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

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91–100 of 109 posts

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

#91

Why can't most of these be OSS? Why does everything have to be a side project that needs to make money?

Because I asked for projects that make money. But I am sure there are a great deal of projects out there that are simply open source, this is just not the place to showcase them, since you know, I asked for projects that make money :)

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

#93
Clicky: 2024 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39110194 2023 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34482433 2022 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29995152 2021 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29667095 2020 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24947167

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

#94

https://www.roomantic.ai/ Launched this a few months ago for free to gather user feedback and iterate, but didn’t get much traction. Finally got burned out last week and decided to charge $10 for it, thinking I could at least justify abandoning it once my downloads went to zero. But was pleasantly surprised to see I still get 3-5 downloads a day. And these paying users are much more likely to actually provide feedbac…

I like the name but didn’t noticed that it was Room-antic, not romantic. So I was expecting your site to be about dating or AI generated romance fiction, either way something I am not in market for. But after visiting the site, I can definitely use your app for when we are buying furniture or even rearranging things.

I wonder if that’s causing any issues with potential customers.

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

#97
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's clever and entertaining. Have you actually enjoyed any of them?

I do actually enjoy them and they’re pretty much all in my wheel house. Well I enjoy them when I have plenty of time to sit down with a cup of coffee and study. A few times I’ve been under basically deadline pressure to get the exams passed in time to qualify for the bonus, that’s not fun at all. Over about 20 certification attempts I’ve only failed one :) (they’re all pass/fail).

That's a solid success rate!

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

#98
post #22

I had an idea in 2008 to make a website that emailed your friends when you die. I built https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ in a weekend, and it's been making money since. Around $1k/mo now.

just curious, how did you find your first user?

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

#99
post #83

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.

great new for you! if you don't mind, could you please tell how to persuade the first genuine user to instal your product?

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

#100
post #22

I had an idea in 2008 to make a website that emailed your friends when you die. I built https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ in a weekend, and it's been making money since. Around $1k/mo now.

just curious, how did you find your first user?

They were OK, nothing amazing.
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