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I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

calebporzio.com

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Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#221

Post by syndacks »

geerlingguy wrote: post #116
jfengel wrote: post #4

Props. Well done. The thing that struck me most was the podcast appearance. I was distantly affiliated with the music industry at one point and I saw over and over the value of being in the right place at the right time. Great bands languish because they just weren't seen. I don't mean to diminish the work, either the technological or the effort of finding sponsors. I just want to caution about extrapolating success…

Yeah; I have been trying to find ways to support my open source work and educational work over the past year, and I finally struck YouTube algorithm gold with a couple videos last month... but trying to replicate that success is hard. Sometimes I can spend days or more polishing a blog post or video and making it really good—and it falls flat. Other times I'll write up a post in an hour or so and it front pages on HN…

Hey there -- I came across your blog a year or so ago via the Rpi Drupal stack. Cool stuff.

I didn't realize you had such a large YouTube presence. I'm curious how you got started. You seem to be quite interested in Ansible so I imagine you just started there and it grew organically?

FWIW -- I'm looking to start making YouTube videos on full-stack web development. I used to be a high school teacher before teaching myself programming well enough to do it professionally so I think I'd be pretty good at this topic/market (entry-mid level). I'm just not sure exactly where to start, how to make myself standout compared to others doing the same thing, etc.

Maybe you've written a blog post on this topic before you could direct me to? Is entry level full-stack web dev too broad? Thanks in advance, keep up the good work!

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#222

Post by BrandonM »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #124
hoorayimhelping wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $100k is still not even close to how much you can make in SV as an engineer Oh, well then fuck this idiot, right? What a dumbass loser - doesn't even realize they can be a s i l i c o n v a l l e y e n g i n e e r and make a lot of money. Jesus it's so exhausting reading the knee-jerk "SV engineers make more money" reaction to everything. You know what this person has that 99.999% of all SV engineers will never hav…

I actually really want to live in San Francisco, but I don't want to and am not smart enough to work for a FAANG-type company. It's one of the few American cities where you can be a first-class citizen without owning a car and comfortably bike/walk everywhere year-round. SF has a really fascinating history and cool culture. I wish it was possible to work in academia there without already being wealthy.

I've lived in many US cities, including SF, and your characterization rings hollow for me. Unless you're focusing exclusively on climate, SF without a car isn't all that much better than dozens of other cities. Notably, unless you live near a BART stop, most transit commutes are going to involve some bus, switching to a separate system, 30+ minutes daily commute, $12+ round trip, etc. Or paying for rideshares. Dozens of cities in the US have the equivalent or better, without all the other associated baggage of SF. Here are a few examples I've lived or spent significant time in:

- Chicago, IL: The L reaches a lot more neighborhoods, is a single integrated transit system. - Columbus, OH: Great bike lanes and dedicated paths, bus system that covers the entire city. - New York, NY: By far the most walkable city in the US. - Philadelphia, PA: Decent subway system, good connection to NJ and NY via NJ Transit. Very walkable core and neighborhoods. - Washington, DC: Far superior version of BART with a lot more coverage.

Unless I've just happened across a half dozen of the best cities in the US, SF isn't all that remarkable.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#223

Post by kungtotte »

Shalle135 wrote: post #206
kungtotte wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I live in Sweden and I make around that much before taxes and me and my wife could manage with just my paycheck if we really had to. That's with a mortgage on a house, two cars, and a four year old kid. I doubt the cost of living in Denmark is that much higher than Sweden, so I'd say you're living beyond your means if you can't make it work on 329K DKK after tax...

Have you been to copenhagen? If u’d head out to eat you won’t find anything for less than 500 SEK/pp unless u want fast food. Drinks are cheap though :)

No, I've never been to Denmark at all. That sounds really expensive. Not even Stockholm is that expensive (I live 60 KM south of Stockholm).

If you go out to eat there at a normal place, it'll be more like 300-400 SEK (~280 DKK) per person including 1-2 alcoholic beverages.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#224

Post by eXpl0it3r »

hanniabu wrote: post #139
NickBusey wrote: post #85

I hit $500/yr on Patreon this week for my open source work! :) Nice work, I should think about having paid only videos as well, I believe I can do that pretty easily on Patreon. Good tips in here.

