
Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start? - ihoys
I work for a tech company. The fallacy is that I have so much information about day to day job in my head that I have lost all creative juice. I can code in python with some help but my skills are more towards management and backend data processing.<p>I want to build a side project. Especially, one that makes money. Even if it brings in $100, I feel that it will provide more satisfaction than my current job.<p>I don&#x27;t have any frontend dev skills. Where should I start?<p>Should I outsource the website development part? I am 31. I am pretty sure learning FE development is not going to be useful anytime soon. With tech stacks, if you don&#x27;t practise you tend to forget things eventually.<p>Can you provide some ideas on where to start? What are some simple things I can build by myself? Any ideas?
======
mikekchar
This is going to sounds like crazy advice, but having worked on many side
projects in my life the _last_ thing that's going to let you down is your
skills. What you really need is time. Let's say it takes you 400 hours to
build your project -- in those 400 hours, you will build up enough skills to
get you started (not nearly enough to be good at it, but good enough).

So you need to work consistently 1-2 hours a day on your side project. It
really doesn't matter _what_ you do. If you manage to get those 1-2 hours in,
you will muddle through and accomplish something. If your goal is to make a
side project and bring in a non-zero amount of money, this is achievable.
Learn whatever you learn on that project and then do it again.

Personally, I would spend exactly $0 on your task because, like I said, the
thing that will kill you in the end is likely to be time commitment. If you
spend money, you will be out the money _and_ your time. So start with time and
see where it takes you.

As others have said, no need to get fancy. Just build the simplest thing that
will get you started, using the simplest tools you can find.

~~~
ssijak
My biggest problem is in "no need to get fancy". Do not know how to overcome
that urge to overengineer everything in the start and how to be satisfied with
minimal working thing even if it looks like crap.

~~~
wpietri
You don't have to feel satisfied. You're supposed to feel unsatisfied with an
MVP. If you didn't, you wouldn't have the drive to build anything better.

For me, I use three other feelings to combat my high standards.

One is fear. In particular, fear that I'm building a bunch of stuff that won't
work. It's the same fear that drives me to write automated tests, or at least
to manually run something and see that it works. Except here the fear is that
it might work for me but not for my audience.

Another is rigor. This part feels very sciencey to me. I'm trying to test the
hypotheses that are implicit in the thing I'm making (and that I've hopefully
at least tried to make explicit before I start coding). I want to test my
hypotheses as early as possible, and when I don't I start to feel like I'm not
being rigorous.

The third is joy in results. The early tests are only looking for one step
forward. If that's all I'm looking for, it is really exciting to see that. And
so I temporarily set aside my concerns about all the things I'm not testing
for and celebrate the wins when I get 'em.

------
nurettin
Not sure if I should share this, as it is a trivial and obvious thing to do.
Recently I created a ramen-profitable on google play with currently a couple
of thousand users.

The idea is to look for apps that have low ratings, high downloads and lots of
recent comments, then make them better. You can use synonyms and the same
niche category to increase visibility on google play. This is where the money
is.

~~~
SyneRyder
> _Not sure if I should share this, as it is a trivial and obvious thing to
> do..._

Probably worth linking here to Derek Sivers' post "Obvious To You, Amazing To
Others": [https://sivers.org/obvious](https://sivers.org/obvious)

I've heard of your method before, but I first read it in Fast Company in a
story called The Amazon Whisperer, and while it might seem obvious now, I
thought it was amazing when I first read it:
[https://www.fastcompany.com/3021229/chaim-pikarski-the-
amazo...](https://www.fastcompany.com/3021229/chaim-pikarski-the-amazon-
whisperer)

~~~
_jdams
That article on FastCompany about the Amazon Whisperer is incredibly eye-
opening. Thanks for linking

------
gsylvie
Here's what I did: at work I needed something. (A git commit graph). But the
one I found was #1. buggy, and #2. too expensive. It wasn't my money, but I
just couldn't allow my company to pay that much.

So I made my own, and fixed the bug: [http://bit-
booster.com/best.html](http://bit-booster.com/best.html)

And then I realized I needed a rebase button on the pull-request screen... and
so it continues to evolve.

Here's the thing: I've always known I'm a good maintenance programmer. I've
always preferred working on existing software instead of making new software
from scratch. And writing add-ons for Bitbucket is basically just another form
of maintenance programming: reading Bitbucket's code, noticing its flaws and
shortcomings, and fixing them.

Also, I love git, and I love going very deep into git (e.g.,
[https://github.com/gsylvie/git-reverse.sh](https://github.com/gsylvie/git-
reverse.sh)). So this is my dream job.

I've only made $7,000 USD after 1 year on this side project. But $1 of those
dollars feels better than $10,000 from my day job.

~~~
amelius
I have the strong feeling that there isn't much money in software tooling.

Also, like it or not, any successful product will eventually be replaced by an
open-source equivalent.

~~~
gsylvie
Yes, software tooling is not a huge market compared to say, JIRA. My add-on is
287th place for sales in the last 30 days ($2800). Most of the add-ons ahead
of me are for JIRA or Confluence:
[https://marketplace.atlassian.com/addons/top-
selling](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/addons/top-selling)

Successful tooling often faces competition from open source. But I'm still
using IntelliJ...

------
superasn
I think you should start something very very small and forget about the money
part for now. For me, my most successful project ideas came from problems that
I faced during my own site launches.

Since you don't have much knowledge of FE development, I would suggest you
keep things Simple Stupid and try to do as much as possible with HTML and
jQuery. I have created really complex websites using just PHP and jQuery
(sites that have made me 6 figures over time), plus you will learn the real
nitty-gritty like DOM manipulation, CSS tricks, etc - which you will need to
use anyway at least a few times regardless of the shiny JS framework.

I would highly recommend at this time you don't get sucked into the React,
Node, Vue, etc. You will only end up wasting months without nothing to show
for it (but maybe I'm just too old school).

Whatever time you have left after that, use it to learn online marketing.
Learn about list building, SEO, Copywriting, outreach and affiliate marketing.
Because that's how you turn your technology into actual money.

~~~
iman453
Any resources you'd recommend for learning online marketing?

