37 ms·

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

• muzani 8y ago
  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 all over the country. The only thing that changed my mind was 1) the startup boom 2) dealing with minimum wage workers is extremely depressing. The tech industry has its abundance, whereas with food and drinks, it was clear that income was limited and had to be managed carefully.
  • cincinnatus 8y ago
    Did you consider paying more than minimum wage? I wonder if a higher wage would enable you to expand your talent pool to folks who would enjoy slinging coffee a couple days a week on the side to improve their situation while actually finding it fulfilling work. The math does seem fixed, there is only so much time in the day and the inputs have fixed costs, but if you can get it all well tuned to the point where effort and time in is worth it then it can just run for a long time until some change in conditions makes you walk away instead of tweaking again. It always seems to me like spending more for a better product should be the first tweak attempted rather than the race to the bottom so many places undertake.
    • muzani 8y ago
      Our value proposition was that we just provide tasty enough caffeine. It's a psychological boost - first thing on a tough day, end of a tough day, before a class on linear algebra. We weren't competing with other cafes. We were competing with cigarettes. We aimed to be daily, unlike Starbucks. Our key metric was quantity: 1. The more purchases they make, the more the lock themselves into the habit loop. 2. More quantity means we could negotiate cheaper prices for beans, cups, marketing, etc. 3. The main factor for quality was bean freshness. If a bag is opened for more than an hour, it rapidly loses 70% of its flavor. The faster we go through a 1kg bag of beans, the higher the quality of the next cup. 4. By selling 100-200 cups a day, our baristas skill up far better than those selling 30 cups a day. Unfortunately, this process requires little skill other than the team being charismatic and pulling in more loyal customers. The race to the bottom is part of the business model. With food & beverage, you start at 20% profit margin and save money by controlling the supply chain (roasting, etc). The system let us create a better product than the competition, but we couldn't really charge more because the target market just didn't have the money.
      • 1k 8y ago
        I'd love to read more about how you positioned your brand, especially on the design decisions that you made to entice customers come more regularly and how you manage to sell more cups than your competitors.
        • muzani 8y ago
          Habit loop: cue, routine, reward. This is how all habits form, whether it's shampooing hair or gambling/gaming addiction. Once a habit sets in, people can only control the routine, not the cue and reward. Starbucks is an entirely different thing. As mentioned in other comments, ours was closer to cigarettes in market size and problem solved. Reward: Caffeine Reward: Coffee flavor The caffeine acts as the bubbles in your toothpaste, it's there to remind you of the loop without being too strong. Cue: Entering work/class, before 9 AM. Promoted with steep 'discounts' during this period - it was already profitable and looked cheap anchored against overpriced coffees like Starbucks. Cue: Seeing logo on cup. The coffee was all in paper cups, not sitting down. It saved a little money on rental area and training. But the main reason is that people would walk away with the cups and throw it in a trash. They'd bring it up to their offices and their friends could see it. Students would take it to other buildings. We didn't have to put up any banners - the cups were the banner. The logo was bright yellow and black, designed to be highly visible. Cue: Stressful periods - after classes, before exams, at the end of the day. Marketing? It was quite straightforward for us. If saw someone walking by, we'd ask them to try. Especially if they were staring at the menu. Those who were hesitant, we'd offer a 100% refund if they didn't like it. Nobody ever requested a refund. First day, we sold 100 cups. After that, many were repeat customers. A lot of people are afraid to approach strangers. But if you do it playfully and without any pressure, they never get angry.
  • jacknews 8y ago
    It was hugely profitable but you had problems with people you were paying minimum wage?
    • gdhbcc 8y ago
      Theres a reason why it was profitable, low labor costs
      • onemoresoop 8y ago
        Yes but seeing the numbers I think this person could have paid workers more and still make a profit. I don't know if it's greed or robot like optimization
        • muzani 8y ago
          Well, look at it this way, by increasing salaries 20%, we'd double losses on a pessimistic estimate, and make no profit on a realistic estimate. Of course everyone starts a business being optimistic; businesses are gambles after all. But nobody wants to lose money. It's more fear than greed. As an employee, you're always working hard trying to not drown. As a business owner, that feeling is multiplied. You don't just have to feed your kids, you have to feed your employees' kids. You can lose $500/month as an employee or $2000/month as a business owner. But even if the pay was doubled, it would still barely be a "living wage". There's an argument that traditional businesses drive down prices and drive wages up, which is true, but it's still pretty bad. I'd rather focus on startups, which creates few jobs, and destroys other jobs, but there's plenty of incentive to pay people well, and their salary scales well with the company's success.
    • muzani 8y ago
      Note that I mean profitable comparing to a developing country tech job, not to Silicon Valley standards. Also most of the profit is if you scale it to multiple spots. One cup made about $3* unit profit. We sold 75-300 cups a day. $5k to $20k of profit a month to start with, 5 days a week. Rent is about $1k. So let's say $4k-$19k, with it more likely being around $6k/month. Peak hours were 6-7 AM, 12 noon, 7 PM and it takes an hour to open and close. We can't miss any of these periods, and often have lines too long to manage. But that's a 14 hour shift or two 7-8 hour shifts. To sell 100-200 cups, the minimum team size is two, because people get sick, go to the bathroom, pick up kids, etc. If someone wants to do an 8 hour shift, that boils down to an average value of $1500/month. If they can do 14 hour shifts, we could pay them $3000 instead, but we lose some benefits of redundancy. I'd be paying 2x for a 1.8x gain or so. Scaling the company means more quantity. If I had 5 kiosks, I could negotiate 10% better prices and push the 20% margin to 30%. My $3 profit margin becomes $4.50. I can give raises, but not double salary. Let's say salary and rent totals $5000/month. At 1 kiosk, we'd take home about $1000 on an average month, lose $1000 on a bad month, take $10000 on a good month. If I paid them 20% more, that makes it $-2k/$0/$9k. There's a huge incentive to pay as little as possible. If we expand to 5 coffee spots, it becomes more like $1.5k/$4k/$9k per kiosk because of economy of scale. Multiplied it would be $4.5k per month pessimistically, $20k realistically, $45k per month optimistically. Scale to 20 or 200 spots, and it does become hugely profitable. In the tech world, if you pay 2x, you'll often bag a 3x programmer. Quality scales very well with salary. The output also scales. With coffee, not so much - we sold great coffee at low wages, the kind that people come in skeptical and end up buying two cups a day, or take a bus from the other faculties just to buy. If we improved quality by a lot more, I doubt they would buy three cups a day instead. * not actual dollar value, just normalized for simplicity
  • danvoell 8y ago
    Are you willing to share more about successful strategies or process? Email in profile.
    • muzani 8y ago
      I'd be happy to share. But your email address doesn't seem to be in profile. If my responses in the other comments haven't answered your questions, feel free to email me.
  • dom96 8y ago
    > We sold drugs. Drugs? As in prescription drugs?
    • nyolfen 8y ago
      i'm guessing he means very strong coffee
    • viktorvamos 8y ago
      caffeine
    • coldtea 8y ago
      No, as in mind altering drugs: coffee.
    • stcredzero 8y ago
      I've always considered my cafes as my legal drug dealers.
    • deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  • eps 8y ago
    Italian coffee shops want their business model back :) That's exactly how they operate - you walk in, ask for an espresso, get it in 30 seconds, down it, slam down a coin, walk out.
  • etatoby 8y ago
    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.
• rossenberg79 8y ago
  I woodwork at a local makershop, I started out making random things for my home and when I no longer had ideas for other stuff I wanted I’d make things and give them away for free to friends. Eventually other people wanted to know if I can make them custom pieces so I began doing it for money, mostly to cover cost of materials and a bit of time for labor. Not making big money from it but it’s fulfilling work and good to know I could still have a place in a world with no technology. Surprisingly, woodworking shares some things in common with building software.
  • chmullig 8y ago
    I've been enjoying some minor woodworking as a purely hobby. I agree, it's great fun, and I think there is some common idea along with building software. Wondering what you've found to be a reasonable amount of income vs work for sale? I'm not really interested in making money, but covering costs and feeling satisfaction would be good.
    • rossenberg79 8y ago
      I give a fixed cost so materials cost x 2 is usually a good starting point for a minimum price, then add on if you think it's going to be very labor intensive.
  • truckerbill 8y ago
    What would you say the commonality is?
    • tonyarkles 8y ago
      The thing I love about woodworking (I’m not the op) is the upfront planning and design process, the immaculate attention to detail (an 1/8” off is often a big deal), and then the satisfaction at the end of being able to physically hold the finished product. For commonality with software, personally, I like to do a fair bit of up-front design work before building something. Not days worth for most stuff, but hours worth. Scribble ideas, riff on them, iterate to a design I like before building it. And then during the build process, you’ll probably discover something you missed in the design process and have to improvise a bit; software is generally more forgiving in this regard, but it’s the same shape of process. I find that when I’ve been doing more hands on stuff (small woodworking, welding, car repair, bigger construction), I get better at doing the software design stuff. My brain gets better at thinking through the consequences of design decisions and picking out small details that can have significant implications.
• P00RL3N0 8y ago
  I've been doing audio mastering as a creative hobby for about 5 years but I've never done anything professionally. I was literally just contacted early this morning (EST) regarding an opportunity to do some work professionally for an indie record label so I am going to see where that goes. There is a "Full-Time Effort" clause in my employment contract that might require me to get permission from my company to do it, but I'm hoping it won't be an issue either way.
• memset 8y ago
  I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians: https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/ 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 basically spits out a PDF which I can then send to print shops (which is the hardest part of the whole thing!) The product is good, people like it, and the hardest part for me right now is sales - trying to get stores to carry it, or get traffic to the site to drive sales! If you know anyone who might be interested... edit: Okay I've opportunistically created a coupon code THANKSHN for 10% off.
  • whiddershins 8y ago
    Thanks for posting. I have always wanted this. Just ordered 6 (accidentally, meant to order 3) and I’m hoping it’s as awesome as I’m imagining.
    • memset 8y ago
      Nice! I just got your order (thank you!) and just emailed you too.
  • avip 8y ago
    That’s brilliant!
    • memset 8y ago
      Thanks! Okay I've created a coupon code THANKSHN for 10% off to make it easier for you to try it out for yourself :)
  • jmcqk6 8y ago
    How do you handle production?
    • 8y ago
• xiphias2 8y ago
  Investing. It takes a lot of time to have an understanding of filtering the good long term stuff from the bad short term strategies, but it's worth it.
  • solids 8y ago
    How you started?
  • vasili111 8y ago
    Online? If yes, which platform do you use?
    • xiphias2 8y ago
      If you're going long term, the platform doesn't matter at all. With short-term trading quants have a huge advantage (I went through an interview at a hedge fund, I know how smart they are, but their downside is that they have to have high sharp ratio to attract investment). I'm always looking at 5 year+ investments only
      • ww520 8y ago
        What's their typical threshold for Sharpe ratio?
        • xiphias2 8y ago
          I've got accepted, but at the end I decided to go back to work at Google for personal reasons, so I don't know that much of the inner workings of the criterion.
    • wwasilev 8y ago
      If you're conversant in financial accounting, I can recommend https://www.portfolio123.com https://www.portfolio123.com . They use Compustat data. However, building your own models will require significant effort, but it's worth it. I think of it as a site for the thinking investor.
• ademup 8y ago
  Photography in the early 2000s. Made enough to level up my gear multiple times over. Renovated houses from 03-07. But now my money making side projects are programming-based.
• phanindra_veera 8y ago
  I sleep a lot
  • black_13 8y ago
    It mends the ravelled sleeve
  • batrat 8y ago
    The real answer. After a loooong day at work my brain shuts down completely when i'm at home. Gaming, sleeping and going out for dinner is enough.
  • um_ya 8y ago
    fun
  • eps 8y ago
    Hard to make money off that unfortunately.
    • giardini 8y ago
      If one sleeps well, one might work better in his regular job, might live longer, be better able to engage in more activity as well as more strenuous activity, all potentially allowing one to make more money, be a better companion, parent and member of society.
