealt with before, what kind of sites are you targeting? Wordpress sites? I ask because you mention “div” but are talking about input fields

You would probably use a content script and set world to “MAIN” and search for the contenteditable attribute on first guess

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#26

Post by purple-leafy »

pagade wrote: post #23
purple-leafy wrote: post #4

I think more solo developers should build chrome extensions. Why? Because as a full-time developer wanting to do a side-project, you need to build what you can in a short time frame, with minimal maintenance, and without worrying about hosting costs. And you actually want users and minimal marketing. These are the smallest true solo dev projects you can build I think. I’ve built 10 in the last year (mostly for fun) m…

Could you share some ideas or pointers on how to monetize an extension? Also, probably a dumb question but what stops other developers to reverse engineer your extension and release a clone?

I’m yet to monetise an extension (I will soon) so still figuring that out.

In terms of reverse engineer/clones you can get them DMCA’d if they straight up copy your code.

If your extension is complex you can use cloud functions/server-less functions to handle some parts of your extension

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#27

Post by purple-leafy »

authorfly wrote: post #24
purple-leafy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s okay I love discussing extensions! Most extensions get approved, I’ve had some quite complex extensions be approved as long as you can define their “single purpose”. I’ve even had YouTube ad blockers/Google ad-blockers approved. Honestly from what you’ve shared I’d expect your extension to be easily approved. Extensions that request permissions they don’t need won’t get approved. Lately though, extensions that…

Thank you for your response! That is valuable, I will note that down. Ah this might be it. I was doing auth and imported react too (following a tutorial on firebase + react in extensions) about 4 years ago (~2020 winter). How do you manage to keep track of credits or make money if your extensions don't have auth then, though? Send users to results pages which are on your site?

I haven’t run into a case where I need to track credits, but if I had to track a subscription status there are a few ways to do auth - but it is harder in extensions

I usually get users to bring their own api keys etc

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#28

Post by visox »

proc0 wrote: post #2

It's hard to say whether that would work without knowing the landscape of market in that area, like if there's a need and if there are competitors. It sounds like what you're suggestion could be a full blown app with accounts that link to AWS? Or would it be a tool lib you pay to download? I'm trying to look for ideas that won't require marketing or anything other than just making the software. It seems something lik…

hm you would need to use tools like google trends and some keyword research to find something people are already looking for naturally but isnt really there. That may work.

Re: Ideas to make money as solo dev

#29

Post by BWStearns »

purple-leafy wrote: post #25
BWStearns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a good way to modify contenteditable divs from the extension? I'm working on one and we're having a hell of a time trying to come up with One Way to do input updates but everyone's contenteditables behave slightly differently. Like I just want to be able to ask * what is the content of this input field * what is the selected text in the field * please replace the content of the field with this new content…

Hmm this isn’t something I’ve dealt with before, what kind of sites are you targeting? Wordpress sites? I ask because you mention “div” but are talking about input fields You would probably use a content script and set world to “MAIN” and search for the contenteditable attribute on first guess

I’m targeting any input fields. So like, standard input boxes like HN, but also weird input fields like a google doc or notion page.
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