~~~
j_s
FWIW: If you're asking about marketing after you've built a product, you're
doing things in the wrong order. That's why I've included Rob's _Start Small,
Stay Small_ as one of core ideas is market validation. From a review: "not
about coding but about [finding] a great niche, building a product that
executes at a plateau and make it run automatically"

"The other resource I'd recommend is the one I'm releasing in ~3 weeks :)"
[https://www.julian.com/learn/growth/intro](https://www.julian.com/learn/growth/intro)
\-- julianshapiro |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14026863](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14026863)

 _Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide_ "the only actionable
Internet marketing guide out there" (2017) $40
[https://www.secretsaucenow.com/](https://www.secretsaucenow.com/) \--
austenallred |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13807171](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13807171)

 _Marketing for Developers_ "Don’t build another software product no one uses.
Discover what people will pay for before you start coding." (2015) $39
[https://gumroad.com/l/devmarketingbook](https://gumroad.com/l/devmarketingbook)
\-- mijustin |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12034104](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12034104)

 _Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth_ "I started
doing a series of interviews on my blog with successful founders about how
they got traction" (2015, 2nd ed.) $15
[https://amzn.com/dp/B00TY3ZOMS](https://amzn.com/dp/B00TY3ZOMS) \-- epi0Bauqu
/ yegg |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10346268](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10346268)

 _Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer 's Guide to Launching a Startup_ "The
book is approaching 11,000 copies sold to date, so it's obviously filled a
need." (2010) $10
[https://amzn.com/dp/B003YH9MMI](https://amzn.com/dp/B003YH9MMI) \-- rwalling
|
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5361601](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5361601)

These guys all use their own techniques so they love bundling additional stuff
besides the ebooks.

~~~
davidw
Rob's book is a bit old at this point, but I'd heartily recommend it just the
same.

~~~
j_s
Yes, it's easily worth the $10 before starting anything; the rest might pay
off more once there's a product.

------
haser_au
Here's my suggestion. Walk down the road to shops in your area (small, family
run businesses) and ask if they have a business problem they think IT can
solve.

You'd be surprised how little some of these businesses know. I have
previously; \- Built a travel database in MS Access for a Travel Agent (long
time ago) \- Ordered and setup ADSL connections and email for a water tank
manufacturer and a furniture store \- Capture requirements, researched,
ordered and installed an office (6 people) worth of IT kit for a not-for-
profit (didn't charge them for this work). \- Designed and implemented a
roster management system for an IT helpdesk for a university.

There are heaps of opportunities. Just have to know where to look.

~~~
intrasight
This really is an excellent suggestion. I would add on to it to also talk with
local governments as they are increasingly wanting to provide mobile digital
services to citizens.

Onto this I will add a suggestion to consider volunteering your services. If
you do an outstanding job as a volunteer, then when the organization gets some
budget, you'll be first in line to do the work.

~~~
jononor
Don't offer to work for free. If a sizable organization really wants to have a
problem solved (and they believe you can do it), they will try their best to
find money for it. Just go to the next place / next problem.

------
danielsamuels
I built Rocket League Replays[1], a website which analyses the replay files
generated from matches played in Rocket League. I took my inspiration from
GGTracker[2] which is essentially the same thing, but for StarCraft 2. I was
looking through the replay files and noticed that there was some human
readable content in them, so I wrote a parser[3] and built the site around it.
Eventually I started a Patreon which allowed users to support the site in
return for more advanced analysis. I get around $200/mo from that which covers
the server costs etc, so I'm more than happy with that.

[1]:
[https://www.rocketleaguereplays.com/replays/](https://www.rocketleaguereplays.com/replays/)

[2]: [http://ggtracker.com/landing_tour](http://ggtracker.com/landing_tour)

[3]: [http://danielsamuels.co.uk/words/2015/07/27/rocket-league-
re...](http://danielsamuels.co.uk/words/2015/07/27/rocket-league-replays/)

~~~
joe563323
Tell us more about your skills before starting the project and after starting
the project. Were you basically a front end or back end guy before starting
the project. What technolgies did you choose and why. How long did it take to
complete. How many hours did you invest. Did you invest time consistently in
smaller chunks or large chunks at one shot.

~~~
j_s
The details regarding time managment would be great.

However, I personally would be much more interested in any info on how he got
the word out and attracted users. That's the part most developers are missing
in the " _that makes money_ " portion of the equation.

~~~
danielsamuels
Reddit and Twitter were big things for me, I announced the initial release on
the Rocket League subreddit[1] and then announced updates whenever they were
released[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. I automated daily posts to reddit and
Twitter[9] for the "match of the day" (calculated based on a variety of
factors). I engaged heavily in the community on Twitter, other fan sites and
got my name out there. I gave away the extra (paid-for) features to the top
teams to get them using it. I added support for features which users asked
for.

One of the biggest sources of traffic for me now are the Rocket League
analysis / training subreddits[10]. It's become _the_ location to upload your
replays if you want to share them with other people. Making it easy to share
(no account required) was a big part of this.

[1]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3et5yx/after_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3et5yx/after_a_weekend_of_picking_through_replay_files_i/)

[2]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4f3jq2/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4f3jq2/rocket_league_replays_adds_indepth_boost/)

[3]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4d1kpe/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4d1kpe/rocket_league_replays_adds_inbrowser_replay/)

[4]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4a9s44/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4a9s44/rocket_league_replays_updates_their_replay/)

[5]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/44xp8j/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/44xp8j/rocket_league_replays_adds_support_for_seasons/)

[6]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3yws8d/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3yws8d/rocket_league_replays_now_orders_by_player/)

[7]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3pra3u/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3pra3u/rocket_league_replays_now_features_profile_pages/)

[8]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3gtulm/rocket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3gtulm/rocket_league_replays_version_2_has_been_released/)

[9]: [https://twitter.com/RLReplays](https://twitter.com/RLReplays)

[10]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeagueAnalysis/](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeagueAnalysis/)

~~~
debaserab2
Wow, you've done a great job making this a useful product with meaningful
value.

There's a user in the Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard moba, same engine as SC2)
that did the same thing, except went the completely opposite route and riddled
the site with predatory ads (the kinds that produce popunders and play audio
on load). The paid option was to get rid of the ads. Most updates to the site
lately seem to be to combat ad blockers instead of add new things.

The community went from being extremely open and excited about the site at the
beginning to now begrudgingly having to use it since it has no competitor.

Props to you for engaging the community and keeping them on your side.

~~~
danielsamuels
To be fair I do have ads as well, but it's just Adsense so there shouldn't be
any of the bad stuff. Removing them comes with the Patreon membership too.

(Also, thanks!)

------
simonbarker87
My side projects always come from personal needs, in each case I built it to
solve my own problem before turning it in to a full product (summaries below).
If you are going in with the sole intention of making money then make sure you
know that there is a need for what you want to make and that you can get your
project in front of people.

You don't need to use the latest and greatest tech, in fact, I would urge you
don't. For front end you can stick to simple JQuery interactions, bootstrap
theme and you'll be fine, depending on the market sector you go for they may
not even care about the design, so long as it's functional.

Summary of my project and where they came from:

[http://www.oneqstn.com](http://www.oneqstn.com), before launching our
company's product I put the question "Where would you expect to buy the
Radfan?" on the shop page and then 5 options. I expanded this on its own
dedicated domain and 5 years later it's still ticking along. Very popular in
the middle east for some reason.

[http://www.stockcontrollerapp.com](http://www.stockcontrollerapp.com), I
manage in-house production of my company's hardware product and after moving
from an Excel spreadsheet to a Python script I decided to make a stock
management app for small factories. Has made my work life much easier and is
more appropriate for me than Unleashed.

[http://www.taptimerapp.com](http://www.taptimerapp.com), I didn't like any of
the timer apps that I had tried so made my own mainly for use in the gym. All
the others had too small touch targets, hard to see at a distance/without
glasses on, or stopped music playing when the timer finished so I made an app
that addressed these.