  • sunnykgupta 8y ago
    It is worth it! :)
• rayraegah 8y ago
  Launched in 2016 for free. Started making money in 2018 with $3,000+ MMR. Referral only (side) business. I work full-time as an engineer/principal in growth. I conduct a form of ethnography, embedding myself in the lives of consumers the way Margaret Mead did among Samoans. I interviews my subjects and the people around them, itemizing the contents of their home (photographing and videotaping), and accompany them as they progress through their day. Then I sift the resulting information for weeks, even months, looking for connections and telltale behaviors. The service is used mostly by founders for small businesses and startups. I takes questions about sales figures and product lines and reconfigures them into questions about worlds, the context in which people unthinkingly live their everyday lives. The idea is that examining the beliefs and unconscious biases that people have will eventually yield profitable insights for these businesses. So far, I've done market entry for a few Chinese companies into Japanese market, helped indie game design company launch a successful game, a boutique lingerie shop launch a new summer line, street musicians, and a few cafes and bars. I do this on the side with hopes to go full time into it soon.
  • grok2 8y ago
    This is the most fascinating side business I've read of! Does what you do ultimately help whoever you are following in their business? Have you seen them make changes that have helped the business in small or even larger ways?
    • rayraegah 8y ago
      The goal of my side project is to use human science to put people back at the center of business decision-making. I work specifically with the founders of business and not their sales or marketing personal. Studying consumers on their own isn’t enough to be successful. I look at all the data I can regarding technology, marginal practices, client and industry data, and speak to many experts with knowledge on the topic. I analyze the assumptions underlying what I observe happening and identify the gaps (e.g. between the client’s assumptions about their customers and what I observe in the real world, or between the industry’s assumptions about the future and consumers’ marginal practices). Analyzing these gaps helps me see white spaces that have impact in the market, which allows me to advise my clients on where the market is likely to be years out and ensure that my recommendations are actionable. Since these are new perspectives they often make it actionable. Execution is something they handle and all of my clients have seen a change. Most are repeat customers.
• hkhanna 8y ago
  I'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, helpful and more like a thought partner who is also helping out on legal.
  • lesswrong 8y ago
    Got any advice on getting a referral to someone like you? I’m a founder who could use some advice independent of the company’s counsel. I’ve tried my non-startup network but am only getting leads for the big firms. How do I find an attorney like you? (New account for privacy reasons)
    • hkhanna 8y ago
      Hey lesswrong - my contact info is now in my HN profile. Feel free to reach out.
  • tehlike 8y ago
    Is your specialization in corporate law?
    • jswizzy 8y ago
      bird law
    • hkhanna 8y ago
      My practice is corporate law, yes. Everything from basic stuff like commercial contracts, incorporation and financings to complex mergers & acquisitions.
      • tehlike 8y ago
        That is pretty cool. I have a friend who mentioned he helped another friend sell his company once. He was a business guy, not corporate, but it kind of piqued my interest. Did you think of scaling your prqctice?
• polyterative 8y ago
  Tried everything: youtube channel, multiple tutorial websites, music video making/videography, photography, for artists and bands, and finally sound design and mixing The last one is the only that is actually working somewhat
  • bitcoinmoney 8y ago
    I tried kid’s YT channel. Too much work. I feel like I still have a shot.
  • bluche 8y ago
    How did you start with sound design and mixing? Want to try it myself.
  • craftyphotons 8y ago
    Incredibly this almost exactly the path I've taken outside of my day job as a software engineer. Product photography -> headshot/corporate event photography -> corporate video -> field recording -> music production The "problem" that I've allowed myself to have is that I have the disposable income to take care of the gear bottleneck that many people in these fields dream of, but not the time overall to invest in the skills bottleneck.
• toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Landlord, private equity investing, business and real estate project consulting. I take topics I’m curious about and translate the experience and skills learned into revenue.
  • emyeskay 8y ago
    How do you find PE investing deals? Any resources you can share would be helpful.
    • toomuchtodo 8y ago
      Cold emails and calls, networking mostly. Get some business cards, hand them out freely and include it as part of your pitch if the audience is a right fit (person or small group of persons). Email in profile if you want to discuss further.
• majickdave 8y ago
  Index fund
  • nokya 8y ago
    Could you elaborate? (Please :)
    • bardworx 8y ago
      I'm guessing they just invest all their extra capital into index funds and watch them grow.
• weego 8y ago
  Landlord
• bengrunfeld 8y ago
  I used to run an Airbnb on the side. It was a mad success, but took so much work that I stopped being a good engineer and all my coding projects went to shit. So I closed the Airbnb, and projects I proved. Recently the guy sitting next to me on a flight suggested one day a week driving heavy trucks (semi trailers). In Aus, this pays $50-75/hour. Probably the same in the USA.
• clubm8 8y ago
  Poker. I'm not able to make enough for it to be a full time job, but it's more pleasant than driving an Uber. Sometimes makes for good networking too.
  • stcredzero 8y ago
    I had a coworker who literally did a rant, slammed the door of the conference room and quit. He was earning some side money playing online poker then made a go of it full time. His conclusion: This is a lot less fun when it's your sole source of income.
    • clubm8 8y ago
      Yeah, even if you are good enough to make a decent wage, it can be boom or bust. On a long enough timeline, there will be times you say, make a bet with 4 aces but get beat by a straight flush[1] Also, most poker players are American - so they're going to need to cover health insurance. Maybe when I retire I'll give it a go, but I don't think it's practical to envision retiring early to play poker unless you amassed enough savings you could live without the poker income. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability#Frequency_of_5-card_poker_hands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability#Frequency_of...
• pjmlp 8y ago
  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.
  • jayrwren 8y ago
    +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.
    • quickthrower2 8y ago
      A side project might end up meaning you don’t need a job.
    • justin66 8y ago
      Does it seem to you like most of the people here have chosen side projects they do not enjoy?
• pryelluw 8y ago
  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.
  • puranjay 8y ago
    Curious how you go about that. Have a website?
    • pryelluw 8y ago
      No website. Just referrals. Every founder I've worked with will always talk to other people about it and share my contact info. Works great because I cannot do it full time at the moment. Email in profile if you have context-specific questions.
  • october_sky 8y ago
    I googled "topographical business maps" and it's not clear to me what that is. Would you explain more?
    • pryelluw 8y ago
      Google Wardley maps. There is a free book on medium from its creator Simon Wardley.
  • ironSkillet 8y ago
    Do you mean "topological" business maps?
    • pryelluw 8y ago
      No, it's topographical. Look it up: Wardley mapping.
  • 8innovate 8y ago
    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.
• gottebp 8y ago
  Breville 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 could not get parts. [1] https://www.shapeways.com/product/NASLAGCCP/breville-coffee-grinder-impeller-upgrade https://www.shapeways.com/product/NASLAGCCP/breville-coffee-... [2] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG800XL+Grinder+Jamming+due+to+Worn+Impeller/62905 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG800XL+Grinder+Jamming+due+to... [3] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG600SIL+Dose+Control+Pro+Coffee+Grinder+-+Jamming+due+to+Worn+Impeller/96493 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG600SIL+Dose+Control+Pro+Coff...
  • october_sky 8y ago
    Clever. Do you have the intention to make more replacement parts for other products?
    • gottebp 8y ago
      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.
      • avip 8y ago
        All plastic parts for appliances: dish drawer wheels, fridge shelves - are all designed to not last, run for $$$ on vendor site if possible to find at all. If you print it - they would come.
      • tyingq 8y ago
        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.
• puranjay 8y ago
  I'm an amateur musician. I have a website where I review music gear, especially MIDI keyboards (have a bunch of them). It brings in a steady $1k+/month almost completely passively through Amazon affiliate commissions
  • memset 8y ago
    Any interest in helping a fellow HN-er? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19712205 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19712205
    • puranjay 8y ago
      I get around 90% of my traffic through Google, so I would recommend targeting some important keywords with long form content.
  • youshy 8y ago
    Something I've been looking to do myself! AFAIK the rate is around 6%? Willing to share the website - would be mega interested in reading!
    • puranjay 8y ago
      Don't want to share the website publicly, but the reason Amazon affiliate works so well is that people don't just buy the product you're referring but a ton of additional products too. On a given day, a customer might buy 1 MIDI keyboard that I referred. But he will also buy books, CDs, home tools and anything else he needs, and I get 6% of all of that
  • whatabackend 8y ago
    Am interested in a MIDI keyboard that can be used to come up with basic tunes. Any recommendations?
    • adamparsons 8y ago
      Not op, but the alesis V ones have such a comfy key weighting and are quite cheap. Only thing I don’t like is the drumpad on the left feels cheaply made
• cgriswald 8y ago
  My partner and I train and board dogs. The money isn't amazing, but it's fun and rewarding.
• puttycat 8y ago
  I design and sell T-shirts for ML/Data Science geeks [1][2]. I use Redbubble as a storefront which works pretty well. [1] https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221227-i-heart-softmax-white?p=mens-premium-t-shirt https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221227-i-... [2] https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221296-i-heart-softmax-dark?p=mens-premium-t-shirt https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221296-i-...
  • akeck 8y ago
    I used to do POD stuff, but bailed on my former platform a few years ago. How do you find Red Bubble's quality? I have a few designs requested by family that I'd like to get onto shirts (and also sell).
  • ohlookabird 8y ago
    How do you go about advertising your redbubble shop?
    • sauravt 8y ago
      via HN comments I guess ;)
  • iraldir 8y ago
    How much do you make with that?
• pmorici 8y ago
  I taught myself circuit board design and found a niche market that I designed a few products for that sold like gangbusters with zero marketing for a few years until the market cooled off and low cost knock offs started entering the market. I also found that you could use the same CAD program that I learned to design PCB's to draw outlines to cut out on the laser CNC machine at the local maker space. I ended up finding a niche on ebay building open air computer cases. Because of the economics of shipping large items from overseas and the low cost of the materials I was using I was able to under cut the imports on price by like 60% and still make a nice amount of money on a $/ hour basis. In hind sight the best way to find these kinds of opportunities is not to be looking for them. You really just need to get a really deep understanding of a hobby or industry or market that interests you in some way and once you have that then these sorts of things kind of pop out of the woodwork.
  • nlh 8y ago
    This is super cool! > I taught myself circuit board design and found a niche market that I designed a few products for that sold like gangbusters with zero marketing for a few years until the market cooled off and low cost knock offs started entering the market. Can you elaborate a bit? Did you teach yourself literal circuit board design (but already had a background in electronics/hardware)? Or did you start from scratch and learn how to design an electronic circuit? What was the niche (broadly?) > In hind sight the best way to find these kinds of opportunities is not to be looking for them. You really just need to get a really deep understanding of a hobby or industry or market that interests you in some way and once you have that then these sorts of things kind of pop out of the woodwork. 1000% agree. The single best way to find an idea is to be seriously and deeply involved in a hobby/area of interest. There are so many ideas out there screaming you in the face.
    • pmorici 8y ago
      It was a bit of both, My degree is in CS, I only took one EE/hardware class in school that was more about programming CPLDs than anything else. These days really all you need to know math wise to build simple stuff is V=IR and P=IV, things everyone learns in high school physics class. Everything else you can usually get by looking at the reference circuits in data sheets or looking it up as you go. The hardest part for me was finding the time to get over the learning curve of the PCB design software, in my case I learned EagleCAD. After I did that and formed good habits with how I used the software I now able to do some pretty complex stuff. The limiting factor now is probably that my ambition has outgrown the software I learned. The niche was building adapters for old server power supplies so you can re-purpose them for use as general purpose 12 Volt power supplies. It was a thing in the RC community for a while to charge batteries but it got really big in the 2014 - 2017 time frame due to the Bitcoin mining industry needing low cost high wattage PSUs.
• revvx 8y ago
  Helping organize small music concerts and festivals and recording local indie bands. Mostly friends or friends of friends. I've been doing it since I was a teen, before I started programming, and the first significant amount of money I made was after I invested all my savings in a small festival I organized with my friends. As for recording, it's been a fun ride because equipment go so much better and accessible since I started 15 years ago. For recording, having portable stuff is nice, but affording to pick studios because of the room instead of the equipment was a real game changer.
  • dippydipdips 8y ago
    Mind sharing where? As my side gig is the local indie band I’d love some advice on what we could do better.
• xfitm3 8y ago
  I did consulting on the side until I burnt out. Now I invest my spare time in being better at my full time job, and it’s paid off.
