
Ask HN: How can I make money when I am bored? - erkanerol
I am bored now. I am looking for work to do. I already have a full-time job but sometimes I want to do something different and make money. I don&#x27;t want a regular part-time job. I don&#x27;t want to waste my time by searching for freelance jobs. I don&#x27;t want to earn so much. I want to be able to make some money by writing code whenever I want. Is there a way?
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mattlondon
I've thought about this too.

The websites where you bid to work on stuff (freelance.com for example) are a
race to the bottom - you're always going to be competing with people who are
prepared to work for $5 an hour (... and customers who now expect that is how
much a developer's time is worth). This might be fine where you live however -
I don't know.

Side projects are a possibility, but I feel that getting paying customers is
too much of a hassle for dip-in/dip-out stuff like this ... you've got to
actually build something people want to pay for in the first place (no easy
task!) then handle support, billing, marketing etc. Too much like trying to
bootstrap your own startup and not so much a I-wanna-code-for-some-easy-money-
when-I-feel-like-it kinda thing.

I've had some success with websites + AdSense in the past. It can take a while
to take-off, but once it does it can earn a nice little bit on the side. It is
not really coding though.

I've been mulling over-ideas. A few stick out:

\- become a private tutor. Do a few hours a week teaching kids how to code in
their homes.

\- youtube channel specialising in coding tutorials or demos etc. Build up a
series of playlists about certain subjects, take suggestions, patreon-based
"extra value" etc and of course ads revenue share from youtube. Move around in
various "hot" techs - Unity, Vue.js etc - something beginner friendly. Could
also be a really interesting learning experience at the same time.

\- writing freeware stuff (think Nirsoft style stuff) and accepting
donations/patreon.

Good luck

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mtmail
[https://www.bountysource.com/](https://www.bountysource.com/) lists tasks. I
seem to remember there was a platform that had even shorter tasks (something
somebody can solve in 1-2h).

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Theophraustous
I would recommend building/maintaining a side project, and monetizing that.
Even if it's something as simple as a personal tech blog that has basic
AdSense.

~~~
erkanerol
AdSense sucks on a small scale :(

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_sdegutis
If you're in a situation where you're not feeling fulfilled at your day job,
then you might want to look for a day job that gives you more of a challenges
on a technical level and probably pays more for the bigger challenge. Just an
idea.

~~~
orev
Feeling unfulfilled is often a result of what happens outside your job.
Finding another job is bad advice because it’s myopic and doesn’t actually
solve the problem. Don’t go home and spend more time on a computer, watching
Netflix, playing games, etc. Go outside. Take a hike. Go for a walk. Go down
to a park or lake and read a physical book that has nothing to do with
technology or science. Play with your dog/cat. Just find something to give
your brain a rest from the same monotonous routine you get yourself stuck
into. You will be more fulfilled at work and at life in general.

------
jaredsmithse
I dont recommend doing this remotely, but if you live in (or have family that
would do it with you in an affordable location where they live) a place where
real estate investing is profitable/affordable it could be worth the time.

I moved to the Bay Area but where I grew up, most of my family lives there
still and the real estate is cheap there (Upstate NY). I started buying
properties last year while my family does the day-to-day management that
requires physical presence.

Its been a great way to learn something in a new industry that is not related
to work, and has given me a more business-minded perspective (being a business
owner and landlord) which helps me take on a slightly more ownership-mentality
at my day job.

~~~
justboxing
Curious. Whereabouts in Upstate NY? Albany? Schenectady? Buffalo? Catskill?

Did you research anything related to local area (ex: schools, major corp like
G.E. used to be in Schenectady etc) that would ensure steady occupancy?

> I started buying properties

Guessing atleast a couple, if not more... so how do you get loans for
investment multiple investment properties?

AFAIK Bank demand higher downpayment ( atleast 30% or more) and also have
higher interest rates.

~~~
jaredsmithse
Ive been buying near the greater Syracuse area.

I have a couple now, and so far I've been lucky to get financing from family
members. The plan is to refinance the loans with the bank after the first year
or two and re-use the money for new purchases.