~~~
simonbarker87
Thanks to the person who highlighted a typo on taptimer.com and sent in the
contact form about it - no email address supplied so I'm thanking them here.

~~~
katamaritaco
Found another one: Gestures Galour -> Galore

~~~
simonbarker87
Thanks, I should probably be embarrassed but it's great they've been found so
...

------
yodon
If your goal is to make money, don't allow yourself to write a single line of
code until you have talked to people not related to you (and not close friends
with you), heard at least two of them independently describe facing the same
business problem, and heard both of them say "yes, that would help!" (or
better "yes, I would buy that!") in response to your proposed solution.

Finding a real business problem and a real solution is what matters. The tech
is just an implementation detail you work out later.

~~~
enraged_camel
On the other hand, I've had a lot of success showing people proofs of concept
as a way to get the conversation going about various ideas I have. Sometimes
people don't know what they want/need until they actually see a pre-alpha
version in action.

~~~
collyw
Indeed. Most people don't know what is possible let alone what is easy / hard
to develop.

The answer to everything in my previous workplace was "another excel sheet"
when we had a proper Django application with relational integrity and data
validation. Showing them that a few clicks on a web form was easier than what
they were used to - copy pasting data from one web page, pasting it back into
an excel, reformatting it and uploading it, followed by a ton of data
validation errors.

------
qin
Baffled why nobody has mentioned
[https://www.indiehackers.com/](https://www.indiehackers.com/) yet.

If you're looking for some inspiration from others who've built revenue-
generating side projects and businesses, I'd start here.

------
joeyspn
Start looking for people that complements your skills! I've just created a "HN
Side Project Partner Search" google stylesheet for people seeking team mates
or help building their side projects:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fDNE2O862oLmlojAPDXd...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fDNE2O862oLmlojAPDXdfdTy7w6nZLiFlhDWbHoEzGk/edit?usp=sharing)

IMO building a team (2 or 3) is the best way to go...

Hopefully you'll find the idea useful (ideally this should be a website but
I'm testing the waters with a simple stylesheet...)

~~~
onyb
Can I use the Google sheet to find partners for my open source project (no
monetary benefit)?

~~~
joeyspn
Sure why not? just add a comment explaining all in the "additional info"
column... ;)

------
jjude
Start to teach. Create a course in udemy on what you know (data processing or
management). If creating a video course overwhelms you, create a text based
course. I'm using softcover to do that. You can check here:
[https://www.jjude.com/softcover-in-docker/](https://www.jjude.com/softcover-
in-docker/)

Creating a course can get you the momentum. You can start there and branch out
to other things.

~~~
constantinLG
This is great advice. Turn whatever you know right now into a learning
opportunity for others. This is what we do at
[http://teacherr.com](http://teacherr.com), we help others build an audience
around their experience and monetize their following by selling information.

------
akanet
I gave a talk at Dropbox literally about how to start a small business without
quitting your day job. A lot of people have told me it was helpful. You can
watch it here: [https://youtu.be/J8UwcyYT3z0](https://youtu.be/J8UwcyYT3z0).

A lot of my focus was boiling down what approaches could plausibly work and
what pitfalls to avoid.

~~~
j_s
The "3 ways people usually fuck up" starting at 14:30 was great!

• Be boring

• Make money immediately

• Focus on distribution

\+ Charge vs. opportunity cost (not cost to provide service)

That last one is pretty unique and could probably benefit many here with some
additional input from you. I've heard that it makes sense to charge based on
value added, but not much about how starting a small business needs to compete
with the founder's missed alternatives.

------
kureikain
I think the easiest thing is build what you need. So that if it failed to make
money, you still have the tool you want.

I build [https://noty.im](https://noty.im) that way, an monitoring tool that
call me when my site is down.

Then I realized more thing is needed and I started to add more features and
plan to publish launch soon.

I will say not to worry about scale and technical first. I learned it the
hardway, Just get it out. No one will really care if it's broken or something
doesn't owrk when you doesn't have lots of customer.

So to answer your questions:

1\. Can you provide some ideas on where to start? Pick a technology stack you
familiar with. Apply to Microsft BizSpark to take advantage of $150/monthly
credit. Learn FE, it isn't that hard.

2\. What are some simple things I can build by myself? Any idea?

I build `[https://kolor.ml`](https://kolor.ml`) in a sunday. It's very simple
but I need it. So you can try to build some simple/small utility that helps
people with their daily live such as: a tool to call people up in morning.

A tool to check if my site has expose some particular header such as `nginx`,
`php version` etc and if found an old one or vulnerable one, alert.

Of course, lots of people already build those, but the point is just get
started, along the way you will realize what you really want to build

------
bikamonki
List down 25 products/services you consume regularly. For each, ask whether a
better version could be done. Yes? Do it.

Here's one case: the local/popular site to search for used cars sucks. It is
slow, hard to see/compare all options, silly reloads the page on each added
filter, filled with outdated listings, flooded with ads, and pic slides take
forever (all of this on my slow phone over a slow 3g which is how most
visitors must be using it). Furthermore, car dealers (who post most listings)
complain about service and price. So I built the proverbial mvp and put it in
the hands of my marketing partner (you won't sell a line of code if you do not
partner with a person/company dedicated to push your stuff) who's already
working on a deal with the used car dealers association, pitching a novel
business plan, hopefully making some passive income for both of us.

~~~
daliwali
To me this sounds boring, it may turn into a profitable business but it's
nothing innovative. If you limit yourself to what you currently use and try to
incrementally improve it, new ideas will rarely come out of that unless you
approach the problem from a radically different angle. Good ideas are
underrated in this regard.

~~~
ecaradec
Stackoverflow definitly fit that description, I wouldn't call it uninovative.
Incremental changes often make all the difference.

------
jasonswett
This is what I believe to be the formula: 1\. Find a group of people who are
interested in a subject. 2\. Find out what, related to that subject, they want
to buy. 3\. Sell them that thing.

This is the approach I took with my book/videos at AngularOnRails.com, a "side
project that makes money".

Another important thing is to surround yourself with people who have
successfully done the thing you're trying to do.

