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

Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

601–610 of 744 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#601

Post by 8innovate »

pryelluw wrote: post #31

I do business strategy for startups through topographical business maps. It's the best strategy tool out there and helps avoid costly mistakes. It also aides in acquiring funding.

Could you talk a bit more about what services you offer? Do you have more of a consulting relationship or are you offering a service at a set price?

Also, one random question: do you find most of your clients are from the UK? For some reason I've always associated Wardley maps with the UK but I'm not sure if that's actually the case.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#602

Post by jawns »

em-bee wrote: post #579
jawns wrote: post #282

I write nonfiction books. I used to be a magazine/newspaper editor. About eight years ago, I made a career change and became a full-time programmer. But I wanted to continue to write. So I wrote a book proposal, found an agent who loved it, found some publishers who were interested, and went with a publisher who offered a two-book deal. My first book, "Experimenting With Babies: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Pe…

you made one years worth of a programmers salary from all your books? how much work was it to get there?

I would say that I did not devalue my time by doing it, but there's a good amount of risk involved, compared with a salaried position.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#603

Post by zornado »

wwasilev wrote: post #532
opportune wrote: post #457

In addition to regular index fund investing I trade options sometimes. Been doing it for about 6 months now and I'm up about 90%. I am a lot more conservative than most options gamblers but it's still pretty risky. I put all my gains into high earnings stocks (currently buying STX and LYB) and at this point since I've almost doubled my principal, I could lose basically all my money currently allocated to options and…

What option strategies are you using?

r/wallstreetbets :D

Just joking. Don't downvote please

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#604

Post by atom-morgan »

scarface74 wrote: post #224

About 10 years ago and ten years into my career, I had been working and stayed at the same job way too long and both my salary and career stagnated. I had two part time money making side projects. I was a part time fitness instructor and had some rental real estate. Teaching fitness classes was fun, I made a lot of friends, and it gave me a release valve from working at a computer all day. Real estate was a headache.…

Did you do fitness classes at a gym or on your own?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#605

Post by justin66 »

jayrwren wrote: post #110
pjmlp wrote: post #28

Nothing, my day job is already enough. Rather spend time with family and friends. However, if I was forced to change job for whatever reason, probably something related with cooking.

+1 Who needs a side project when the day job is enough and there are loved one with whom we have limited time. Live is short. Take time to enjoy it.

Does it seem to you like most of the people here have chosen side projects they do not enjoy?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#606

Post by memset »

jimmydddd wrote: post #499
memset wrote: post #7

I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians: https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/ I'm an avid saxophone player and am taking evening classes in theory, so I made this to solve a problem that I myself had. Nothing else like it on the market! Every part of this notebook is automatically generated with a bunch of python scripts: the cover design, the interior, the line placement, the margins. The program basica…

First, great job! Second, I'm confused. When I used to play music, I remember buying staff music pads at a low cost. A quick check of Amazon shows a bunch of staff pads for sale. What am I missing? Is it the combination of staff and notebook pages in the same book? Or do you use higher quality paper (e.g. are you the moleskin of music staff paper?) Just curious.

Elevator pitch:

- combination of staff paper and college-ruled lines

- perforated to easily tear out pages

- three-hole punched

- decent quality paper, binding, cover material

You'll find that there's surprisingly nothing like it on Amazon! My inspiration was those cheap Mead spiral notebooks - incredibly functional.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#607

Post by etatoby »

muzani wrote: post #2

I did a coffee kiosk once. It went well, but required a large amount of energy and focus. We did a little twist on the business model. Starbucks sells nice places to sit down. We sold drugs. The model, from logo design to promotions, was designed to create a habit loop where people would get their morning coffee from us. It was so profitable that I seriously considered making it my full time career, expanding cafes a…

Freshly brewed coffee is exactly one of the many, many things you can buy at Japanese convenience stores, which are franchises open 24/7, at walking distance from any inhabited neighborhood.

Also comparable to Italian coffee shops or "bars" (different meaning from standard English usage) which are also found at walking distance from any inhabited neighborhood. But not open 24/7, because of cultural and regulatory differences.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#608

Post by memset »

jedimastert wrote: post #597
memset wrote: post #7

I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians: https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/ I'm an avid saxophone player and am taking evening classes in theory, so I made this to solve a problem that I myself had. Nothing else like it on the market! Every part of this notebook is automatically generated with a bunch of python scripts: the cover design, the interior, the line placement, the margins. The program basica…

If you don't mind me asking, how did you find print shops? I've had random ideas for notebooks that might be useful to someone else before, and getting something printed has always been kind of interesting to me.

Lots of googling,and then emailing stores with my specifications until I found a place that responded and could do it within my budget and with quality.

If you're not fussy about some of the notebook features (eg, the specific kind of binding, or rounded corners) then you can do custom books at your local UPS Store, office max, etc. You'd save money and time by prototyping that way, wish I'd done more of that.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#609

Post by etatoby »

electricslpnsld wrote: post #275
LeonM wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the country you are in, it shouldn't be that hard to become a certified electrician. Granted, I have a degree in electrical engineering, but certification was not part of that degree. I got the certification at a night school, IIRC it took 2 months with about ~5 hours per week in effort. If you don't have experience with electronics it would obviously take a bit more effort, but it's totally doable.

I've considered it! Our local community college offers classes like this for pretty cheap, maybe when I'm done with the current place.

Besides, I've fixed / expanded / rearranged my own electrical wiring more than once (which is legal here without a license, if you do it on own property for non-commercial purposes) and I didn't use any of my electronics knowledge. You just need to know what the wire colors mean, employ some basic safety procedures, and don't do stupid things with wire size and currents.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#610

Post by memset »

drusepth wrote: post #463
memset wrote: post #7

I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians: https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/ I'm an avid saxophone player and am taking evening classes in theory, so I made this to solve a problem that I myself had. Nothing else like it on the market! Every part of this notebook is automatically generated with a bunch of python scripts: the cover design, the interior, the line placement, the margins. The program basica…

This sounds awesome! I've been looking around at printing specialized notebooks (for various worldbuilding tasks) lately. Do you use local print shops and/or have any you'd particularly recommend? I feel like the hardest part to get into would be finding a way to keep costs and shipping times down without maintaining a large floating inventory. Have you found that is a problem at all?

The three biggest challenges for me have been:

- Marketing

- Finding a shop which produces at acceptable quality

- Finding the balance between order volume and cost

If you're not fussy about physical characteristics (eg, rounded corners) then I'd prototype at the local office max - pretty affordable and fast.

If you email me I can maybe give some more details! Maybe I should start a business doing print shop consulting...

Post reply on HN