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Ask HN: Side projects that generate $0 / month

17 points by tomerbd 4y ago

How many of you have side projects that fail to generate anything above $0 / month? Let's declutter the survivor bias.

dusted 4y ago
All of my side projects either simply cost me money, or at best, cost me nothing but time ^_^
metzzo 4y ago
https://text2present.com/ https://text2present.com/ -40$ / month but I learned a lot making it and I still have some hope left.
- p0d 4y ago
  You have a communication issue I think. It took me some time to realise you didn't mean present, as in presentation. Dumb your homepage down, it may be too clever. Great idea though :-)
  - leros 4y ago
    I agree. After reading the content that filled my screen, I have absolutely no idea what this product does or who it is for.
  - metzzo 4y ago
    Thank you for pointing this out, me being not a native speaker this possibility has not occured to me. I will think about re-designing or re-naming the project. A bit of context: Initially, the project's name was "text2product.com", but then someone created a very similar website replacing the 2 with to and I was basically forced to rename my project.
predictand 4y ago
I have yet to try to monetize it, but https://www.techengineering.io/ https://www.techengineering.io/ is generating 0$ at the moment. There is potential for getting ads on this site, but it is not something I am putting any time into at the moment.
reverseblade2 4y ago
I have this 3d Bin packer. Its algorithm is pretty solid and there is some use of it. But last month only made $19. https://bindrake.com https://bindrake.com
kaesve 4y ago
https://neonarcade.games https://neonarcade.games Just silly games I make in my free time. Ever wanted to play wordle and snake at the same time? I got you. That connect-the-pipe game, but also tetris? Sure! They are mostly novelty games, with a focus on fun-to-make instead of fun-to-play.
- billylo 4y ago
  I enjoyed infiniplumber. Cool things do happen when things are blended together... well done
readonthegoapp 4y ago
my latest $0/mo venture (negative dollars/mo, really) is another advocacy-type site -- a quiz site for the Atlanta Beltline (a circular rail-trail inside ATL) -- designed to help promote good behavior on the Beltline -- yeah, kind of cringey, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://beltlinequiz.com/ https://beltlinequiz.com/ it uses wordpress, hdquiz (free+ quiz plugin), Raft Theme (free+ theme), TinyLetter (newsletters), and some custom non-ai artwork. i built it on this stack because my own mini-kb/lms (learning mgmt system) is not even alpha yet. :-( if you don't know about the Beltline, and you're into urban planning/livability/biking/walking/etc., you might wanna check it out. insane gentrification engine, and opposing that, possibly helping promote livability.
0x54MUR41 4y ago
I am not going to answer your question since I don't have any side projects. But, I think the similar question was asked by a HN user a month ago. Ah, here is the thread. Ask HN: Those making $0/month or less on side projects – Show and tell - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34547265 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34547265 (1048 comments) Hopefully, above thread also gives you some insight.
brtkdotse 4y ago
I have a developer podcast in Swedish (https://kompilator.se https://kompilator.se) that I initially wanted to monetize but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. It has netted me a chance to talk to interesting people, build my personal brand, get rid of my fear of speaking and even gotten me a few new friends. I have a stupidly simple site (https://statligskatt.se https://statligskatt.se) that says where the National tax cutoff is this year, because I kept forgetting it when making prognoses for my business. Around important tax dates in Sweden, it gets a few thousand hits.
mattbgates 4y ago
Master of creating projects that have been monetized but generate $0 a month due to lack of advertising but also offering a free version.. people love free.
beniaminp 4y ago
[dead]
billylo 4y ago
I made my own navigation app... sidekick-app.com; combining Google Map features with video recording, speed camera warnings and traffic sign recognition. (e.g. accelerating towards STOP sign with speed will generate a sound.)
coreymaass 4y ago
Timerdoro.com - It's been online for more than a decade. Hundreds of users every day. Hasn't made me dime. I suppose I could slap ads on it, but wouldn't anticipate it makes much...
giantg2 4y ago
Me. I have some android apps that are free. I tried to charge and do ads at one point but it wasn't worth it. I think at the peak I might have had 1500 users. I probably have about 500 today.

