
Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming? - napolux
Always wondered this. Sometimes I feel the need to do something else outside my field, and possibly get some money out of it.
======
gottebp
Breville coffee grinders are impossible to get internal parts for. I designed
a 3D printed upgrade for the main wear-part in their BCG800XL and BCG600SIL
Grinders.

The storefront is through ShapeWays[1] and I use iFixit[2],[3] to drive the
traffic. It passively makes enough to cover my own coffee needs forever. I
spend about 20 minutes per month fielding questions. This all happened because
my grinder failed and I could not get parts.

[1] [https://www.shapeways.com/product/NASLAGCCP/breville-
coffee-...](https://www.shapeways.com/product/NASLAGCCP/breville-coffee-
grinder-impeller-upgrade)

[2]
[https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG800XL+Grinder+Jamming+due+to...](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG800XL+Grinder+Jamming+due+to+Worn+Impeller/62905)

[3]
[https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG600SIL+Dose+Control+Pro+Coff...](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG600SIL+Dose+Control+Pro+Coffee+Grinder+-+Jamming+due+to+Worn+Impeller/96493)

~~~
pettycashstash2
I recently ordered a part for my daughters dresser drawer - the Kenlin Rite-
TrackII, and paid $12 for four including shipping. 6 to 7 years ago I paid $68
for a single part. To my surprise when I opened my recent plastic mailer
envelope, I discovered it was a 3D printed piece. Any idea how one can 3d scan
a part for exact copy?

~~~
vorpalhex
They make full on 3d scanners but most parts do not need "3d scanning" so much
as they need a few minutes in the hand of someone with a caliper and a sketch
pad.

------
MrFoof
I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and
send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus
mostly on entry level luxury crossovers around 7 to 10 years old, though
starting to also do hybrids since there’s more profit in it since everyone is
seemingly allergic to batteries and pack replacement/rebuilds.

Parts are cheap, I listen to music or a podcast, I do all the “PITA” repairs
(replacing wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rods, full brake service) that are
really just labor in terms of professional repair cost, perform additional
rust prevention, and for sale it goes when I feel a new grandma or grandpa
would never give a hesitation to load it up with all their grandkids. They
also see a very thorough interior cleaning, and a full exterior detail
(including paint correction when required).

It has bought every very nice tool I could ever want, most are 20-30 hours of
labor including acquisition, and I’m at the point where I have repeat
customers (the put a 2nd alongside the first) and have direct referrals. Now
the profit mostly goes towards putting a 2nd interesting car in the garage,
and some towards moving up the ladder to try to earn more per vehicle.

Selling cars isn’t bad when you don’t have employees to pay, and it lets you
sell really high quality stuff. I keep thinking of how much I couldn’t justify
doing, and how much my product standards would suffer if I had to pay help.

~~~
SegFaultCDumped
Can you make YouTube videos about it? I watch Chris Fix all the time, not for
educational purpose (I don't own a car), but because they are so freaking
satisfying to watch. Seeing things go from 'meh' to 'wow.'

~~~
MrFoof
I think the unfortunate reality of ChrisFix is to make videos at that level of
quality... takes real time and effort -- plus a vehicle that merits actual
work he's not done a video on yet. Hence he only puts out one or two a month,
but they're of an extraordinarily high quality, which is evident in his sub
numbers and view count.

I've considered making videos, but the reality at the moment is there's not
yet the time to do it to my level of quality. At least not yet.

~~~
grogenaut
There are a few mechanics who stream on twitch... however that does require
some level of interaction and distraction which may just be annoying to you,
but doesn't require the post processing. However it's a decent sales pitch and
if you do enjoy interactive with people and networking it can be pretty good.

I'd love to see your shop or even just time lapses. I really enjoy watching
cnc and hand builds on youtube. It's very helpful to watch these to see what's
really involved in say pulling the front end off of a mini-cooper.

~~~
MrFoof
It would be impossible to hit my target level of quality live, without heavy
investment in the environment, lightning, video equipment, and honestly the
help of someone when filming. If I can't hit my own targets, I just don't do
something.

The videos would also be too long. Part of why ChrisFix is so well known is he
has high-quality, edited, to-the-point content that packs everything into a
concise high-quality video. I could not do that on Twitch without great
expense, lots of advance planning, and helping hands.

~~~
grogenaut
Sure, I'm not going trying tell you what to do. You're the content creator,
you need to do what you feel works or you won't make good content.

They're 2 different things, eg there's a huge difference between say ChrisFX
and a twitch stream for a mechanic, though they're both basically build logs
at the end of the day.

Twitch is definitely more the low overhead mass content version of content.
Similar to the Howard Stern Show, or Car Talk, as opposed to The Grand Tour.
Thousands of hours of contents as opposed to hundreds, or 10s.

I was just pointing out there's a market for the mass quantity content.

It's actually one of the things I DONT like about the produced car rebuild
shows, they often edit out stuff just to make it entertaining to everyone,
where I'm wanting to watch just to see the whole thing and the techniques.
Much more like slow tv. I'm totally happy to skip through parts I don't care
about.

------
rayraegah
Launched in 2016 for free. Started making money in 2018 with $3,000+ MMR.
Referral only (side) business. I work full-time as an engineer/principal in
growth.

I conduct a form of ethnography, embedding myself in the lives of consumers
the way Margaret Mead did among Samoans. I interviews my subjects and the
people around them, itemizing the contents of their home (photographing and
videotaping), and accompany them as they progress through their day. Then I
sift the resulting information for weeks, even months, looking for connections
and telltale behaviors.

The service is used mostly by founders for small businesses and startups. I
takes questions about sales figures and product lines and reconfigures them
into questions about worlds, the context in which people unthinkingly live
their everyday lives. The idea is that examining the beliefs and unconscious
biases that people have will eventually yield profitable insights for these
businesses.

So far, I've done market entry for a few Chinese companies into Japanese
market, helped indie game design company launch a successful game, a boutique
lingerie shop launch a new summer line, street musicians, and a few cafes and
bars.

I do this on the side with hopes to go full time into it soon.

~~~
neurotrace
When I look up MMR I get "measles, mumps, and rubella." I assume that isn't
what you're referring to.

~~~
dantillberg
I think the parent meant "MRR" \-- monthly recurring revenue.

------
DamnInteresting
I established DamnInteresting.com in 2005, a place where myself and handful of
others produce original long-form non-fiction in article and podcast form.
Despite plenty of traffic, it didn't reach the break-even point for several
years, because I despise advertisements and I refused to add them to my site.
I funded the project in other ways, such as donations, publishing a book,
licensing content, etc.

Nowadays it _still_ only earns a little every month, but that's mostly owing
to a rise in expenses (e.g., I pay the contributors more). But profit is
secondary for me, my primary motive is to have an excuse to research and write
this stuff, and for intelligent people to consume it.

~~~
kkaranth
This looks neat. I'll be sure to read a few articles from here.

Why the curated section though? I think it distracts to have links to articles
from NYTime or Wired on the side.

~~~
DamnInteresting
It's a long story, but the short version goes something like this:

At first we worked our cabooses off to publish new original content several
times per month. This proved unsustainable, partially because we were becoming
more ambitious with our work, but especially owing to stressors that had
arisen in my personal life, and I burned out.

I spent a year-long hiatus putting things right, and when we resumed our
writing, it was with the understanding that we were switching to a marathon-
not-a-sprint publication schedule. The curated column arose to fill in the
gaps between our in-house writings. Nowadays many readers specifically visit
us for the links, so we feel duty-bound to persist.

~~~
ment4list
I'd just like to thank you for this. I love all your content and have
supported the site in the past. But I especially love the curated section -
it's better than recommendations I get from other places like Pocket or
Instapaper.

Thank you for doing this. Your site is a treasure.

------
memset
I make and sell staff paper notebooks for musicians:
[https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/](https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/)

I'm an avid saxophone player and am taking evening classes in theory, so I
made this to solve a problem that I myself had. Nothing else like it on the
market!

Every part of this notebook is automatically generated with a bunch of python
scripts: the cover design, the interior, the line placement, the margins. The
program basically spits out a PDF which I can then send to print shops (which
is the hardest part of the whole thing!)

The product is good, people like it, and the hardest part for me right now is
sales - trying to get stores to carry it, or get traffic to the site to drive
sales! If you know anyone who might be interested...

edit: Okay I've opportunistically created a coupon code THANKSHN for 10% off.

~~~
jimmydddd
First, great job! Second, I'm confused. When I used to play music, I remember
buying staff music pads at a low cost. A quick check of Amazon shows a bunch
of staff pads for sale. What am I missing? Is it the combination of staff and
notebook pages in the same book? Or do you use higher quality paper (e.g. are
you the moleskin of music staff paper?) Just curious.

~~~
memset
Elevator pitch:

\- combination of staff paper and college-ruled lines

\- perforated to easily tear out pages

\- three-hole punched

\- decent quality paper, binding, cover material

You'll find that there's surprisingly nothing like it on Amazon! My
inspiration was those cheap Mead spiral notebooks - incredibly functional.

------
lb1lf
Two things, both of which I stumbled into accidentally -

I make lots of jellies once the berries in the garden are ripe; I bought a
house in a rural area a few years ago and it came with loads of berries. Might
as well put them to use.

It is all done manually (in part because it is meant to be a diversion from my
engineering job) - red- and blackcurrant and gooseberries mostly. Last year
the harvest was some 1200 4oz glasses of jelly - some 1150 more than my family
consumes. Sells by word of mouth.

Also, as my mother is quite into weaving tapestry and it was hard to find the
exact hues she wanted for her yarns, I started dyeing for her, using
traditional colouring. Turned out there was a (veee-eeery small!) market for
that kind of thing, and I now make small batches for some 30-35 weavers.
Again, fully manual as the idea is to do something completely different from
my full-time job.

~~~
onemoresoop
This is a true break from tech. Go for it.

~~~
lb1lf
-Oh, I'd go nuts if I did either of the above full-time; however it serves as a wonderful diversion and it is great to do something which produces tangible results.

It helps being an engineer, too - I've found (much to my surprise) that
keeping detailed notes to ensure repeatable results is quite rare in both
pastimes.

I thought everybody kept log books! :)

------
grecy
I've written a couple of books that sell on Amazon and Apple iBooks - it takes
zero minutes per month work for me, but brings a nice little side income. I
won't get rich, but it's nice to have the money come in for doing nothing
after I hit the "publish" button. Even the printed books cost nothing.

I'm about to hit publish on a photo coffee-table book from my three years
around Africa, and I'll write an Africa guide book and The Road Chose Me Vol 2
in the next 12-18 months.

* The Road Chose Me Volume 1: Two years and 40,000 miles from Alaksa to Argentina ([https://amzn.to/2vfCYvn](https://amzn.to/2vfCYvn))

Stories and lessons from two years driving my Jeep Wrangler down the Pan-
American Highway

* Work Less to Live Your Dreams: A practical guide to saving money and living your dreams ([https://amzn.to/2OD6UtA](https://amzn.to/2OD6UtA))

An eBook about how exactly I can afford to take years off work to do what I
want and live my dreams.

* West Africa Myths, Misconceptions and Misnomers ([https://amzn.to/2veyQMt](https://amzn.to/2veyQMt))

After driving the length of the continent, I collected a bunch of information
that is extremely helpful to anyone else thinking of doing similar. The vast
majority of the Western Worlds "knowledge" of West Africa is so out of date
it's useless. My book is from info I learned during my drip from mid 2016 to
late 2017, so it's relevant

~~~
imglorp
Any hints about publishing a coffee table photo book? I have a photo
journalism project in mind.