• LeonM 8y ago
  I do electronics repair for cars. For many older and rare cars it's usually no longer possible (or desired) to replace broken electronic components such as the engine or transmission controller. So owners contact me to have the part repaired instead of replacing it. The repairs are usually not that challenging for me, and it won't make me rich, but it's a great way for me to clear my head from challenges with my tech startup. It also gives me access to some very rare and expensive cars. Obviously you need to test drive the car if you just fixed the ECU ;-)
  • bronco21016 8y ago
    That sounds really interesting. By repairs do you mean mostly board level type stuff? How do you handle all of the encryption and road blocks OEMs like to put on the software? Doesn’t that make it challenging to get a board diagnosed or operating properly again?
    • LeonM 8y ago
      Mostly board repairs, but also wiring on the cars itself. Like I said, I mostly work on older cars, since those are the ones where it makes economic sense to do this kind of repairs. Those cars are usually from the era where ECU's had little to no encryption, or even no software at all (pure electronic based ECU's). Stuff like early Bosh and Lucas, Porsche CDi.
• electricslpnsld 8y ago
  For the past few years I've been buying, renovating, and selling small-ish houses. My dad was a contractor growing up so I picked up most of the necessary skills helping him out during middle and high school. I mostly work on weekends and holidays which makes it a bit slow going, but I've made a reasonable amount of money. Even if the money was worse I would still probably do it, I really enjoy both the physical aspects of the work and seeing a house go from a beat up old husk to a shiny new place! I have to contract out some of the work (electrical mostly) because I'm not a certified electrician, but otherwise it is a one man show.
  • LeonM 8y ago
    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.
    • electricslpnsld 8y ago
      I've considered it! Our local community college offers classes like this for pretty cheap, maybe when I'm done with the current place.
      • etatoby 8y ago
        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.
        • ComputerGuru 8y ago
          Well the first rule of electrical work is to assume an idiot or a cheapskate did the original work (or most recent repair) and the colors have a fifty-fifty chance of lying to you...
• caprese 8y ago
  Attempting to make money making side projects and instead just expensing servers and subcontractors and getting the tax refund from everything my employer withheld by April
  • js4 8y ago
    You aren’t really making money here. Just getting the money you made back.
    • caprese 8y ago
      Obviously? Thats why it says “and instead just” after “attempting to make money”?
• josephmxm 8y ago
  Back 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 ruined the market.
  • jlmendezbonini 8y ago
    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.
    • Sileni 8y ago
      Not OP, but I've done some work in the space. The market is just saturated now. It takes such little effort to start a dropshipping "business" that unless you have a really unique angle or spend absurd amounts on marketing, you'll probably make somewhere in the range of peanuts to beer money. Even if you do find a successful niche market, it won't take long for a low budget clone to jump in, which invalidates a lot of the up front work in marketing and product validation.
• mtbkrdave 8y ago
  Built a site where you can custom-tailor a writing pad to your handwriting/style... https://www.blankslatepaper.com/ https://www.blankslatepaper.com/ So far it's been slow; like @memset, I've got the product done but struggle with driving traffic/sales.
  • angel_j 8y ago
    I like the concept a lot. Would like to see prices up font.
    • mtbkrdave 8y ago
      Good input. I'm actually going to be adding more products to choose from before entering the designer, so that would be a logical point to have pricing.
  • blat001 8y ago
    Hey checked out your site and its really nice. I like the concept but found it hard to actually create a notebook and checkout. It might help to have some simple styles pre-done and allow me to choose the one I like as the builder is pretty intimidating.
  • anotheryou 8y ago
    The sampler link from the (?) in the customizing UI is broken. Have you tracked how many people ordered the sampler and than also ordered a real one after that? I don't want to bother with the customize UI too much so I think you can do two things: 1. push the sampler as the main tool to find out what fits (so have it as the primary sales target) 2. make it easy to order what you like on a sample. In general the wizard could be easier by doing: - a step by step guide 1. choose pattern (only one possible, maybe link to the old UI for "experts") 2. choose distance 3. choose color (maybe go with a nice color picker directly) 4. done or tweak expert settings (with bug UI) - and always showing roughly original size-zoom and full page edit: and I agreed shipping, general pricing and payment methods would be great upfront. And for the paper + cart steps: Keep it consistent, I accidentally skipped to the empty basked instead of putting something in the basket. I'd even make those steps part of the step-by-step guide I suggested instead of the current hierarchy.
• eznc 8y ago
  Started a CNC machining side business. Always had an interest and found a broke down CNC mill for cheap. Fixed it up and have been doing quick prototype and small runs for locals by referal only. Its fun and more than offsets the cost of the machine.
  • mrfusion 8y ago
    What kind of jobs do you do?
• rocketpastsix 8y ago
  Not a side project per se, nor am I making enough to retire anytime soon but I give bike tours of the city I live in. Its a fun way to explore the city, meet fun people, and learn something new. On a good weekend I can pull in $100 in cash plus a small check from the bike shop I tour out of.
• denormalfloat 8y ago
  Invest in an S&P 500 ETF. This is probably the lowest effort side project you can have which still makes money. Also, if you learn about the stock market, it makes you more confident in how your savings looks, how your retirement will look, how to manage money, etc.
  • evonsdesigns 8y ago
    This is my side income as well. I buy VOO and SPY. I recommend investing in a normal trading account, a retirement account, and a robo-investor.
  • mdorazio 8y ago
    As an alternative if you want cash flow instead of long-term margins, you can go for a dividend-oriented ETF and get 5%+ for doing literally nothing.
    • uchman 8y ago
      Totally agree. I set aside some funds in REITs for good dividends and then some value stocks
      • opportune 8y ago
        Of course there is the whole "timing the market is a waste of time" discussion but I wouldn't buy REITs right now considering where interest rates are going. Though given that interest rates simply haven't increased very quickly, could be that the market is over-discounting them and they are actually underpriced!
  • starik36 8y ago
    Do you mean like Vanguard? How do learn about the stock market, so the S&P 500 is a invest it and forget it kind of tool?
    • lugg 8y ago
      https://reddit.com/r/financialindependence https://reddit.com/r/financialindependence
• bentossell 8y ago
  Makerpad.co - I teach people how to build projects without code. I’m collaborating with companies now to help provide educational content on how to use the tools for a non-technical project or business. Last 4 weeks revenue is around 30k (from memberships and companies paying to be listed and create the content which isn’t released yet). It’s pretty much all profit too as I do it solo with little overhead. There’s a huge interest growing around building without coding and any technical people are also jumping in too.
  • superamit 8y ago
    Came across this recently and love it! Excellent job picking a nice. I see a lot of potential here.
    • bentossell 8y ago
      Really appreciate that!
  • iraldir 8y ago
    Looks great!
• JohnFen 8y ago
  I do have money-making side projects, but they are software projects as well.
  • self_awareness 8y ago
    Any chances of telling us what they are in more details?
    • JohnFen 8y ago
      I just have a couple of contract jobs on the side. Nothing particularly interesting. One is software for a custom physical security system (involves cameras, RFID readers, and various sensors), and the other is for an embedded system that is to be used for environmental monitoring and control in a greenhouse (monitors things like soil moisture, CO2, temperature, and so forth).
• paulgb 8y ago
  Betting on politics on PredictIt. I wouldn’t recommend it as an income stream, but having an interest in probability, markets, and international politics, it has taught me to read the news more objectively.
  • z92 8y ago
    So on average how much do you earn for say every $100 in bet?
  • Max-20 8y ago
    That looks like an interesting side hustle, would you mind to elaborate a bit on it? How much does it make you in profit per month?
    • paulgb 8y ago
      To be honest, I’m still down from the 2016 election. After taking a break from it, I’ve started to recover since taking the time to sit down and understand the rules, fee structure, and betting tactically at the beginning of this year. Even if I were to attribute all my luck this year to skill and I could keep it up, I wouldn’t be able to make a minimum wage at it. I was particularly leaning on OP’s word possibly :)
  • the_cat_kittles 8y ago
    hey! another one in the wild. cool, ive had the same experience
  • m0zg 8y ago
    Should be pretty easy: just check what CNN says and bet in the opposite direction.
    • qznc 8y ago
      The problem with such predictions (likewise stock market) is that they are not binary. The question is not if a stock goes up or down. The question is "when?". There is no such thing as "opposite" of a date (in a useful sense). There is actually another questions "how much?". There is also no opposite for that.
• nellyspageli 8y ago
  I'm an Airbnb host in my spare bedrooms. As a software engineer by day, I find it quite pleasant to be a host and have a more direct human connection with my customers.
• MrFoof 8y ago
  I 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 all the “PITA” repairs (replacing wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rods, full brake service) that are really just labor in terms of professional repair cost, perform additional rust prevention, and for sale it goes when I feel a new grandma or grandpa would never give a hesitation to load it up with all their grandkids. They also see a very thorough interior cleaning, and a full exterior detail (including paint correction when required). It has bought every very nice tool I could ever want, most are 20-30 hours of labor including acquisition, and I’m at the point where I have repeat customers (the put a 2nd alongside the first) and have direct referrals. Now the profit mostly goes towards putting a 2nd interesting car in the garage, and some towards moving up the ladder to try to earn more per vehicle. Selling cars isn’t bad when you don’t have employees to pay, and it lets you sell really high quality stuff. I keep thinking of how much I couldn’t justify doing, and how much my product standards would suffer if I had to pay help.
  • dplgk 8y ago
    You must have fixed up cars when you were a kid? How do you handle paint matching?
    • MrFoof 8y ago
      Not really, except out of necessity. Mechanics aren't, cheap, and where I am, really not cheap. Cars are just giant metal Lego. As for paint matching, I don't. If I car needs any significant paint work, I'm not interested in buying it. It's also a sign that when I get underneath a car, I'm going to find other issues which are going to be an immediate no sale (as in welding required). Even at normal, non-insurance repair rates (as in, full price), an independent mechanic charges around twice as much per hour than a body shop does for your average paint work (high end a very different story) -- I can get much more $/hour for my labor doing repairs than I ever will doing anything more than leveling a clear coat.
• mehalter 8y ago
  I have craft cocktail catering business with a couple other cocktail lovers who work technical jobs
  • inerte 8y ago
    I’ve always thought about starting a side business doing that. I love making cocktails and want to practice and actually serve people. How do you do it? Do you have a website?
• adrianh 8y ago
  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.
  • jarvelov 8y ago
    That gypsy jazz combo sounds amazing, would you mind sharing a link to where I can listen to it?
    • adrianh 8y ago
      Sure, here’s my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/adrianholovaty https://www.youtube.com/user/adrianholovaty
      • jarvelov 8y ago
        Thank you, it was very nice. Hope I can catch one of your shows one day, cheers!
  • aenygma 8y ago
    Hey Adrian, Huge gypsy jazz fan and amateur player here. Love your projects including music. Any chance you'd consider to play at DjangoFest?
• grecy 8y ago
  I'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 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 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 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
  • iheartpotatoes 8y ago
    VERY COOL! So many questions: Do you work on the road or take off years at a time? Are you armed, or do you just avoid central conflict areas? I take it no family? (hence the 'solo' bit) or are they undersganding?
    • grecy 8y ago
      > Do you work on the road or take off years at a time? For the first one (AK->Argentina) I just took time off and lived off my savings account. For around Africa I wrote my first book and I write for multiple magazines while on the road. > Are you armed, or do you just avoid central conflict areas? Crossing an international border with a firearm will result in instant jail time in virtually every country on the planet. No, it would be impossible to bring a firearm. You might be surprsed to know I have never heard a single gunshot in three years around the continent, and Ethiopia was the only country I ever saw regular people with firearms. In every other country it's only the police/military, who are extremely professional. > I take it no family? (hence the 'solo' bit) or are they undersganding? No kids or wife. I did have a girlfriend with me for some of the Africa Expedition - living in the Jeep proved too much for our relationship. If you do have a family, don't let that stop you, I've met plenty of people on the road with families, ie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc61AxCQQR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc61AxCQQR4
• crabasa 8y ago
  I organize a conference for developers (see: https://2018.cascadiajs.com 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.
• unixhero 8y ago
  I 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.
