29 ms·

Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

• thereisnospork 3y ago
  Donate plasma, doesn't get easier than sitting in a chair.
  • gcheong 3y ago
    Did this in college for some side money. It was definitely "easy" money as well as a view to some interesting characters and business, but now I have some scars in that area that once made a cop suspicious that I was a junky lol. YMMV.
• lun4r 3y ago
  You could consider apiculture. Yes, that's right, beekeeping. You might wonder how this is relevant to your 11 years of development experience, but let me explain. Beekeeping can offer a relaxing, nature-oriented antidote to the stresses of coding, and moreover, there is a burgeoning market for smart apiary technology. Bee mortality rates have increased over recent years for numerous reasons, and technology is beginning to find ways to address these problems. As a developer, you could design systems to monitor hive health, honey production levels or even bee activity. This data can be used to predict illnesses, optimize honey production, or understand more about bee behavior, providing valuable insights to the beekeeping community as well as researchers. This unique combination of software development and beekeeping could potentially be a lucrative side gig. Not to mention, a proportion of the honey could be sold for additional profit or used for personal consumption. So, while it may seem far fetched, your coding skills could help save the global bee population while offering a calming, profitable new hobby. (:
  • tayo42 3y ago
    Is there someone hiring to do this?
    • woleium 3y ago
      sadly code probably can't fix the bees, that will require lowering production and usage of pesticides.
  • mndgs 3y ago
    I read "bookkeeping" instead of "beekeeping" and then thought: what, how is bookkeeping calming, relaxing activity? Well, maybe to someone...
    • politelemon 3y ago
      I read apiculture as API Culture and was wondering why API consumption needed it.
    • 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
      On one hand, being a bookie sounds like a super interesting optimization problem. How to draw the line in such a way that you are always net positive, regardless of game outcome. On the other hand, you have the two worst possible problems: staking your money daily + chasing clients for money.
      • amock 3y ago
        Bookkeeping is about recording financial transactions. Bookmaking is taking bets.
  • sitzkrieg 3y ago
    ill double that notion, id love to work on something as important as this :^)
  • ferennag 3y ago
    Wow this is a very interesting idea, thank you. Unfortunately I am living in a house with a very small yard, so at the moment it is impossible for me to pursue bee keeping. But, where can I learn more about this? What are the best resources?
• buzzdenver 3y ago
  Can you acquire new tech skills to get a higher paying job?
  • runjake 3y ago
    I am also interested in answers, so let's assume the answer to this question is "no". In my case, in order to boost my pay, I need to move >=2 hours away, pretty much.
    • foogazi 3y ago
      That’s one way that you know Are you at the top of the total comp band for your level ? See levels.fyi
  • ferennag 3y ago
    Without changing career path, no I don't think so. I'm mostly in web development. I can't think of any skill that would significantly up my salary. Now learning stuff like AI, or Cyber Security could, but that's a very long process, and basically a change of careers. (I'm not against that, but wouldn't call that "easy")
• DishyDev 3y ago
  I've used respondent.io successfully for a few years doing surveys on new developer tools and cloud provider portals.
  • syndicatedjelly 3y ago
    how much do you make from it?
    • DishyDev 3y ago
      Average is around $120 for an hour for them.
• sudoxperteez 3y ago
  [flagged]
  • syndicatedjelly 3y ago
    That just looks like another no-code platform that's trying to get people to use them by promising riches. > Imagine being able to build an app like Airbnb in a weekend. I really doubt that's possible. > Future-proof your resume By concentrating your skills in one platform that's probably not going to exist in 2 years?
    • jimcsharp 3y ago
      My experience with no code was it was so frustrating to work with that it was preferable to force as much as logic as possible into the database. You get pretty adept at whatever database software you're using, saying "that'd be expensive on this platform - you should settle for <bad UI>", and sessions with platform support because somewhere along the way their platform stopped loading the files it saved. I do think there needs to be fewer people who crumble when they have to write SQL so maybe it's not all bad.
• WestCoastJustin 3y ago
  Get a second remote job. You could effectively double your salary for a few months or as long as you can handle it. Personally, this is much better than the race of the bottom of all these piece meal contracting gig sites. Youtube is likely a major waste of time in that you'd need to compete and build a profile, etc. This takes time. If you want to spend years then you might make it work. I've done this and know from experience. It's well worth it if you have years to put into it. It'll open tons of doors too. However, you know how to hold a job. You've had one for 11+ years. So, just get a second one. You could be making double your current salary within as little as 4-6 weeks after interviews etc. That's likely the fastest path if you need money quickly.