~~~
napolux
Check PastBook.com I made a coffee table book from my NYC trip and it’s super
cool. Stefano, the CEO, is a very close friend of mine, but I can guarantee on
the quality of the products.

------
pmorici
I taught myself circuit board design and found a niche market that I designed
a few products for that sold like gangbusters with zero marketing for a few
years until the market cooled off and low cost knock offs started entering the
market.

I also found that you could use the same CAD program that I learned to design
PCB's to draw outlines to cut out on the laser CNC machine at the local maker
space. I ended up finding a niche on ebay building open air computer cases.
Because of the economics of shipping large items from overseas and the low
cost of the materials I was using I was able to under cut the imports on price
by like 60% and still make a nice amount of money on a $/ hour basis.

In hind sight the best way to find these kinds of opportunities is not to be
looking for them. You really just need to get a really deep understanding of a
hobby or industry or market that interests you in some way and once you have
that then these sorts of things kind of pop out of the woodwork.

~~~
nlh
This is super cool!

> I taught myself circuit board design and found a niche market that I
> designed a few products for that sold like gangbusters with zero marketing
> for a few years until the market cooled off and low cost knock offs started
> entering the market.

Can you elaborate a bit? Did you teach yourself literal circuit board design
(but already had a background in electronics/hardware)? Or did you start from
scratch and learn how to design an electronic circuit?

What was the niche (broadly?)

> In hind sight the best way to find these kinds of opportunities is not to be
> looking for them. You really just need to get a really deep understanding of
> a hobby or industry or market that interests you in some way and once you
> have that then these sorts of things kind of pop out of the woodwork.

1000% agree. The single best way to find an idea is to be seriously and deeply
involved in a hobby/area of interest. There are so many ideas out there
screaming you in the face.

~~~
pmorici
It was a bit of both, My degree is in CS, I only took one EE/hardware class in
school that was more about programming CPLDs than anything else. These days
really all you need to know math wise to build simple stuff is V=IR and P=IV,
things everyone learns in high school physics class. Everything else you can
usually get by looking at the reference circuits in data sheets or looking it
up as you go. The hardest part for me was finding the time to get over the
learning curve of the PCB design software, in my case I learned EagleCAD.
After I did that and formed good habits with how I used the software I now
able to do some pretty complex stuff. The limiting factor now is probably that
my ambition has outgrown the software I learned.

The niche was building adapters for old server power supplies so you can re-
purpose them for use as general purpose 12 Volt power supplies. It was a thing
in the RC community for a while to charge batteries but it got really big in
the 2014 - 2017 time frame due to the Bitcoin mining industry needing low cost
high wattage PSUs.

------
scarface74
About 10 years ago and ten years into my career, I had been working and stayed
at the same job way too long and both my salary and career stagnated.

I had two part time money making side projects. I was a part time fitness
instructor and had some rental real estate.

Teaching fitness classes was fun, I made a lot of friends, and it gave me a
release valve from working at a computer all day. Real estate was a headache.

Around 2008 -2011, a few things happened. The real estate market crashed and I
did a few “strategic defaults”, I realized I could make a lot more by getting
better at software engineering and job hopping, and I got married and gained a
wife and two (step) children.

I gave up all of my side projects, concentrated on my career, started building
a network of recruiters, former coworkers, and former managers and doubled my
income over the next 8 years (not bragging, I still make about the average of
principal engineer/architect/team lead in my area).

Even looking over the next two to five years, I should be able to increase my
income by 50% (working for local companies) to well over 100% (if I can get
into Amazon) as some type of cloud consultant, “digital transformation
consultant”, or “Architect”. The only thing stopping me now is the travel
requirements. I want to wait until my youngest completes high school.

But, that means I can’t juggle my job, family commitments, working out,
filling in some technical gaps _and_ a side job/business.

So no side business.

~~~
davidjnelson
Thanks, this is insightful. Sounds like the opportunity cost of a side
business isn't worth it for you right?

~~~
daveslash
to;dr -- Never devalue your personal time. If you can, monetize your hobbies
that you'd be doing anyway.

I don't have a side-hustle yet, but I'm working on one. As you pointed out,
there's an opportunity cost to a side-business. I'm working on a scheme to
monetize a hobby; make money off something I'd be doing anyway. I'm just over
10 years into my career, recently married with a teenage step-child. My
family-time or my "down-time" is very precious to me. During our wedding, we
got some beautiful wedding save-the-dates off Etsy. They were water-color
paintings. But then we needed additional stationary: invitations, menus,
seating charts, table signs, a gobo (wtf is a gobo??), etc.... I ended up
using photoshop to make all of the other stationary and graphics myself based
off the initial Etsy save-the-dates (it was important to me that the fonts &
colors matched on everything). My wife loves to paint water-colors, and I'm
into photography & graphic-design. I'm working on a side hustle to do wedding
invites and similar stationary on Etsy based off her paintings and my
photography & graphic-design skills. These are (mostly) activities we'll do
anyway. So... make some stationary templates once, throw them up on Etsy, and
if people buy them GREAT, if not then no loss.

~~~
typeliftr03
For me, monetizing a hobby is a quick way to start hating it. Unless you
really want as much money as you can get, you probably shouldn't monetize all
of your hobbies.

------
kpgraham
I raise bees and sell the honey. Good for a few thousand a year and the money
makes up for the stings. I have a couple of dozen chickens and sell the eggs,
but this makes very little money since eggs are so cheap in the super market.
It pays for the feed and that's it. I wrote an Amazon book on how to play
harmonica in the style of Sonny Boy Williamson II that sells steady and makes
me beer money. I sell a couple of my Science Fiction short story collections
on Amazon. "Error Message Eyes" and "Frogs in Aspic", but after a good first
year they sell only a couple of copies a month. I sell four or five Science
Fiction stories a year, but only occasionally do I get pro rates. It's nice to
see your name in print, though.

~~~
sharkweek
This one sounds fun - just out of curiosity, how many times a year do you get
stung?

~~~
kpgraham
How many times a day? I usually can't get away from being around the hives
without a sting. Luckily the bees are usually calm and a honey bee sting is
like a bad mosquito bite. It is not like a wasp or hornet sting.

If I open the hive without gloves and veil, I can get stung, but not always.
If I have to "work the hive" I have to go full bee suit to prevent being
stung.

If you can't handle being stung then raising bees is not a good hobby. If you
can stand it, honey is like gold, and people will hound you for it.

------
asciident
Not really a productive venture, but it was profitable. I used a 3% cashback
credit card on a financial company's money sending service with no fees, and
sent my sister $3,500 every two days. She'd then eventually pay me back
through bank ACH (also free). Then I'd pay off my credit card every week so my
credit balance remained low. Made about $1,500 a month for a year, before they
stopped giving cashback for transfers.

~~~
fabricexpert
This seems a tad unethical

~~~
asciident
I was actually thinking about ethics a lot while I was doing this little
project. By ethics do you mean morals or something different? What framework
would you suggest for determining the ethics/morals of doing something like
this, where we're playing by the legal rules by trying to optimize for our own
benefit?

~~~
jsf01
Think about it like this. The logical conclusion of people acting like you did
is that credit card issuers increase interest rates to make up for their
losses. That makes life worse for everyone but the people exploiting the
loophole. You’re no different from the people who exaggerate their losses to
insurance companies in order to claim extra insurance money. Because of them,
premiums have gone up. You might see yourself as some kind of Robinhood
figure, but ultimately it’s going to be the other people participating in your
network that suffer.

~~~
asciident
Thanks for the reply. There is a clear difference between claiming extra
insurance money and what I'm doing: lying to get more insurance money is
fraud, while what I'm doing is exactly what the service is intended for
(sending money to others for free).

But using your framework of, "if everyone did this, how would this affect the
business and others using the business," then I (and many others) are doing a
lot of other unethical things. Ad blocking and card counting (in blackjack)
clearly would be deemed unethical under this criteria, but here's a bunch of
other more tangible examples.

There's a popular pastry place that has 50% off sales on Sunday afternoon
because they are closing Monday so they sell the remaining stock at a
significant discount before close. I only go there on Sunday afternoons, but
if everyone did that, then the prices would go up for all.

Another thing I do is using the books, video games, movies, and streaming
services offered by my library and never buy any real media. But if everyone
did this, then bookstores, theaters, and streaming companies would go
bankrupt.

~~~
Gpetrium
You may be following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

The cashback was created as an incentive, you found a way to exploit the
business model for personal gain in ways that can have an impact on others
ability to enjoy the system while having a material impact on the provider of
the service. Most in your position will say "but I am only a small piece of
the cog" however, if a small minority starts to think the same way, it can
have a real impact on a variety of things, including trust between parties.

Everyone tries to rationalize their actions, whether it is or becomes socially
acceptable is another matter.

~~~
scarface74
Well, everyone that takes a VC subsidized ride on Uber is also having a
negative impact on their business. If the business makes rules that are
unsustainable for their business, it’s their fault. They could very easily set
limits to curb abuse.

~~~
IanCal
Uber are obviously trying to get people to use their service. If using their
service is bad for them, that's their fault because they were deliberately
trying to encourage a behaviour that was detrimental to their business.

That is different from finding a way through the rules which is clearly
unintended.

~~~
FPGAhacker
You don't think offering cash back is a way to get people to use their
service?

~~~
IanCal
Of course it is. Do you really think that they wanted to pay eighteen thousand
dollars for someone to rapidly transfer money back and forth?

~~~
scarface74
Hopefully they had the financial wherewithal to model outliers in their profit
model.

------
muzani
I did a coffee kiosk once. It went well, but required a large amount of energy
and focus.

We did a little twist on the business model. Starbucks sells nice places to
sit down. We sold drugs. The model, from logo design to promotions, was
designed to create a habit loop where people would get their morning coffee
from us.

It was so profitable that I seriously considered making it my full time
career, expanding cafes all over the country. The only thing that changed my
mind was 1) the startup boom 2) dealing with minimum wage workers is extremely
depressing. The tech industry has its abundance, whereas with food and drinks,
it was clear that income was limited and had to be managed carefully.

~~~
dom96
> We sold drugs.

Drugs? As in prescription drugs?

~~~
coldtea
No, as in mind altering drugs: coffee.

------
opportune
In addition to regular index fund investing I trade options sometimes. Been
doing it for about 6 months now and I'm up about 90%. I _am_ a lot more
conservative than most options gamblers but it's still pretty risky. I put all
my gains into high earnings stocks (currently buying STX and LYB) and at this
point since I've almost doubled my principal, I could lose basically all my
money currently allocated to options and have only lost 10% from my initial
investment. I do it somewhat as a way to earn money but mostly for the
experience, since I think it helps me learn a lot about how equities are
priced and how the market reacts to news and macro events.

Rather than continually making bets just for the sake of making bets I only
make trades when I think a stock overreacted to bearish news (meaning it's
likely to rebound to its old price given that the business' fundamentals are
unaffected), was oversold due to underperformance of other stocks traded
alongside it, or is greatly overvalued due to some irrational hype (Lyft and
most canadian weed stocks). And I sell quickly if the option loses a lot of
its value or if the option greatly appreciates to lock in profits and limit
losses.