  • kshacker 8y ago
    ==> This activity is somewhat inspired by threads such as these on HackerNews. I am reading all these comments with joy. I picked up options trading as a side gig, it works sometimes, it does not work some time. I am satisfied with it, but reading this thread made me wonder if I should not try something "real". If there are other similar threads, please do link to them. This Sunday will then be productive :)
  • nimbix 8y ago
    A friend of mine used to work at a junkyard. People would bring in old computers all the time and he could buy working parts from the company by the pound (literally). He made a lot on the side selling them online to people who needed spare parts that were no longer in production.
• j_b_s 8y ago
  In a previous life, I became a scuba instructor that kept me in the latest dive gear. (This was along side working towards a Ph.D.) Eventually it burned me out -- instructing is a stressful "service" gig; and it turned me off of diving for years. This is something that I've observed with other folks in "lifestyle" businesses, e.g., I know yoga and martial arts instructors that ultimately quit not only the instructing, but the hobby. If you love something, be careful about teaching it!
  • nisse72 8y ago
    How to ruin a great hobby: make it your job.
• GlenTheMachine 8y ago
  My wife and I run a sheep farm. The “money-making” part is a bit of a stretch.
• ynac 8y ago
  * Act as a standby for dish pits at the local restaurants - filling in only when someone doesn't show since I don't want to take what could be a lifeline job for someone AND having a standby like me means they can keep their job instead of just being a no-show * Write articles for other people - usually on topics I really don't have a lot of knowledge or feeling about to start. * Mow lawns - I'm allergic to grass. Builds character. * Labor - the harder the better. Beats the gym and there is no better way to turn a Budweiser into a $100 beer than sweating your tail off digging a ditch. * Help startups bootstrap or otherwise avoid "the man" while they find their dream. * Sell chicken eggs when the hens push more than I can French toast. * Make films, music, stories, pamphlets...often these cost more than they make, but I refuse to call them losses. Slightly passive income stream. * Consult - since I was 11 in '81 I've been paid for helping people with their broken technology. I'm not exactly on the edge of all tech like I was, but I still serve a purpose. * This is an odd one, but I have found it at least as profitable as a few side projects over the years. Be lucky. Actually look for money on the ground ($143 last year), win prizes, expect financial benefits from transactions, assume your (educated) choices will make money. * Sell plant starts - a little late for this year, but it's one of those things you can save seeds from your regular groceries / food prep at home and early Spring...ba-da-bing ba-da-bang...kind of almost free plants! https://www.quartoknows.com/books/9780760361603/No-Waste-Kitchen-Gardening.html * Investment clubs - getting a small community of a tech nerd, business geek, social butterfly, and either an accountant type or law dog, plus whatever else you happen to be friendly with, you can end up with a very smart engine for investing. Invest in either public stock, local businesses, people with ideas, or projects of your team's own creation. Have fun, and profit!
  • georgeburdell 8y ago
    > Sell plant starts - a little late for this year, but it's one of those things you can save seeds from your regular groceries / food prep at home and early Spring...ba-da-bing ba-da-bang...kind of almost free plants! Might work with vegetables, but aren't most grocery fruits derived from cuttings?
    • ynac 8y ago
• larzang 8y ago
  I paint. I don't take commissions and the stuff I've sold doesn't even come close to the total I've spent, but who cares, that isn't the point. I love coding, but doing something totally expressive rather than logical is a valuable part of my life too.
• iheartpotatoes 8y ago
  I build boats.
  • fwsgonzo 8y ago
    Man, I am renovating a sailboat right now and it's so hard!
  • btobtobto 8y ago
    Didn’t expect to see you here, Gibbs...
  • acangiano 8y ago
    What kind of boats? Do you have a site?
    • iheartpotatoes 8y ago
      No site, but I also misread the title of the post: I make no money doing it. It is just a hobby. I make kayaks and canoes. Been doing it for almost a decade, I make about one a year.
      • acangiano 8y ago
        Got you. That's very cool.
• aaronmiler 8y ago
  I licensed my house as a winery, and run a hard cider company with my girlfriend. We sell to some stores in our area, and do our local Farmer's Market during the summer. It's been very satisfying making and selling a physical product. The profitability part isn't quite there yet. But we're working on that.
  • mparr4 8y ago
    What’s your cider company? Where are you based out of?
    • aaronmiler 8y ago
      We are Hood View Ciderworks (hoodviewcider.com), based out of Gresham, OR (suburb of Portland)
  • system2 8y ago
    How do you bottle your products? I see the cans with your logo, seems like a bigger operation than you describe. :)
    • aaronmiler 8y ago
      There was a lot of research that was done, but we were able to get into cans with a few key components. We use a piece of home brewing equipment right now to fill our cans and bottles, the beer gun [1]. The beer gun allows us to purge our cans/bottles with CO2 (oxygen is bad for alcohol), and then fill them from the bottom to reduce foam. I was able to find a local supplier, that wraps cans in plastic. So rather than printing them, they shrink wrap our label on to them. They're a bit more expensive than printed cans (if I recall 34¢ sleeved vs 19¢ printed). This allows us to order a single pallet at a time, decreasing our storage needs The last key was the can seamer[2]. I found this early on, and it's been a great little work horse for us. We've put over 6,000 cans through it, and it's been one of the best purchases we've made. Bottles are the easy one, we just use the beer gun [1] and then a manual capper to seal them. Happy to answer any other questions! It's been a fun ride trying to figure out how to "mass produce" something on a smaller scale :) [1] https://www.morebeer.com/products/blichmann-beergun-v2.html https://www.morebeer.com/products/blichmann-beergun-v2.html [2] https://oktoberdesign.com/shop/canseamers/mk16/ https://oktoberdesign.com/shop/canseamers/mk16/
• throwawayman194 8y ago
  Throwaway because I don't want to risk losing my job for asking this. Is all the comments here only from men, or are there any women here who make money from side projects?
  • clubm8 8y ago
    > Throwaway because I don't want to risk losing my job for asking this. Do you often have issues at work when you feel you're "just asking questions"? I haven't seen a single person mention their gender yet. For all we know everyone who has replied is female. Maybe don't assume someone's gender based on data like hobbies?
    • nimonian 8y ago
      > I haven't seen a single person mention their gender yet. That's why, in order to establish the answer to OC's question, it is necessary to ask. > Maybe don't assume someone's gender based on data like hobbies? Directly asking is the opposite of assuming. Your attitude is why OC made a throw away.
  • Kasoha 8y ago
    site is called hacker news. guess the number of females here.
    • clubm8 8y ago
      With such a warm welcome, I'm shocked more "females" don't post herel
      • system2 8y ago
        It probably is the same as programmer / computer field MALE and FEMALE ratio. I doubt anyone here would reject the idea having 50% of females typing every day as much as males do. I am doing IT and programming at the same time, I don't see a single girl doing IT or programming at the companies I work with (SMBs) doing anything close to hackernews material things other than graphic design or social marketing.
• tolk460 8y ago
  Firefighter/medic and wildland fire contractor. I pull in about 15% of my base tech salary doing a few hours of work a week and one wildland fire deployment per year. It's a hobby that turned into a side profession and feels great to help people. The increased risk of cancer is a big downside. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firefighters/health.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firefighters/health.html
  • okusa 8y ago
    I've just moved to the US. Any details about how to get involved in this? What are the base requirements to work as a medic for this kind of work, would MIRA qualify?
• johannes1234321 8y ago
  I have the luxury/privilege that my job pays well. I can do side stuff purely for enjoyment. That enabled me to explore different areas (like bee keeping) or explore scial stuff (i.e. social volunteering in a jail) without having customer demands or such.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
• lb1lf 8y ago
  Two things, both of which I stumbled into accidentally - I make lots of jellies once the berries in the garden are ripe; I bought a house in a rural area a few years ago and it came with loads of berries. Might as well put them to use. It is all done manually (in part because it is meant to be a diversion from my engineering job) - red- and blackcurrant and gooseberries mostly. Last year the harvest was some 1200 4oz glasses of jelly - some 1150 more than my family consumes. Sells by word of mouth. Also, as my mother is quite into weaving tapestry and it was hard to find the exact hues she wanted for her yarns, I started dyeing for her, using traditional colouring. Turned out there was a (veee-eeery small!) market for that kind of thing, and I now make small batches for some 30-35 weavers. Again, fully manual as the idea is to do something completely different from my full-time job.
  • orpheline 8y ago
    This is wonderful.
  • onemoresoop 8y ago
    This is a true break from tech. Go for it.
    • lb1lf 8y ago
      -Oh, I'd go nuts if I did either of the above full-time; however it serves as a wonderful diversion and it is great to do something which produces tangible results. It helps being an engineer, too - I've found (much to my surprise) that keeping detailed notes to ensure repeatable results is quite rare in both pastimes. I thought everybody kept log books! :)
• wjossey 8y ago
  While I don’t directly make money from it, my free mentoring program has actually generated some side income as a nice benefit. I help mentor managers, leaders, and founders, totally for free. I’ve worked with dozens so far and I’m always taking new mentees! You can sign up for a slot in seconds, as I do sessions five days a week: https://freemanagermentors.com https://freemanagermentors.com
• abakker 8y ago
  I make and sell custom tabletops compatible with the festool woodworking products. I cut them locally on my CNC router and advertise exclusively through craigslist. I do 3-5 per month of those, and another 10 projects / month that come from repeat customers - mostly hobbiests and contractors. Through craigslist, I’ve ended up making components used in the Apple campus, and service pieces used in a 3 Michelin star restaraunt.
  • utahcon 8y ago
    What is special about a tabletop for festool products?
    • abakker 8y ago
      Take a look at Festool’s MFT 3 table system. It is a grid of 20mm holes, spaced at 96mm on center. There are many time saving and convenient tools made to take advantage of them, and many more custom stuff that craftsmen build to make things easier. Without a CNC it is frustrating to drill those holes reliably square enough to use them in downstream operations like squaring cuts or aligning/spacing.
• mdorazio 8y ago
  Three things for me: 1) I own a small rental property in Florida that is fairly low maintenance and pays for the mortgage + a small amount each month on average. This is a long-term ROI play since after taxes, maintenance, repairs, and everything else it ends up being close to a wash until the principal to interest ratio on the mortgage payments improves after 5+ years. I only say this because everyone and their brother in my age group seems to want to retire on rental properties, but in reality it's really not that great. 2) Basic ETF investing in a combination of value-oriented and dividend-oriented ETFs. This is, in my opinion, the only way to get truly passive income with literally zero ongoing effort. 3) I design and 3D print props and cosplay pieces on a referral basis for commission. In reality it's a horrible way to make money since quality 3D modelling for 3D printing is time consuming to the point of the hourly effective rate being lower than minimum wage, but I enjoy it, so it's kind of a semi-paid hobby.
  • roddds 8y ago
    Would you mind expanding on what ETFs are you holding and your strategy for (if any) rotation?
• singingwolfboy 8y ago
  I’m a hypnotist. Most of my clients are through word-of-mouth referrals, although I do have a website, as well. It’s an unusual skill that I developed over many years, and I enjoy being able to help people. It’s a fun conversation topic at parties, as well. :)
  • MarceColl 8y ago
    What kind of things do you help people with?
    • singingwolfboy 8y ago
      Usually dealing with stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Sometimes helping people change habits: work out more, lose weight, etc.
      • MarceColl 8y ago
        I'm going through some really tough times and I'm very interested in things that can help me change my behavior. How would you describe what hypnosis does to a person to help them overcome these things?
        • singingwolfboy 8y ago
          Check out my website: https://www.quietstrengthhypnosis.com/ https://www.quietstrengthhypnosis.com/ The “Learn” section has some good information about hypnosis. I’d also be happy to chat more about this one on one, if you’d like. No obligation to actually schedule a session; I don’t charge for chatting and answering questions. :) Shoot me an email: david@quietstrengthhypnosis.com
• kaisuketrax 8y ago
  I do stand up comedy, get a couple gigs per month (~1500$), sometimes I get more sometimes less. Every sunday I shut myself off to write, and perform on weekdays, been doing this for 7 years now and it only started to pay for about 2 years.
  • zzzmarcus 8y ago
    That's great! Seems like a VERY hard job to break into--lots of discipline, learning from painful failure, and hard work. Do you have any of your comedy on Youtube?
  • moretai 8y ago
    Are you a programmer during the day?
