Music! I play with a gypsy jazz band about four or five times a month here in Amsterdam, and I occasionally give guitar lessons from home.
I also make a few bucks a month from Patreon for my YouTube guitar performances.
Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
91–100 of 744 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#92Back in college I started Alphalux, A men’s accessories mostly bracelets business. I was a full time college student and was working at a pharmaceutical company full time. I would custom order bracelets at Alibaba with my logo on it. Would pay wholesale price of $0.75 per bracelet and would sell it for $10-$30 dollars on Etsy and my website. It was fun while it lasted. I was making $3-4K a month until dropshipers rui…
Would you mind sharing how dropshipers ruined it?
I’m not a dropshipper myself, but I know a couple of people who have gotten into it.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#93I'm a lawyer who doesn't do much (any) marketing. But when someone gets referred and calls or sends an email asking for help with setting up an LLC, helping wind-down or sell their business, or even something small like reviewing an NDA, I can jump in. I'm solo, so I don't have any overhead and I can charge far less than anyone else. This is also entirely a side gig, so volume is so low that I can be responsive, help…
Is your specialization in corporate law?
My practice is corporate law, yes. Everything from basic stuff like commercial contracts, incorporation and financings to complex mergers & acquisitions.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#94I've written a couple of books that sell on Amazon and Apple iBooks - it takes zero minutes per month work for me, but brings a nice little side income. I won't get rich, but it's nice to have the money come in for doing nothing after I hit the "publish" button. Even the printed books cost nothing.
I'm about to hit publish on a photo coffee-table book from my three years around Africa, and I'll write an Africa guide book and The Road Chose Me Vol 2 in the next 12-18 months.
* The Road Chose Me Volume 1: Two years and 40,000 miles from Alaksa to Argentina (https://amzn.to/2vfCYvn)
Stories and lessons from two years driving my Jeep Wrangler down the Pan-American Highway
* Work Less to Live Your Dreams: A practical guide to saving money and living your dreams (https://amzn.to/2OD6UtA)
An eBook about how exactly I can afford to take years off work to do what I want and live my dreams.
* West Africa Myths, Misconceptions and Misnomers (https://amzn.to/2veyQMt)
After driving the length of the continent, I collected a bunch of information that is extremely helpful to anyone else thinking of doing similar. The vast majority of the Western Worlds "knowledge" of West Africa is so out of date it's useless. My book is from info I learned during my drip from mid 2016 to late 2017, so it's relevant
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#95I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus mostly on entry level luxury crossovers around 7 to 10 years old, though starting to also do hybrids since there’s more profit in it since everyone is seemingly allergic to batteries and pack replacement/rebuilds. Parts are cheap, I listen to music or a podcast, I do…
Can you make YouTube videos about it? I watch Chris Fix all the time, not for educational purpose (I don't own a car), but because they are so freaking satisfying to watch. Seeing things go from 'meh' to 'wow.'
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#96I organize a conference for developers (see: https://2018.cascadiajs.com).
Organizing events is obviously very different than programming and shipping software, but it's nice to create something that programmers enjoy and it's been awesome to meet so many industry folks whose work I really admire.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clever. Do you have the intention to make more replacement parts for other products?
The hard part is finding appliances that need fixing. This is super easy if you happen to own a lot do things that break. If not, it becomes quite boring and tedious to scout out things that are breaking for other people, that you have no personal motivation to fix, to get the broken appliance and then figure out the 3d model for the bad part.
It seems like once you build up a critical mass of reputation/SEO you could get people to send you their broken parts to reproduce (then start advertising that specific part too)
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clever. Do you have the intention to make more replacement parts for other products?
I would like to if time permits. There is a huge untapped market here. The difficulty is in locating the parts that are both unavailable and 3D printable. I keep it in the back of my head as I repair other items. So much expensive stuff ends up in a landfill over a tiny part. I could see someday having a github project for replacement parts, each one iterating and getting better an better -- far beyond the original.
I'd look into little parts for classic cars. Almost no price sensitivity, and if you find some unmet need for a popular one...
Could even be something silly, like a plastic fuse extractor tool that people will pay $50 for if it looks OEM.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#99Breville coffee grinders are impossible to get internal parts for. I designed a 3D printed upgrade for the main wear-part in their BCG800XL and BCG600SIL Grinders. The storefront is through ShapeWays[1] and I use iFixit[2],[3] to drive the traffic. It passively makes enough to cover my own coffee needs forever. I spend about 20 minutes per month fielding questions. This all happened because my grinder failed and I co…
Had a Breville expresso machine I repaired multiple times for my wife. The pump was decent, but the electronics were complete garbage for a $500 machine. The main problem were unsealed switches in a humid environment.
Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?
#100I am a corporate drone and not a programmer, but anyways; I sell computer chips on the Craigslist of my home country. Mostly Intel CPUs, genuine and not engineering samples. Wherever eBay can't reach due to import tolls, there is a market. Profits are at around 30% margin. It feels fun and does not feel like work. It has helped me save up to some nice vacations. Going to Japan in the summer. This activity is somewhat inspired by threads such as these on HackerNews.