~~~
sidcool
This is great. Any good resources to learn informed investing?

~~~
opportune
For options? I guess [http://www.optionstrading.org/strategies/a-z-
list/](http://www.optionstrading.org/strategies/a-z-list/) is a good place to
start. One way people just starting out with options fuck up is that they take
out positions with a very large upside but also very high risk to ruin. It's
like going to a roulette table basically. If you take out more complex
positions you can limit your downside, make money on sideways movements, etc.
You can also limit downside by setting up orders to sell above/below certain
values too.

I read some finance textbook when I was just starting out, I think it was
"introduction to derivatives and risk management". That helped too. It's a
good, gentle introduction to derivatives and you can skip most of it unless
you want to work for an investment bank.

I think the best way to learn is to just watch stocks overtime, and read up on
the news relevant to them. That's really why I play with options, it keeps me
plugged into following the movements of a bunch of different stocks, so I
learn a lot about what makes them behave in certain ways. Definitely stay away
from paid classes on investing or trading, those are almost all scams - if a
"successful trader" has to teach paid classes they're not actually successful.
And re: my strategy of trying to identify short term movements that make
something under/over-valued and hoping it will correct, just realize that
sometimes the market can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent,
and sometimes you just need to take the loss and get out.

One more thing I forgot. When I refer to "news" I mean real news. A lot of
financial news websites are complete bot-written vacuous garbage. Real news is
things like deals happening or falling through, large orders, interest rates,
lawsuits, recalls, earnings, trade deals, etc.

~~~
amerkhalid
I started playing with Options recently too. I read many books/blogs but
"Trading Options Greeks: How Time, Volatility, and Other Pricing Factors Drive
Profits" seems to be most helpful. Not sure if it is really a beginners book
or not.

I mostly stick with SPY and it keeps climbing. I just buy 30-45 days out calls
that are slightly out of money. Usually sell them at 20-30% profits with in a
few days.

Of course, it is only 1-2% of my regular investments in index funds. Too risky
to put any real money in options.

~~~
opportune
It's less than 5% of my total investments too (I am young and don't have tons
of money yet). I will check out that book, I've already got a good intuition
for the greeks but don't know much theory on how to actually price them in if
I were to sell options.

The thing I'd be worried about with medium term SPY calls is that you will be
completely wiped out by a recession. Or even if a correction happened like in
December and didn't rebound fast enough. Of course during a bull market that's
a fine strategy (as long as theta/IV don't eat any potential profits) , and if
you are socking away your gains it's probably fine. But if you are just
growing your options allocation by 50% every couple weeks and then throwing it
all back into the same position, eventually your double or nothing will come
up nothing. Just something to consider

------
electricslpnsld
For the past few years I've been buying, renovating, and selling small-ish
houses. My dad was a contractor growing up so I picked up most of the
necessary skills helping him out during middle and high school. I mostly work
on weekends and holidays which makes it a bit slow going, but I've made a
reasonable amount of money. Even if the money was worse I would still probably
do it, I really enjoy both the physical aspects of the work and seeing a house
go from a beat up old husk to a shiny new place! I have to contract out some
of the work (electrical mostly) because I'm not a certified electrician, but
otherwise it is a one man show.

~~~
mrfusion
Would it make more sense to rent them out rather than sell?

~~~
electricslpnsld
I would then have to deal with finding tenants, property maintenance issues,
etc (or pay someone to do this), which is more than I really want to do right
now. At that point I would be closer to a full time landlord, not a full-time
software engineer who enjoys working on houses on the side!

~~~
mrfusion
Run the numbers and compare in your next sale. As a rule of thumb if you can
get 1% of the sale price per month in rent you’re doing awesome.

And a good property manager should take away 95% of the hassle.

~~~
tunesmith
You're saying that if the house sold for $500,000, you should keep it if you
can rent it for $5,000 / month or more?

I've heard of 5% of 1/12th of the projected sale price, which seems more
realistic.

~~~
mrfusion
Yes $5000/month would make that a great property. Look up the one percent
rule.

There are lots of other things to consider but it’s a great quick rule of
thumb.

------
LeonM
I do electronics repair for cars. For many older and rare cars it's usually no
longer possible (or desired) to replace broken electronic components such as
the engine or transmission controller. So owners contact me to have the part
repaired instead of replacing it.

The repairs are usually not that challenging for me, and it won't make me
rich, but it's a great way for me to clear my head from challenges with my
tech startup. It also gives me access to some very rare and expensive cars.
Obviously you need to test drive the car if you just fixed the ECU ;-)

~~~
bronco21016
That sounds really interesting. By repairs do you mean mostly board level type
stuff? How do you handle all of the encryption and road blocks OEMs like to
put on the software? Doesn’t that make it challenging to get a board diagnosed
or operating properly again?

~~~
LeonM
Mostly board repairs, but also wiring on the cars itself.

Like I said, I mostly work on older cars, since those are the ones where it
makes economic sense to do this kind of repairs. Those cars are usually from
the era where ECU's had little to no encryption, or even no software at all
(pure electronic based ECU's).

Stuff like early Bosh and Lucas, Porsche CDi.

------
ynac
* Act as a standby for dish pits at the local restaurants - filling in only when someone doesn't show since I don't want to take what could be a lifeline job for someone AND having a standby like me means they can keep their job instead of just being a no-show

* Write articles for other people - usually on topics I really don't have a lot of knowledge or feeling about to start.

* Mow lawns - I'm allergic to grass. Builds character.

* Labor - the harder the better. Beats the gym and there is no better way to turn a Budweiser into a $100 beer than sweating your tail off digging a ditch.

* Help startups bootstrap or otherwise avoid "the man" while they find their dream.

* Sell chicken eggs when the hens push more than I can French toast.

* Make films, music, stories, pamphlets...often these cost more than they make, but I refuse to call them losses. Slightly passive income stream.

* Consult - since I was 11 in '81 I've been paid for helping people with their broken technology. I'm not exactly on the edge of all tech like I was, but I still serve a purpose.

* This is an odd one, but I have found it at least as profitable as a few side projects over the years. Be lucky. Actually look for money on the ground ($143 last year), win prizes, expect financial benefits from transactions, assume your (educated) choices will make money.

* Sell plant starts - a little late for this year, but it's one of those things you can save seeds from your regular groceries / food prep at home and early Spring...ba-da-bing ba-da-bang...kind of almost free plants!
    
    
      https://www.quartoknows.com/books/9780760361603/No-Waste-Kitchen-Gardening.html
    

* Investment clubs - getting a small community of a tech nerd, business geek, social butterfly, and either an accountant type or law dog, plus whatever else you happen to be friendly with, you can end up with a very smart engine for investing. Invest in either public stock, local businesses, people with ideas, or projects of your team's own creation.

Have fun, and profit!

~~~
tcmb
> Write articles for other people

That sounds interesting. What kind of people, and how do they find you? Where
are the articles published? How much time do you usually have for writing them
(days, weeks, months?) Do they get published under your name or the buyer's
name?

~~~
ynac
As far as I can tell, there is no gold standard for text brokering, including
TextBroker.com, but start with Textbroker Alternatives and you'll see lots,
and plenty of reviews to find something you like.

After that, get old school and check out the Writer's Market Guide 2019 (or
anything from the last couple of years). Keep in mind, all the magazines and
industry publications out there need a ton of content every month. What are
YOUR favorite places to read? Heck, it can be poetry, fiction, DIY, anything.

Timeline, word count, style, pay and all the other tidbits are almost always
agreed upon prior to your efforts. Unless you want to pitch a story. Which can
be super fun! And these can be blogs, industry rags, magazines, newspapers,
and so on.

Enjoy!

------
hkhanna
I'm a lawyer who doesn't do much (any) marketing. But when someone gets
referred and calls or sends an email asking for help with setting up an LLC,
helping wind-down or sell their business, or even something small like
reviewing an NDA, I can jump in.

I'm solo, so I don't have any overhead and I can charge far less than anyone
else. This is also entirely a side gig, so volume is so low that I can be
responsive, helpful and more like a thought partner who is also helping out on
legal.

~~~
tehlike
Is your specialization in corporate law?

~~~
hkhanna
My practice is corporate law, yes. Everything from basic stuff like commercial
contracts, incorporation and financings to complex mergers & acquisitions.

~~~
tehlike
That is pretty cool. I have a friend who mentioned he helped another friend
sell his company once. He was a business guy, not corporate, but it kind of
piqued my interest.

Did you think of scaling your prqctice?

------
iamleppert
Probably going to be downvoted, but I do adult webcam stuff, mostly with
private already established regular clients. My net profit can be as high as
$1200 per week, $800 on the low side, for a few hours of “work”. I generally
use it as a fall-back income when I’m in-between tech jobs but I do it if I’m
employed or not to keep my paying client list fresh for when I need it. I
could make a lot more, I have a “cam friend” who makes $5k/week regular but he
does it full time and markets himself and such. I put the minimal amount of
time & effort into it.

~~~
scarface74
Why would you be downvoted? I’ve always thought of HN posters as being
liberal/libertarian leaning.

Personally, I didn’t think twice about it either way. It was neither
intriguing or off putting.

------
mdorazio
Three things for me:

1) I own a small rental property in Florida that is fairly low maintenance and
pays for the mortgage + a small amount each month on average. This is a long-
term ROI play since after taxes, maintenance, repairs, and everything else it
ends up being close to a wash until the principal to interest ratio on the
mortgage payments improves after 5+ years. I only say this because everyone
and their brother in my age group seems to want to retire on rental
properties, but in reality it's really not that great.

2) Basic ETF investing in a combination of value-oriented and dividend-
oriented ETFs. This is, in my opinion, the only way to get truly passive
income with literally zero ongoing effort.

3) I design and 3D print props and cosplay pieces on a referral basis for
commission. In reality it's a horrible way to make money since quality 3D
modelling for 3D printing is time consuming to the point of the hourly
effective rate being lower than minimum wage, but I enjoy it, so it's kind of
a semi-paid hobby.

~~~
roddds
Would you mind expanding on what ETFs are you holding and your strategy for
(if any) rotation?

------
bentossell
Makerpad.co - I teach people how to build projects without code. I’m
collaborating with companies now to help provide educational content on how to
use the tools for a non-technical project or business. Last 4 weeks revenue is
around 30k (from memberships and companies paying to be listed and create the
content which isn’t released yet). It’s pretty much all profit too as I do it
solo with little overhead.

There’s a huge interest growing around building without coding and any
technical people are also jumping in too.

~~~
superamit
Came across this recently and love it! Excellent job picking a nice. I see a
lot of potential here.

~~~
bentossell
Really appreciate that!

------
rocketpastsix
Not a side project per se, nor am I making enough to retire anytime soon but I
give bike tours of the city I live in. Its a fun way to explore the city, meet
fun people, and learn something new. On a good weekend I can pull in $100 in
cash plus a small check from the bike shop I tour out of.

------
rtfs
I manufacture and sell cool pull-ups bars [1] for fitness ethusiasts and all
others, who want to have an allrounder at home for their fitness workouts.

Does not make me rich, but provides in addition work and income for three
people doing it also as a side-job. Main problem: the product does not brake
and it's a true craft business, so 95% of all customer buy only once.

[1] [https://klimmzugstangen.de/](https://klimmzugstangen.de/)

------
tolk460
Firefighter/medic and wildland fire contractor. I pull in about 15% of my base
tech salary doing a few hours of work a week and one wildland fire deployment
per year. It's a hobby that turned into a side profession and feels great to
help people.

The increased risk of cancer is a big downside.

[https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firefighters/health.html](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firefighters/health.html)

~~~
okusa
I've just moved to the US. Any details about how to get involved in this? What
are the base requirements to work as a medic for this kind of work, would MIRA
qualify?