• phamilton 8y ago
  My wife sells women's clothes as part of an MLM. I help her, mostly back office stuff but sometimes I help with shipping and sales. MLMs (deservedly) have a bad rap. The focus is usually on recruiting rather than selling, and usually involves converting social relationships into business ones. For us, it's more like being a franchisee. We do $20-25k in sales a month, have two part time assistants to help with shipping and cataloging inventory. We have non trivial spend on marketing and are actively involved in our local chamber of commerce and various networking groups. My wife otherwise is home with our kids, and she loves it. It's busy, it's a ton of work, but we have fun doing it.
• richardbravo 8y ago
  Blogging Maybe
• b3b0p 8y ago
  I'd like to do something constructive, maybe tutoring the local college and high school students, but since people are mentioning index funds: I bought a couple Vanguard funds about 8 years ago and have been maintaining an average return of 10-12% which is almost enough to pay rent. I used some of the returns to help pay the down payment for my condo. Now, my rent won't go up anymore. My mortgage isn't much more than my old rent and less actually then one of my previous places. It's also about double the size and arguably in a better location. If I ever get another job some where else and because of it's location I can rent it out extremely easy.
• kentf 8y ago
  I run a niche keto / nutrition online store in Canada. https://ablecells.com https://ablecells.com
• asciident 8y ago
  Not really a productive venture, but it was profitable. I used a 3% cashback credit card on a financial company's money sending service with no fees, and sent my sister $3,500 every two days. She'd then eventually pay me back through bank ACH (also free). Then I'd pay off my credit card every week so my credit balance remained low. Made about $1,500 a month for a year, before they stopped giving cashback for transfers.
  • fabricexpert 8y ago
    This seems a tad unethical
    • asciident 8y ago
      I was actually thinking about ethics a lot while I was doing this little project. By ethics do you mean morals or something different? What framework would you suggest for determining the ethics/morals of doing something like this, where we're playing by the legal rules by trying to optimize for our own benefit?
      • jsf01 8y ago
        Think about it like this. The logical conclusion of people acting like you did is that credit card issuers increase interest rates to make up for their losses. That makes life worse for everyone but the people exploiting the loophole. You’re no different from the people who exaggerate their losses to insurance companies in order to claim extra insurance money. Because of them, premiums have gone up. You might see yourself as some kind of Robinhood figure, but ultimately it’s going to be the other people participating in your network that suffer.
        • lazyasciiart 8y ago
          It's very different - one of those people is lying.
        • asciident 8y ago
          Thanks for the reply. There is a clear difference between claiming extra insurance money and what I'm doing: lying to get more insurance money is fraud, while what I'm doing is exactly what the service is intended for (sending money to others for free). But using your framework of, "if everyone did this, how would this affect the business and others using the business," then I (and many others) are doing a lot of other unethical things. Ad blocking and card counting (in blackjack) clearly would be deemed unethical under this criteria, but here's a bunch of other more tangible examples. There's a popular pastry place that has 50% off sales on Sunday afternoon because they are closing Monday so they sell the remaining stock at a significant discount before close. I only go there on Sunday afternoons, but if everyone did that, then the prices would go up for all. Another thing I do is using the books, video games, movies, and streaming services offered by my library and never buy any real media. But if everyone did this, then bookstores, theaters, and streaming companies would go bankrupt.
• bengarvey 8y ago
  This role playing game for pre-school aged kids https://kidsdungeonadventure.com/ https://kidsdungeonadventure.com/
  • AlphaWeaver 8y ago
    Wow, after skimming the site, this is a really cool idea! Imaginary play is a great thing for kids but it's a hard sell if kids struggle to "come up with" a story... Giving a little bit of structure is brilliant, and based on your customer reviews, it looks well received.
  • em-bee 8y ago
    i really like this idea, but i am not a fan of the elaborate battle rules in d&d. in fact, i'd like to do roleplay without any fighting at all. just treasure hunting, puzzle solving, etc... i did some research for what else is out there and found http://www.susanjmorris.com/dd-for-kids/ http://www.susanjmorris.com/dd-for-kids/ and also https://www.wired.com/2010/09/rpgkids-a-critical-hit-with-little-gamers/ https://www.wired.com/2010/09/rpgkids-a-critical-hit-with-li... but most helpful was this review which i found inspiring to come up with my own ideas https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/137660/great-introductory-dungeon-crawl-game-kids https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/137660/great-introductory-d... basic setup: there are no monsters, just NPCs that block your path. role the dice to decide who needs to give way. if the player "wins" they get to keep the NPC as a score. if the NPC wins they need to move back as many steps as the NPC roll, and try again when they get there later, or go another way. there can also he other surprises such as treasures or cards that add to your rolls (+1, +2 etc) the rest can be like any d&d game, but this avoids the whole battle scenarios which is not something i want my kids to grow up with when i don't even like it myself. (when i play online RPGs, i find fighting just a nuisance that prevents me from enjoying the rest of the game)
• scarface74 8y ago
  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. Around 2008 -2011, a few things happened. The real estate market crashed and I did a few “strategic defaults”, I realized I could make a lot more by getting better at software engineering and job hopping, and I got married and gained a wife and two (step) children. I gave up all of my side projects, concentrated on my career, started building a network of recruiters, former coworkers, and former managers and doubled my income over the next 8 years (not bragging, I still make about the average of principal engineer/architect/team lead in my area). Even looking over the next two to five years, I should be able to increase my income by 50% (working for local companies) to well over 100% (if I can get into Amazon) as some type of cloud consultant, “digital transformation consultant”, or “Architect”. The only thing stopping me now is the travel requirements. I want to wait until my youngest completes high school. But, that means I can’t juggle my job, family commitments, working out, filling in some technical gaps and a side job/business. So no side business.
  • davidjnelson 8y ago
    Thanks, this is insightful. Sounds like the opportunity cost of a side business isn't worth it for you right?
    • scarface74 8y ago
      If I worked on a side business now that wasn’t purely passive income, it would be doing side software gigs involving technology I was already good at. I’m not sacrificing my job (main source of income), my time working out, or my family. The only thing I could realistically give up would be filling in skills gap and learning more. So instead of in two years being able to command 50% to 100% more as a cloud consultant/architect, I would still only be able to make what I’m making now. I will be spending a lot of time building instead of sharpening my axe. Even worse, I risk being further behind technically in two or three years and not even being able to find a job in development in the then hot technology. It’s like the difference between deciding to go to work right out of high school and postponing starting your career and going to college.
• hundreddaysoff 8y ago
  emergency doctor
  • system2 8y ago
    Well, it sounds like programming is your side project.
• youshy 8y ago
  Used to teach music part-time (guitar, theory, composition, recording, production, everything), ended up working +20hr every week teaching only + full-time job. Dialled it down but I do sometimes teach in small groups via Skype. Now I do a bit of consulting, helping bands with production, composition and chops in general. The plan is to get back to teaching but only through apps.
• DamnInteresting 8y ago
  I established DamnInteresting.com in 2005, a place where myself and handful of others produce original long-form non-fiction in article and podcast form. Despite plenty of traffic, it didn't reach the break-even point for several years, because I despise advertisements and I refused to add them to my site. I funded the project in other ways, such as donations, publishing a book, licensing content, etc. Nowadays it still only earns a little every month, but that's mostly owing to a rise in expenses (e.g., I pay the contributors more). But profit is secondary for me, my primary motive is to have an excuse to research and write this stuff, and for intelligent people to consume it.
  • gkfasdfasdf 8y ago
    Just want to say thank you. I wish more sites on the internet put out quality content like yours!
  • kkaranth 8y ago
    This looks neat. I'll be sure to read a few articles from here. Why the curated section though? I think it distracts to have links to articles from NYTime or Wired on the side.
    • DamnInteresting 8y ago
      It's a long story, but the short version goes something like this: At first we worked our cabooses off to publish new original content several times per month. This proved unsustainable, partially because we were becoming more ambitious with our work, but especially owing to stressors that had arisen in my personal life, and I burned out. I spent a year-long hiatus putting things right, and when we resumed our writing, it was with the understanding that we were switching to a marathon-not-a-sprint publication schedule. The curated column arose to fill in the gaps between our in-house writings. Nowadays many readers specifically visit us for the links, so we feel duty-bound to persist.
      • ment4list 8y ago
        I'd just like to thank you for this. I love all your content and have supported the site in the past. But I especially love the curated section - it's better than recommendations I get from other places like Pocket or Instapaper. Thank you for doing this. Your site is a treasure.
• kenbolton 8y ago
  I guide sea kayaking expeditions and provide instruction for a local outfitter. It pays for itself, as kayak gear is not cheap, and forces me to exercise my social skills. My "day job" is solo remote founding engineer for a RegTech SaaS.
• 20years 8y ago
  Selling custom signs to businesses. I help them design the sign but also have a sign creator on the site that businesses can use for more basic signs. I send the design files off to a supplier who then makes and ships the signs. It averages $20k in sales per month. It is not hands off (fair amount of customer support & design work) but the net profit makes it worth it.
• m3kw9 8y ago
  Look and research companies, understand their product, invest in them thru stock market. Go long(6 month to years).
• holoduke 8y ago
  I started creating apps when the first store was opened. It makes almost 10 m times more than my normal job (team lead, developer). Still I have no desire to quit my day job. If I manage to keep this going for another 5 years I will reach a point where I have enough money to live my life without any financial issues.
  • carbolymer 8y ago
    Care to share apps?
• kpgraham 8y ago
  I raise bees and sell the honey. Good for a few thousand a year and the money makes up for the stings. I have a couple of dozen chickens and sell the eggs, but this makes very little money since eggs are so cheap in the super market. It pays for the feed and that's it. I wrote an Amazon book on how to play harmonica in the style of Sonny Boy Williamson II that sells steady and makes me beer money. I sell a couple of my Science Fiction short story collections on Amazon. "Error Message Eyes" and "Frogs in Aspic", but after a good first year they sell only a couple of copies a month. I sell four or five Science Fiction stories a year, but only occasionally do I get pro rates. It's nice to see your name in print, though.
  • sharkweek 8y ago
    This one sounds fun - just out of curiosity, how many times a year do you get stung?
    • kpgraham 8y ago
      How many times a day? I usually can't get away from being around the hives without a sting. Luckily the bees are usually calm and a honey bee sting is like a bad mosquito bite. It is not like a wasp or hornet sting. If I open the hive without gloves and veil, I can get stung, but not always. If I have to "work the hive" I have to go full bee suit to prevent being stung. If you can't handle being stung then raising bees is not a good hobby. If you can stand it, honey is like gold, and people will hound you for it.
  • geddy 8y ago
    I love how diverse all of these things are! Very cool.
  • bsmitty5000 8y ago
    That's amazing and I can't believe how much this sounds like what I'm trying to go for! I got my first two hives setup on Saturday and we finally moved our first group of 12 chickens out of the house and into the coop yesterday. If you don't mind, how many hives do you have and how do you sell the honey? I was always thinking I would need more hives than I could ever manage to actually get enough to sell. My goal was to get into gourmet mushrooms and sell through the office or maybe get attached to a CSA or something.
• armenarmen 8y ago
  I buy and fix up mid century modern and Bauhaus furniture and either sell it online or to local stores as a “picker” it’s a fun hobby and can score me an extra 800-1000/month in profit.
• niqmk 8y ago
  I'm a trader
• morog 8y ago
  I make heirloom yogurt from organic milk from a local dairy farmer, currently about 50 litres a week & increasing fast. Turns out real yogurt is real popular these days. Doesn't exactly pay the bills yet, but it's delicious!
• jawns 8y ago
  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 Perform on Your Kid" (http://www.experimentingwithbabies.com http://www.experimentingwithbabies.com) ended up selling pretty well. My second book, "Correlated: Surprising Connections Between Seemingly Unrelated Things," (http://www.correlated.org http://www.correlated.org) did not do nearly as well. In fact, it bombed pretty hard. I assumed my book writing career was over. But because of the strength of "Experimenting With Babies," I ended up getting two more book deals, each of which follow a similar format. "Experiments for Newlyweds: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform With Your Spouse" (https://newlywed.science https://newlywed.science) came out earlier this month. I'm really proud of it. You should give it to any engaged couples you know. And "Experimenting on Kids: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform on Children Ages 2-5" will hit bookstores in May 2020. If you factor in advances, royalties, foreign rights, and other secondary deals, the amount I've made from my books is about what I make in a year as a programmer. So it's a nice chunk of change, but also a decent amount of work. Advice to anyone else who's considering writing a book: * You can do well with self-publishing if you're really good at marketing your own stuff, already have a strong platform, and don't need to depend on an advance. If any of those things aren't true, you're probably better trying to get a book deal with a traditional publisher. * Writing the book is often not the hardest part. Selling the book is often the hardest part. If you just want to write, but you don't want to sell, this might not be the side project for you. * If you have a literary agent, you typically pay 15 percent commission. And boy is it worth it.