When we run out of private money we'll go to the banks. We've applied already
for the houses we've gotten because we didnt know we would be able to secure
private money. I saw downpayment amounts varying from 20-25% for personal
loans and 25-30% for business loans (if you're buying with an LLC).

With the interest rates the banks charge its still doable in our area, the
private money interest rates are higher in at least one case and both are
15yrs (vs the 30yr we would want to go for with the bank).

Iirc you can get up to 10 personal mortgages in your name before needing to
resort to small business loans, so if you're just starting off, you've got
room to grow.

If you are starting off and live in the town you will be investing in, I
highly read up on house hacking, which there are a few articles on the topic
at biggerpockets.com (this was a great source of info when I was starting off,
I recommend most of their books too).

edit: Also note that downpayment requirements vary by location, and if banks
offer it, its much better to go for their portfolio of loans if they offer
fixed rates (unfortunately, all the banks in my area only offer ARM loans)
because the closing costs are lower (portfolio loans are not sold to the big
banks, so the closing cost fees are not dictated by them).

~~~
justboxing
Excellent! Thank you so much for the detailed response. I'm also living in Bay
Area (San Francisco), used to live in Upstate many eons ago...

------
Jack000
step 1: Look at the top most upvoted products on ph:
[https://www.producthunt.com/e/50-most-upvoted-
products](https://www.producthunt.com/e/50-most-upvoted-products)

mostly curated lists and color tools. Make one of these, make it well
designed.

step 2: market. Get on ph/reddit/hn for an initial user spike. If you're lucky
a blog or two will link to you as a part of their "40 design/dev tools for
june" listicles.

3: profit! With decent traffic carbon or adsense can net $xxx a month.

------
RpFLCL
You say you want something different, how strongly do you feel it needs to be
code?

 _If_ you are inclined to not just fill your wallet but also your time,
consider picking up a non-work hobby that you can charge for?

Things like 2d and 3d digital art or music have a commission scenes where, if
you put yourself out there, you can make some money.

Art might not be your thing. Maybe it's yoga or woodworking. And it might take
a few years (for me, three years of practicing digital 2d art to start taking
commissions), but you get to expand beyond what you do for 8 hours already.

------
mabbo
If such a thing existed, so many of us would do it that it would stop being
worth your time.

You're asking for easy money. That doesn't exist in a free market society.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" If such a thing existed, so many of us would do it that it would stop being
worth your time."_

Eventually.

But early on, though, before everybody and their brother found out about it,
it could be lucrative.

------
hakanito
Checkout IndieHackers [1] for other people making/trying to make revenue from
side projects

[1] [https://www.indiehackers.com/](https://www.indiehackers.com/)

------
antisthenes
Being bored is necessary to relieve ourselves of cognitive load accrued
throughout the day. I would urge you against chasing making money and just to
enjoy the leisure, read a book or go for a walk.

------
softwarefounder
Not developer rates by any stretch, but you could checkout mTurk
[https://www.mturk.com/](https://www.mturk.com/)

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sunstone
Mechanical turk might meet your requirements. Not coding but boring and low
pay.

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dyeje
Take a look at Lionbridge or Leapforce. You rate and give feedback on search
results. 10 hour minimum per week though.

------
Froyoh
Flipping items on eBay?

~~~
sp332
I looked into this but shipping seems to eat way too much on each transaction.

~~~
paulie_a
There are plenty of very specific items that can be flipped on eBay for solid
profits, you need to find the niche though. And then deal with the substantial
fraud you will experience.

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tardo99
chaturbate?

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anoncoward111
Amazon Mturk. Illegally selling runescape gold. Selling pretty much anything
digital.

~~~
skate22
Scripting mturk violates the ToS

~~~
Rjevski
Do you care? You will only get noticed if your script actually fails and does
bad work, and even then, worst case scenario you just get your account banned,
no big loss.

~~~
skate22
I mean, it's unethical. Especially if you're labeling data for medical
research or somthing.

~~~
anoncoward111
"I think cars should be handmade because humans don't make errors"

~~~
skate22
There is a reason they arnt using a model themselves