------
bitfhacker
My job occupies most of the time. The rest of it I invest it with my children
and family.

I'm father of 2 twins sisters (11) and a boy of 5 years old.

My father have a degenerative disease (fatal but with slow progression), and
my mother spends most of her time taking care of him.

I put all my energy with my kids and helping my parents.

As soon as I realized that I can loose my loved ones, I started making
selective choices with my time.

In the past, I was course trainer of linux during weekends. It was very
rewarding to teach students that "wanted to learn" and the money was good,
too. I remember when a student ssh'ed to a station and executed "eject" in the
remote machine - he literally jumped in happiness!

I also made some websites in my spare time but it wasn't so rewarding.

~~~
skypather
It is very nice and warm to hear your story.

------
jawns
I write nonfiction books.

I used to be a magazine/newspaper editor. About eight years ago, I made a
career change and became a full-time programmer. But I wanted to continue to
write. So I wrote a book proposal, found an agent who loved it, found some
publishers who were interested, and went with a publisher who offered a two-
book deal.

My first book, "Experimenting With Babies: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can
Perform on Your Kid"
([http://www.experimentingwithbabies.com](http://www.experimentingwithbabies.com))
ended up selling pretty well.

My second book, "Correlated: Surprising Connections Between Seemingly
Unrelated Things," ([http://www.correlated.org](http://www.correlated.org))
did not do nearly as well. In fact, it bombed pretty hard. I assumed my book
writing career was over.

But because of the strength of "Experimenting With Babies," I ended up getting
two more book deals, each of which follow a similar format.

"Experiments for Newlyweds: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform With
Your Spouse" ([https://newlywed.science](https://newlywed.science)) came out
earlier this month. I'm really proud of it. You should give it to any engaged
couples you know.

And "Experimenting on Kids: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform on
Children Ages 2-5" will hit bookstores in May 2020.

If you factor in advances, royalties, foreign rights, and other secondary
deals, the amount I've made from my books is about what I make in a year as a
programmer. So it's a nice chunk of change, but also a decent amount of work.

Advice to anyone else who's considering writing a book:

* You can do well with self-publishing if you're really good at marketing your own stuff, already have a strong platform, and don't need to depend on an advance. If any of those things aren't true, you're probably better trying to get a book deal with a traditional publisher.

* Writing the book is often not the hardest part. Selling the book is often the hardest part. If you just want to write, but you don't want to sell, this might not be the side project for you.

* If you have a literary agent, you typically pay 15 percent commission. And boy is it worth it.

~~~
em-bee
you made one years worth of a programmers salary from all your books? how much
work was it to get there?

~~~
jawns
I would say that I did not devalue my time by doing it, but there's a good
amount of risk involved, compared with a salaried position.

~~~
em-bee
obviously, but that's true for starting a new business too, so if you can
manage the risk then this is not bad.

------
rossenberg79
I woodwork at a local makershop, I started out making random things for my
home and when I no longer had ideas for other stuff I wanted I’d make things
and give them away for free to friends.

Eventually other people wanted to know if I can make them custom pieces so I
began doing it for money, mostly to cover cost of materials and a bit of time
for labor.

Not making big money from it but it’s fulfilling work and good to know I could
still have a place in a world with no technology. Surprisingly, woodworking
shares some things in common with building software.

~~~
truckerbill
What would you say the commonality is?

~~~
rossenberg79
Aside from the things mentioned: Like software, wood is something that is
around us everyday, but very few people really stop to think about how it's
assembled. Wood and technology are things we can never seem to escape in human
civilization.

People see computers like a black box that does magical stuff, in the same way
they will look at a curved wooden chair and simply sit in it, without thinking
how it got to be in that shape and how the carpenter knew it would be a safe
design for holding a person's weight. People also don't think much about the
types of woods used and their special properties, similar to how people don't
think much about technology stacks and why certain applications work better
than others.

In wood working it's also common to make other tools and jigs out of wood for
you to use, to make other kinds of cuts easier. This is the same as writing
smaller programs that do one task to help accomplish other tasks. A woodworker
may use a series of tools and jigs to produce some end result the same way a
programmer may pipe different programs together to make some end result. Each
tool is a lot like a discrete program with input parameters that applies some
effect to a piece of wood, and their combination allows for the production of
a multitude of wood works.

Also, when you get good enough at building furniture, you will begin to wonder
why people would pay so much money for something you could easily build
yourself, similar to how people wonder why pay for Dropbox when you could just
mount an FTP server on a filesystem and use some version control. $400 for a
coffee table is ridiculous, I could build the same thing for maybe $100 in
wood, and probably better, because I can be sure it wasn't mass assembled by a
crackhead following basic instructions in a sweatshop.

------
denormalfloat
Invest in an S&P 500 ETF. This is probably the lowest effort side project you
can have which still makes money. Also, if you learn about the stock market,
it makes you more confident in how your savings looks, how your retirement
will look, how to manage money, etc.

~~~
starik36
Do you mean like Vanguard? How do learn about the stock market, so the S&P 500
is a invest it and forget it kind of tool?

~~~
jacobkg
[https://www.bogleheads.org/](https://www.bogleheads.org/)

That’s where I learned everything I know about investing. It’s definitely the
ultimate source of information about passive investing. I spent a lot of time
there a decade ago and now I pretty much don’t need to visit much anymore as
the whole point is to “set it and forget it”

------
xiphias2
Investing. It takes a lot of time to have an understanding of filtering the
good long term stuff from the bad short term strategies, but it's worth it.

~~~
vasili111
Online? If yes, which platform do you use?

~~~
xiphias2
If you're going long term, the platform doesn't matter at all. With short-term
trading quants have a huge advantage (I went through an interview at a hedge
fund, I know how smart they are, but their downside is that they have to have
high sharp ratio to attract investment). I'm always looking at 5 year+
investments only

~~~
ww520
What's their typical threshold for Sharpe ratio?

~~~
xiphias2
I've got accepted, but at the end I decided to go back to work at Google for
personal reasons, so I don't know that much of the inner workings of the
criterion.

------
P00RL3N0
I've been doing audio mastering as a creative hobby for about 5 years but I've
never done anything professionally. I was literally just contacted early this
morning (EST) regarding an opportunity to do some work professionally for an
indie record label so I am going to see where that goes. There is a "Full-Time
Effort" clause in my employment contract that might require me to get
permission from my company to do it, but I'm hoping it won't be an issue
either way.

------
kaisuketrax
I do stand up comedy, get a couple gigs per month (~1500$), sometimes I get
more sometimes less. Every sunday I shut myself off to write, and perform on
weekdays, been doing this for 7 years now and it only started to pay for about
2 years.

~~~
zzzmarcus
That's great! Seems like a VERY hard job to break into--lots of discipline,
learning from painful failure, and hard work. Do you have any of your comedy
on Youtube?

------
j_b_s
In a previous life, I became a scuba instructor that kept me in the latest
dive gear. (This was along side working towards a Ph.D.)

Eventually it burned me out -- instructing is a stressful "service" gig; and
it turned me off of diving for years. This is something that I've observed
with other folks in "lifestyle" businesses, e.g., I know yoga and martial arts
instructors that ultimately quit not only the instructing, but the hobby.

If you love something, be careful about teaching it!

~~~
nisse72
How to ruin a great hobby: make it your job.

------
paulgb
Betting on politics on PredictIt. I wouldn’t recommend it as an income stream,
but having an interest in probability, markets, and international politics, it
has taught me to read the news more objectively.

~~~
fbonetti
PredictIt was pretty fun for me until I bet ~$250 on Hillary in 2016. I
haven't touched binary options since then.

~~~
halfnibble
I've made a ton of money in PredictIt just by betting from a GOP perspective
(I'm guessing not many "investors" go that way, so the odds are skewed).

------
pjmlp
Nothing, my day job is already enough.

Rather spend time with family and friends.

However, if I was forced to change job for whatever reason, probably something
related with cooking.

~~~
jayrwren
+1

Who needs a side project when the day job is enough and there are loved one
with whom we have limited time.

Live is short. Take time to enjoy it.

~~~
justin66
Does it seem to you like most of the people here have chosen side projects
they do not enjoy?

------
xfitm3
I did consulting on the side until I burnt out.

Now I invest my spare time in being better at my full time job, and it’s paid
off.

------
larzang
I paint. I don't take commissions and the stuff I've sold doesn't even come
close to the total I've spent, but who cares, that isn't the point. I love
coding, but doing something totally expressive rather than logical is a
valuable part of my life too.

------
puranjay
I'm an amateur musician. I have a website where I review music gear,
especially MIDI keyboards (have a bunch of them).

It brings in a steady $1k+/month almost completely passively through Amazon
affiliate commissions

~~~
whatabackend
Am interested in a MIDI keyboard that can be used to come up with basic tunes.
Any recommendations?

~~~
puranjay
Stay away from M-Audio. The newer Akais aren't very good either. Try Nektar.

It all depends on how well you already know the keyboard though. A cheap Akai
LPK25 is good enough for absolute beginners. But if you have some piano
playing experience, I would go for something like an Alesis VI49

------
abakker
I make and sell custom tabletops compatible with the festool woodworking
products. I cut them locally on my CNC router and advertise exclusively
through craigslist. I do 3-5 per month of those, and another 10 projects /
month that come from repeat customers - mostly hobbiests and contractors.

Through craigslist, I’ve ended up making components used in the Apple campus,
and service pieces used in a 3 Michelin star restaraunt.

~~~
utahcon
What is special about a tabletop for festool products?

~~~
abakker
Take a look at Festool’s MFT 3 table system. It is a grid of 20mm holes,
spaced at 96mm on center. There are many time saving and convenient tools made
to take advantage of them, and many more custom stuff that craftsmen build to
make things easier.

Without a CNC it is frustrating to drill those holes reliably square enough to
use them in downstream operations like squaring cuts or aligning/spacing.

------
puttycat
I design and sell T-shirts for ML/Data Science geeks [1][2]. I use Redbubble
as a storefront which works pretty well.

[1]
[https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221227-i-...](https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221227-i-heart-
softmax-white?p=mens-premium-t-shirt) [2]
[https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221296-i-...](https://www.redbubble.com/people/nurikolan/works/34221296-i-heart-
softmax-dark?p=mens-premium-t-shirt)

~~~
ohlookabird
How do you go about advertising your redbubble shop?

~~~
sauravt
via HN comments I guess ;)

------
phanindra_veera
I sleep a lot

~~~
batrat
The real answer. After a loooong day at work my brain shuts down completely
when i'm at home. Gaming, sleeping and going out for dinner is enough.

------
polyterative
Tried everything: youtube channel, multiple tutorial websites, music video
making/videography, photography, for artists and bands, and finally sound
design and mixing

The last one is the only that is actually working somewhat

~~~
craftyphotons
Incredibly this almost exactly the path I've taken outside of my day job as a
software engineer.