17 points by tomerbd 4y ago

How many of you have side projects that fail to generate anything above $0 / month? Let's declutter the survivor bias.

dusted 4y ago

All of my side projects either simply cost me money, or at best, cost me nothing but time ^_^

metzzo 4y ago

https://text2present.com/ https://text2present.com/ -40$ / month but I learned a lot making it and I still have some hope left.

p0d 4y ago
You have a communication issue I think. It took me some time to realise you didn't mean present, as in presentation. Dumb your homepage down, it may be too clever. Great idea though :-)
- leros 4y ago
  I agree. After reading the content that filled my screen, I have absolutely no idea what this product does or who it is for.
- metzzo 4y ago
  Thank you for pointing this out, me being not a native speaker this possibility has not occured to me. I will think about re-designing or re-naming the project. A bit of context: Initially, the project's name was "text2product.com", but then someone created a very similar website replacing the 2 with to and I was basically forced to rename my project.

predictand 4y ago

I have yet to try to monetize it, but https://www.techengineering.io/ https://www.techengineering.io/ is generating 0$ at the moment. There is potential for getting ads on this site, but it is not something I am putting any time into at the moment.

reverseblade2 4y ago

I have this 3d Bin packer. Its algorithm is pretty solid and there is some use of it. But last month only made $19. https://bindrake.com https://bindrake.com

kaesve 4y ago

https://neonarcade.games https://neonarcade.games Just silly games I make in my free time. Ever wanted to play wordle and snake at the same time? I got you. That connect-the-pipe game, but also tetris? Sure! They are mostly novelty games, with a focus on fun-to-make instead of fun-to-play.

billylo 4y ago
I enjoyed infiniplumber. Cool things do happen when things are blended together... well done

readonthegoapp 4y ago

my latest $0/mo venture (negative dollars/mo, really) is another advocacy-type site -- a quiz site for the Atlanta Beltline (a circular rail-trail inside ATL) -- designed to help promote good behavior on the Beltline -- yeah, kind of cringey, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://beltlinequiz.com/ https://beltlinequiz.com/ it uses wordpress, hdquiz (free+ quiz plugin), Raft Theme (free+ theme), TinyLetter (newsletters), and some custom non-ai artwork. i built it on this stack because my own mini-kb/lms (learning mgmt system) is not even alpha yet. :-( if you don't know about the Beltline, and you're into urban planning/livability/biking/walking/etc., you might wanna check it out. insane gentrification engine, and opposing that, possibly helping promote livability.

0x54MUR41 4y ago

I am not going to answer your question since I don't have any side projects. But, I think the similar question was asked by a HN user a month ago. Ah, here is the thread. Ask HN: Those making $0/month or less on side projects – Show and tell - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34547265 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34547265 (1048 comments) Hopefully, above thread also gives you some insight.

brtkdotse 4y ago

I have a developer podcast in Swedish (https://kompilator.se https://kompilator.se) that I initially wanted to monetize but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. It has netted me a chance to talk to interesting people, build my personal brand, get rid of my fear of speaking and even gotten me a few new friends. I have a stupidly simple site (https://statligskatt.se https://statligskatt.se) that says where the National tax cutoff is this year, because I kept forgetting it when making prognoses for my business. Around important tax dates in Sweden, it gets a few thousand hits.

mattbgates 4y ago

Master of creating projects that have been monetized but generate $0 a month due to lack of advertising but also offering a free version.. people love free.

beniaminp 4y ago

[dead]

billylo 4y ago

I made my own navigation app... sidekick-app.com; combining Google Map features with video recording, speed camera warnings and traffic sign recognition. (e.g. accelerating towards STOP sign with speed will generate a sound.)

coreymaass 4y ago

Timerdoro.com - It's been online for more than a decade. Hundreds of users every day. Hasn't made me dime. I suppose I could slap ads on it, but wouldn't anticipate it makes much...

giantg2 4y ago

Me. I have some android apps that are free. I tried to charge and do ads at one point but it wasn't worth it. I think at the peak I might have had 1500 users. I probably have about 500 today.