  • CptFribble 3y ago
    NB: certain aspects of holding 2+ FT jobs are harder to parse out before being hired - particularly meeting times. It's not typical to ask what time morning standups are in an interview, but juggling overlapping meetings is one of the main difficulties of holding down multiple roles, so just be aware of what you're getting into.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • VectorLock 3y ago
      Unethical Life Pro Tip: Get your 2nd remote job in a different geographical region (Europe vs US) so your meetings don't overlap.
      • pc86 3y ago
        Best to have some overlap, lest you end up with an ~18-hour window in which you could have meetings scheduled!
  • drones 3y ago
    Wouldn't multiple jobs like this make you a huge security/IP rights liability?
• sudoxperteez 3y ago
  [flagged]
• syndicatedjelly 3y ago
  Kinda meta advice, but I'd be careful about converting your hobbies into paid gigs. It's a great way to make yourself hate your hobby, especially when it turns out it's not very lucrative and the customers are assholes. I learned this the hard way with photography. People who advocate "hustle culture" tend to not have very lucrative main jobs, or no upward mobility in their current role. So they look for weird "hacks" to make a few bucks on the side, like drop-shipping garbage or starting some weird self-help YouTube channel. In the world of engineering, I think it's way more useful to focus on your core skillset and learn new things around that. That said, boringcashcow.com has inspired me to try to come up with a simple programming project that could turn over 4 figures a month. It made me realize in software you can just go for base hits, not home runs, and still make plenty of money.
  • VoodooJuJu 3y ago
    >People who advocate "hustle culture" tend to not have very lucrative main jobs, or no upward mobility in their current role. So they look for weird "hacks" to make a few bucks on the side Yes. I have no promotion prospects and no new-job prospects, so I do what I have to do to survive: make my own way, with my own "side hustles".
    • syndicatedjelly 3y ago
      Do what you gotta do. This is HN so I'm assuming most of the audience is in engineering and probably well-paid. Don't take it personally.
  • ferennag 3y ago
    > That said, boringcashcow.com has inspired me to try to come up with a simple programming project that could turn over 4 figures a month. It made me realize in software you can just go for base hits, not home runs, and still make plenty of money. Would you mind sharing more details? Story? What is the app? I am really curious :) If no, that's fine, thanks for the tip anyways. I will definitely check out the website. My biggest problem is coming up with ideas for an app/business.
• ipaddr 3y ago
  Checked freelancer websites, but competition is crazy there (developing a full-fledged ecommerce web application for $100, and such Take hourly projects instead of fixed price.
• henning 3y ago
  Buy shares of stocks and use that as collateral to sell covered calls.
  • syndicatedjelly 3y ago
    I tried the wheel strategy once and got burned by contango while holding USO in 2020 :/ It's a great strategy, just be careful what you buy lol
    • zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
      Yeah I screwed myself over doing that on weed stocks a few years ago.
  • maest 3y ago
    Terrible advice.
    • pc86 3y ago
      It limits your upside but of all the stock-trading advice floating around this isn't very high on the "terrible" list IMO
      • maest 3y ago
        It's terrible in that: 1. it is not positive expectancy (because naive strategies like this never are) 2. it involves trading in less liquid instruments, which means you lose more money to transaction fees 3. you're _selling_ options. Even if these are covered in theory, there's so much scope to screw this up implementation-wise, that it's just not worth it. I see no redeeming features for this particular "strategy".
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
• theusus 3y ago
  [dead]
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• cmews 3y ago
  Not sure what your skill set is exactly and what your interests are but there are lots of hackathons in crypto/AI that have good prizes. You can also apply for grants for certain organisations if you build something that ecosystem can use. Good luck!
  • ferennag 3y ago
    Unfortunately I have no experience in any of them. (mostly in Web app development, mobile development) AI would interest me, but it would take many years of learning I guess. I am not very good at math, so I would have to re-learn that.
• cmews 3y ago
  If you are good at security, try bug bounty hunting. Make the web safer and earn some money!
  • tayo42 3y ago
    I tried this, maybe I just suck. But my experience was pretty bad. It seems swarmed by people in 3rd world countries running scripts endlessly already. If you do find something there is still the chance the company will find a way out of it. The whole thing felt like a scam in a way, people show off their massive payment bug find, but in reality its hours of work for almost no payout
    • glitchcrab 3y ago
      My experience tallies with this, used to work for a hosting company and we got plenty of emails from guys in India, Pakistan etc who had 'run burp suite against X and found Y'. We had no bounty program as we were fairly small fry so we said thanks and fixed the bug. You can't compete against the volume. And the big payouts take a lot of time and skill to find and exploit.
