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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#281

Post by h0l0cube »

mickael-kerjean wrote: post #217

600$ a month from my open source project ( https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash ) whose idea came from the infamous HN launch of Dropbox ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 ). I made that cool frontend for FTP server with an interesting twist as I've abstracted: 1. the backend storage: meaning it connects to a wide range of existing storage like FTP, SFTP, S3, Dropbox, ... 2. the authentication layer:…

> Most of the money comes from companies who needed various degree of customisation and support or didn't want to host on premise.

How did you go about customer acquisition?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#282

Post by niftylettuce »

nabakin wrote: post #280
niftylettuce wrote: post #9

Forward Email is doing several thousand per month now just one year in. Site: https://forwardemail.net Open Startup: https://forwardemail.net/open-startup

Looks like you've gotten the HN hug of death

Just a normal DDoS that we're mitigating

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#283

Post by plasticbugs »

FearlessNebula wrote: post #234
plasticbugs wrote: post #2

My 'side project' is pretty conventional, but it surprises people to learn how much I've earned from it with very little effort. At least once or twice a week, I use my lunch break to walk to the local thrift store. I look up items on eBay as I browse and buy anything that would net me $20+ (basically to cover my lunch). I stick to the 'hard goods' section (things like electronics, games, DVDs, home appliances, books…

Do you know of any discount places to get the packing material you use? Would be funny if you found a thermal printer at the thrift shop.

Funnily enough, the digital scale I use for all my shipments was a thrift store find! I don’t know about discount shipping supplies. I sourced nearly 100% of my supplies from Amazon. I did have to invest in some nice vinyl album mailers after adding vinyl records to my repertoire. There is definitely a large up front cost for shipping supplies to avoid using those pack and ship places and their high prices.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#284

Post by Kerrick »

lkbm wrote: post #85
epolanski wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate what you do (the very idea of all those KWs going to solve sudokus to get monopoly money) but at the same respect you. In the end if someone buys, why not sell.

The people in my house use space heaters in their rooms. 1500 watts of electricity produces 1500 watts of heat whether you do it via a space heater or a computer. The only way OP's method is worse is the capital costs of the processors. The energy spent on the actual heating is converted with 100% efficient either way.

Our house is electrically heated via a heat pump, which has appreciably more efficiency than a resistance heater (or computer).

Here's a neat video about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#285

Post by bonniemuffin »

technolo-g wrote: post #134

I’ve been helping some friends tour their large fire sculptures to various music festivals on the weekends and building my own for the same purpose.

Are you saying you actually generate a positive income stream by showing large fire art at events? I'm impressed. :) When I've been involved in big art, it was a giant money pit, even before accounting for the thousands of hours of unpaid labor we put into it. We weren't aiming to make money with it, but still, it seems pretty hard to make the financials work.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#286

Post by plasticbugs »

ctchocula wrote: post #198
jrs235 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you tracking everything for taxes?

Looks like 2021 and earlier, there's a cap of $20,000 before you need to report to IRS using Form 1099-K. Assuming the author is from the US, they may have stayed below this limit and not needed to report. However, beginning in January 2022 the limit is dropping down to $600 before needing to be reported using Form 1099-K.

Yep, I haven’t exceeded the reporting amount yet. Hopefully my tax situation doesn’t get overly complicated. If it does, I may need a new side project.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#287

Post by newscracker »

exikyut wrote: post #259
alphabettsy wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since iOS 12 or 13.

The GP comment is an app for macOS. Do you know of any good, reputable blockers for iOS?

The GP’s comment is for macOS and iOS.

On iOS, Firefox Focus (a single tab browser) comes with a content blocker. Hush is another good content blocker. Of course, Magic Lasso (free or paid).

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#288

Post by utjutj »

tomkat0789 wrote: post #182
chevman wrote: post #166

I work in a large corporate/enterprise company doing marketing/tech work. Started dabbling in freelance consulting/paid interviews and found I can easily get in the $500-$1,000/hr range. So, been doing a few sessions a month and earning a couple thousand in extra cash. Not bad and met some interesting folks/companies in the process!

Your day job is OK with this? I forgot what I signed, but I believe my contract has a clause that says they own all the technical output of my brain. Did you tell your manager you have a side hustle? I've been thinking of something similar if I can build a sufficiently relevant specialty knowledge.

I am not sure why people keep repeating this. As long as you are not using company's property or time, what you do in your personal time is your business, not your employer's.

IANAL, but I believe in some states it is completely illegal for employers to add such clauses in employment contracts. Even if that clause exist, it is highly unlikely to be enforced in courts. We need to stop taking this abuse or living in fear of our employers.

Again standard disclosure, talk to a lawyer.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#289

Post by czue »

I have two!

An app for making wedding place cards that does about $1000/mo https://www.placecard.me/

A boilerplate for making SaaS apps with Python/Django that does $5k/month (highly variable) https://www.saaspegasus.com/

I also have a third that does around $150/mo. It's an app that adds analytics to GroupMe which is a WhatsApp alternative. https://chatstats.co/

I keep complete revenue and effort data here if you're curious: https://www.coryzue.com/open/

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#290

Post by sneilan1 »

odonnellryan wrote: post #255
vasco wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to say you're seeing the future in tea leaves, but I guess you're learning some stuff along the way.

I lost about $3k doing algo crypto trading (all of that to fees - without fees I made money! aha) but learned a ton about different programming concepts and had a lot of fun.

That's awesome! :) That sounds like an amazing experience. I bet you learned a lot! And 3k is enough to make it memorable but not enough to go into massive debt or anything like that. And sure it's a loss but nobody goes into this trying to lose money. (AFAIK)
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