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Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

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Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#1

Post by ihoys »

I work for a tech company. The fallacy is that I have so much information about day to day job in my head that I have lost all creative juice. I can code in python with some help but my skills are more towards management and backend data processing.

I want to build a side project. Especially, one that makes money. Even if it brings in $100, I feel that it will provide more satisfaction than my current job.

I don't have any frontend dev skills. Where should I start?

Should I outsource the website development part? I am 31. I am pretty sure learning FE development is not going to be useful anytime soon. With tech stacks, if you don't practise you tend to forget things eventually.

Can you provide some ideas on where to start? What are some simple things I can build by myself? Any ideas?

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#3

Post by jjude »

Start to teach. Create a course in udemy on what you know (data processing or management). If creating a video course overwhelms you, create a text based course. I'm using softcover to do that. You can check here: https://www.jjude.com/softcover-in-docker/

Creating a course can get you the momentum. You can start there and branch out to other things.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#4

Post by ams6110 »

cheez wrote: post #2

Pick someone else's niche making money, tweak it to make it your own, implement. Rinse, repeat until you achieve success.

Can't recall where I first heard it, but it was at least 25 years ago.

To be successful, find a successful person. Then do what they do.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#5

Post by dorait »

Check out https://www.meetup.com/Code-for-San-Francisco-Civic-Hack-Nig...

Find one similar in your region. If it does not exist, start one.

Coming up with an idea for a product that is useful and that people will pay for is more difficult than actually implementing one.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#6

Post by xapata »

dorait wrote: post #5

Check out https://www.meetup.com/Code-for-San-Francisco-Civic-Hack-Nig... Find one similar in your region. If it does not exist, start one. Coming up with an idea for a product that is useful and that people will pay for is more difficult than actually implementing one.

Ah yes, with a good idea, the rest is just "a simple matter of implementation."

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#7

Post by xapata »

ams6110 wrote: post #4
cheez wrote: post #2

Pick someone else's niche making money, tweak it to make it your own, implement. Rinse, repeat until you achieve success.

Can't recall where I first heard it, but it was at least 25 years ago. To be successful, find a successful person. Then do what they do.

The tough part is figuring out what's causal and what's just correlated.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#8

Post by haser_au »

Here's my suggestion. Walk down the road to shops in your area (small, family run businesses) and ask if they have a business problem they think IT can solve.

You'd be surprised how little some of these businesses know. I have previously; - Built a travel database in MS Access for a Travel Agent (long time ago) - Ordered and setup ADSL connections and email for a water tank manufacturer and a furniture store - Capture requirements, researched, ordered and installed an office (6 people) worth of IT kit for a not-for-profit (didn't charge them for this work). - Designed and implemented a roster management system for an IT helpdesk for a university.

There are heaps of opportunities. Just have to know where to look.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#9

Post by superasn »

I think you should start something very very small and forget about the money part for now. For me, my most successful project ideas came from problems that I faced during my own site launches.

Since you don't have much knowledge of FE development, I would suggest you keep things Simple Stupid and try to do as much as possible with HTML and jQuery. I have created really complex websites using just PHP and jQuery (sites that have made me 6 figures over time), plus you will learn the real nitty-gritty like DOM manipulation, CSS tricks, etc - which you will need to use anyway at least a few times regardless of the shiny JS framework.

I would highly recommend at this time you don't get sucked into the React, Node, Vue, etc. You will only end up wasting months without nothing to show for it (but maybe I'm just too old school).

Whatever time you have left after that, use it to learn online marketing. Learn about list building, SEO, Copywriting, outreach and affiliate marketing. Because that's how you turn your technology into actual money.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#10

Post by yodon »

If your goal is to make money, don't allow yourself to write a single line of code until you have talked to people not related to you (and not close friends with you), heard at least two of them independently describe facing the same business problem, and heard both of them say "yes, that would help!" (or better "yes, I would buy that!") in response to your proposed solution.

Finding a real business problem and a real solution is what matters. The tech is just an implementation detail you work out later.

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