I don't have much time right now but if you (or anybody) wants to talk about
building side projects that make money, feel free to email me at
jason@angularonrails.com. I'm not an expert but I know a hell of a lot more
than I did 9 years ago when I started.

~~~
wpietri
Yes, 100% this. Too many programmers build something and then try to sell it.
And worse, when they get close to trying to sell it, they get nervous and go
add more features, because writing code makes them feel safe.

But the real risk isn't that an imagined product can't be built. It's that the
imagined product won't be bought when you build it.

So please, everybody, do what jasonswett says and start with the audience and
their need. Verify that people will buy the thing before you build it.
Because, and I'm speaking from experience here, it zero fun to build something
and then discover that nobody cares.

------
renegadesensei
Oh man I know this feel. I have been programming for startups for years and I
have always had lots of ideas but never the mental commitment to finish
anything.

I'm proud to say that very recently I did manage to complete a side project
that I intend to launch in a week or so. It is a social site based on an idea
I got from watching Japanese dramas.

What helped in my case was that my idea was really simple to build. I too have
zero frontend / web design ability, so I just paid a guy from Craigslist to
fix it up. Being able to bootstrap a finished product with a relatively small
amount of time / money helps you get in that "closer" mentality instead of
just playing around and never finishing.

I'd also suggest not worrying about making money at first. Just try to make a
cool product or service. Money is a stressful and distracting motivator I
find. Once you have something of value to offer and get some feedback from
potential users, then you think more about pricing and marketing.

So in short, start small, don't be afraid to outsource and trade money for
time, and don't worry about making a profit right away. That worked for me at
least.

------
patio11
_What are some simple things I can build by myself?_

You're already successful at selling enterprise services to at least one
company in management and backend data processing. Have you considered selling
management and backend data processing advise, perhaps delivered in the form
of a PDF or series of videos? This is stupendously valuable to tech companies
if you meaningfully improve on what they have already and would allow you to
sell to people who have expense accounts tied to, to steal a friend's phrase,
the economic engine of the planet.

You don't need a commandingly high bar of programming sophistication to sell
books. There exist services that can do all the heavy lifting for you. If you
prefer knocking together a site to sell your own books, it is essentially an
hour to get the minimum thing to charge money and ~2 days to get something
which could plausibly be the kernel of an ongoing business.

~~~
shubhamjain
> If you prefer knocking together a site to sell your own books, it is
> essentially an hour to get the minimum thing to charge money and ~2 days to
> get something which could plausibly be the kernel of an ongoing business.

But what about traffic? How do you get eyeballs to your book-selling
microsite? Do you reach out to people who might be interested? Do you post on
forums? Do you use paid advertising? I can guess it's a combination of various
methods but the problem I have seen popping up often, at least with me, is
reaching a meaningful conclusion.

If your landing page fails to gain meaningful traffic, what do you need to
tweak? Your book pitch, the idea, or the marketing technique?

~~~
patio11
If it were me and I was coming at it from nothing I'd write, in order:

1) Minimal stake-in-the-Internet landing page. ("I'm writing a book on
ActiveRecord optimization. I've worked for 3 years on AR optimization. For
more details, [ ].")

2) ~3 blog posts about the topic at issue which each mention the forthcoming
book and link to your landing page. Promote blog posts in the usual ways:
tweet about them, send cold emails to folks whose audiences they are relevant
to, post them in your usual community watering holes.

Checkpoint: if the blog posts go nowhere, don't write your book.

3) Write a minimalistic email drip campaign to send to folks who are on your
list. Consider cross posting versions of the messages in it to your blog,
depending on your appetite for doing this.

4) Write a proper landing page for your book.

5) Write your book.

6) Run a "launch sequence" for your book over 2~3 weeks prior to publishing
your book.

7) Launch your book.

8) Get more serious about turning your book into a business via e.g.
increasing acquisition, tuning the automated bookseller that is your email
list, etc.

I've seen folks be really, really successful at this model on the strength of
first books supported by hundreds of email subscribers and 3~5 blog posts. You
do not need to be "Internet famous" to pull this off. (Anecdotally, most of my
Internet buddies who do the meat-and-potatoes work here get $10k to $20k on
the first book launch.)

~~~
Im_a_throw_away
To get "hundreds of emails" (let's say 500), with a ~1% conversion rate, you
need 50,000 page views. How long to get to that point with just 3 blog post
when you start from nothing?

------
fpgaminer
I researched startups on IndieHackers.com and wrote an article:

[https://hackernoon.com/indie-startups-the-ingredients-of-
suc...](https://hackernoon.com/indie-startups-the-ingredients-of-
success-74531fe3a019)

The summary, well, sums it up pretty well I think:

> Listen to your friends, coworkers, and clients. Find something painful they
> mentioned that you also have first hand experience with, or that you’ve
> needed at your job. Package it up so it’s easy to use. Build an MVP, get
> feedback, iterate. Charge more than you think you should. Listen to your
> customers. Launch on ProductHunt. Market the hell out of it! Use Content
> Marketing, reach out to communities, forums, friends, and businesses with
> cold calls/emails. If you’ve built something great, word of mouth will do
> its magic. You can do this in your spare time, and probably should.

------
tmaly
I used my food side project as a way to learn new skills. I am still in the
process of working on version 2.

The simplest way to start is to take a framework or system that has most of
the basic parts ready for you to use.

Since you already know python, try to learn something like django and use
Bootstrap with a CDN for your front end stuff.

I would recommend reading some of the posts on indiehackers.com to get an idea
of how those people got started with an idea and how they got their first
customers. Some do not even have any tech skills and just used wordpress or
found someone to help them with the site. There is also a podcast for this
that just got started that is excellent. The founder of indiehackers was a YC
alumn named Courtland, he is a cool guy.

I chose to solve a problem that I personally encountered. If you cannot think
of something, try picking something that you know requires lots of manual
effort for some people. Then use some scripts from the book Running Lean to
try to work out exactly what the problem is for those people.

Another great resource is OppsDaily which I love reading first thing in the
morning. Cory sends out a problem someone has in a particular industry that
needs to be solved. The criteria is that they must be willing to pay for it if
someone responds. In many cases they will say how much they are willing to
pay.

------
techbubble
Side projects that also do some public good might be a good avenue for you to
consider. I built Walkstarter
[https://walkstarter.org](https://walkstarter.org) a free walkathon
fundraising platform for public schools as a side project. The experience is
fantastic. I continue to develop my skills, e-meet new people, and the
platform is on track to raise a very satisfying $1 million for schools.

------
susi22
If you want a stable tech stack that'll stay the same for the new few years
then check out Clojure + Clojurescipt. I'm still doing the same since I
started a few years ago.

Regarding FE dev: I also have a technical Background (EE) and I hated any CSS
(HTML isn't so bad). Though, flexbox is a life changer. It's actually
enjoyable and I can get stuff done without spending hours on simple layout
issues.

~~~
mertysn
Can you elaborate on your tech stack? Do you develop for mobile, web, or both?

~~~
susi22
Both. CLJS is actually super fast, even on mobile (I test on lower power
devices such as MOTO G4). The SPA is also pretty small if you keep
dependencies out so it loads ~2-3s on a phone. That's with a large SPA with
about 100+ React components.

