Your best passive income? (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#101

Post by tarball » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:12 PM UTC

At first I started with a Blogspot with a bunch of cat gifs and a couple of Google ads. Once I earned enough money to buy a domain name for this project, I bought http://catgifpage.com and designed a cheap-but-fun interface for the visitors I targeted.

As I am more a “dog” person, I decided one year (and about 1000€) later to open http://doggifpage.com. It increased a bit my incomes but not so much. As you may know, the Internet loves cats, cats and cats! In 2013, I earned almost 4000€ for about 10 fun hours of gif gathering!

I have some plans for 2014 but I want to keep this project fun and certainly not time-consuming.

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#102

Post by izolate » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:13 PM UTC

viach wrote: post #15

I've got a job where i do almost nothing. It's my passive income.

I'm convinced this is the best type of passive income. A job with minimal work (perhaps some kind of security guard or IT support) sitting at a desk. I would use the opportunity to work on my own projects that would actually make me money, all the while getting paid.

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#103

Post by erikb » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:13 PM UTC

Why does everybody list books, webapps and mobile apps as passive income? I hope you created them yourself. Then they are not passive income but a product. Like every product they have a lifetime, then you need a new product. Therefore you actually have a first or second active business and not a passive income. "Passive income" is rent for condos you own, or having shares in your friend's profitable business that yields dividends etc. or did I completely misunderstand the meaning of that word?

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#104

Post by heumn » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:13 PM UTC

jbrooksuk wrote: post #56

heumn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users get a "pro account", much like the Twitter Verified badge (called lolipop AWESOME) for a week if they "Download a free app". Those pays everything from 20 cent to couple of bucks per download. App runs barely any hosting cost, and this generates a nice little passive income. I have an admin panel to turn on more ads, but as of now I would rather grow with as little intrusive ads as possible. When, and if I turn…

This is awesome! I'm teaching myself Obj-c now and would like one day to take it further. Glad to hear that it's working out for you :)

Best of luck :) If you have any questions, be sure to ask. I started with the Stanford videos on iTunes u. High quality stuff!

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#105

Post by noir_lord » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:14 PM UTC

zrail wrote: post #76

jbrooksuk wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever thought about rewriting parts of the book to work with other languages, as a separate product?

Yep. Language and payment processor variants are something that I've thought about a lot and will probably start working on at some point. Edit: autocorrect correction

PHP would be a natural fit (Symfony2 or Laravel 4 (I'd vote for Laravel 4 as that is a rapidly growing market that is still relatively "poor" in learning material).

Also if you did happen to do it for Laravel 4, I'd buy it ;).

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#106

Post by jbrooksuk » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:14 PM UTC

cerberusss wrote: post #81

Bought the app Sleep Cycle Calculator from its previous owner. Completely redid the interface for iOS 7, and I'm now finishing up a version with a custom UIView. I paid a designer to completely redo the interface, but then iOS 7 happened. Lost a lot of customers with the transition, because I had to throw away the new design and start again. http://appstore.com/sleepcyclecalculatorwakinguprefreshed

Where do you buy these kind of apps from?

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#107

Post by twobits » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:15 PM UTC

guard-of-terra wrote: post #26

Owning a flat in Moscow and renting it out? Easily 1000$/mo. You can live in Thailand on that money.

How nice is living in Thailand? Quality of life wise, people wise, tech wise?

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#108

Post by hrnnnnnn » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:19 PM UTC

tarball wrote: post #101

At first I started with a Blogspot with a bunch of cat gifs and a couple of Google ads. Once I earned enough money to buy a domain name for this project, I bought http://catgifpage.com and designed a cheap-but-fun interface for the visitors I targeted. As I am more a “dog” person, I decided one year (and about 1000€) later to open http://doggifpage.com . It increased a bit my incomes but not so much. As you may know,…

You got the copyright holders' permission to use those gifs, I take it?

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#109

Post by seivan » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:19 PM UTC

izolate wrote: post #102

viach wrote: post #15

I've got a job where i do almost nothing. It's my passive income.

I'm convinced this is the best type of passive income. A job with minimal work (perhaps some kind of security guard or IT support) sitting at a desk. I would use the opportunity to work on my own projects that would actually make me money, all the while getting paid.

Yeah I want this.

Re: Your best passive income? (2014)

#110

Post by odonnellryan » Tue, Jan 21, 2014, 1:21 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #80

Few bitcoin Antminers. They are paying as much as I'll be earning at my new job I'm starting with the beginning of the February. I basically cloned myself in terms of income by buying them. They should pay for themselves in 3-4 months. I'm not sure if that's passive income or capital gain though.

How many do you own?