Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#1

Post by madd_o » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:03 PM UTC

I'm a web developer, happy to use my spare time to build one or several small passive income sites. Looking for ideas for what to build.

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#2

Post by rememberlenny » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:07 PM UTC

You should build a site that helps people find ideas to gain passive income. This topic comes up enough that there is a clear market.

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#3

Post by aaron987 » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:12 PM UTC

This has been written about so much there is really no point in repeating it here. Just Google Pat Flynn. He has a whole blog about it.

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#4

Post by andrewljohnson » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

Fork my Stopwatch app for iOS. It makes just over $5/day, and I never did much work on it.

Completely open source, no real marketing.

https://github.com/andrewljohnson/StopWatch-of-Gaia

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stopwatch-+-timer-stop-watch...

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#5

Post by pokpokpok » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

dropship items that cater to an unsavvy market (old people, hobbyists, memes, videogame/fanship communities). People less inclined to seek things out on amazon themselves. alternatively, work on something YOU care about and make something worthwhile. You might even make a buck

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#6

Post by infiniteseeker » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:15 PM UTC

rememberlenny wrote: post #2

You should build a site that helps people find ideas to gain passive income. This topic comes up enough that there is a clear market.

Isnt that market saturated? Smart Passive Income etc?

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#7

Post by madd_o » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:15 PM UTC

aaron987 wrote: post #3

This has been written about so much there is really no point in repeating it here. Just Google Pat Flynn. He has a whole blog about it.

Thanks for the tip, I'll do that.

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#8

Post by madd_o » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:16 PM UTC

andrewljohnson wrote: post #4

Fork my Stopwatch app for iOS. It makes just over $5/day, and I never did much work on it. Completely open source, no real marketing. https://github.com/andrewljohnson/StopWatch-of-Gaia https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stopwatch-+-timer-stop-watch...

I will look into this, thanks for the reply :)

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#9

Post by madd_o » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:17 PM UTC

rememberlenny wrote: post #2

You should build a site that helps people find ideas to gain passive income. This topic comes up enough that there is a clear market.

Thanks for the reply. I've visited many of the sites that attempt to provide a fountain of ideas, but never found them to be on point. Seems like a challenging product to make.

Re: Ask HN: Ideas for a small passive income site

#10

Post by tpae » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 4:28 PM UTC

I was thinking about starting an open source project like Wordpress, Ghost.io, etc.. Then create a market for templates. There used to be more "production ready" open source projects back in the day.. Not as much anymore.

Some open source project ideas:

- subscription commerce (open source birchbox model)

- location based platform for mobile apps (open source Uber/Lyft model)

- host your own airbnb page (open source airbnb)

etc..

essentially, any type of successful business model that can be replicated in other industries, open source it, then monetize on templates.