  • em-bee 8y ago
    you made one years worth of a programmers salary from all your books? how much work was it to get there?
    • jawns 8y ago
      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.
• AlchemistCamp 8y ago
  I've got a few: - I've made stickers for the LINE chat app - I have various affiliate links in my old blog - I have some ebooks that I wrote years ago - I currently make screencasts to teach people the Elixir programming language (https://alchemist.camp https://alchemist.camp) The revenue on all of these things except for the screencasts is gradually falling to zero. The screecasting revenue has roughly quadrupled from October through March (~6.8)% weekly growth rate), but still not quite up to $1k/month.
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• osi1647 8y ago
  I make video tutorials about Arduino programming on https://arduino-lessons.com/ https://arduino-lessons.com/ and earn some money via the referral program when visitors buy parts via my website.
• westondeboer 8y ago
  I make ~$40/month doing affiliate marketing. I use affiliate links to sell my own affiliate links. Generated from https://hncynic.leod.org/index.html https://hncynic.leod.org/index.html
• iamank 8y ago
  I havent tried yet but https://gitpay.me https://gitpay.me looks like something which pays(not much) and is related to code.. Would appreciate feedback if someone has experience with this.
• randomacct3847 8y ago
  Investing. Q1 was a record quarter for the stock market...
• rhapsodyv 8y ago
  I have a CNC Laser and do stuff for friends and schools in the area I live. Nothing like a real business, but help to free my mind from my daily work, and I make ~USD 300 per month.
• malwarebytess 8y ago
  This is inspirationally depressing. Really makes you realize what a shit human being you are when everyone is doing so many interesting things -- on the side.
  • symlinkk 8y ago
    I barely have enough time to work, go to the gym, and socialize. I don't know how anyone has enough time to add side projects on top of that.
    • raegis 8y ago
      Easy. I have three children. If I didn't have children, I'd have 3 Nobel Prizes by now with all that extra free time :)
  • kfriede 8y ago
    Do you have a hobby? Most of my side projects (and if you notice, a lot of the projects here too) stem from a hobby. It's not work if you have fun doing it, and if it's a side project then you can stop whenever it stops being fun.
• adamzerner 8y ago
  Playing poker! My winrate online is only a couple dollars an hour. I don't play live very often so I don't have the sample size to say what my winrate would be, but I'd guess $10-20/hr. So, ultimately, not too much money. But if I keep improving, my winrate should keep going up. It also makes a lot of sense because I'm developing a poker app - https://premiumpokertools.com/ https://premiumpokertools.com/. So I guess it is sort of tied into programming/CS for me in a way.
  • sauravt 8y ago
    Nice app. I've been trying to improve my post flop game. Will check it out.
    • adamzerner 8y ago
      Awesome! Hit me up at contact@premiumpokertools.com if you want to chat and/or study hands.
• hemmert 8y ago
  Mine is Escape Team: www.escape-team.com
  • emyeskay 8y ago
    Cool idea
  • ElCapitanMarkla 8y ago
    Hey I saw this here last week and just played through the whole lot with my partner tonight. We’re looking forward to you’re next update if you are working on more.
• rtfs 8y ago
  I manufacture and sell cool pull-ups bars [1] for fitness ethusiasts and all others, who want to have an allrounder at home for their fitness workouts. Does not make me rich, but provides in addition work and income for three people doing it also as a side-job. Main problem: the product does not brake and it's a true craft business, so 95% of all customer buy only once. [1] https://klimmzugstangen.de/ https://klimmzugstangen.de/
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• dejv 8y ago
  Few years ago I've bought few plots of vineyards and started to make my own wine. I was lucky that many members of my familly is making wine for many years already (like few 100s of years) so I was able to borrow some equipment and get help sometimes. It is generating some money, but I am in the process of professionalising whole business and that costs HUGE amount of money so I basically invest all of my earnings and will continue to do so for next decade(s). Being born into winemaking familly was big gift and a curse. Without having some basic infrastructure there is no way I would be able to afford starting. On the other hand it brings complex familly issues when you try to do something different: I am farming organically, I refuse to use any "modern" additives and even stylistically I prefer doing very dry old-school type of wine instead of what they thought is modern off-dry and semi-sweet wine.
• johnnycab 8y ago
  I realise that this is not going to make me popular on HN. However, apart from the job, I have the best side-business ─ being idle, sleeping a lot and generally acting like a bum; all the things that make me happy are hobbies and I have never had any real intentions to monetise them.
  • agumonkey 8y ago
    you should sell tutorials about it
    • johnnycab 8y ago
      Thanks for the suggestion, but it is not a novel concept. It takes some re-configuration or leap of faith, to accept it as a personal development plan.
• jedberg 8y ago
  Property management. It can be a pain sometimes, but honestly I enjoy having to spend a day once in a while painting a house or clearing weeds.
  • soniman 8y ago
    Where do you get clients? Or is it your own property?
• uchman 8y ago
  Well this isn't totally outside programming but you can tutor programming on wyzant.com for some good hourly rates. Even cool if you like teaching what you do, plus you'll probably not be teaching stuff as complex as your daily hustle :)
• pugworthy 8y ago
  Not necessarily outside of programming, but I used to do web pages for wineries in Oregon when it wasn't so obvious for a business to have a website. I'd always do it for barter, never cash. We had a pretty nice wine cellar back then.
• michaelsbradley 8y ago
  Group fitness instructor: several different formats, certified through Les Mills. I teach 4 mornings per week, and it works out to about USD $7000 before taxes.
• Shogoot 8y ago
  I get about 1/6 of my yearly salary, a year, doing software job as an consultant for my ex work place. They did not replace me when I abruptly quit in 2017, giving them 3 months of notice. They have been a steady source of income since. I adjust my price yearly adding inflation + 2%
  • confounded 8y ago
    Bit how many hours do you work for 1/6th of the salary?
    • Shogoot 8y ago
      About 3-4 hrs a weekp
• heeton 8y ago
  I help founders hire technical staff, or find co-founders. I’m not a recruiter - I’m a CTO who’s done a lot of hiring myself, and it’s more about how to understand who you need and how to talk to them. (I’m currently working on some free resources/workshops on the topic to build my pipeline, so if the above sounds useful to you then get in touch - my email is in my profile)
  • agzamov 8y ago
    It seems, I need your advice/help - but unable to see your email in profile - how to contact with you?
• massi-brero 8y ago
  Playing bass... Although... money-making...? Helped feeding my little family while at university...
• baldeagle 8y ago
  I’m working on getting my wife a job in US Congress. We’ll see how this choice pans out in two and a half years.
• iamrecursion 8y ago
  I run an audio engineering business. At first it was just a project of passion, but years later and a not insignificant investment in gear, software, and other equipment has left me with a side business that nets a tidy bit of income. It’s also something that I adore doing, and hence a massive plus. I get to mix and master a whole variety of music, from classical to ambient, to EDM, and it’s always a pleasure to work with artists whether they’re new to it all or seasoned professionals.
  • maksimilian 8y ago
    As someone who records in their spare time, would you mind sharing the progression of how it grew from a hobby to a business/side gig?
• bitfhacker 8y ago
  My job occupies most of the time. The rest of it I invest it with my children and family. I'm father of 2 twins sisters (11) and a boy of 5 years old. My father have a degenerative disease (fatal but with slow progression), and my mother spends most of her time taking care of him. I put all my energy with my kids and helping my parents. As soon as I realized that I can loose my loved ones, I started making selective choices with my time. In the past, I was course trainer of linux during weekends. It was very rewarding to teach students that "wanted to learn" and the money was good, too. I remember when a student ssh'ed to a station and executed "eject" in the remote machine - he literally jumped in happiness! I also made some websites in my spare time but it wasn't so rewarding.
  • skypather 8y ago
    It is very nice and warm to hear your story.
• ccantana 8y ago
  I run a popular weekly newsletter that makes fun of the tech industry. Think: The Onion meets TechCrunch. Newsletters can generally charge a much higher CPM than a social media accounts or even podcasts in some cases. You can start making beer money with only a few thousand subscribers. We’re also thinking of hosting a few live events as well once our audience is large enough. (P.S. for the curious, the newsletter is called TechLoaf: https://techloaf.io https://techloaf.io)
  • chris_st 8y ago
    You might want to team up somehow with HackerNewsOnion[1]. They're fantastic. [1] https://twitter.com/hackernewsonion https://twitter.com/hackernewsonion
  • quickthrower2 8y ago
    I love your newsletter
• Adamantcheese 8y ago
  Still selling that one book. Last time I posted this, someone bought 40 copies of it. 40! That was more than the lifetime sales of it! https://www.amazon.com/dp/1505357888/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_CjpVCbJNJCSHS https://www.amazon.com/dp/1505357888/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...
• briane92 8y ago
  I just started but I'm trying to get into the bug bounty / hunting field. I spent 40 bucks on a web application hacking book so I'm currently in the negative.
• IAmGraydon 8y ago
  I have a few side projects, but the most recent is phosphorescent cosmetic mods for synthesizers. https://graydonaudio.com https://graydonaudio.com
• mro_master 8y ago
  I perform data cleansing of excel spreadsheets and sometimes convince them to develop basic CRUD apps to take the place of excel. Depending on the project and the feeling I get about the depth of their budget I charge: per row based on the transformations they need, flat fee if they actually have well defined requirements, per hour for development time if they are convinced of the value in standing up a new web app to handle the process.
  • opportune 8y ago
    How do you get clients for this kind of work and about how much do you charge? This sounds pretty laid back and potentially lucrative
    • mro_master 8y ago
      That my friend is the secret sauce. My first job out of school was for a staffing company that pimped me out to perform similar projects. Word of mouth mostly, it's very lucrative if you have domain knowledge and can sit for long periods of time. It's not Mechanical Turk style cleansing and I have to take personal responsibility for every row as they mostly just suck up my cleansed data and roll with it, which you can't do with ML cleansed data or off-shored cleansed data. I've been thinking of launching a SaaS product but the transition from trusted consultant to enterprise SaaS is not easy. What do you do?
      • opportune 8y ago
        I do big data stuff mostly. A lot of that involves cleansing. So working with large excel/csv/other tabular data formats is second nature to me. Familiar with many technical tools that I could maybe use as force-multiplier (e.g. serverless SQL processing, OLAP, RDBMS, python pandas, spark), hence my interest since if we relax the condition that every single row is accounted for, my productivity would likely be pretty high
        • mro_master 8y ago
          The customers always find the rows that are not accounted for, it's bad form to drop data. We sell high quality data, which you can't claim if you can't account for every single row. You should be careful about delivering an incomplete data-set.
• mikekchar 8y ago
  I never charged money for it, but since I live in Japan and used to teach English for a living, I used to teach English to retired people in the area. I stopped because I don't actually have enough time any more, but it was very rewarding. I'm thinking of starting up again, holding sessions in the pub and charging beer as payment. Now that I think about it, it's how I got together with my wife. I met her running in a marathon of all things and she wanted to learn English. I said I'd be happy to teach her and after 2 lessons I asked her out on a date :-) I never did teach her English beyond that!
  • sauravt 8y ago
    That's a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. :)
• griffinkelly 8y ago
  Sports photography. Can make a decent amount of money shooting high school sports, or local races. I think its a great hobby that complements programming as you can really nerd out about digital cameras and how they work, as well as photo editing.
• opportune 8y ago
  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 have only lost 10% from my initial investment. I do it somewhat as a way to earn money but mostly for the experience, since I think it helps me learn a lot about how equities are priced and how the market reacts to news and macro events. Rather than continually making bets just for the sake of making bets I only make trades when I think a stock overreacted to bearish news (meaning it's likely to rebound to its old price given that the business' fundamentals are unaffected), was oversold due to underperformance of other stocks traded alongside it, or is greatly overvalued due to some irrational hype (Lyft and most canadian weed stocks). And I sell quickly if the option loses a lot of its value or if the option greatly appreciates to lock in profits and limit losses.