Product photography -> headshot/corporate event photography -> corporate video
-> field recording -> music production

The "problem" that I've allowed myself to have is that I have the disposable
income to take care of the gear bottleneck that many people in these fields
dream of, but not the time overall to invest in the skills bottleneck.

------
dejv
Few years ago I've bought few plots of vineyards and started to make my own
wine. I was lucky that many members of my familly is making wine for many
years already (like few 100s of years) so I was able to borrow some equipment
and get help sometimes.

It is generating some money, but I am in the process of professionalising
whole business and that costs HUGE amount of money so I basically invest all
of my earnings and will continue to do so for next decade(s).

Being born into winemaking familly was big gift and a curse. Without having
some basic infrastructure there is no way I would be able to afford starting.
On the other hand it brings complex familly issues when you try to do
something different: I am farming organically, I refuse to use any "modern"
additives and even stylistically I prefer doing very dry old-school type of
wine instead of what they thought is modern off-dry and semi-sweet wine.

------
unixhero
I am a corporate drone and not a programmer, but anyways; I sell computer
chips on the Craigslist of my home country. Mostly Intel CPUs, genuine and not
engineering samples. Wherever eBay can't reach due to import tolls, there is a
market. Profits are at around 30% margin. It feels fun and does not feel like
work. It has helped me save up to some nice vacations. Going to Japan in the
summer. This activity is somewhat inspired by threads such as these on
HackerNews.

~~~
kshacker
==> This activity is somewhat inspired by threads such as these on HackerNews.

I am reading all these comments with joy. I picked up options trading as a
side gig, it works sometimes, it does not work some time. I am satisfied with
it, but reading this thread made me wonder if I should not try something
"real". If there are other similar threads, please do link to them. This
Sunday will then be productive :)

------
taigeair
I think side projects and businesses are a great way to learn and have an
interesting life, so I am usually doing something outside of work. My friends
write plays and do standup which sometimes pays. I used to teach swimming
after work because it got me to the gym and I could develop my communication
skills.

Currently, I have a hobby map business that generates some money
([https://www.wellingtonstravel.com/](https://www.wellingtonstravel.com/)).
Recently I created a matchmaking app for people who travel. It's not making
money yet, but I expect it to be able to generate income too
([https://www.fairytrail.app/](https://www.fairytrail.app/)).

I believe it's about finding what interests you first. Money is a nice bonus.

~~~
sauravt
I love the concept of your FairyTrail app. I am trying it out right now but I
wish there was a way to continue without facebook for those who don't have a
facebook account.

~~~
taigeair
Thanks! Working on Google login at the moment. Should be ready in a week :)

------
phamilton
My wife sells women's clothes as part of an MLM. I help her, mostly back
office stuff but sometimes I help with shipping and sales.

MLMs (deservedly) have a bad rap. The focus is usually on recruiting rather
than selling, and usually involves converting social relationships into
business ones.

For us, it's more like being a franchisee. We do $20-25k in sales a month,
have two part time assistants to help with shipping and cataloging inventory.
We have non trivial spend on marketing and are actively involved in our local
chamber of commerce and various networking groups.

My wife otherwise is home with our kids, and she loves it. It's busy, it's a
ton of work, but we have fun doing it.

------
adamparsons
I made enough to take a small hiatus on software work by DJing (200-400 most
nights) Some people successfully make it their full time gig.

Essentially you’re sitting at your computer all day, and listening to music
while you do it right? so there is plenty of opportunity to find and save
interesting (or basic) music.

Combine that with maths and counting (what’s 4+4?) some practice, networking
around, and you can land yourself some very well paid nights out, they pay you
AND pay for your drinks. Only big downside I’ve experienced is the toll on
your health if you regularly stay out drinking all night.

------
pryelluw
I do business strategy for startups through topographical business maps. It's
the best strategy tool out there and helps avoid costly mistakes. It also
aides in acquiring funding.

~~~
october_sky
I googled "topographical business maps" and it's not clear to me what that is.
Would you explain more?

~~~
pryelluw
Google Wardley maps. There is a free book on medium from its creator Simon
Wardley.

------
ccantana
I run a popular weekly newsletter that makes fun of the tech industry. Think:
The Onion meets TechCrunch.

Newsletters can generally charge a much higher CPM than a social media
accounts or even podcasts in some cases. You can start making beer money with
only a few thousand subscribers.

We’re also thinking of hosting a few live events as well once our audience is
large enough.

(P.S. for the curious, the newsletter is called TechLoaf:
[https://techloaf.io](https://techloaf.io))

~~~
chris_st
You might want to team up somehow with HackerNewsOnion[1]. They're fantastic.

[1] [https://twitter.com/hackernewsonion](https://twitter.com/hackernewsonion)

------
eznc
Started a CNC machining side business. Always had an interest and found a
broke down CNC mill for cheap. Fixed it up and have been doing quick prototype
and small runs for locals by referal only. Its fun and more than offsets the
cost of the machine.

~~~
mrfusion
What kind of jobs do you do?

------
malwarebytess
This is inspirationally depressing. Really makes you realize what a shit human
being you are when everyone is doing so many interesting things -- on the
side.

~~~
symlinkk
I barely have enough time to work, go to the gym, and socialize. I don't know
how anyone has enough time to add side projects on top of that.

~~~
raegis
Easy. I have three children. If I didn't have children, I'd have 3 Nobel
Prizes by now with all that extra free time :)

------
sidcool
My core money making project is to learn literate investing . Some good long
term investments in liquid, equity bonds can result in upto 18% annualized
returns.

I am not very well versed with direct stock investing. The risks are just too
great for me.

~~~
skypather
Would you mind share some resources you learned about the investment?

------
sidonesia
I dry age meat and sell it. I live in indonesia at the moment and its hard to
get a hold of this for a reasonable price so i setup some fridges, bought some
special bags for dry aging and dry age about 15 kgs of mean at any one time.
After I dry age the meat i can sell it for about 4x the price that i bought it
for and it makes a decent amount of additional income. I sell it online and
through whatsapp also :)

------
sharkmerry
I run a cookie bakery. Started it about 6.5 years ago. Mostly local delivery,
some nationwide shipping as well.

Doesnt make much but covers its own bills with some extra leftover. I've
gotten further in my actual career than I thought during the same time so
leaving to bake full-time would be large risk.

Mostly, I just really enjoy the direct interaction and happy emails, really
lights up my day and gives me a sense of fulfillment.

------
wjossey
While I don’t directly make money from it, my free mentoring program has
actually generated some side income as a nice benefit.

I help mentor managers, leaders, and founders, totally for free. I’ve worked
with dozens so far and I’m always taking new mentees!

You can sign up for a slot in seconds, as I do sessions five days a week:

[https://freemanagermentors.com](https://freemanagermentors.com)

------
MattBearman
My wife and I have a YouTube channel on which we are fixing up an old Toyota
MR2 [0], we’ve no desire to be full time “YouTubers”, but we enjoy making the
videos and get about $70 / from patreon/ads

0 -
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1gNnS8EDytTYqSG0IEbXw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1gNnS8EDytTYqSG0IEbXw)

~~~
phaedrus
I follow your YouTube channel! Really enjoy it. I've wanted an MR2 Spyder
since I saw one in my university's parking lot, but it's always been
metaphorically like a couple who would be great together but were always with
someone else when the other was on the market.

------
20years
Selling custom signs to businesses. I help them design the sign but also have
a sign creator on the site that businesses can use for more basic signs. I
send the design files off to a supplier who then makes and ships the signs. It
averages $20k in sales per month. It is not hands off (fair amount of customer
support & design work) but the net profit makes it worth it.

------
crabasa
I organize a conference for developers (see:
[https://2018.cascadiajs.com](https://2018.cascadiajs.com)).

Organizing events is obviously very different than programming and shipping
software, but it's nice to create something that programmers enjoy and it's
been awesome to meet so many industry folks whose work I really admire.

------
frankus
This is unlikely to be reproducible, but I bought a foreclosed condo in
Seattle in 2013, did a few weeks’ worth of work (spread out over a year or so)
redoing the kitchen and bathroom, and sold it not quite three years later for
$120k more than I paid for it.

I also have a couple of super simple apps in the iTunes Store that earn about
an iPad a year worth of money.

~~~
muzani
This seems very reproducible, or at least many people focus on doing this.
Donald Trump is probably the most popular example of someone who got rich
buying things at low value and fixing it up for a large profit.

~~~
dangwu
It’s not easily reproducible in Seattle any more. The housing market has
flattened over the past year or so. Back before 2018, properties would easily
go up 20% a year.

~~~
mtnGoat
Other Washington markets are ripe for this activity though. Lot of money is
exiting the Seattle area and buying homes in the rest of the state.

------
mtbkrdave
Built a site where you can custom-tailor a writing pad to your
handwriting/style...
[https://www.blankslatepaper.com/](https://www.blankslatepaper.com/)

So far it's been slow; like @memset, I've got the product done but struggle
with driving traffic/sales.

~~~
angel_j
I like the concept a lot. Would like to see prices up font.

~~~
mtbkrdave
Good input. I'm actually going to be adding more products to choose from
before entering the designer, so that would be a logical point to have
pricing.

------
bengarvey
This role playing game for pre-school aged kids
[https://kidsdungeonadventure.com/](https://kidsdungeonadventure.com/)

~~~
em-bee
i really like this idea, but i am not a fan of the elaborate battle rules in
d&d. in fact, i'd like to do roleplay without any fighting at all. just
treasure hunting, puzzle solving, etc...

i did some research for what else is out there and found
[http://www.susanjmorris.com/dd-for-kids/](http://www.susanjmorris.com/dd-for-
kids/) and also [https://www.wired.com/2010/09/rpgkids-a-critical-hit-with-
li...](https://www.wired.com/2010/09/rpgkids-a-critical-hit-with-little-
gamers/)

but most helpful was this review which i found inspiring to come up with my
own ideas [https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/137660/great-
introductory-d...](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/137660/great-introductory-
dungeon-crawl-game-kids)

basic setup: there are no monsters, just NPCs that block your path. role the
dice to decide who needs to give way. if the player "wins" they get to keep
the NPC as a score. if the NPC wins they need to move back as many steps as
the NPC roll, and try again when they get there later, or go another way.
there can also he other surprises such as treasures or cards that add to your
rolls (+1, +2 etc)

the rest can be like any d&d game, but this avoids the whole battle scenarios
which is not something i want my kids to grow up with when i don't even like
it myself. (when i play online RPGs, i find fighting just a nuisance that
prevents me from enjoying the rest of the game)

------
toomuchtodo
Landlord, private equity investing, business and real estate project
consulting. I take topics I’m curious about and translate the experience and
skills learned into revenue.

~~~
emyeskay
How do you find PE investing deals? Any resources you can share would be
helpful.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Cold emails and calls, networking mostly. Get some business cards, hand them
out freely and include it as part of your pitch if the audience is a right fit
(person or small group of persons). Email in profile if you want to discuss
further.

------
toymachine
I realized I was always looking for the best pen and I was geeking out about
writing instruments so I started a website about pens:
[https://unsharpen.com/](https://unsharpen.com/). There is some light
programming, but it's mostly data entry.

------
reboog711
I write books about programming at www.learn-with.com

Right now it is just a bunch of Angular and related stuff; but I Want to
expand to React.

I make ~$200 a month, which is pretty good considering how little I put into
promotion. I consider the platform my own personal reason for learning /
experimenting with new stuff.