Stack:

\- It's CLJS with Datascript (huge DB), Rum and nothing else. That way I keep
my js-file small (currently 170kb gzip'ed).

\- Server side it's Pedestal, Cassandra, Datomic.

The tooling has always been leiningen and that's stayed consistent. Libraries
are still the same on the client side. cljs.core + closure library gives you
90% of what you'd ever need. I don't use a single NPM library (Except React).
I don't follow the latest fads in js-land anymore. IMO it's an ideal stack
that is fast, small, stable and has much more features than anything in JS
world. I don't need the latest and greatest transpiler (ES6, 8, 1000 or
whatnot) since I can just use a macro that does this for me. Figwheel is
incredible and should warrant anybody in the JS world to consider switching
just for that... Productivity is amazing.

------
gschier
As someone with many failed side projects, I can tell you that having a goal
of making money is usually a bad thing. Like many other people have said, you
can learn the skills. The hardest part of building a side project is finding
the time and staying motivated for more than a few months.

So, pick something _you_ will use and, if you enjoy building/using it, so will
others. Obviously think about ways to monetize it, but money should be more of
a side-effect than a motivation.

I'm currently working on [https://insomnia.rest](https://insomnia.rest), which
makes around $800/mo right now. I started it as a side-project a couple years
ago with no intention of making money. However, traffic grew organically and I
eventually left my job to pursue it full-time.

In summary, find something you love to work on and let it consume you. If you
do this, making $100/mo should come in no time. Have fun hacking!

~~~
alphydan
I find the font colour/weight of "Available for free on Mac, Windows, and
Linux" almost impossible to read.
[http://imgur.com/a/AUVxr](http://imgur.com/a/AUVxr)

~~~
gschier
Oh my, that is awful. What OS are you running?

~~~
alphydan
(Chrome 56.0.2924.87 (64-bit) / Ubuntu )

------
cheez
Pick someone else's niche making money, tweak it to make it your own,
implement. Rinse, repeat until you achieve success.

~~~
ams6110
Can't recall where I first heard it, but it was at least 25 years ago.

To be successful, find a successful person. Then do what they do.

~~~
xapata
The tough part is figuring out what's causal and what's just correlated.

------
j_s
_Where should I start?_ [...] _where to start?_

Building an audience + market validation before building a sideproject are the
top starting priority for "a side project _that makes money_ ".

Start by building an audience (this can be as simple as interacting with
professionals on Twitter and/or their own blogs, or even contributing here on
HN!). I won't be able to determine what people want without asking people, and
I will save a lot of wasted time by building something that I can guarantee
people already want to pay for! For example: I intend to walk around my
neighborhood with a survey to gauge interest in localized "technology disaster
prevention" (aka initial setup of PC & phone backups with verification and
increasingly annoying reminders) as a service. The first sideproject is the
hardest because initially the audience is smallest but then can be re-used.

I hesitated to post this because most developers have an "if you build it,
they will come" mentality (and a tendency to focus on
technology/implementation details that they enjoy) that even I personally have
a hard time overcoming myself. However, if the criteria is making money,
building an audience is the right first step. Once the bare-minimum MVP
functions, marketing makes all the difference on the " _that makes money_ "
part (see my list of random books to buy elsewhere in this thread)... and
there is no point over-engineering something I can't convince anyone to use!

I realize I'm going out on a limb a bit to say that market validation before
each sideproject comes second... I know of one example of someone who has
built an audience while publicly initiating sideprojects without thorough
market validation (focusing on technology instead -- note that this
determination is 100% my own armchair quarterbacking with the benefit of
hindsight); this person's projects appear to be faltering because of poor
market fit. However, it hasn't stopped many from buying into this person's
brand / other projects, and that audience is now following the next project
even though initially it appears to be trending toward the same mistake!

PS. As mentioned elsewhere I could shortcut market validation by tracking down
commercial products (already being paid for) that are getting a lot of
visibility and addressing issues raised in bad reviews; however even when
going this route I will still benefit greatly by having an audience to market
the replacement.

Edit: switched to first person to preach to myself to get off my butt and
start doing something!

------
grow91
I started a side project last year and it's been a fantastic experience. It's
an opportunity to "scratch an itch" that the day job can't provide (which for
me is doing whatever I want).

I had some frontend dev skills but didn't have the backend chops, so I hired
someone on Upwork. I'm pretty busy at work so getting someone else involved is
key (If I was by myself I'm not sure I would have stuck with it).

It's been a year and the app is doing about $3k/mo in revenue.

~~~
zazpowered
What's the app if you dont mind sharing. Or at least a vague idea of what it
is

------
cyberphonze
Firstly as other have said build something you would use and that interests
you. It doesn't have to make money if it adds value to you personally or
professionally (technical knowledge and hard life lessons learnt). Secondly
just ship it, personal projects can easily become obsessions, always needing
one more thing. I did this and even though I hate parts of my apps design it
is getting good feedback.

I recently had a quiet period in my freelance work so spent the time learning
React Native amongst other things. I applied this to an idea I have had
rattling around in my head for a point tracking app for people on Slimming
World. I spent 4 weeks developing this and then shipped it to iOS. In under 2
weeks it has grown to almost 10,000 registered users, is number 4 in the UK
Lifestyle Free Apps chart (ahead of Slimming World's own app) and has made
enough ad revenue to cover the only costs I have had (App Store membership
costs). It is never going to bring in big money but the lessons I have learnt
are priceless.

~~~
collyw
There is some harsh reality in your quote when you say the 4th highest UK
Lifestyle app only just covers costs with ad revenue.

------
joelrunyon
Listen to [http://sidehustleschool.com](http://sidehustleschool.com) \- it's a
story every day about someone who did just this.

~~~
kaskavalci
I immediately exit websites which want to notify me and ask for my e-mail
after 1 seconds I spend on that site. Bad marketing.

~~~
fuzzybeard
Agreed. I never saw it thanks to NoScript.

------
rezashirazian
As someone who has done countless side projects (check them out here:
[http://www.reza.codes](http://www.reza.codes)) I suggest taking out "making
money" as a variable and focus on things that interest you or something that
stems from a personal need.

The satisfaction you get from these side projects will come from being able to
finish them as opposed to try and make money from them. When you try to take
on a side project with the goal of making money, you'll end up sinking way too
much time in marketing and reaching out to possible customers as opposed to
building something (which I find to be more fun and rewarding).

And the time you spend on trying to get people to sign up or even try your
product doesn't have the same returns in satisfaction as building it. (my
opinion of course)

------
pseingatl
Look at oppsdaily.com. The developer posted here a while back. While there's
no archive, there are daily postings concerning software needs. Some of the
needs are unrelated to software, but most are. Could give you some ideas. (I
have no relationship with the site or maker).

------
tonyedgecombe
"The fallacy is that I have so much information about day to day job in my
head that I have lost all creative juice."

I wonder if more programming is going to bring back those creative juices,
perhaps you should think about doing something away from the keyboard instead?

------
wordpressdev
You can start with what you already know and then build over it, or diversify,
with time. The easiest way to monetize your knowledge to create a blog and
link it up with social media (twitter, FB, youtube etc).

For example, you can write about management and backend data processing (what
you do at work). This way, you don't have to learn something new to start your
side project (except maybe how to manage a blog). The blog can be monetized
via Ad networks like Adsense and Amazon affiliate program etc. As you grow,
you may take in direct advertisers, sponsored content etc.

------
roycehaynes
Spend a few days identifying problems people pay for, particularly easy
problems that you can build yourself. The key is that the solution has to be
fairly easy to build since you're not comfortable full-stack. Once you've
chose a solution that already makes money solving a problem, build the same
solution but position it for either a niche market or make a better product
than competitors.

I would at minimum leverage bootstrap or semantic ui as your ui. Otherwise,
hire someone to do the web interface for you.

