6 ms·

Introduction to The Developer's Passive Income

41 points by jakubgarfield 13y ago

cuillevel3 13y ago
Ok, now what about the income part? Is it ad-based? Which ad provider? Do you plan to sell licenses, etc?
- coolsunglasses 13y ago
  Probably from selling PDFs to people about how to create passive income.
  - Kequc 13y ago
    "Buy my book titled how to sell a book for $20!"
  - jakubgarfield 13y ago
    No, not really. If I couldn't make money from my projects, what would I write about. I think, that it could be interesting to follow the monetization from the beggining, keep it public and track down the history.
- jakubgarfield 13y ago
  Currently, I have 3 types of projects - application (Bonobo Git Server), web project (the blog) and mobile app and I'm considering different models. I plan to discuss them in the future in more details, but what I think I'm going to do is to sell licences for Bonobo Git Server, advertise on the web and I'm not sure about the mobile ones (freemium or ads).
aaronpk 13y ago
So far so good, will be fun to follow this blog!
code_scrapping 13y ago
I always feel stupid after clicking on a link like this and finding somebody's self-advertisement. It's like one of those "Click here for the best instruction on how to loose weight", but for developers.
- jakubgarfield 13y ago
  I see what you mean, but at the moment, I don't have any way of making money of the "advertised" products. The intention is to document the process of monetization, nothing more.
  - code_scrapping 13y ago
    But that's bad, right? It's like you're making the "Landing on the moon" documentary in the 1920. People don't want to hear about 40 years of mistakes, they want to hear about the end conclusions and you won't have any to give. That's why success-story books sell, but you don't see a lot of "will-try-to-do" books.
    - jakubgarfield 13y ago
      Yep, I'm trying will-try-to-do approach. It gives me some order and discipline and I could keep a record for myself. And I'd like to think that someone else would be interested in my plans and steps and potentially benefit from them.
    - route3 13y ago
      > But that's bad, right? I should hope not. I'm trying to think of a situation where a developer wants to document a process (ANY process. In this case: building a profitable product) and it would be considered "bad". > That's why success-story books sell, but you don't see a lot of "will-try-to-do" books. This is a blog, not a book. Will-try-to-do blog posts are incredibly healthy exercises for the author/do'er and usually provide helpful content for the readers (if the author follows through and documents his or her thought process). I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here, and (to me) your comments and tone sound dismissive. This fellow has nothing to sell -- it's an exciting endeavor that the author wants to document.
blunte 13y ago
Coming soon: how to throw crap up on HN and see how many people waste 2min on it.
jasonkester 13y ago
My advice is to do a SaaS product of some form. You can do it in a low key sort of way that doesn't take much of your time (or make you quit your job or neglect your family), and it will generally make you more money each month (unless you're doing something strange that churns all your existing customers away each month). Avoid anything ad-funded, such as blogs and whatnot. The ability to write software is way more lucrative than the ability to write words. Leverage that if you can.
- chii 13y ago
  what sort of SaaS products are in demand? I wish there's a list of web products that people want, but doesn't currently exist (or exists in a poor form).
  - odonnellryan 13y ago
    I think you just came up with one, although it may be more social-media-research instead of SaaS.
    - chii 13y ago
      The list-of-unavailable-SaaS product isn't going to generate any profit though...i can't think of a single reason why anyone would pay for such a list, or pay to vote on such a list.
      - thematt 13y ago
        I could see someone maybe paying for something like that. I could see it being useful if each item in the list was a complete package, including well-thought-out detailed description, potential functionality, path to revenue, market breakdown, available domains, SEO opportunities, etc. You would have to figure out how to entice someone to purchase the item without giving them all the details, but my point is this could have at least some revenue potential.
- jakubgarfield 13y ago
xerophtye 13y ago
Don't let the critics get you down! Don't WAIT for success to document it! Start documenting and showing off! gives you more of an incentive to keep at it
- jakubgarfield 13y ago
  Thank you for the kind words, I'll try to do my best.
- jasonkester 13y ago
  Worth noting: The 2nd highest karma HN user got his start doing exactly what the author is doing. Documenting, from day one, the creation of his software business. Had he not, the rest of us would have had a much harder time building our own businesses. So please try not to discourage others from doing the same thing.
walshemj 13y ago
This is spam sounds like the dodgy adds you see on the high numbered TV channels late at night Do Not Want
ozim 13y ago
For me it is not really clear this passive income stuff in terms of tax laws and relation with employer. Now I am based in Netherlands and my employer put in the contract quite big fines for anything I would do on my own or for some other party. So I would have to get written consent from my employer, this one is clear. But for anyone else check your contract ;) Second thing is for instance you get money from Android app, or from users. How would you go with taxes, you have income so you have to pay taxes. Beeing sensible for some beer money they won't get after you. But having 1000 euros a month could lead to some nasty stuff like questions where did you got that money and why you didn't tell to your beloved country... I think all those passive income gurus are not mentioning a word about this side of things. Does anyone has any experience on legal side of passive income? Charge in bitcoins only? :D
- pc86 13y ago
  And people talk about America's employment laws? It blows my mind that something you do at 11 PM on a Saturday night can be claimed by your employer (yes, I know there are some companies in the US that do this). Regarding your question about taxes, you would just... pay the taxes. If you're not comfortable doing your own (I don't know the tax climate in the Netherlands) you would just pay an accountant. I have a CPA here in the states so I just give him all my information in January/February and he lets me know what I need to pay or what I can expect back.
  - yukkurishite 13y ago
    Pretty sure this is an isolated example. Also dutch here, I'm not allowed to make anything that is a direct competitor; but that's it.
- jakubgarfield 13y ago
  I'm from the Czech Republic so I'll tell you how would that work here. Each year you have to submit a tax return - a paper where you admit how much money you earned in the last year. If you are an employee and you have just one source of income, it's usually done by that employer. If you would have another income (there is also some treshold) you have to do it yourself and add this income to your salary and pay taxes. It's not that complicated.
j_s 13y ago
It would also be interesting to see the list of resources being applied. This way it's possible to see more stages of the process. For example, Rob Walling now is talking about graduating to 'larger product ideas' at http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-158-the-reunion-show http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-158-t...