------
cgriswald
My partner and I train and board dogs. The money isn't amazing, but it's fun
and rewarding.

------
kentf
I run a niche keto / nutrition online store in Canada.
[https://ablecells.com](https://ablecells.com)

------
johannes1234321
I have the luxury/privilege that my job pays well. I can do side stuff purely
for enjoyment. That enabled me to explore different areas (like bee keeping)
or explore scial stuff (i.e. social volunteering in a jail) without having
customer demands or such.

------
thinnerlizzy
I created ShutterDeck[1], a system for controlling multi-camera arrays. I
designed and built the hardware and the iPhone app, which serves as a remote
control for the device. I do basically no advertising or I'd probably sell
more. The next batch I order will have the boards pre-assembled for me, which
I'm really excited about.

Most of my clients have photo booths, but I do have one researcher using it to
try to treat scoliosis in children. I'm actively looking for new markets. It
barely brings in enough money to make it worth doing, but the system is
essential for some users, and I like doing it.

[1] [https://shutterdeck.com](https://shutterdeck.com)

~~~
utahcon
I think this is pretty neat. I am not into photography myself, but love the
concept and the way you are going about the work. Cheers!

~~~
thinnerlizzy
Thank you! I appreciate it. I do it as much for the love of bringing things to
life as the money.

------
osi1647
I make video tutorials about Arduino programming on [https://arduino-
lessons.com/](https://arduino-lessons.com/) and earn some money via the
referral program when visitors buy parts via my website.

------
b3b0p
I'd like to do something constructive, maybe tutoring the local college and
high school students, but since people are mentioning index funds: I bought a
couple Vanguard funds about 8 years ago and have been maintaining an average
return of 10-12% which is almost enough to pay rent. I used some of the
returns to help pay the down payment for my condo. Now, my rent won't go up
anymore. My mortgage isn't much more than my old rent and less actually then
one of my previous places. It's also about double the size and arguably in a
better location. If I ever get another job some where else and because of it's
location I can rent it out extremely easy.

------
akg_67
When I was in Texas, I used to buy Disk drives in bulk through auction from PC
manufacturers Compaq and Dell that didn't meet their QC, test these drives and
sell the good ones to retail shops, PC repair shops and individuals. I stopped
once competition became tougher, bad to good ratio of disk drives increased,
and disk drives became cheaper.

In Japan, several people asked me to teach them English. So I teach them
English, some pay me in food and drinks. I also figured out that I was good in
helping others prepare for standardized exams TOEFL/TOEIC/GMAT/GRE/USMLE so
that became my primary side gig.

------
mikekchar
I never charged money for it, but since I live in Japan and used to teach
English for a living, I used to teach English to retired people in the area. I
stopped because I don't actually have enough time any more, but it was very
rewarding. I'm thinking of starting up again, holding sessions in the pub and
charging beer as payment.

Now that I think about it, it's how I got together with my wife. I met her
running in a marathon of all things and she wanted to learn English. I said
I'd be happy to teach her and after 2 lessons I asked her out on a date :-) I
never did teach her English beyond that!

~~~
sauravt
That's a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. :)

------
revvx
Helping organize small music concerts and festivals and recording local indie
bands. Mostly friends or friends of friends.

I've been doing it since I was a teen, before I started programming, and the
first significant amount of money I made was after I invested all my savings
in a small festival I organized with my friends.

As for recording, it's been a fun ride because equipment go so much better and
accessible since I started 15 years ago. For recording, having portable stuff
is nice, but affording to pick studios because of the room instead of the
equipment was a real game changer.

~~~
dippydipdips
Mind sharing where? As my side gig _is_ the local indie band I’d love some
advice on what we could do better.

------
samschooler
I was a university student pretty recently. I started a company where I
delivered cookies (freshly baked from scratch) on rollerblades to dorm
rooms/apartments/houses on and around campus. It was such a fun way to make
$12-$16/hour and get exercise.

Not sure what I’m going to do with the site now, but I went all out and built
a fully delivery management platform for they side gig. Hit me up if you have
ideas.

[https://rollerbakers.com](https://rollerbakers.com)

------
AlchemistCamp
I've got a few:

\- I've made stickers for the LINE chat app

\- I have various affiliate links in my old blog

\- I have some ebooks that I wrote years ago

\- I currently make screencasts to teach people the Elixir programming
language ([https://alchemist.camp](https://alchemist.camp))

The revenue on all of these things except for the screencasts is gradually
falling to zero. The screecasting revenue has roughly quadrupled from October
through March (~6.8)% weekly growth rate), but still not quite up to
$1k/month.

------
mro_master
I perform data cleansing of excel spreadsheets and sometimes convince them to
develop basic CRUD apps to take the place of excel. Depending on the project
and the feeling I get about the depth of their budget I charge: per row based
on the transformations they need, flat fee if they actually have well defined
requirements, per hour for development time if they are convinced of the value
in standing up a new web app to handle the process.

~~~
opportune
How do you get clients for this kind of work and about how much do you charge?
This sounds pretty laid back and potentially lucrative

~~~
mro_master
That my friend is the secret sauce. My first job out of school was for a
staffing company that pimped me out to perform similar projects. Word of mouth
mostly, it's very lucrative if you have domain knowledge and can sit for long
periods of time. It's not Mechanical Turk style cleansing and I have to take
personal responsibility for every row as they mostly just suck up my cleansed
data and roll with it, which you can't do with ML cleansed data or off-shored
cleansed data. I've been thinking of launching a SaaS product but the
transition from trusted consultant to enterprise SaaS is not easy. What do you
do?

~~~
opportune
I do big data stuff mostly. A lot of that involves cleansing. So working with
large excel/csv/other tabular data formats is second nature to me. Familiar
with many technical tools that I could maybe use as force-multiplier (e.g.
serverless SQL processing, OLAP, RDBMS, python pandas, spark), hence my
interest since if we relax the condition that every single row is accounted
for, my productivity would likely be pretty high

~~~
mro_master
The customers always find the rows that are not accounted for, it's bad form
to drop data. We sell high quality data, which you can't claim if you can't
account for every single row. You should be careful about delivering an
incomplete data-set.

------
josephmxm
Back in college I started Alphalux, A men’s accessories mostly bracelets
business. I was a full time college student and was working at a
pharmaceutical company full time. I would custom order bracelets at Alibaba
with my logo on it. Would pay wholesale price of $0.75 per bracelet and would
sell it for $10-$30 dollars on Etsy and my website. It was fun while it
lasted. I was making $3-4K a month until dropshipers ruined the market.

~~~
jlmendezbonini
Would you mind sharing how dropshipers ruined it?

I’m not a dropshipper myself, but I know a couple of people who have gotten
into it.

~~~
Sileni
Not OP, but I've done some work in the space. The market is just saturated
now. It takes such little effort to start a dropshipping "business" that
unless you have a really unique angle or spend absurd amounts on marketing,
you'll probably make somewhere in the range of peanuts to beer money.

Even if you do find a successful niche market, it won't take long for a low
budget clone to jump in, which invalidates a lot of the up front work in
marketing and product validation.

------
clubm8
Poker. I'm not able to make enough for it to be a full time job, but it's more
pleasant than driving an Uber. Sometimes makes for good networking too.

~~~
stcredzero
I had a coworker who literally did a rant, slammed the door of the conference
room and quit. He was earning some side money playing online poker then made a
go of it full time. His conclusion: This is a lot less fun when it's your sole
source of income.

~~~
clubm8
Yeah, even if you are good enough to make a decent wage, it can be boom or
bust. On a long enough timeline, there will be times you say, make a bet with
4 aces but get beat by a straight flush[1]

Also, most poker players are American - so they're going to need to cover
health insurance.

Maybe when I retire I'll give it a go, but I don't think it's practical to
envision retiring early to play poker unless you amassed enough savings you
could live without the poker income.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability#Frequency_of...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability#Frequency_of_5-card_poker_hands)

------
metters
My wife is from China, while I am from Germany. Our side business is selling
milk powder for babies to Chinese mothers.

Makes quite good money but does not fulfill in anyway.

~~~
vivekananda
I got to know about through ADVChina's video. Here's the link if anyone is
interested - [https://youtu.be/YQm5FZMforg](https://youtu.be/YQm5FZMforg)

------
crharding
A few things. First, I play in an Irish wedding band (it’s insane how much
people pay for wedding bands...and since they’re Irish weddings we usually all
end up being fed shots throughout the night (this was more fun when I was in
my twenties, now I stick with a beer or two so that I’m still standing (well,
sitting, I’m a drummer) at the end of the night). Secondly I do quite a bit of
teaching / mentoring. It’s easier in nyc than in other places because of how
many boot camps there are here but companies pay quite a bit for a 6-10 pm
twice a week gig. Plus at my job I’m primarily working with php and vanilla js
so this helps me keep my react / insert framework or library here skills
sharp. I argue that this is still outside the field because teaching beginning
web dev is to actually working as a programmer as apples are to oranges. That
last sentence was super bungled but I think the point comes across.

------
holoduke
I started creating apps when the first store was opened. It makes almost 10 m
times more than my normal job (team lead, developer). Still I have no desire
to quit my day job. If I manage to keep this going for another 5 years I will
reach a point where I have enough money to live my life without any financial
issues.

~~~
carbolymer
Care to share apps?

------
gis
I have been working as a male escort for women (gigolo). Seriously. It works
quite fine. Just created my website and females contact me. I enjoy my work
and also earn some side-project extra money.
[https://www.guysinisrael.com](https://www.guysinisrael.com)

------
aaronmiler
I licensed my house as a winery, and run a hard cider company with my
girlfriend. We sell to some stores in our area, and do our local Farmer's
Market during the summer.

It's been very satisfying making and selling a physical product.

The profitability part isn't quite there yet. But we're working on that.

~~~
system2
How do you bottle your products? I see the cans with your logo, seems like a
bigger operation than you describe. :)

~~~
aaronmiler
There was a lot of research that was done, but we were able to get into cans
with a few key components.

We use a piece of home brewing equipment right now to fill our cans and
bottles, the beer gun [1]. The beer gun allows us to purge our cans/bottles
with CO2 (oxygen is bad for alcohol), and then fill them from the bottom to
reduce foam.

I was able to find a local supplier, that wraps cans in plastic. So rather
than printing them, they shrink wrap our label on to them. They're a bit more
expensive than printed cans (if I recall 34¢ sleeved vs 19¢ printed). This
allows us to order a single pallet at a time, decreasing our storage needs

The last key was the can seamer[2]. I found this early on, and it's been a
great little work horse for us. We've put over 6,000 cans through it, and it's
been one of the best purchases we've made.

Bottles are the easy one, we just use the beer gun [1] and then a manual
capper to seal them.

Happy to answer any other questions! It's been a fun ride trying to figure out
how to "mass produce" something on a smaller scale :)

[1] [https://www.morebeer.com/products/blichmann-
beergun-v2.html](https://www.morebeer.com/products/blichmann-beergun-v2.html)
[2]
[https://oktoberdesign.com/shop/canseamers/mk16/](https://oktoberdesign.com/shop/canseamers/mk16/)

------
GlenTheMachine
My wife and I run a sheep farm.

The “money-making” part is a bit of a stretch.