~~~
roycehaynes
My last advice is pursue traction in addition to building a product.

------
mendeza
Get some inspiration from indie hackers.com . I have been wanting to do
something similar and there are tons of great advice and wisdom from solo
developers building their own businesses.

------
rb808
I dont think any advice is any use unless we know what you want.

First thing is you should decide why you're doing it. Is it to make money, or
have fun, or enhance your current mgmt skills or to learn to code in a whole
new area?

Only once you've decided that, then questions like "I don't have any frontend
dev skills. Where should I start?" and "Should I outsource the website
development part?" are possible to answer.

------
chad_strategic
Before you do anything, I would recommend that you clear state a goal. Do you
want to learn a new language? Do you want $100 a month in revenue. Do you want
learn a little SEO?

Recently, I started on project for the sole purpose of learning more about
nodejs and then in the second phase angular 2.

So a few months later I have a process that extracts data from amazon api and
looks for price decreases in products. I learned quite a bit about nodejs and
even about mysql database structures. So it was a good learning exercise.

Although I have accomplished my objective, I want to make money. This is the
problem... Now I have learned what I needed, unfortunately I have learn more
about seo, twitter api and facebook api to get users to visit my 200k webpages
and make some money. So the side work winds up becoming a challenge and
sometimes a burden, to continue to figure out how to reach your goal.

But when you reach your goal of $100 a month, then you will want more... So
basically it never ends.

[http://www.bestoftheinternets.com/Deals](http://www.bestoftheinternets.com/Deals)

------
davidjnelson
A simple way to make $100+/month is writing short books, articles, and giving
away things like software and putting adsense ads on the site.

~~~
hoschicz
Do you have any experience with this?

~~~
davidjnelson
Yes, feel free to email me at the address in my profile if I can help.

------
ryandrake
Surprised this has not been mentioned yet: Make sure your current employer is
cool with side projects and moonlighting. Very few companies I've worked for
are OK with it, even if done completely with personal equipment/time. You
don't want to build the next Facebook in your free time and get fired over it
or have your current employer claim IP ownership of it.

~~~
Touche
Side projects are so important to me that I would absolutely never accept a
job at a company that has an issue with it. We're talking about something that
I spend a huge % of my brain energy on, and you're telling me I can only use
that brain energy on _your_ thing? Pfft, get the f* out of here.

------
0898
I started holding talks for independent agency owners
(www.agencyhackers.co.uk). It brings in about £200 a month, from an 'agency
roundtable' that I run. That's not much obviously – it only just covers
ConvertKit subscription and other SaaS software I need like Reply.io. But I
think this is an audience I will be able to monetise with webinars,
conferences etc.

------
amelius
If thousands of engineers are looking for something to build that others will
pay for (but can't find it), then that tells me there is something
fundamentally wrong with the way the economy works. Shouldn't it be the other
way around? People who have a certain need express it, and engineers just pick
one and work on it.

~~~
b_t_s
Nope. This is the realm of questionably and marginally viable products. Most
experienced engineers are already working 40+ hours a week at high paying
jobs, so we're talking about a the scraps of their spare time, and even that
often comes with strings attached(experimental tech stacks, glacial delivery
pace, etc.) Maybe add some time from marginal engineers(students, self taught
no experience, overseas contractors). That's the supply. Demand often has no
clue about tech, particularly custom software development, and often a very
modest budget both in terms of cash and risk tolerance. That leads to two
attempted solutions. The first is ODesk, which often fails and discourages
further attempts. The second is entrepreneurship...engineers trying to find a
problem that is solvable and felt by several hundred affected people/companies
who they can actually manage to contact and sell to. This is a sales/marketing
problem that most of us tend to ignore or fail at, especially those of us
doing side projects where a major goal is playing with interesting tech.
There's plenty of money being made in both solutions, but it's not the easy
money people tend to think it is.

------
encoderer
As a software engineer who has built a side project that more or less pays my
Bay Area mortgage here is my advice:

Find an idea that plays to your strengths and build something with a
friend/coworker who is a better frontend developer. A good partner is
invaluable, and with this you can already see how.

Also, charge on day one imo.

------
simonebrunozzi
A little side project of mine is a chrome extension to be able to read (or
write) summaries of articles on Hacker News.

It is in alpha stage right now, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts about
it:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mnmn/kepcdifhbfjep...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mnmn/kepcdifhbfjepljddhhlheglckopcddn)

Screenshot of how it looks like:
[https://github.com/simonebrunozzi/MNMN/blob/master/screensho...](https://github.com/simonebrunozzi/MNMN/blob/master/screenshot.png)

(note: the "+" button is only available for users that are "editors". If you
try it out, your user doesn't have that enabled by default).

------
retrac98
I wrote up my experiences with successfully shipping a side project here:
[https://medium.com/leaf-software/5-tips-for-actually-
shippin...](https://medium.com/leaf-software/5-tips-for-actually-shipping-a-
side-project-72080f7b8d5e)

------
pygix
Can the below code be sold to raise money?

import requests from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

url = "[http://www.python.org"](http://www.python.org") response =
requests.get(url)

page = str(BeautifulSoup(response.content))

def getURL(page): """

    
    
        :param page: html of web page (here: Python home page) 
        :return: urls in that page 
        """
        start_link = page.find("a href")
        if start_link == -1:
            return None, 0
        start_quote = page.find('"', start_link)
        end_quote = page.find('"', start_quote + 1)
        url = page[start_quote + 1: end_quote]
        return url, end_quote
    

while True: url, n = getURL(page) page = page[n:] if url: print(url) else:
break

------
JayeshSidhwani
You can work with freelance companies [like
[https://indiez.io/](https://indiez.io/)] This will mean that you can pair up
with someone who has complementary skills + not worry about getting the
projects yourself.

~~~
ssijak
Freelance === passive income, kaboooom

------
hkmurakami
Find customers first. Then build what they want to buy.

------
skdotdan
Instead of building an MVP and then trying to sell it, there are people who
suggest: 1-Think of an idea. 2-Make a simple landing page with a mockup or
something. 3-Try to sell the product. And by selling the product I mean
actually selling it (so people actually transferring you money). If you can
achieve a given amount of sells in a given amount of time (important: set
concrete goals with concrete timing), then you have validated your product.
4-Build a first version of your product. 5-Iterate.

Very simple to say, very difficult to do (I've never tried, but I would
probably fail). But I think there would be ways to systematically apply steps
1-3 until you find the right product to work on.

Any thoughts?

