
What was your best passive income in 2017? - joebaf
What is your best source of &#x27;passive&#x27; or recurring income?
======
joebaf
2016
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13150144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13150144)

2015
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10879529](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10879529)

2014
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8201392](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8201392)

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deegles
I built an Alexa skill that makes about $4k/mo. I'm adding more functionality
this month and applying for access to further monetization.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017OBJI46](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017OBJI46)

~~~
metahost
Curious, how do you monetize?

~~~
marcandre
IIC, Amazon pays for skills with sufficient engagement:
[https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-
kit/rewards](https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit/rewards)

~~~
deegles
Yes, it's 100% rewards at the moment. I need to get real monetization in since
there's no guarantee this will last for any amount of time. I predict they'll
keep it going for at most 2 more years.

~~~
newbear
4K for 84 reviews? How does the rewards system work?

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aparadja
My native Mac app, sold outside the App Store:
[https://radiosilenceapp.com](https://radiosilenceapp.com)

I was really afraid that Apple’s new policy on making kernel extensions harder
to install would cut into the profits, but sales have actually gone up since.
Perhaps other firewalls are even harder to get up and running.

~~~
codesternews
Really great!! Are you working in some company or just living happy life from
your side projects and games.

~~~
aparadja
I was happily unemployed for a while, living off the app income for about 15
months.

However, I just joined an AI startup two months ago, not out of necessity, but
because I found their idea super interesting and had the chance. (Also, the
marginal value for a day off wasn't that high anymore.)

~~~
codesternews
May We know how you get the idea of this app? Was you aware of Little Snitch
at the time of making and how you thought about to overcome the competition
etc and what was in your mind while creating this?

I some time feel scare of competition. I am happy customer of Radio Silence :)

~~~
aparadja
Little Snitch was actually the inspiration to build Radio Silence, but in a
what-not-to-do kind of way.

I had just bought my first Mac, and was really impressed with how easy
everything was. It really was a joy to use. Little Snitch instantly turned it
into an obnoxious, interrupting mess where almost every app was broken by
default.

I'm sure Little Snitch is the right app for many people, but not for me. I
basically learned Objective-C just to build an alternative for myself. That
turned into Radio Silence.

------
maxencecornet
My cryptocurrency information website is finally taking off the ground, after
months of netting $30-40/month, it's going to reach 500$ this month. Weirdly
enough,I'm not even adding content right now, as I am working on a freelance
project

~~~
anonyx69
What's your site? Would love to take a look.

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synicalx
A whole bunch of tongue-in-cheek "Is $xyz down?" type sites. Simple footer ad,
maybe an affiliate link or two for a competitor and also my web hosting
provider, some sort of social media affiliation like a pre-canned tweet with a
complaint in it - they all pay for their domain name and hosting, some turn
$100+ monthly in ad and affiliate revenue as well.

I'd estimate about $450ish on a good month, but it has taken a while to get to
this point. I've stopped actively promoting any of them now, but the most
profitable ones I'd probably invested 30-40 hours each in promoting.

------
Random_Person
My YouTube back-catalog nets me $2-5k each year. One video in particular has
repeatedly paid for my children's Chirstmas presents as it tends to "go hot"
around this time of year.

~~~
randomdata
How many videos are found is said catalog?

~~~
Random_Person
Between 400 and 500. That number is super-misleading though. I only have 3 or
4 videos that have earned me any countable money.

I have a "dear diary" type series that I do every weekday. I have uploaded 433
episodes on that series and it generates nearly no views. It's not the type of
content people look for on YouTube.

~~~
antjanus
what's your channel?

~~~
arjunrc
It’s in his profile.

[https://youtube.com/cheveedodd](https://youtube.com/cheveedodd)

------
nztomas
$2k a year, book price comparison search
[http://www.librarist.com/](http://www.librarist.com/) \- don't have much time
lately so sales are declining, I'm using it as a proof-of-concept + new
technologies playground ti skill myself up...

would love to take longer holiday and fix/enhance the site...

------
SirLJ
Stock market trading robots, being doing it for years and earning more than my
"real job" \- systems/security team lead in big telco... still have time till
the end of the year, but so far this looks like to be my first triple digits
return year, (which I don't expect to repeat anytime soon, but still it is a
quite an achievement in my book...)

~~~
ariejan
What kind of software/tools are you using? I'm curious to get into this as
well.

~~~
SirLJ
few VPS scattered around the world, python and the API from your stock
broker... initial setup very cheap + a lot of time to develop and test...

~~~
1024core
Why do you need VPS scattered around the world?

And which broker do you use?

~~~
SirLJ
Everything is automated and redundant... to start you can do it on your own
laptop... I'll keep my broker secret for security reasons, but you can take a
look at Interactive Brokers, their API looks pretty good...

[https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=5041](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=5041)

~~~
1024core
I'm just curious about which brokers offer APIs. I've thought about automating
some stuff, but never seriously enough to explore brokers.

~~~
SirLJ
in today's world most discount brokers offer API...

~~~
1024core
Wow, I'll be damned. I looked at this stuff a long time ago, and (I know I'm
lazy) never looked again. Apparently ETrade has an API too. Interesting!

~~~
SirLJ
LOL, welcome to the new century :-)

------
galfarragem
$1k/y. Mostly from a direct ad on my niche blogs (invisible to adblocks) and
the rest from Amazon affiliates. Adsense is almost dead, I'm just waiting to
reach the money threshold to close my account.

Blogs are not exactly passive but I would do this research anyway.

------
fiftyacorn
im guessing its going to be bitcoin this year

~~~
beejiu
Bitcoin is not income.

~~~
greyface-
It is if you sell.

------
mohitmun
Hackathons. Won 8 hackathons. made around $14607(900000 INR)

~~~
RepressedEmu
Do you have any strategies for winning hackathons?

~~~
mohitmun
I just keep following things in mind while building product. avoiding
mainstream ideas working demo/prototype creativity feasibility and viability
Making sure it adds value to what organizers wants

------
Hoasi
a bunch of InDesign templates

~~~
palidanx
Do you have a link to your templates?

~~~
Hoasi
Here: [https://gumroad.com/storyboards](https://gumroad.com/storyboards)

For now these are mostly focused on film ratios and storyboards but there are
plenty more in the drawers.

------
kjullien
crypto

~~~
kjullien
just invest what you can in the top 10. cash out only what you need when you
need it and simply watch the rest rise over time to heights most mortals would
never dream of.

~~~
truxus
The hype is strong with this one.

~~~
kjullien
yeah, the "almost been going on for 10 years now" hype

