Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

calebporzio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 510 posts

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

#301

Post by alexellisuk »

This is a success story for GitHub sponsors and I hope it will eventually become the norm and not a unicorn example. We are nowhere near this level with OpenFaaS and with a high level of churn.

I also have a slight concern about the author’s sales tax liability in territories such as the US and the EU. Economic nexus is real, take a look at paddle.com if you want to know more. GitHub doesn’t collect sales tax - so you shouldn’t be selling any taxable benefits FWIW.

My strategy so far has to turn the program into a weekly Insiders Update on the OSS projects I maintain along with regular feature length content on the industry and software.

There’s around 130-140 individuals, I’d like to see that get to double the number. As for companies that use OpenFaaS in production, they do not pay any form of sponsorship or support.

https://github.com/sponsors/alexellis

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

#302

Post by parliament32 »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #279
virgilp wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, yes you need to report revenues, but... do you need a company for that? Do e.g. all Finnish photographers on Shutterstock have a company, in order to receive payments?

Yes, if you sell things (or electronic things), in any meaningful amount (no one will care for 200$ per year though), you have to set up a company or a sole proprietorship. It is like this in most western countries. The activity that you are doing in that case is called business, and of course you need to have a company or a similar business structure (like sole proprietorship) to do business. Whether all people do i…

>It is like this in most western countries.

No it isn't... In Canada, you can happily accept money from people and just stick it in the "other income" box on your tax return, where it'll get income-taxed appropriately.

If you're trying to do business deductions or want to pay business taxes instead, yes you need a business. If you're trying to set up a physical location, yes you need a business license from your city. But if you don't care about the pennies and your work is digital there's absolutely no requirement.

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

#303

Post by maxwelljoslyn »

wongarsu wrote: post #293
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you sell things (or electronic things), in any meaningful amount (no one will care for 200$ per year though), you have to set up a company or a sole proprietorship. It is like this in most western countries. The activity that you are doing in that case is called business, and of course you need to have a company or a similar business structure (like sole proprietorship) to do business. Whether all people do i…

I think the confusion in this thread is that (in most of Western Europe) you automatically become a business (or even company) by the sole act of doing "business" (enterprise with the purpose of earning money), and once you cross some (small) threshold you have to register in some capacity. That can be a ~$20 bureaucratic act, compared to the ~$500 act of setting up a proper company. But of course at that point it va…

Thank you for explaining this. As an American, I was unaware.

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

#304

Post by non-entity »

cambalache wrote: post #295
sweeneyrod wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

£80k income puts you in the top 2% of the UK. Something that 98% of people (lower in London but not vastly lower) manage without can hardly be called "table stakes".

Yes HN is weird like that. Every time salaries are discussed people jump out with comments like : " 100k yearly after tax? That would merely serve you to live in a rented room and eating just ramen every-day".Then you go check and that kind of income is like top 3% , so either they are bullshitting or capitalist societies are in a dramatic state.

> Yes HN is weird like that. Every time salaries are discussed people jump out with comments like : " 100k yearly after tax? That would merely serve you to live in a rented room and eating just ramen every-day"

This one isnt really HN alone. Mostly just extremely privileged developers without much perspective.

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

#305

Post by sequoia »

sytelus wrote: post #249

I hate sponsorware concept OP is proposing. It seems to work for him but it’s opposite to the spirit of open source. His idea is that keep code secret until you find N sponsors. Further, he will hide important tutorials if you are not sponsor. I would hate to use this kind of open source project. Here is more viable freelancing: - create framework/library that everyone needs - for feature requests/bug fixes, prioriti…

> Here is more viable freelancing

Implying his approach is not viable is weird, given that what he's doing is demonstrably working (at least at the moment). He's making free software and then selling subscriptions to training content, which is where he seems to be making something like 80% of his revenue. It's like Railscast, Laracast, Egghead.io (originally just angular tutorials!) etc.

The main difference to railscast, egghead.io etc. is that he's using Github as a payment processor & to manage subscriptions.

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

#306

Post by dwaltrip »

koheripbal wrote: post #252
StevenRayOrr wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Success is more random than we'd like to believe, and there is a risk when failure leads to victim blaming. An excellent sentiment, if less common these days than it should be. Reminds me of a quotation from Chapter XXV[0] of Machiavelli's The Prince : "Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct t…

Over the course of an entire lifetime, the random good vs bad luck tend to wash out and people usually end their lives financially roughly in line with their capabilities. - my personal opinion and experience.

This seems very wrong.

Looking at life as a massive state machine, I think it’s clear that some parts of the state machine are much more beneficial than others. Luck often pushes people into a bad area or good area, and it can be quite difficult to transition out of that area of the state machine, for better or worse.

Competency and hard work are obviously very important, but luck is an enormous factor as well. And luck, along with its compounding effects, is not uniformly distributed across all individuals.

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

#308

Post by NickBusey »

jlbnjmn wrote: post #294
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.

Congratulations! That's great! How long have you been doing the open source work and what industry does it serve?

Thanks! Years now, though the project that has gained traction lately is HomelabOS. https://homelabos.com/

Not really serving industry, self-hosters and home-labbers.

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

#309

Post by balls187 »

aj7 wrote: post #138
jermaustin1 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you set the entity up correctly and work with a decent accountant, your $112k turns into more like $40k taxable, and if you are married, that $40k drops to $20k @ 10% + $20k @ 12% or ~ $4500 in taxes.

Aha. And now you understand why we don’t have universal healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, and so much cash in the hands of the wealthy that interest rates are near zero.

The US Government is projected to make 3.8T for 2021.

Isn't that enough to fund the programs you are speaking of?

https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-ta...

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

#310

Post by claudeganon »

wnevets wrote: post #277
claudeganon wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has a lot of charity scams and dubious NPOs collecting cash. There’s news about fraudulent GoFundMe’s pretty regularly, for example. Finland is probably too far the opposite direction, but the whole sector could use a lot more scrutiny over here.

It seems like a lot of charities in the US are just a way for the wealthy to avoid paying taxes or for the founders to become wealthy

Yes, it’s not uncommon to have do-nothing NPOs that associate themselves with a noble cause and then spend most of their funds on one or two people’s salaries and perks. This is why apps like Guidestar and Charity Navigator were invented.

The IRS doesn’t seem to give these orgs much scrutiny unless they’re egregiously bad or become a big news story.

Post reply on HN