  • sidcool 8y ago
    This is great. Any good resources to learn informed investing?
    • opportune 8y ago
      For options? I guess http://www.optionstrading.org/strategies/a-z-list/ http://www.optionstrading.org/strategies/a-z-list/ is a good place to start. One way people just starting out with options fuck up is that they take out positions with a very large upside but also very high risk to ruin. It's like going to a roulette table basically. If you take out more complex positions you can limit your downside, make money on sideways movements, etc. You can also limit downside by setting up orders to sell above/below certain values too. I read some finance textbook when I was just starting out, I think it was "introduction to derivatives and risk management". That helped too. It's a good, gentle introduction to derivatives and you can skip most of it unless you want to work for an investment bank. I think the best way to learn is to just watch stocks overtime, and read up on the news relevant to them. That's really why I play with options, it keeps me plugged into following the movements of a bunch of different stocks, so I learn a lot about what makes them behave in certain ways. Definitely stay away from paid classes on investing or trading, those are almost all scams - if a "successful trader" has to teach paid classes they're not actually successful. And re: my strategy of trying to identify short term movements that make something under/over-valued and hoping it will correct, just realize that sometimes the market can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent, and sometimes you just need to take the loss and get out. One more thing I forgot. When I refer to "news" I mean real news. A lot of financial news websites are complete bot-written vacuous garbage. Real news is things like deals happening or falling through, large orders, interest rates, lawsuits, recalls, earnings, trade deals, etc.
• b0blee 8y ago
  For 30 years it was playing music. Doesn't pay well - it was basically my food budget. I kept at it for 9 years anyway after I retired as a programmer. Some of the gigs were fun, and most of my friends are musicians.
• iamleppert 8y ago
  Probably going to be downvoted, but I do adult webcam stuff, mostly with private already established regular clients. My net profit can be as high as $1200 per week, $800 on the low side, for a few hours of “work”. I generally use it as a fall-back income when I’m in-between tech jobs but I do it if I’m employed or not to keep my paying client list fresh for when I need it. I could make a lot more, I have a “cam friend” who makes $5k/week regular but he does it full time and markets himself and such. I put the minimal amount of time & effort into it.
  • rlue 8y ago
    Ironically, this answer is not terribly sexy for most HN readers.
  • tachyonbeam 8y ago
    Curious to know if you're M/F and which site(s) you do this on. Asking for a... Friend...
  • Renaud 8y ago
    That's an unusual way to make money for someone skilled into generally well-paying tech jobs. It's an interesting niche though, being your own "product". Is it something you enjoy doing as well or do you feel you have to because it's the only way to survive the lean months and keep a regular clientele?
    • iamleppert 8y ago
      I enjoy doing it, it's fun for me and silly and I have, like any business relationship, relationships with my clients I have built over the years. I am a part of their lives, so even when I don't need the money I feel bad if I let them down. I have no clue how long it will continue, but it has saved me more than once when I've had issues with my tech employment. It also allows me the safety net of being able to quit bad jobs and not having to stress, use savings, or take the first opportunity that comes to me. The types of people willing to pay this kind of money generally are looking for someone very specific and are very loyal once they have/you have found them. I've only ever had two clients stop in the past 10 years of doing it or so and I turn down new clients all the time.
• reboog711 8y ago
  I write books about programming at www.learn-with.com Right now it is just a bunch of Angular and related stuff; but I Want to expand to React. I make ~$200 a month, which is pretty good considering how little I put into promotion. I consider the platform my own personal reason for learning / experimenting with new stuff.
• adamparsons 8y ago
  I made enough to take a small hiatus on software work by DJing (200-400 most nights) Some people successfully make it their full time gig. Essentially you’re sitting at your computer all day, and listening to music while you do it right? so there is plenty of opportunity to find and save interesting (or basic) music. Combine that with maths and counting (what’s 4+4?) some practice, networking around, and you can land yourself some very well paid nights out, they pay you AND pay for your drinks. Only big downside I’ve experienced is the toll on your health if you regularly stay out drinking all night.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
• thekevan 8y ago
  This isn't exactly passive but... I used to buy old furniture, refurbish it and resell it on craigslist. I made generally about $20 - $30 an hour. I also kept things for myself sometimes and slowly replaced different furniture items with nicer and nicer items. One year, I had 4 different coffee tables in succession. I found a cool coffee table and kept it, then I found a cooler one weeks later so I kept that and sold my previous one. Repeat that 3 times. I'd mostly troll a certain thrift shop for antique-ish and mid-century items. It doesn't take long perusing Pinterest and design blogs to get a bit of an eye for what people want to consider collectible. Plus often if you look at something and squint, you an see if shaping it up will make it into something people want. I occasionally hit some garage sales, estate sales were too high priced and competitive. Sometime going an hour before they closed, they would drop the prices super low. %75 off would be better for them for them than not selling AND having to move it to get rid of it. Not always though. I mostly just used Old English oil or Minwax furniture wax on items. It wasn't unusual for me to buy a $20 dresser, spend an hour giving it a cleaning (with Windex or other dollar store cleaners) and an oiling and sell it for $80 - $125. I would do some small carpentry repairs on items, usually broken drawers, loose legs and occasionally a crack in the piece that was on a non-essential or non-structural area. You learn to avoid the repairs that are time consuming, difficult to get right or especially those--this is hard to describe--that will either be super easy or will fail no matter what you try with no in between. I avoided painting things, too time consuming plus I hate covering good wood. If anything is missing a knob or matching decorative hardware--it was an instant "no". You'll never find one that matches just right without spending a ton of time--if at all--and if you replace them all, it's expensive. Plus new knobs usually look weird on an antique and ruin the aesthetic of a mid century item. I have had dozens of people tell me that I am a magician because I could take an old dried out looking item and bring the finish back. Honestly, it was the oils and the wood itself. I's take a piece like a dresser, table or chair, and after cleaning it for 5 - 15 minutes, just spend another 20 wiping the oil on. You just go over every bit over and over to rub the oil in well and also that takes the excess off. Give it a 2 minute wipe down an hour later if you can, using the same rag but without adding oil. (sometimes the wood soaks the oil into itself, but then it's wet and starts to expend. Then the oil gets pushed back out and sits on the surface. This step gets rid of that.) Give it a super light coat of oil the next day, looking for areas you missed or that soaked up more or less oil than others. This takes maybe 5 minutes. Dressers were my staple. Everyone has at least one dresser, people use them in other rooms for storage or decor. Chairs were okay deeding and also would sell in even number better. Coffee tables, especially mid century items went easily also. Headboards and foot-boards I would buy if they were exceptional in appearance or super, super cheap. With those, any physical repair needed would also deem them a "no". All my supplies fit in a dollar store plastic basket that was about 14"x14"x12". A few bottles of surface cleaner, oil in dark medium and light and a can of wax. Then a bunch of rags, use the same rag for the oils, one for each color. and one for wax only. Some steel wool for scuffs or hard stains, a small hammer, a few screw drivers and a ton of different sized screws and nails, almost all in the smaller than average to tiny varieties. I very occasionally used a drill and do have a couple long bar clamps for gluing. The skill needed to bring a finish back is minimal. I'd say if you can clean a bathroom well or polish a chrome bumper, you can make a $10 thrift store item look like a $150 one. Just rub the stuff on and it does the work. People will call you an artist and not realize they could do the same. I sold on craigslist and usually the people came by in the evenings when I was just making dinner or getting stuff ready for the next day anyway. I have a covered porch so they'd never come into my house, I have a large dog with a scary bark, plus I had a few hidden aces up my sleeve in case anyone got cagey. No one ever did. Craigslist can be a gutter of society but the people wanted what I sold were about 20 somethings, soccer moms, "artsy neighborhood dwellers" of varying demographics or empty nesters. I had a 4 text limit and if someone texted me more times than that, I'd do my best not to arrange to meet with them. That sounds like a dick move, they just want to know about the item, right? But like clockwork, those were the people who would no-show, super low-ball me once they got here or reschedule 20 minutes before they were due. People got one strike and they were out. The thrift store I went to to was near where I would run errands and so I would stop in there for 5 minutes every time I went to get groceries or whatever. I made one special trip a week on Saturday mornings, right when they opened. I was there 1 - 4 times a week, usually about 3. So it did not take much time out of my day or routine to get stuff. It came to a close because the one thrift store I used to get stuff from really fell off in their selection. In the Pinterest craze, more people started keeping things and "Up-cycling" them themselves. My store also lost a deal with some organization and suffered a drop in items. They also used to make regular pick-ups in areas and I think they just saturated it an sort of squeezed the sponge dry.
• sidcool 8y ago
  My core money making project is to learn literate investing . Some good long term investments in liquid, equity bonds can result in upto 18% annualized returns. I am not very well versed with direct stock investing. The risks are just too great for me.
  • skypather 8y ago
    Would you mind share some resources you learned about the investment?
• toymachine 8y ago
  I realized I was always looking for the best pen and I was geeking out about writing instruments so I started a website about pens: https://unsharpen.com/ https://unsharpen.com/. There is some light programming, but it's mostly data entry.
• marcinzm 8y ago
  I make things out of wood with a laser cutter and sell them on etsy. Mainly things from an MMO I play but also other games and tv shows. So far it covers the cost of materials and laser time. It won't ever comes close to my day job in terms of income (I did the math) but it's interesting as a side thing that's not engineering. I optimize the process and marketing (since I find that interesting) but don't stress over income from it.
• taigeair 8y ago
  I think side projects and businesses are a great way to learn and have an interesting life, so I am usually doing something outside of work. My friends write plays and do standup which sometimes pays. I used to teach swimming after work because it got me to the gym and I could develop my communication skills. Currently, I have a hobby map business that generates some money (https://www.wellingtonstravel.com/ https://www.wellingtonstravel.com/). Recently I created a matchmaking app for people who travel. It's not making money yet, but I expect it to be able to generate income too (https://www.fairytrail.app/ https://www.fairytrail.app/). I believe it's about finding what interests you first. Money is a nice bonus.
  • sauravt 8y ago
    I love the concept of your FairyTrail app. I am trying it out right now but I wish there was a way to continue without facebook for those who don't have a facebook account.
    • taigeair 8y ago
      Thanks! Working on Google login at the moment. Should be ready in a week :)
• docere 8y ago
  I’m a physician (epileptologist)... Started out comp sci and made the switch to medicine to help people. Currently doing programming/academic medicine roughly 50/50; the former has yet to provide any significant money or grants, but it’s still enjoyable and comes in handy from time to time for research endeavors.
• RomanPushkin 8y ago
  I made $6000 in 2018 selling my Ruby book online. It was in my native language, but I'm translating it into English. About half of the book has been translated. 50% off if you're interested http://leanpub.com/rubyisforfun/c/IQrM7FYyuepX http://leanpub.com/rubyisforfun/c/IQrM7FYyuepX
• thinnerlizzy 8y ago
  I created ShutterDeck[1], a system for controlling multi-camera arrays. I designed and built the hardware and the iPhone app, which serves as a remote control for the device. I do basically no advertising or I'd probably sell more. The next batch I order will have the boards pre-assembled for me, which I'm really excited about. Most of my clients have photo booths, but I do have one researcher using it to try to treat scoliosis in children. I'm actively looking for new markets. It barely brings in enough money to make it worth doing, but the system is essential for some users, and I like doing it. [1] https://shutterdeck.com https://shutterdeck.com
  • utahcon 8y ago
    I think this is pretty neat. I am not into photography myself, but love the concept and the way you are going about the work. Cheers!
    • thinnerlizzy 8y ago
      Thank you! I appreciate it. I do it as much for the love of bringing things to life as the money.
• gbin 8y ago
  Restoring and fixing vintage computers then reselling them on eBay. I am just doing that for fun during weekends and I never expected to be a profitable business. It is very satisfying to buy those old, rusted, dusty, yellowed broken machines and restore them so people can relive the 80s or 90s hay days of the family computers.
