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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

#431

Post by foobar_ »

NickBusey wrote: post #308
jlbnjmn wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That is actually quite cool. If people had to pay for facebook they wouldn't. What do you think is missing for self-hosters, easy sign up ? I don't think it is easy create to DNS and private server for normal folks.

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

#432

Post by [deleted] »

balls187 wrote: post #309
aj7 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

[deleted]

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

#433

Post by chrisweekly »

lstamour wrote: post #340
stefanfisk wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It is like this in most western countries" can still apply even if Canada is an exception.

Generally speaking the same is true of “gifts”, though. You don’t have to report a gift as income if it’s reasonable, but drawing that line is where things get... complicated. Then you have to call in specialists like tax lawyers, etc.

In the US, gifts of up to $15k are untaxed.

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

#434

Post by snowwrestler »

redisman wrote: post #395
jldugger wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect a large part of it is a SEP IRA which lets you pack away like 57k in a tax advantaged account. Business deductions are almost like icing on the cake vs that.

Deductions sound good to people who haven't actually run a business or thought very hard about it. You have to be purchasing stuff to deduct. As a software engineer why not just not buy stuff since all you really need is a computer. Then you keep 100% of that money rather than 10%. Some outliers are home office and utilities and things like that.

The attraction of deductions for sole proprietors working from home is not buying new stuff, it is the opportunity to pay for stuff you would buy anyway with pre-tax dollars.

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

#435

Post by snowwrestler »

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.

Would love advice on how to find a good accountant.

It’s pretty easy find an accountant but they might not be good and it’s hard to tell, especially in advance.

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

#436

Post by gitgud »

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…

Well from what I've seen the Sponsorware concept is the ONLY monetization strategy I like from both a developer and a user. What alternative is better?

- Consulting, usually means the project is too complex and hard to use without help. Changes to make the project easier to configure are often not even considered...

- Donations, not sustainable for the developer (no users need to pay anything).

- Open-core, one of the worst strategies, as the developer's motivations are almost completely opposed to the open-source community. The developer wants people to upgrade to premium, so the premium features are always prioritised over community features, and people can't extend the software themselves...

- Hosting, not a bad strategy, but is slowly becoming less relevant as deployment of services is becoming increasingly easy.

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

#437

Post by snowwrestler »

lifeformed wrote: post #416
jermaustin1 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

I hear this advice a lot, but what does an accountant actually do differently? It always sounds magical. Are there super secret deductions and credits that aren't on Turbo Tax, and only accountants know about? I feel like I'm doing 90% of the work already, having organized all my expenses and income. What are they doing other than typing it into their own Turbo-Tax-equivalent?

My brother explained it to me this way:

“TurboTax will take what I did last year and minimize my taxes. My accountant will tell me what to do differently this year to minimize my taxes next year.”

In other words a good accountant is a forward-looking advisor, not just a calculator.

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

#438

Post by markdown »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #350
bluekite2000 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean set up correctly? And how does 112K turn into 40K taxable?

I'm not an accountant or tax lawyer, so this isn't advise, only my back of the envelope calculation, not even using things like the 172 deduction, or business expenses, but my estimate was actually way off almost double. Gross Income: $112k - SEP IRA 25%: -$28k - Owner Health Insurance: -$15k - 199-A Deduction (20%): -$12k Total business income for taxes: $47k - Married Filing Jointly Deduction: -$24k - Total taxable…

> Owner Health Insurance: -$15k

WTF? Who pays $15k PER YEAR for health insurance? That's nuts. In most countries USD$15k would pay for healthcare for 2 or 3 people for their entire lives.

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

#439

Post by alexmingoia »

> A few weeks later I added a new “private” group of screencasts for GitHub sponsors only. THIS is the secret sauce.

The secret sauce is selling a product (in this case courses/training), and using GitHub sponsors as a payment gateway.

It’s great, but it’s not really sponsorship.

If you’re a dev with a popular open source project, you can profit by selling related training/courses. A lot of devs are probably leaving money on the table.

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

#440

Post by httpsterio »

Ndymium wrote: post #132

Reading these makes me sad about the law in my country, Finland. The lowest tier of OP ($7 for no reward) would be illegal here. We have a law called "Money Collection act", which states that to gather donations (i.e. payments with nothing in return), you have to get a permit. This permit costs money, is not given to individuals, and is given only for non-profit activities. So this means that if you see a donation/sp…

As a fellow Finn who is also on Github sponsors, you would be correct if this would constitute as collecting money. Earnings through Github sponsors go through Stripe and have to be declared as income and is taxed as such. You have to fill out your tax information to get an North American tax card and after that, it's basically identical to income you get from abroad.
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