      • KomoD 3y ago
        Yeah, those are beg bounties (not a typo) https://www.troyhunt.com/beg-bounties/ https://www.troyhunt.com/beg-bounties/
    • KomoD 3y ago
      > It seems swarmed by people in 3rd world countries running scripts endlessly already. For the same surface-level stuff, yeah. Other, in-depth issues, not so much. > people show off their massive payment bug find, but in reality its hours of work for almost no payout They don't advertise it as some "get money quick" thing just because they show off their payouts. I occasionally find issues which make me $100, $200, $300 for a few minutes of work, it's not much but it's something.
• spencerchubb 3y ago
  Do physical work like cleaning, painting, building fences, and mowing lawns. You can clean houses, pools, gutters, cars.
• gsaines 3y ago
  If you're already a software engineer earning a normal salary in the US (several assumptions there), it's really hard to find side hustles that pay at or above the hourly wage that your employer has already committed to. I personally think that it's a good idea to focus on building a small lifestyle software business over the course of several years. I wrote a long series of blog posts about this over here: https://overthinkingmoney.com/2023/05/02/start-a-business-not-a-startup-part-1/ https://overthinkingmoney.com/2023/05/02/start-a-business-no... My first company (Skritter.com) fits this mold. It's been growing slowly, but steadily for more than 15 years now. In the first couple of years we were able to generate low five-figures per month, now it's substantially higher. There are other ways to earn cash outside of tech, but most of the common suggestions (drop shipping, affiliate marketing, laundromats, etc) are mostly terrible if you really do the analysis. For better or worse, low risk generally means low upside!
  • ferennag 3y ago
    I would love to come up with a business idea, and slowly grow it to be profitable. My problem is I am very bad at coming up with a business idea in the first place. (or app idea, or website idea...) I am not sure why, probably my brain is wired differently.
    • gsaines 3y ago
      I struggle too. I've generated 39 ideas in the last 18 months and none have looked very appealing to work on. If it was easy, more people would do it. But, you probably have a unique perspective and set of skills that would enable you to address a problem that you experience on a regular basis. So don't discount your personal experience! Shameless plug, but I write semi-regular "Steal This Business Idea" posts on my blog. This is an example: https://overthinkingmoney.com/2023/04/25/steal-this-startup-idea-estate-settler/ https://overthinkingmoney.com/2023/04/25/steal-this-startup-... They're all examples of businesses that I think have promise, but I don't have the skills, experience, insight or all three to execute.
      • gcheong 3y ago
• shashanoid 3y ago
  Weekly $SPY options
  • pc86 3y ago
    Negative money is still money I guess
    • tmn 3y ago
      Sell the options
      • pc86 3y ago
        I mean, it was a joke, but also that only works if someone wants to buy them. I've bought options (not on $SPY) where I made a quite a bit of money on paper but couldn't sell them and didn't have the cash to exercise so they ended up expiring. Especially on low-volume securities a big part of the risk is that you simply won't be able to unload them if you don't have the cash on hand to exercise.
        • tmn 3y ago
          When you sell to open, there is a buyer for the order to get filled. At this point, you become the buyer to close the option if you thus desire. If you're selling puts, yes ensure they're cash secured. This avoids anything like the scenario you described. The difference here is you're not betting with leverage. Modest, high probability returns. If this didn't make sense and to be super clear. You described buying an option and attempting to sell it later. This is not what I'm describing. I'm describing selling and option to open
• frontman1988 3y ago
  There are no easy ways to make money.
  • quickthrower2 3y ago
    I think they really mean “realistic” or “not so hard as to be unrealistic” Mentoring is easy, vs. say starting Dropbox
    • ferennag 3y ago
      Exactly. Or if you need to learn 9 years to start earning, that is not easy.