~~~
dpark
I think what you're describing would be referred to in court as fraud.

~~~
skdotdan
Really? Maybe the way I didn't write it didn't imply it, but I actually meant
that you always had to make very clear that the product doesn't exist yet. You
are selling the concept of something you are or you will be working on. If
after a week you have managed to do only 1 sell, then return the money, say
your product didn't receive enough interest, and try something else. However,
if you manage to do 1 sell, you will probably manage to do more than 1. The
first one is the difficult one.

If you achieve a decent amount of sales in a week, then build quickly the
first version of your product.

~~~
dpark
> _I actually meant that you always had to make very clear that the product
> doesn 't exist yet._

That wasn't clear to me. It looked like you were proposing the sale of a
nonexistent product. If you're openly and clearly stating that it's basically
a preorder, then sure, that's fine. That sounds like a tough sale, though.

~~~
skdotdan
I was proposing the sale of a nonexistent product, but making clear that it
doesn't (already) exist and telling properly how it will look like. Also, this
product should be feasible to do in, say, less than a month.

So, it's kind of a preorder, but a cancellable (by the seller, obviously by
the customer too) one.

It's a very tough sale, but precisely for that is a way of discarding
business/side projects ideas in a massive way. If you can sell it before it
exists, it means that there are people VERY interested in such a product, so
you are on the way to success.

Disclaimer: it's very easy to speak and very difficult to put in practice, and
I have never tried.

~~~
dnh44
It'd be easier to just use kickstarter for that.

~~~
skdotdan
Probably.

------
Swizec
Step 1: "Pay Me" button

You'll be amazed by how many ideas you never have to waste time building, if
you put up a paywall and nobody pays.

~~~
davidjnelson
Buffer has a good post on how they did this.

[https://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-
in-7-wee...](https://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-
how-we-did-it)

------
jenamety
"Start Small, Stay Small: A Developers guide to launching a startup" by Rob
Walling.

really got me thinking about best ways (ie most time efficient + value) to vet
an idea before lifting a finger building.

------
Razengan
> What are some simple things I can build by myself? Any ideas?

How about an iOS/Android game with optional micro-transactions?

In game development you can indulge and improve as many different skills as
you want; graphics, sound, music, mathematics, networking, AI, UX design,
character design, writing, storytelling, difficulty balancing, teaching..

An indie game project will give the freedom to be as creative as you want, and
you get to enjoy your own product, but of course you don't _have_ to arrive at
a finished, marketable product to have fun building it.

------
Opteron67
Lot of money is moving around but you need first take a look to other stuff
and and activities rather than coding/refcatoring.

Try see other people activities and have a look how much they spend for basic
services you could improve. If you suck at UX/UI, give some money to someone
else who could do it for you

what matters is how fast you can release something, do not speed time in
courses or fancy optimisations

Also do not focus on a side project alone, let create 3 or 4 project a year

------
oldmancoyote
Before you get deeply into what you are going to sell, consider how you are
going to market it. Marketing is a * * *! Successful marketing is harder than
programming a product, much harder and more problematic. Just ask the folks
trying to sell iOS apps when there are about 2 million apps on the market.
Lining up a buyer for a custom product before you begin (as some here have
suggested) sounds very attractive to me.

------
Tezos
Yup instead of starting a side project you should acquire some tezos
blockchain token and build IOT project on top of it when the network launch

You dont need frontend skills

~~~
OpenDrapery
What does acquiring the token do for you?

------
dorait
Check out [https://www.meetup.com/Code-for-San-Francisco-Civic-Hack-
Nig...](https://www.meetup.com/Code-for-San-Francisco-Civic-Hack-
Night/events/238669063/)

Find one similar in your region. If it does not exist, start one.

Coming up with an idea for a product that is useful and that people will pay
for is more difficult than actually implementing one.

~~~
xapata
Ah yes, with a good idea, the rest is just "a simple matter of
implementation."

~~~
theparanoid
Look at YCombinator startups, most fail to come up with a product that people
will actually pay money for.

~~~
builditand
This proves that bad ideas exist, not that the idea is the most important or
difficult part.

------
reacweb
Build something that helps you in your everyday job. This can increase your
motivation to improve it and keep working on it regularly. When it starts
being useful, try to find another user to get feedback and increase feature.
Before considering putting it in the wild, try to find a couple of hackers to
anticipate potential security issues ;-)

------
COil
You shouldn't start a side project for money but for something you like or
believe in. Money will come after. (may be!)

------
joshfraser
My advice to all startups is that you should spend as much time thinking about
how you are going to find & acquire customers as you do on your product. The
same goes for cash-flow businesses & side-projects.

One approach is to decide which customers you can find the easiest and then
ask them about their problems. Start there.

------
richev
Build something that you yourself find useful (and that you can reasonably
assume will be useful to other people too).

------
helen842000
Instead of focusing on what you need to build, focus on what you want to fix.

Firstly do you have any code, processes, methods or scripts you have created
as part of your job that saves your team time or money? Could you re-package
them for sale?

I don't think that tech is a good starting point because your solution might
not need to be software.

------
noir_lord
If you are weaker on the FE side from a project point of view keep your
'stack' really small, jQuery and Vue.js would get you a long way without
really needing much front end knowledge, you can then gradually add in the
other tools as you go (things like SASS/Less etc).

------
llorensj28
Definitely build something you personally need. Try to see what you can do
without building a product. For example, site for a service that could
eventually become a product in the future, but allows you to validate early on
and figure out a business model prior to touching any code.

------
shanecleveland
Try to look at what you do at your day-job from an outsider's perspective.
What are some little things that to you seem trivial and obvious, but to an
outsider would seem complex and foreign. There's opportunities there to
package your knowledge into a tool or resource.

Example: i

------
pmcpinto
What about a side project that isn't heavily related with tech? Which are your
passions or hobbies outside work? Maybe one of them can lead you to a niche
market. You can also share your professional knowledge. Do you like teaching
or writing?

------
taysic
I built a side project which can sustain me now - basically I did everything
myself. I was the opposite of you. Front End development is my strong suit but
I learned anything else I needed to. I took my time and created something I
wanted to see.

