Fair enough, but I don't understand what the big deal is. I'd try ads, affiliate links and monetising existing free projects myself. If you're going to make you

Fair enough, but I don't understand what the big deal is. I'd try ads, affiliate links and monetising existing free projects myself. If you're going to make your interesting projects free, avoid ads and avoid affiliate links you're not leaving yourself many options. Would you have any income at all if you extended these ideas to your client work?