------
dcchambers
For a while I worked with a friend "reconditioning" laptops and selling them
on Ebay (lots of just-out-of-warranty Dells and Thinkpads from local
companies. Easy to work on: upgrade RAM, swap HDD for cheap SSD, replace
broken keyboards, etc.) We could sell them for a nice profit with very little
work. I wouldn't want to do this work on many "modern" laptops since many
parts are not (easily) user replaceable these days.

Most passive income just comes from Index Funds/miscellaneous investments. But
I don't really see it as income since it all stays invested/just grows until I
retire some day. Still trying to find the right app/site/tool to build to
bring in real passive income from something I have built.

------
pugworthy
Not necessarily outside of programming, but I used to do web pages for
wineries in Oregon when it wasn't so obvious for a business to have a website.
I'd always do it for barter, never cash. We had a pretty nice wine cellar back
then.

------
adamzerner
Playing poker!

My winrate online is only a couple dollars an hour. I don't play live very
often so I don't have the sample size to say what my winrate would be, but I'd
guess $10-20/hr. So, ultimately, not too much money. But if I keep improving,
my winrate should keep going up.

It also makes a lot of sense because I'm developing a poker app -
[https://premiumpokertools.com/](https://premiumpokertools.com/). So I guess
it is sort of tied into programming/CS for me in a way.

~~~
sauravt
Nice app. I've been trying to improve my post flop game. Will check it out.

~~~
adamzerner
Awesome! Hit me up at contact@premiumpokertools.com if you want to chat and/or
study hands.

------
armenarmen
I buy and fix up mid century modern and Bauhaus furniture and either sell it
online or to local stores as a “picker” it’s a fun hobby and can score me an
extra 800-1000/month in profit.

------
MaddAgent
I DJ in nightclubs at the weekends, just Friday and Saturday nights but manage
to make about 40-50% of my full-time salary for say 8-10 hrs/week.

Started it in University as a hobby, and just built it up from there. 20 years
later, still doing it (although never once imagined I still would be)

Extremely thankful for it, has helped to weather the storms a few times
between job changes and has provided me and my family with a few extra little
luxuries that we may not have otherwise been able to afford!

------
marcinzm
I make things out of wood with a laser cutter and sell them on etsy. Mainly
things from an MMO I play but also other games and tv shows. So far it covers
the cost of materials and laser time. It won't ever comes close to my day job
in terms of income (I did the math) but it's interesting as a side thing
that's not engineering. I optimize the process and marketing (since I find
that interesting) but don't stress over income from it.

------
iamrecursion
I run an audio engineering business.

At first it was just a project of passion, but years later and a not
insignificant investment in gear, software, and other equipment has left me
with a side business that nets a tidy bit of income.

It’s also something that I adore doing, and hence a massive plus. I get to mix
and master a whole variety of music, from classical to ambient, to EDM, and
it’s always a pleasure to work with artists whether they’re new to it all or
seasoned professionals.

~~~
maksimilian
As someone who records in their spare time, would you mind sharing the
progression of how it grew from a hobby to a business/side gig?

------
youshy
Used to teach music part-time (guitar, theory, composition, recording,
production, everything), ended up working +20hr every week teaching only +
full-time job. Dialled it down but I do sometimes teach in small groups via
Skype.

Now I do a bit of consulting, helping bands with production, composition and
chops in general. The plan is to get back to teaching but only through apps.

------
thedangler
I run a do it yourself web site builder for clients that need simple website
and e-commerce.

I sell payment processing services for First Data

I run a while label payment gateway

I build custom apps for payment terminals.

I have a rental property.

I'd say I make roughly 2k a month with out really having to do any work. But
Payment processing with in the next six month could generate me around 6k/m. I
have some big deals in the pipeline.

------
RomanPushkin
I made $6000 in 2018 selling my Ruby book online. It was in my native
language, but I'm translating it into English. About half of the book has been
translated.

50% off if you're interested
[http://leanpub.com/rubyisforfun/c/IQrM7FYyuepX](http://leanpub.com/rubyisforfun/c/IQrM7FYyuepX)

------
Adamantcheese
Still selling that one book. Last time I posted this, someone bought 40 copies
of it. 40! That was more than the lifetime sales of it!
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/1505357888/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1505357888/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_CjpVCbJNJCSHS)

------
heeton
I help founders hire technical staff, or find co-founders.

I’m not a recruiter - I’m a CTO who’s done a lot of hiring myself, and it’s
more about how to understand who you need and how to talk to them.

(I’m currently working on some free resources/workshops on the topic to build
my pipeline, so if the above sounds useful to you then get in touch - my email
is in my profile)

~~~
agzamov
It seems, I need your advice/help - but unable to see your email in profile -
how to contact with you?

------
shermablanca
I started a conference (Reactathon.com) as one of the various channels of
income I had (entrepreneur, not FTE). One of my sponsors liked it so much that
they asked me to run theirs. Now their conference has expanded to 3x per year
in 3 cities, and I’m still helping to run it. And I now consider myself a full
time conference consultant.

------
gbin
Restoring and fixing vintage computers then reselling them on eBay. I am just
doing that for fun during weekends and I never expected to be a profitable
business. It is very satisfying to buy those old, rusted, dusty, yellowed
broken machines and restore them so people can relive the 80s or 90s hay days
of the family computers.

------
docere
I’m a physician (epileptologist)... Started out comp sci and made the switch
to medicine to help people. Currently doing programming/academic medicine
roughly 50/50; the former has yet to provide any significant money or grants,
but it’s still enjoyable and comes in handy from time to time for research
endeavors.

------
baldeagle
I’m working on getting my wife a job in US Congress. We’ll see how this choice
pans out in two and a half years.

------
johnnycab
I realise that this is not going to make me popular on HN. However, apart from
the job, I have the best _side-business_ ─ being idle, sleeping a lot and
generally acting like a bum; all the things that make me happy are hobbies and
I have never had any real intentions to monetise them.

~~~
agumonkey
you should sell tutorials about it

~~~
johnnycab
Thanks for the suggestion, but it is not a novel concept. It takes some re-
configuration or leap of faith, to accept it as a personal development plan.

------
auiya
I used to own/run a hot sauce biz. I did quite a bit of sales, but it started
to grow to the point where it was eating into all my spare time, and quitting
my day job to pursue it full-time wouldn't have been equitably profitable for
many many years. So I ended up dropping it.

~~~
kuzimoto
Did you try raising prices to lower demand? I haven't sold anything before so
I don't have any idea what I'm talking about. I'm just asking since I'm
curious.

------
Shogoot
I get about 1/6 of my yearly salary, a year, doing software job as an
consultant for my ex work place. They did not replace me when I abruptly quit
in 2017, giving them 3 months of notice. They have been a steady source of
income since. I adjust my price yearly adding inflation + 2%

~~~
confounded
Bit how many hours do you work for 1/6th of the salary?

~~~
Shogoot
About 3-4 hrs a weekp

------
zeruch
I've long been a professional fine artist and illustrator. As side gigs go, it
has the added benefit of being a cathartic shift from tech-land. I work in a
studio space where none of the artists other than myself day-gig in tech. It's
a good cache-flush for the soul.

------
singingwolfboy
I’m a hypnotist. Most of my clients are through word-of-mouth referrals,
although I do have a website, as well. It’s an unusual skill that I developed
over many years, and I enjoy being able to help people. It’s a fun
conversation topic at parties, as well. :)

~~~
MarceColl
What kind of things do you help people with?

~~~
singingwolfboy
Usually dealing with stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Sometimes helping
people change habits: work out more, lose weight, etc.

~~~
MarceColl
I'm going through some really tough times and I'm very interested in things
that can help me change my behavior. How would you describe what hypnosis does
to a person to help them overcome these things?

~~~
singingwolfboy
Check out my website:
[https://www.quietstrengthhypnosis.com/](https://www.quietstrengthhypnosis.com/)
The “Learn” section has some good information about hypnosis.

I’d also be happy to chat more about this one on one, if you’d like. No
obligation to actually schedule a session; I don’t charge for chatting and
answering questions. :) Shoot me an email: david@quietstrengthhypnosis.com

------
Silverwood
I recently launched
[https://www.silverwoodbrokers.com/](https://www.silverwoodbrokers.com/) We
represent buyers in residential real estate purchases in NYC and rebate them
part of our commission.

------
ati
I designed and built quality (high-brightness, high-CRI) ceiling light. Not
very profitable, but it was very fun and refresing to negotiate with aluminum
profile manufacturers, paint shops, etc. And real-world customers, outside of
IT echo chamber.

------
griffinkelly
Sports photography. Can make a decent amount of money shooting high school
sports, or local races. I think its a great hobby that complements programming
as you can really nerd out about digital cameras and how they work, as well as
photo editing.

------
uchman
Well this isn't totally outside programming but you can tutor programming on
wyzant.com for some good hourly rates. Even cool if you like teaching what you
do, plus you'll probably not be teaching stuff as complex as your daily hustle
:)

------
kenbolton
I guide sea kayaking expeditions and provide instruction for a local
outfitter. It pays for itself, as kayak gear is not cheap, and forces me to
exercise my social skills. My "day job" is solo remote founding engineer for a
RegTech SaaS.

------
nestorD
I translate magic books (with a speciality on old books that I find for my
editor).

Like others in this thread, it started as a hobby and evolved as I made
contacts. It feels quitte good to know that a hobby is now earning me more
money that I spend in it.

------
morog
I make heirloom yogurt from organic milk from a local dairy farmer, currently
about 50 litres a week & increasing fast. Turns out real yogurt is real
popular these days. Doesn't exactly pay the bills yet, but it's delicious!

------
parrotcake
After work, I do youtube compilation for stress relief, may earn cents

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2pKqCYmQPcuupftzoo6IMQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2pKqCYmQPcuupftzoo6IMQ)

~~~
nkkollaw
How do you make money from playlists?

You get part of the video revenue?

------
westondeboer
I make ~$40/month doing affiliate marketing. I use affiliate links to sell my
own affiliate links.

Generated from
[https://hncynic.leod.org/index.html](https://hncynic.leod.org/index.html)

------
b0blee
For 30 years it was playing music. Doesn't pay well - it was basically my food
budget. I kept at it for 9 years anyway after I retired as a programmer. Some
of the gigs were fun, and most of my friends are musicians.

------
jressey
Property ownership and rental. It is very simple, and barely a "project" after
you get going.

It's like investing on steroids. There is a lot of money to make, with a
little more risk, and a lot more work than ETFs.

------
balls187
Fitness Marketing Automation company. Started in 2018 when my position was
eliminated. Achieved $1k in MRR in less than a year.

Have a handshake deal with a hollywood actor/martial artist to partner with
his 500 affiliates.

~~~
hart_russell
What is fitness automation?

~~~
balls187
fitness _marketing_ automation.

Edited the original post.

------
adrianh
Music! I play with a gypsy jazz band about four or five times a month here in
Amsterdam, and I occasionally give guitar lessons from home.

I also make a few bucks a month from Patreon for my YouTube guitar
performances.

~~~
jarvelov
That gypsy jazz combo sounds amazing, would you mind sharing a link to where I
can listen to it?

