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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#81

Post by anyg »

helloakariq wrote: post #45

I run Akariq [0] which sells travel eSIMs in 190+ countries and regions in the world. It does not require an app or account. Customers like it for ease of use. Many HN users have bought eSIMs including countries like China, Japan, Australia and USA. I have overall received positive feedback. Recently, I have a few Digital Nomads in Europe switching over from Nomad to me due to very good pricing [1]. A lot of customer…

Wow, is this really a side-gig?! I would have assumed this would need a team of engineers to run

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#82

Post by adrianwaj »

cyberge99 wrote: post #75

It was a side hustle, but a layoff has made it my new job: https://username.md Launched and happy to answer any questions.

I like the idea.

I am building an RSS reader and like the idea of being able to tie articles back to verified individuals who have a crypto address and contact information. Even having encoded images would be interesting. "Oh, that's the guy with the funny duck picture on everything he makes." - But it's actually a steganography identifier.

So building a DNS for people... is just having an email address enough?

So imagine you are a freelance writer and at the bottom of an article you put some unique string or pic that leads people and agents back to a home page that contains a crypto address and contact details.

One application: even here on HN if some article gets over say 100 points, how would it be possible to invite the author into the forum for an AMA type discussion. You'd check the article for some type of identifier string first.

Also, with an RSS reader, an author or feed owner could be invited to claim a direct connection with their readership and end up collecting tips from them.

I'd use the term "Atom Reader," but someone may think I'm talking about a quantum physics laboratory. At least RSS has no similes.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#83

Post by Stoo »

Last month I made about $1200 US from a tabletop roleplaying game I published around five years ago. This is an outlier and only because the game is about Greek mythology which is at the front of everyone's minds due to the release of the Odyssey. Most months I make $100–200 US, which is nice but not enough to let me quit my day job any time soon.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#86

Post by runjake »

chasd00 wrote: post #11

My work came up with a bonus structure around a certain set of industry certifications. I looked at all the certifications available and worked out a strategy to max the bonus each year. It comes out to about $2.5k/month. So my side hustle is studying and taking tests. Over the last 5 years or so of taking tests + investing I’ve built a nice chunk of change set aside to help pay for college for my two boys (age 14 an…

This is unbelievably cool. And you look like a skilled go-getter to the corporate hiring machine.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#88

Post by Jeremy1026 »

jas0n wrote: post #32

I've grossed 17,531.33 so far this calendar year. You know those cold emails you get sometimes where they want you to get contract jobs and them do the work? I've been doing that for 18 months now and I average roughly 2 hours/week throughout the year. There are some weeks where I'm doing almost no work at all, but then there are some weeks where I'm interviewing daily and maybe have a video call with a client. I've…

Congratulations on (probably) funneling money into North Korea.
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