41 points by jakubgarfield 13y ago

cuillevel3 13y ago

Ok, now what about the income part? Is it ad-based? Which ad provider? Do you plan to sell licenses, etc?

coolsunglasses 13y ago
Probably from selling PDFs to people about how to create passive income.
- Kequc 13y ago
  "Buy my book titled how to sell a book for $20!"
- jakubgarfield 13y ago
  No, not really. If I couldn't make money from my projects, what would I write about. I think, that it could be interesting to follow the monetization from the beggining, keep it public and track down the history.
jakubgarfield 13y ago
Currently, I have 3 types of projects - application (Bonobo Git Server), web project (the blog) and mobile app and I'm considering different models. I plan to discuss them in the future in more details, but what I think I'm going to do is to sell licences for Bonobo Git Server, advertise on the web and I'm not sure about the mobile ones (freemium or ads).

aaronpk 13y ago

So far so good, will be fun to follow this blog!

code_scrapping 13y ago

I always feel stupid after clicking on a link like this and finding somebody's self-advertisement. It's like one of those "Click here for the best instruction on how to loose weight", but for developers.

jakubgarfield 13y ago
I see what you mean, but at the moment, I don't have any way of making money of the "advertised" products. The intention is to document the process of monetization, nothing more.
- code_scrapping 13y ago
  But that's bad, right? It's like you're making the "Landing on the moon" documentary in the 1920. People don't want to hear about 40 years of mistakes, they want to hear about the end conclusions and you won't have any to give. That's why success-story books sell, but you don't see a lot of "will-try-to-do" books.
  - jakubgarfield 13y ago
    Yep, I'm trying will-try-to-do approach. It gives me some order and discipline and I could keep a record for myself. And I'd like to think that someone else would be interested in my plans and steps and potentially benefit from them.
  - route3 13y ago
    > But that's bad, right? I should hope not. I'm trying to think of a situation where a developer wants to document a process (ANY process. In this case: building a profitable product) and it would be considered "bad". > That's why success-story books sell, but you don't see a lot of "will-try-to-do" books. This is a blog, not a book. Will-try-to-do blog posts are incredibly healthy exercises for the author/do'er and usually provide helpful content for the readers (if the author follows through and documents his or her thought process). I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here, and (to me) your comments and tone sound dismissive. This fellow has nothing to sell -- it's an exciting endeavor that the author wants to document.

