5 ms·

Ask HN: How do I start earning money online?

• jarsj 16y ago
  Show us some for your work (homepage, graphics, audio samples, anything), so that we can better judge you and offer you guidance. That's also a better way of attracting possible recruiters.
  • cyberwork 16y ago
    Recently I haven't had much time to do web design, or any clients. The summer before last I designed and launched http://mariettaoh.net/about http://mariettaoh.net/about for a city government as part of my internship there. Other things I have designed are basically personal or for somewhat private groups. As far as audio production, I spend (kill?) a lot of time making electronica music, and so have experience with editing and cutting apart sounds of all kinds, as well as a good deal of knowledge about mastering and converting and other parts of audio technology. The rest of the time I spend on classwork or doing grunt IT work for my university. I do have a resume at least, which isn't quite the same, sadly.
• ig1 16y ago
  Do you have a portfolio ?
  • cyberwork 16y ago
    I did a few years ago, (where does the time go?) but it is probably not something I would want to show off today. Most recently I built a city government website at http://marriettaoh.net http://marriettaoh.net, but by recent I mean Summer 2008. I do have a resume at least.
    • d_r 16y ago
      Just a heads up, the page doesn't work without appending a route (like /index) to it.
      • cyberwork 16y ago
        Silly typo on my part, its http://mariettaoh.net http://mariettaoh.net , with only one R. If you get a page with some combination of marriettaoh.net/index then its probably to do with your browser using a search to find a page that works, or something even stranger. Sorry about that though. I wonder if the city is losing hits to to the misspellings though, now that I think about it.
• hotmind 16y ago
  I don't have work for you, but I have ideas. Contact me and let's talk.
  • cyberwork 16y ago
    I sent you an email at your justsay.on address. Thanks!
• kls 16y ago
  if you know drupal and or wordpress, you can make some money by setting up themes for customers. Many times they want something as simple as buying a theme off one of the theme sites and setting it up for them. It's real low hanging fruit but it can pay pretty well ($120-$200hr), if you get fast. Just take out some adds on with adwords for things like "wordpress developer" don't just do "wordpress" you will get killed by the cpm. If you have a niche interest try adding that to the search to find people looking to develop something that you are passionate about. They will hear it in your voice when you talk about the project with them. Hang out on niche boards that you are interested in, offer valuable input, put your info in your profile, if they will let you, don't violate there terms of service. OK now on to the prerequisites: You have a blog / website right? (I am guilty I don't have one either. Just do as I say not as I do) You have a linkedIn profile right? You have a Facebook account right? (neither do I, I am afraid of what might crawl out of the woodwork) Twitter? and you plan to tweet about your projects that you complete?
• jasonlbaptiste 16y ago
  Some tips: 1) Build a presence- Comment here, go to local meetups, blog online about smart things, find every connection you can,etc. 2) Peacock- Build something as a sample that is really interesting + will garner attention. It shouldn't have the intention of being a real startup. It should just be a shiny demo to show you can design + think creatively together. 3) Show them what they're missing- Find people in your area if you're trying to stay local that have absolutely horrible presences online. Give them a taste of what you can do. Example of what 37signals used to do- http://37signals.com/better http://37signals.com/better 4) Can't beat em, join em- There are a lot of small eloquent freelance design shops. They could certainly use a good hand if you're good. They won't pay you a lot probably, but it's a hell of a start. It could also turn into something else. 5) Wordpress Designing- Ask patio11 re: what he did with st patricks day wordpress template. People pay good money for things like that and other Wordpress services. 6) Have a client fund a startup idea- We originally did this with Publictivity. PR firm wanted what we were thinking of making, we collaborated, and they gave us 10k. That let us build the app and got them a license for life. On the flip side: this can turn into a fucking scope creep nightmare. 7) Join haystack- They seem to be really top notch and have a lot of people finding designers off of there. 8) Carve out a niche- Is it android? Is it iphone (has to be more specific)? Is it rails? Define yourself and carve out a niche. Wordpress could also be thrown in here. 9) Being Here Is Already a Win- there are thousands of startups that frequent here monthly. If you do any of the above and seem even remotely good, you will probably get some level of interest. There isn't enough good talent to meet the demand it seems.
  • deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  • cyberwork 16y ago
    Hi Jason, Thanks very much for your excellent and info-packed reply. * 1) Build a presence- Comment here, go to local meetups, blog online about smart things, find every connection you can,etc. Where I live, technology is either engineers working for large corporations, or people who own small computer repair shops and maybe one web design firm. I was actually hired (tax info and all!) at the web design firm, but they never had enough work to contract out to me that I could do anything for them. I guess on the online side of things, I just need to make more of an effort to contribute to conversations instead of just soaking them up. * 2) Peacock- Build something as a sample that is really interesting + will garner attention. It shouldn't have the intention of being a real startup. It should just be a shiny demo to show you can design + think creatively together. This is actually a great idea, I just need to think of that one cool thing to demo. However I have been striving for that big idea, so maybe a small one will be easier. * 3) Show them what they're missing- Find people in your area if you're trying to stay local that have absolutely horrible presences online. Give them a taste of what you can do. Example of what 37signals used to do- http://37signals.com/better http://37signals.com/better I like the concept of this idea, however in my area specifically I feel like people would take this as an insult. They might have had their website built by their brother in law or something, and feel that it is a great website already. Being in a less urban area people are perhaps less exposed to great local websites. * 4) Can't beat em, join em- There are a lot of small eloquent freelance design shops. They could certainly use a good hand if you're good. They won't pay you a lot probably, but it's a hell of a start. It could also turn into something else. I'd love to, have any email addresses? =) * 9) Being Here Is Already a Win- there are thousands of startups that frequent here monthly. If you do any of the above and seem even remotely good, you will probably get some level of interest. There isn't enough good talent to meet the demand it seems. Definitely. When I do own my own succesful business, it will have been 100% inspired by the first day I visited Hacker News almost two years ago. =D
• kls 16y ago
  here is a good article on using the social sites to drum up business: http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/how-to-use-social-networks-to-find-gigs/ http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/how-to-use-social-network...
• omarchowdhury 16y ago
  I have some work for you. Might lead to things later down the road, what's your email?
  • cyberwork 16y ago
    brianfarr (at) gmail (dot) com
• pramit 16y ago
  Does this help? Making Money Online in your Spare Time: 50 Ways & 150 sites http://bighow.com/news/making-money-online-in-your-spare-time-50-ways150-sites http://bighow.com/news/making-money-online-in-your-spare-tim...