• balls187 8y ago
  Fitness Marketing Automation company. Started in 2018 when my position was eliminated. Achieved $1k in MRR in less than a year. Have a handshake deal with a hollywood actor/martial artist to partner with his 500 affiliates.
  • hart_russell 8y ago
    What is fitness automation?
    • balls187 8y ago
      fitness marketing automation. Edited the original post.
• sidonesia 8y ago
  I dry age meat and sell it. I live in indonesia at the moment and its hard to get a hold of this for a reasonable price so i setup some fridges, bought some special bags for dry aging and dry age about 15 kgs of mean at any one time. After I dry age the meat i can sell it for about 4x the price that i bought it for and it makes a decent amount of additional income. I sell it online and through whatsapp also :)
• known 8y ago
  NASDAQ and Real estate
• parrotcake 8y ago
  After work, I do youtube compilation for stress relief, may earn cents https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2pKqCYmQPcuupftzoo6IMQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2pKqCYmQPcuupftzoo6IMQ
  • nkkollaw 8y ago
    How do you make money from playlists? You get part of the video revenue?
• nestorD 8y ago
  I translate magic books (with a speciality on old books that I find for my editor). Like others in this thread, it started as a hobby and evolved as I made contacts. It feels quitte good to know that a hobby is now earning me more money that I spend in it.
• ati 8y ago
  I designed and built quality (high-brightness, high-CRI) ceiling light. Not very profitable, but it was very fun and refresing to negotiate with aluminum profile manufacturers, paint shops, etc. And real-world customers, outside of IT echo chamber.
• em-bee 8y ago
  how about blacksmithing? https://www.wired.com/2013/02/provos/ https://www.wired.com/2013/02/provos/ i don't know if nils is doing commission work or selling his swords, but i am pretty sure he could sell those for a good price.
  • jpgvm 8y ago
    Also the author of libevent and all around awesome guy.
• thunderrabbit 8y ago
  TL;DR: not making money yet, but enjoying stop motion animation of marble track construction. Back in the day, my brother and I would use Legos to build tracks for marbles, using roof pieces as ramps. Eventually I started making marble tracks out of popsicle sticks. Over a period of some years, I built a track 2+ feet (70cm) tall with lots of tracks intertwining each other all the way down. After moving and leaving that old track behind, I made Marble Track 2 over an eight-month period in my free time at work. I posted the finished track on YouTube[1] and comments fell into 2 categories. Trolls: U suck, it's garbage, get a gf, etc. Fans: U rule, it's amazing, make a tutorial, etc. Me: "Make a tutorial? about how to make a marble track?? hmmmm that gives me an idea!" So far, I have about 11 minutes[2] worth of (silent) video of little pipe cleaner characters placing wooden pieces onto a stage. They are answering the question "how do you make a marble track?" The project has its own website[3], which reinforces the story that the characters are building the track. (fake spoiler) However, it's actually me behind the scenes moving the characters to make the movie in which they build the track! 300+ hours of livestream[4] answer the question "how do you make a stop motion movie which answers the question of how to make a marble track?" The livestreams are long, dull, often quiet, interspersed with a few ramblings that go through my head. So, back on track (ahem) for this thread, I believe there are people who'd be interested in this project, and eventually we will figure out how it can be monetized. I am just enjoying the creation process and open to possibilities. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUqu6QE7bw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUqu6QE7bw [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KjsYc4Mb5g&list=PL0osPGt21FB48UwuhtCUoi9JndC9YDHAZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KjsYc4Mb5g&list=PL0osPGt21F... [3] https://www.marbletrack3.com/ https://www.marbletrack3.com/ [4] https://www.marbletrack3.com/episode/ https://www.marbletrack3.com/episode/
• MattBearman 8y ago
  My wife and I have a YouTube channel on which we are fixing up an old Toyota MR2 [0], we’ve no desire to be full time “YouTubers”, but we enjoy making the videos and get about $70 / from patreon/ads 0 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1gNnS8EDytTYqSG0IEbXw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1gNnS8EDytTYqSG0IEbXw
  • phaedrus 8y ago
    I follow your YouTube channel! Really enjoy it. I've wanted an MR2 Spyder since I saw one in my university's parking lot, but it's always been metaphorically like a couple who would be great together but were always with someone else when the other was on the market.
• zeruch 8y ago
  I've long been a professional fine artist and illustrator. As side gigs go, it has the added benefit of being a cathartic shift from tech-land. I work in a studio space where none of the artists other than myself day-gig in tech. It's a good cache-flush for the soul.
• dcchambers 8y ago
  For a while I worked with a friend "reconditioning" laptops and selling them on Ebay (lots of just-out-of-warranty Dells and Thinkpads from local companies. Easy to work on: upgrade RAM, swap HDD for cheap SSD, replace broken keyboards, etc.) We could sell them for a nice profit with very little work. I wouldn't want to do this work on many "modern" laptops since many parts are not (easily) user replaceable these days. Most passive income just comes from Index Funds/miscellaneous investments. But I don't really see it as income since it all stays invested/just grows until I retire some day. Still trying to find the right app/site/tool to build to bring in real passive income from something I have built.
• samschooler 8y ago
  I was a university student pretty recently. I started a company where I delivered cookies (freshly baked from scratch) on rollerblades to dorm rooms/apartments/houses on and around campus. It was such a fun way to make $12-$16/hour and get exercise. Not sure what I’m going to do with the site now, but I went all out and built a fully delivery management platform for they side gig. Hit me up if you have ideas. https://rollerbakers.com https://rollerbakers.com
• thewhitetulip 8y ago
  https://leanpub.com/u/surajpatil https://leanpub.com/u/surajpatil I've written two intro tutorials. Doesn't make much money though.
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• palimpsests 8y ago
  I teach mindfulness and breathwork, guide somatically-based self exploration using the Hakomi method, and provide healing touch and bodywork for clients in my private practice.
• stendinator 8y ago
  I sell Bonsais.
• Silverwood 8y ago
  I recently launched https://www.silverwoodbrokers.com/ https://www.silverwoodbrokers.com/ We represent buyers in residential real estate purchases in NYC and rebate them part of our commission.
• auiya 8y ago
  I used to own/run a hot sauce biz. I did quite a bit of sales, but it started to grow to the point where it was eating into all my spare time, and quitting my day job to pursue it full-time wouldn't have been equitably profitable for many many years. So I ended up dropping it.
  • kuzimoto 8y ago
    Did you try raising prices to lower demand? I haven't sold anything before so I don't have any idea what I'm talking about. I'm just asking since I'm curious.
• geekbird 8y ago
  I sell filk CDs and craft items at SF&F conventions. It feeds my need to create and share enjoyment with others. My spouse does all the computer stuff for it.
• jotato 8y ago
  I build furniture. I don't make much - honestly, I just do maybe 1 paid project per year. I only use handtools (mostly due to shop constraints) Maybe someday I'll be able to do more with it.
• thedangler 8y ago
  I run a do it yourself web site builder for clients that need simple website and e-commerce. I sell payment processing services for First Data I run a while label payment gateway I build custom apps for payment terminals. I have a rental property. I'd say I make roughly 2k a month with out really having to do any work. But Payment processing with in the next six month could generate me around 6k/m. I have some big deals in the pipeline.
• frankus 8y ago
  This is unlikely to be reproducible, but I bought a foreclosed condo in Seattle in 2013, did a few weeks’ worth of work (spread out over a year or so) redoing the kitchen and bathroom, and sold it not quite three years later for $120k more than I paid for it. I also have a couple of super simple apps in the iTunes Store that earn about an iPad a year worth of money.
  • muzani 8y ago
    This seems very reproducible, or at least many people focus on doing this. Donald Trump is probably the most popular example of someone who got rich buying things at low value and fixing it up for a large profit.
    • dangwu 8y ago
      It’s not easily reproducible in Seattle any more. The housing market has flattened over the past year or so. Back before 2018, properties would easily go up 20% a year.
      • mtnGoat 8y ago
        Other Washington markets are ripe for this activity though. Lot of money is exiting the Seattle area and buying homes in the rest of the state.
• metters 8y ago
  My wife is from China, while I am from Germany. Our side business is selling milk powder for babies to Chinese mothers. Makes quite good money but does not fulfill in anyway.
  • vivekananda 8y ago
    I got to know about through ADVChina's video. Here's the link if anyone is interested - https://youtu.be/YQm5FZMforg https://youtu.be/YQm5FZMforg
• shermablanca 8y ago
  I started a conference (Reactathon.com) as one of the various channels of income I had (entrepreneur, not FTE). One of my sponsors liked it so much that they asked me to run theirs. Now their conference has expanded to 3x per year in 3 cities, and I’m still helping to run it. And I now consider myself a full time conference consultant.
• bashwizard 8y ago
  Bug bounties and penetration testing.
• anotherthro313 8y ago
  I travel a lot, and outside of the United States, countries have import taxes, especially on luxury goods. In some countries and iPhone Xs will cost $800 more than in the USA. I have to visit the USA about 8 times per year, so every time I do I buy 10 phones in a state with no sales tax (usually Oregon) and make about $5k in profit selling locally (which does eat up a ton of time, but not $5k worth).
  • NLips 8y ago
    So... smuggling?
    • anotherthro313 8y ago
      :shrug*, why not? It's a very honest business. Could you say the same about Google, Facebook, or Twitter?
• akg_67 8y ago
  When I was in Texas, I used to buy Disk drives in bulk through auction from PC manufacturers Compaq and Dell that didn't meet their QC, test these drives and sell the good ones to retail shops, PC repair shops and individuals. I stopped once competition became tougher, bad to good ratio of disk drives increased, and disk drives became cheaper. In Japan, several people asked me to teach them English. So I teach them English, some pay me in food and drinks. I also figured out that I was good in helping others prepare for standardized exams TOEFL/TOEIC/GMAT/GRE/USMLE so that became my primary side gig.
• arispen 8y ago
  I have an early music band (medieval / renaissance). We play at castles, battlegrounds, festivals, for museums etc :)
• jressey 8y ago
  Property ownership and rental. It is very simple, and barely a "project" after you get going. It's like investing on steroids. There is a lot of money to make, with a little more risk, and a lot more work than ETFs.
• nicktibbott 8y ago
  asdad
• nicktibbott 8y ago
  dsadasd
• nicktibbott 8y ago
  help
• sharkmerry 8y ago
  I run a cookie bakery. Started it about 6.5 years ago. Mostly local delivery, some nationwide shipping as well. Doesnt make much but covers its own bills with some extra leftover. I've gotten further in my actual career than I thought during the same time so leaving to bake full-time would be large risk. Mostly, I just really enjoy the direct interaction and happy emails, really lights up my day and gives me a sense of fulfillment.
• kdot 8y ago
  I own a small trucking fleet. I have rental properties in Detroit and Atlanta.
• MaddAgent 8y ago
  I DJ in nightclubs at the weekends, just Friday and Saturday nights but manage to make about 40-50% of my full-time salary for say 8-10 hrs/week. Started it in University as a hobby, and just built it up from there. 20 years later, still doing it (although never once imagined I still would be) Extremely thankful for it, has helped to weather the storms a few times between job changes and has provided me and my family with a few extra little luxuries that we may not have otherwise been able to afford!
• dteiml 8y ago
  Tutoring. Not anymore but back in the day. It also inspired me to kick off the project www.solvio.org
• gis 8y ago
  I have been working as a male escort for women (gigolo). Seriously. It works quite fine. Just created my website and females contact me. I enjoy my work and also earn some side-project extra money. https://www.guysinisrael.com https://www.guysinisrael.com
• crharding 7y ago
  A few things. First, I play in an Irish wedding band (it’s insane how much people pay for wedding bands...and since they’re Irish weddings we usually all end up being fed shots throughout the night (this was more fun when I was in my twenties, now I stick with a beer or two so that I’m still standing (well, sitting, I’m a drummer) at the end of the night). Secondly I do quite a bit of teaching / mentoring. It’s easier in nyc than in other places because of how many boot camps there are here but companies pay quite a bit for a 6-10 pm twice a week gig. Plus at my job I’m primarily working with php and vanilla js so this helps me keep my react / insert framework or library here skills sharp. I argue that this is still outside the field because teaching beginning web dev is to actually working as a programmer as apples are to oranges. That last sentence was super bungled but I think the point comes across.