Anybody have opinions/reasoning on Patreon vs Github Sponsors when it comes to open source work?

The biggest difference would be that GitHub Sponsors has no fees [1], so everything people put in will go to the developer. Where Patreon can take 5-12% depending on the plan [2].

Additionally, GitHub is just so much closer to the actual open source work and more easily discoverable for users of your product.

As a supporter, I'll pick GitHub over Patreon anytime.

[1] https://help.github.com/en/github/supporting-the-open-source... [2] https://www.patreon.com/product/pricing

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#225

Post by WC3w6pXxgGd »

elygre wrote: post #212
qazpot wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not hating on socialism. It has it's merits like providing healthcare if properly implemented but having excessive permits and licence is one of the facets of socialism. Socialism is not the perfect system.

The original comment read as if you blamed socialism. If you did, you got rightly called out. If you didn’t, then I don’t understand what you meant.

How is blaming socialism a bad thing? Has humanity learned nothing from the failure of socialism throughout the 19th and 20th centuries?

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#227

Post by zenhack »

granos wrote: post #204
zenhack wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we have an active person in the Sandstorm community from Finland who maintains Wekan[1]. I didn't previously know the specifics, but he's had to tell a lot of people "sorry, I can't accept donations" too. It's so much easier in the US. If you're an individual it's going to be taxable income, but there's no up-front paperwork to do (for that matter, you don't have to "set up" a sole proprietorship here either --…

If you haven't done so already, you REALLY should look into setting up an LLC for contract work in the US. Legally separating your business assets from your personal assets is very important. It doesn't cost a ton -- varies by state and whether you involve a lawyer or not. It will make your taxes a bit more complicated, but consider that the cost of insurance against somebody trying to sue you and take your house.

I seem to be in the most expensive state in the country for that. That's rent & food for a month.

But it's a one-time fee, so you're probably still right in general, but for the moment I'm mostly coasting on savings & sponsorships, focusing on the stuff I care about while I have the breathing room. I might consider being a bit more organized if/when I ramp up business again and am considering looking for new clients.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#228

Post by zrail »

granos wrote: post #204
zenhack wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we have an active person in the Sandstorm community from Finland who maintains Wekan[1]. I didn't previously know the specifics, but he's had to tell a lot of people "sorry, I can't accept donations" too. It's so much easier in the US. If you're an individual it's going to be taxable income, but there's no up-front paperwork to do (for that matter, you don't have to "set up" a sole proprietorship here either --…

If you haven't done so already, you REALLY should look into setting up an LLC for contract work in the US. Legally separating your business assets from your personal assets is very important. It doesn't cost a ton -- varies by state and whether you involve a lawyer or not. It will make your taxes a bit more complicated, but consider that the cost of insurance against somebody trying to sue you and take your house.

Literally just buying an insurance policy is significantly less complicated and roughly the same cost, IME. Professional liability, errors and omissions, etc. cost me ~$1k a year when I was doing consulting for $1mm in coverage. My LLC taxed as an S-corp cost more than that just in tax prep services.

A single member LLC provides some benefits but those benefits often require a lawyer to invoke (i.e. you're getting sued, gotta file things and work the legal system). If you have insurance you just tell the insurance company and they hire the lawyers.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#230

Post by jermaustin1 »

andrewzah wrote: post #187
hanniabu wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What in the world....mind sharing tips or any links where I can learn more about this?

Get a good accountant. They are seriously worth it.

This advice is invaluable.

I only pay my accountant around $2000 to handle a bunch of housekeeping at the end of the year that I'm to lazy to do during, and to file my taxes. For years I did my own taxes using Turbo Tax Self Employed and Turbo Tax Business Editions, but in 2016 I decided to outsource all of that headache, the first year, my taxes were half of what they were the year before with similar income. Then after the TCJA in 2017, my taxes were only 1/5th what they had been before the accountant, with close to double the raw income.

The biggest changes from doing it myself: I got an accountant; I incorporated (s-corp) instead of doing self-employment income; I draw W2 income now (using Gusto); I set up a SEP-IRA and put 20% of my W2 earnings as an automatic debit from my business account (in Vanguard); TCJA chops off 20% of my distributions on my K1; and I'll state again, I hired an accountant.

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