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zdware
Anytime you start focusing on monetization of a side project, it stops being a
side project and more of a "startup". Your mindset has to change around it
entirely. You now have to consider marketing, your audience, and legality.

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anothercomment
Another option might be looking into shopify's tutorials on drop shipping.
[https://www.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping](https://www.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping)

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onion2k
If you want to make money from your side project (or startup, or _whatever_ )
figure out how you're going to get customers before you do anything else. If
you can't do that then you won't make a dime.

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techaddict009
Find something simple and can solve the problem of few. Use bootstrap if you
are not good at UI. It's simple yet powerful.

Regarding monetization you can use AdSense, donation button or charge monthly
based on type of your product.

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amureki
I recently came up with next problem, I did the ungly POC (proof of concept),
but don't know how to properly advertise it to find to get responses (except
for HN, reddit and a couple of same-type resources).

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pbreit
First, you need to turn your attitude around and be a lot more positive.

With respect to a project I'll let you in on a secret: if your service does
something valuable, it doesn't have to look pretty.

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borplk
Man my 2 cents is iterate in tiny tiny steps.

Whatever you do get it up there in an embarrassing state and keep making it
better.

I wasted lots of time by wanting to do things right and so on.

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Firegarden
How about we all band together and make one big side projecg. Pile on as many
of us as we can and just keep evoloving it

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pw
It requires a little bit of frontend work, but I've had good luck with content
websites based on public data sets.

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bartvk
> I have so much information about day to day job in my head that I have lost
> all creative juice

Although you ask great questions, this bit is what worries me. It doesn't feel
good - it seems your job is taking too much energy from you. Have you thought
about getting another, easier job?

~~~
sebleon
Sounds like the issue isn't difficulty, but lack of inspiration. imho op
should find a job they're more passionate about.

------
umen
make games , html/mobile

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SmellTheGlove
Great topic. We sound a lot alike. I work in a different sector, but I'm also
now squarely in management and have been for a while, and my previous
expertise was data engineering and infrastructure. Started with zero front end
ability, and also not much Python either since I'm in the size of company and
industry that still accomplishes most data work in SAS, and what it can't,
Informatica and DataStage. Here's where I'm at, and so as to not bury the
lede, I'm not making money yet but I found satisfaction in just spending some
time each week on my projects -

1\. If you know python, you can probably make a pretty natural jump to Flask.
I didn't know Python, but I could program in a handful of other languages, so
I figured I'd pick it up as a useful tool anyway. You may like this tutorial:

[https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-
tutorial...](https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-
part-i-hello-world)

I'd say I really started learning when I got to the stage on authentication.
The reason is that this tutorial implements OpenID, which isn't very common
anymore, so I went off and implemented OAuth instead - heavily googling and
scavenging, but ultimately having to piece together something that worked
myself. I learned a lot that afternoon.

You could do this with any framework and there are tons of them. I chose
Python and Flask over a Javascript-based framework because learning Python in
parallel would be useful to me in data engineering, even though I don't write
code for a living anymore.

2\. As others have said, time commitment is the biggest issue. Figure out what
you can give this, and scope appropriately.

3\. I haven't done this because I'm too much of a completionist to pull the
trigger, but get your MVP out there and build off of it. For me, I've decided
I'm pretty happy just spending time on the project, even if no one else has
seen it.

4\. Bootstrap is my friend, it can be yours too. I have never been a strong
visual person. I like words on a page. I have no eye for what makes a good
visual and what doesn't, which has been my biggest developmental item when I
moved into an executive role last year. All that said, Bootstrap is awesome
and makes it a lot easier to build good looking websites. I started off here
and built out a static website for an idea I'd had, and am now circling back
to build the things I want to be dynamic in Flask.

5\. There are a lot of choices out there. Unless you're developing bleeding
edge, and I may get flamed for this, most of the choices really don't matter
that much. I chose Python+Flask+Bootstrap because I liked each individually,
it seemed like something I could work with, and NOT because I decided they
were objectively better than Node, Angular, Express, React, or anything else
that I haven't touched. I also sort of like that there isn't a new Python web
framework each day, so diving into Flask seems like a more stable investment
of my time. I'm sure there are drawbacks.

6\. When it all starts to come together, the real, revenue generating idea
might be to address pain points in your day job. My sector is insurance. I
know a lot about certain operational functions. Eventually, I could solve some
of those and build a business around it, I tell myself. You probably have some
specialized domain knowledge as well. Consider that.

Good luck, and have fun. Like I said, I'm happier just for having taken on the
challenge. If I ever make a dollar, that'd be good too, but less important
than I initially thought.

~~~
puchi01
Zapraszam również na mój blog
[https://sztukateriaelewacyjnablog.wordpress.com/](https://sztukateriaelewacyjnablog.wordpress.com/)

------
averagewall
I've made a Windows GUI for a powerful command line open source application
that was for Linux. It makes a few thousands dollars a month. It did take many
years of part time programming along with user feedback to get to that stage
though.

Desktop and Windows might seem like a dying market but that's what people use
at work and those are the people who can pay for things.

~~~
jfoster
Do you sell it through the Microsoft Store or somewhere else?

------
19eightyfour
I guess you could focus on building a side project that doesn't need front end
skills. Your aim is to get a bit of satisfaction and money and prove you can
do something like this, right? Building something simple you can start on
right now, starting from where you are right now.

Two ideas:

You could build some kind of email integration, or something delivered over,
or using, email. The email processing itself would be mostly backend stuff,
you could template the emails with Django or even Python triple quote strings.

Or you could build an API of some sort. The only front end really needed for
an API company ( such as Stripe or whatever ), is documentation. You can write
your docs on one of those doc hosting platforms ( readthedocs might be one? I
don't know much about it now ).

For your side project, it's probably important to pick some things you like
and start doing them, rather than trying to make certain up front which things
are going to make money.

------
fuckemem
Here is an angle on this:

The goal is to stick to something until completion.

Phsychologically this is easier if you are enjoying it.

So choose a project and a tech stack you can really get into.

Scratch your own itch so that even if no one else uses it or buys it are least
you can.

Look at the non-financial upsides, so that if you make zero or little money
you can still feel proud: For example - learning new skills that might help
you get a raise, learning marketing so that your next project is more likely
to be successful, etc.

A word of warning - once you have spent some time on a side project the shine
will wear off and it will feel like a job - and you have to find ways to keep
yourself motivated when you could literally just go an watch TV instead on
your time off.

------
daraosn
My advise: don't focus so much on how to build it, focus on how to grow it...
REALLY!

I've done so many complex projects that at the end I couldn't sell, that's
frustrating... please hear me: figure out first how to sell it (or at least
get good traffic to a crappy wordpress site), then build a very crappy version
and then improve it over time.

I read recently this, and I think is gold:
[https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/making-money-online-it-
all...](https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/making-money-online-it-all-starts-
with-you-not-methods-not-google-you.766510/)