• diehunde 3y ago
  You could try writing blog posts for a company[1]. I haven't done this but I know people who have. It's crazy what some companies pay for such low-quality content sometimes. [1] https://github.com/malgamves/CommunityWriterPrograms https://github.com/malgamves/CommunityWriterPrograms
  • ferennag 3y ago
    I don't think I'm a good writer. But this is actually something that can be easily improved over time, I guess. Thanks for the tip. I might give this a shot. This is something that fits my needs, you can do it in your own pace, remotely, gig work. would be perfect if I was a good writer (and native English speaker haha)
• yowlingcat 3y ago
  Not sure if this is the answer you want to hear but "easy" and "side money" are diametrically opposed. Before you think about that as an avenue to increase your earnings, try and optimize your current job. A couple questions: 1. Are you doing everything you can to put yourself on an upwards trajectory towards a promotion and/or a raise? You spend most of your waking hours on your current job, and the easiest way to increase your life time earnings is bending the curve here. 2. Have you been interviewing to make sure you're getting fair market value and have? If you are not growing as well as you're capable of in your current role, a new role is a potential option. This introduces risk. 3. Have you taking a knife to your expense list and maxed out 401k and HSA contributions? Every dollar you don't contribute there is one that you're giving away to the government, so make sure you're using all the tools available to optimize. 4. Have you begun to invest in real estate? In the USA, the existence of federally backed homebuyer loans and 1031 swaps is an incredible tool to build wealth, and the leverage from the loan is even partially tax deductible on the interest side. You of course need to be careful here given the choppy state of the macro environment and real estate market so that you don't end up underwater. 5. Are you investing surplus earnings into a safe ETF? Ensuring that your earnings are working for you making passive income from the market is critical for long term earnings. None of these approaches are quick fixes, but they're all time tested approaches than anyone can use.
• chasd00 3y ago
  Not side work exactly, but see if there's any bonus programs lurking somewhere in your job. My company recently started a bonus program for industry certifications, each certification nets you some points and the more points you get the more bonus you qualify for up to a limit. The bonus is based on % of base pay. So, I looked at all the certifications available and plotted a path through them that gets me the minimum amount of points required to reach the highest bonus tier each fiscal year. It's been, by _far_, the most lucrative "side hustle" i've ever had. I study for, and take, about 4-5 cert tests per year and am on year #2 of the program. If they run the program for 5 years and I keep dropping the whole bonus into my investment account I'll have enough to pay for college for both of my boys (currently in middle school). /I'm 47 and still paying my student loan, i don't want that hell for my kids.
• n_ary 3y ago
  Disclaimer: Unpopular advice. Seek out local folks who wants to go online selling their tupperware, tobaco, small services, books, photos, small mom-n-pop coffee/fastfood shops etc and offer to build them a site they can maintain. Then buy them a subscription on no-code sites(wix, weebly, squarespace etc) and get a commission for the initial setup. Worked for my nephew who just wanted something he could do on the nights to save up some money for his summer vacation. He still gets referral offers from folks who are happy with their sites and their friends also want similar sites.
  • ferennag 3y ago
    Not sure why would this be an unpopular advice. I think it's a good advice. I tried this before, but the problem is, the reason many people/businesses have shitty websites is that they are not willing to spend money on it. I approached a few local shops (e.g. a comic book store) to create a cool website for them for a few hundred bucks, but they wanted it for free. If I would be a junior developer looking for stuff to my portfolio, sure. But I'm not, and not willing to work for free for anybody. However, I might have given up too easily. I think I'll give this another shot
    • amerkhalid 3y ago
      > to create a cool website for them for a few hundred bucks I think this price range will push away serious businesses. I knew a consulting company that had hard time getting customers when they were charging under $1000 for simple WordPress sites. They had better luck when they raised their prices to $5000. It was 10 years ago for simple WordPress sites.
      • ferennag 3y ago
        That is interesting, thanks for sharing. I guess it makes sense, if they think I am cheap they might also think I produce low quality.
        • bruce511 3y ago
• qrush 3y ago
  I've been selling some old game boxes and old controllers on Ebay, and learning a lot about the experience (and selling stuff in general!). Made around $400 so far with some ChatGPT generated descriptions!
• mikeryan 3y ago
  I don't do this now but I used to. Wait tables. A lot of service based businesses are struggling to find good staff. Go for a higher end high average ticket place, and or places that close relatively early so you're not stuck there too late. Usually at first there's not a lot of quality shifts open but also, frequently, you can pick up shifts from other people and a lot of restaurants are okay with having a few staff who have few regular shifts but whom they can rely on in a pinch. You can make decent cash. The work can be pretty "fun" and the time tends to go pretty quick.
