
Introduction to The Developer's Passive Income - jakubgarfield
http://developerspassiveincome.com/2013/11/21/introduction-to-the-developers-passive-income/
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jasonkester
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
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).

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odonnellryan
I think you just came up with one, although it may be more social-media-
research instead of SaaS.

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chii
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
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.

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code_scrapping
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
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
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.

~~~
route3
> 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.

~~~
code_scrapping
Tell you what - I'll get back to the topic & blog in 1 year time. I'll chat
you up on HN and we'll redo the discussion. I'm willing to admit my mistake,
but if they jakub ends this project in a-la-tim-ferris "book about selling
books", I'll call my hunch correct - that he just played the community for
self benefit.

If the project is left-for-dead, I'll consider my second statement about
drawing attention too soon correct.

On the other hand, if the project is showing progress and does a fair writing
- I'll gladly apologize to jakubgarfield and to you.

Sounds fair?

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ozim
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
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
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.

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cuillevel3
Ok, now what about the income part? Is it ad-based? Which ad provider? Do you
plan to sell licenses, etc?

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coolsunglasses
Probably from selling PDFs to people about how to create passive income.

~~~
jakubgarfield
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.

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

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xerophtye
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

~~~
jasonkester
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.

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j_s
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-t...](http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-158-the-
reunion-show)

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

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walshemj
This is spam sounds like the dodgy adds you see on the high numbered TV
channels late at night _Do Not Want_