blunte 13y ago

Coming soon: how to throw crap up on HN and see how many people waste 2min on it.

jasonkester 13y ago

My advice is to do a SaaS product of some form. You can do it in a low key sort of way that doesn't take much of your time (or make you quit your job or neglect your family), and it will generally make you more money each month (unless you're doing something strange that churns all your existing customers away each month). Avoid anything ad-funded, such as blogs and whatnot. The ability to write software is way more lucrative than the ability to write words. Leverage that if you can.

chii 13y ago
what sort of SaaS products are in demand? I wish there's a list of web products that people want, but doesn't currently exist (or exists in a poor form).
- odonnellryan 13y ago
  I think you just came up with one, although it may be more social-media-research instead of SaaS.
  - chii 13y ago
    The list-of-unavailable-SaaS product isn't going to generate any profit though...i can't think of a single reason why anyone would pay for such a list, or pay to vote on such a list.
    - thematt 13y ago
      I could see someone maybe paying for something like that. I could see it being useful if each item in the list was a complete package, including well-thought-out detailed description, potential functionality, path to revenue, market breakdown, available domains, SEO opportunities, etc. You would have to figure out how to entice someone to purchase the item without giving them all the details, but my point is this could have at least some revenue potential.
jakubgarfield 13y ago

xerophtye 13y ago

Don't let the critics get you down! Don't WAIT for success to document it! Start documenting and showing off! gives you more of an incentive to keep at it

jakubgarfield 13y ago
Thank you for the kind words, I'll try to do my best.
jasonkester 13y ago
Worth noting: The 2nd highest karma HN user got his start doing exactly what the author is doing. Documenting, from day one, the creation of his software business. Had he not, the rest of us would have had a much harder time building our own businesses. So please try not to discourage others from doing the same thing.

walshemj 13y ago

This is spam sounds like the dodgy adds you see on the high numbered TV channels late at night Do Not Want

ozim 13y ago

For me it is not really clear this passive income stuff in terms of tax laws and relation with employer. Now I am based in Netherlands and my employer put in the contract quite big fines for anything I would do on my own or for some other party. So I would have to get written consent from my employer, this one is clear. But for anyone else check your contract ;) Second thing is for instance you get money from Android app, or from users. How would you go with taxes, you have income so you have to pay taxes. Beeing sensible for some beer money they won't get after you. But having 1000 euros a month could lead to some nasty stuff like questions where did you got that money and why you didn't tell to your beloved country... I think all those passive income gurus are not mentioning a word about this side of things. Does anyone has any experience on legal side of passive income? Charge in bitcoins only? :D

pc86 13y ago
And people talk about America's employment laws? It blows my mind that something you do at 11 PM on a Saturday night can be claimed by your employer (yes, I know there are some companies in the US that do this). Regarding your question about taxes, you would just... pay the taxes. If you're not comfortable doing your own (I don't know the tax climate in the Netherlands) you would just pay an accountant. I have a CPA here in the states so I just give him all my information in January/February and he lets me know what I need to pay or what I can expect back.
- yukkurishite 13y ago
  Pretty sure this is an isolated example. Also dutch here, I'm not allowed to make anything that is a direct competitor; but that's it.
jakubgarfield 13y ago
I'm from the Czech Republic so I'll tell you how would that work here. Each year you have to submit a tax return - a paper where you admit how much money you earned in the last year. If you are an employee and you have just one source of income, it's usually done by that employer. If you would have another income (there is also some treshold) you have to do it yourself and add this income to your salary and pay taxes. It's not that complicated.

j_s 13y ago

It would also be interesting to see the list of resources being applied. This way it's possible to see more stages of the process. For example, Rob Walling now is talking about graduating to 'larger product ideas' at http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-158-the-reunion-show http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-158-t...