• igotajob 3y ago
  I’ve been trying to do this as someone who doesn’t have a CS career. I have a good full time job but wanted to learn something different and keep my brain engaged. So I learned iOS development, again no CS degree, made an app and got it into the App Store. The goal is to get going on a second app and get that in the store as well. The issue for me is that, since I’m not in the development world, I don’t have any mentors or people to talk to and bounce ideas off of. I’ve been looking into getting an internship at a software company but those are rare for evening time remote work since that’s all I would be able to lend my self to because of my full time job. I think I’m heading the right way but there’s just hurdles that need to be jumped over. All that to say, try a different field than software development? A reverse of what I’m doing?
  • ferennag 3y ago
    Funny you say that, I actually started learning iOS/MacOS development recently, my goal was to release some apps on the App Store. I don't have problems with learning and building the apps, my problem is how to come up with an app idea that people would actually use, and I could monetize it somehow.
    • hereonout2 3y ago
      This is the problem 99.9% of software people have though? Most could write the software for a wordle, flappy bird or Twitter clone. But coming up with that idea, executing it correctly and having a whole lot of luck is out of reach for the majority.
      • ferennag 3y ago
        Yeah, facts. So how to overcome this?
        • hereonout2 3y ago
          The million dollar question, I'll let you know if I find the answer! I wouldn't underestimate the luck part though even if you do come up with a brilliant well executed idea. I've acquaintances who spent years trying to commercialise side projects that have eventually come to nothing. A lot of disappointment but I guess you've got to put the hours in and try something to even have a chance. Personally always thought the idea of something low key with a continuous income stream sounded the most realistic, as others in this thread allude to. But you still need the idea, the execution and the luck.
• didyoureboot 3y ago
  If you have your masters, you could try teaching as an adjunct at a local university at night. Pay isn't bad (relative to the amount of work) and you can stay in the field. Rewarding work, and in some state/provincial systems you can even earn a pension. I get speaking isn't your thing, so that might be an impediment, but maybe it's less of an issue in a more intimate setting
  • atraac 3y ago
    To be honest you don't even have to go to universities or schools. Just offer tutoring from the field or around the field you're in. There's a lot of money to be made like this, especially since math in school is fairly easy to teach for someone with comp-sci degree.
• MiguelX413 3y ago
  How could an 11 year old be an experienced developer?
  • nagyf 3y ago
    :) I started early
    • sn9 3y ago
      12 years of Swift experience, too. The competition is tough in this job market. :P
• lee101 3y ago
  [dead]
• jacknews 3y ago
  Yes forget the freelancer sites. As a new user you'll spend hours, and all your limited 'connect points', or even actual money, submitting applications that mostly won't even be read.
• kossTKR 3y ago
  Interesting that for over a decade these threads were filled with hundreds of optimistic posts, but now it's almost pure pessimism and warnings. Maybe earning money on the internet, even with advanced skills and experience has just been met with so much global competition that it's just not that valuable a skill anymore, maybe the monopolies took over e-trade and maybe most users became trapped in silos or on giga-services so the money is really in influencing, not curating, building or creating from scratch? Rather depressing.
  • thisismyswamp 3y ago
    The secret is to build stuff and people commenting on hacker news tend to not be focused on building
    • ferennag 3y ago
      I'm not sure I understand this comment. Could you elaborate? If you look at Show HN posts, it's clear that people do build a lot of stuff. I also want to build stuff, I just miss the good idea of what to build
• more_corn 3y ago
  Are you cute?
• arandr0x 3y ago
  If you're good at 3d graphics or game programming I have a lead on a contract that could work (it's too much work to do by myself, client wants people in Canada, my network won't do it for less than 5 figures). If not your skill set, my point is reach out to other contractors, they may have overflow work or e.g. design/front-end contractors might need someone to refer for backend/devops work.
  • mr_o47 3y ago
    I run an agency where we work with similar clients. I primarily provide services related to 3D ,unreal engine and unity Feel free to send me an email contact[at]rukhtech.com
    • to-too-two 3y ago
      This is something I’ve wanted to get into. Any advice? I’d actually like to start a small game development agency.
• Glench 3y ago
  I made https://extensionpay.com https://extensionpay.com to monetize my own browser extensions and between that and free distribution on the extension stores it’s really easy to try making extensions that make money. So far devs have made over $300k with ExtensionPay. That said, it still take some skill to find a niche that works.
• schwartzworld 3y ago
  If your company has a referral bonus, it might be worth your while to do some networking. Some companies have really generous bonuses. A simple conversation can earn you thousands of dollars. It's hard to imagine that any web app I'm going to build is going to have as good an ROI.
  • ferennag 3y ago
    Usually these only get paid out if they actually hire the person. This will never be a stable monthly side money
• adnjoo 3y ago
  Lyft