~~~
adrianh
Sure, here’s my YouTube channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/adrianholovaty](https://www.youtube.com/user/adrianholovaty)

~~~
jarvelov
Thank you, it was very nice. Hope I can catch one of your shows one day,
cheers!

------
jotato
I build furniture. I don't make much - honestly, I just do maybe 1 paid
project per year. I only use handtools (mostly due to shop constraints) Maybe
someday I'll be able to do more with it.

------
thekevan
This isn't exactly passive but...

I used to buy old furniture, refurbish it and resell it on craigslist. I made
generally about $20 - $30 an hour. I also kept things for myself sometimes and
slowly replaced different furniture items with nicer and nicer items. One
year, I had 4 different coffee tables in succession. I found a cool coffee
table and kept it, then I found a cooler one weeks later so I kept that and
sold my previous one. Repeat that 3 times.

I'd mostly troll a certain thrift shop for antique-ish and mid-century items.
It doesn't take long perusing Pinterest and design blogs to get a bit of an
eye for what people want to consider collectible. Plus often if you look at
something and squint, you an see if shaping it up will make it into something
people want. I occasionally hit some garage sales, estate sales were too high
priced and competitive. Sometime going an hour before they closed, they would
drop the prices super low. %75 off would be better for them for them than not
selling AND having to move it to get rid of it. Not always though.

I mostly just used Old English oil or Minwax furniture wax on items. It wasn't
unusual for me to buy a $20 dresser, spend an hour giving it a cleaning (with
Windex or other dollar store cleaners) and an oiling and sell it for $80 -
$125.

I would do some small carpentry repairs on items, usually broken drawers,
loose legs and occasionally a crack in the piece that was on a non-essential
or non-structural area. You learn to avoid the repairs that are time
consuming, difficult to get right or especially those--this is hard to
describe--that will either be super easy or will fail no matter what you try
with no in between. I avoided painting things, too time consuming plus I hate
covering good wood. If anything is missing a knob or matching decorative
hardware--it was an instant "no". You'll never find one that matches just
right without spending a ton of time--if at all--and if you replace them all,
it's expensive. Plus new knobs usually look weird on an antique and ruin the
aesthetic of a mid century item.

I have had dozens of people tell me that I am a magician because I could take
an old dried out looking item and bring the finish back. Honestly, it was the
oils and the wood itself. I's take a piece like a dresser, table or chair, and
after cleaning it for 5 - 15 minutes, just spend another 20 wiping the oil on.
You just go over every bit over and over to rub the oil in well and also that
takes the excess off. Give it a 2 minute wipe down an hour later if you can,
using the same rag but without adding oil. (sometimes the wood soaks the oil
into itself, but then it's wet and starts to expend. Then the oil gets pushed
back out and sits on the surface. This step gets rid of that.) Give it a super
light coat of oil the next day, looking for areas you missed or that soaked up
more or less oil than others. This takes maybe 5 minutes.

Dressers were my staple. Everyone has at least one dresser, people use them in
other rooms for storage or decor. Chairs were okay deeding and also would sell
in even number better. Coffee tables, especially mid century items went easily
also. Headboards and foot-boards I would buy if they were exceptional in
appearance or super, super cheap. With those, any physical repair needed would
also deem them a "no".

All my supplies fit in a dollar store plastic basket that was about
14"x14"x12". A few bottles of surface cleaner, oil in dark medium and light
and a can of wax. Then a bunch of rags, use the same rag for the oils, one for
each color. and one for wax only. Some steel wool for scuffs or hard stains, a
small hammer, a few screw drivers and a ton of different sized screws and
nails, almost all in the smaller than average to tiny varieties. I very
occasionally used a drill and do have a couple long bar clamps for gluing.

The skill needed to bring a finish back is minimal. I'd say if you can clean a
bathroom well or polish a chrome bumper, you can make a $10 thrift store item
look like a $150 one. Just rub the stuff on and it does the work. People will
call you an artist and not realize they could do the same.

I sold on craigslist and usually the people came by in the evenings when I was
just making dinner or getting stuff ready for the next day anyway. I have a
covered porch so they'd never come into my house, I have a large dog with a
scary bark, plus I had a few hidden aces up my sleeve in case anyone got
cagey. No one ever did. Craigslist can be a gutter of society but the people
wanted what I sold were about 20 somethings, soccer moms, "artsy neighborhood
dwellers" of varying demographics or empty nesters. I had a 4 text limit and
if someone texted me more times than that, I'd do my best not to arrange to
meet with them. That sounds like a dick move, they just want to know about the
item, right? But like clockwork, those were the people who would no-show,
super low-ball me once they got here or reschedule 20 minutes before they were
due. People got one strike and they were out.

The thrift store I went to to was near where I would run errands and so I
would stop in there for 5 minutes every time I went to get groceries or
whatever. I made one special trip a week on Saturday mornings, right when they
opened. I was there 1 - 4 times a week, usually about 3. So it did not take
much time out of my day or routine to get stuff. It came to a close because
the one thrift store I used to get stuff from really fell off in their
selection. In the Pinterest craze, more people started keeping things and "Up-
cycling" them themselves. My store also lost a deal with some organization and
suffered a drop in items. They also used to make regular pick-ups in areas and
I think they just saturated it an sort of squeezed the sponge dry.

------
thewhitetulip
[https://leanpub.com/u/surajpatil](https://leanpub.com/u/surajpatil)

I've written two intro tutorials. Doesn't make much money though.

------
rhapsodyv
I have a CNC Laser and do stuff for friends and schools in the area I live.
Nothing like a real business, but help to free my mind from my daily work, and
I make ~USD 300 per month.

------
IAmGraydon
I have a few side projects, but the most recent is phosphorescent cosmetic
mods for synthesizers.

[https://graydonaudio.com](https://graydonaudio.com)

------
palimpsests
I teach mindfulness and breathwork, guide somatically-based self exploration
using the Hakomi method, and provide healing touch and bodywork for clients in
my private practice.

------
ademup
Photography in the early 2000s. Made enough to level up my gear multiple times
over. Renovated houses from 03-07. But now my money making side projects are
programming-based.

------
briane92
I just started but I'm trying to get into the bug bounty / hunting field. I
spent 40 bucks on a web application hacking book so I'm currently in the
negative.

------
geekbird
I sell filk CDs and craft items at SF&F conventions. It feeds my need to
create and share enjoyment with others. My spouse does all the computer stuff
for it.

------
michaelsbradley
Group fitness instructor: several different formats, certified through Les
Mills. I teach 4 mornings per week, and it works out to about USD $7000 before
taxes.

------
nellyspageli
I'm an Airbnb host in my spare bedrooms.

As a software engineer by day, I find it quite pleasant to be a host and have
a more direct human connection with my customers.

------
thunderrabbit
TL;DR: not making money yet, but enjoying stop motion animation of marble
track construction.

Back in the day, my brother and I would use Legos to build tracks for marbles,
using roof pieces as ramps. Eventually I started making marble tracks out of
popsicle sticks. Over a period of some years, I built a track 2+ feet (70cm)
tall with lots of tracks intertwining each other all the way down.

After moving and leaving that old track behind, I made Marble Track 2 over an
eight-month period in my free time at work.

I posted the finished track on YouTube[1] and comments fell into 2 categories.

Trolls: U suck, it's garbage, get a gf, etc.

Fans: U rule, it's amazing, make a tutorial, etc.

Me: "Make a tutorial? about how to make a marble track?? hmmmm that gives me
an idea!"

So far, I have about 11 minutes[2] worth of (silent) video of little pipe
cleaner characters placing wooden pieces onto a stage. They are answering the
question "how do you make a marble track?"

The project has its own website[3], which reinforces the story that the
characters are building the track.

(fake spoiler) However, it's actually me behind the scenes moving the
characters to make the movie in which they build the track!

300+ hours of livestream[4] answer the question "how do you make a stop motion
movie which answers the question of how to make a marble track?"

The livestreams are long, dull, often quiet, interspersed with a few ramblings
that go through my head.

So, back on track (ahem) for this thread, I believe there are people who'd be
interested in this project, and eventually we will figure out how it can be
monetized. I am just enjoying the creation process and open to possibilities.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUqu6QE7bw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUqu6QE7bw)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KjsYc4Mb5g&list=PL0osPGt21F...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KjsYc4Mb5g&list=PL0osPGt21FB48UwuhtCUoi9JndC9YDHAZ)

[3] [https://www.marbletrack3.com/](https://www.marbletrack3.com/)

[4]
[https://www.marbletrack3.com/episode/](https://www.marbletrack3.com/episode/)

------
jedberg
Property management. It can be a pain sometimes, but honestly I enjoy having
to spend a day once in a while painting a house or clearing weeds.

~~~
soniman
Where do you get clients? Or is it your own property?

------
arispen
I have an early music band (medieval / renaissance). We play at castles,
battlegrounds, festivals, for museums etc :)

------
m3kw9
Look and research companies, understand their product, invest in them thru
stock market. Go long(6 month to years).

------
em-bee
how about blacksmithing?

[https://www.wired.com/2013/02/provos/](https://www.wired.com/2013/02/provos/)

i don't know if nils is doing commission work or selling his swords, but i am
pretty sure he could sell those for a good price.

~~~
jpgvm
Also the author of libevent and all around awesome guy.

------
dteiml
Tutoring. Not anymore but back in the day. It also inspired me to kick off the
project www.solvio.org

------
massi-brero
Playing bass... Although... money-making...? Helped feeding my little family
while at university...

------
mehalter
I have craft cocktail catering business with a couple other cocktail lovers
who work technical jobs

~~~
inerte
I’ve always thought about starting a side business doing that. I love making
cocktails and want to practice and actually serve people. How do you do it? Do
you have a website?

------
JohnFen
I do have money-making side projects, but they are software projects as well.

~~~
self_awareness
Any chances of telling us what they are in more details?

~~~
JohnFen
I just have a couple of contract jobs on the side. Nothing particularly
interesting. One is software for a custom physical security system (involves
cameras, RFID readers, and various sensors), and the other is for an embedded
system that is to be used for environmental monitoring and control in a
greenhouse (monitors things like soil moisture, CO2, temperature, and so
forth).

------
kdot
I own a small trucking fleet.

I have rental properties in Detroit and Atlanta.

------
iamank
I havent tried yet but [https://gitpay.me](https://gitpay.me) looks like
something which pays(not much) and is related to code..

Would appreciate feedback if someone has experience with this.

------
niqmk
I'm a trader

------
stendinator
I sell Bonsais.

------
bashwizard
Bug bounties and penetration testing.

------
weego
Landlord

------
known
NASDAQ and Real estate

------
hemmert
Mine is Escape Team:

www.escape-team.com

~~~
ElCapitanMarkla
Hey I saw this here last week and just played through the whole lot with my
partner tonight. We’re looking forward to you’re next update if you are
working on more.

------
randomacct3847
Investing. Q1 was a record quarter for the stock market...

------
iheartpotatoes
I build boats.

~~~
acangiano
What kind of boats? Do you have a site?

~~~
iheartpotatoes
No site, but I also misread the title of the post: I make no money doing it.
It is just a hobby. I make kayaks and canoes. Been doing it for almost a
decade, I make about one a year.

~~~
acangiano
Got you. That's very cool.

------
majickdave
Index fund

~~~
nokya
Could you elaborate? (Please :)

~~~
bardworx
I'm guessing they just invest all their extra capital into index funds and
watch them grow.

------
hundreddaysoff
emergency doctor

~~~
system2
Well, it sounds like programming is your side project.

------
richardbravo
Blogging Maybe

------
anotherthro313
I travel a lot, and outside of the United States, countries have import taxes,
especially on luxury goods. In some countries and iPhone Xs will cost $800
more than in the USA.

I have to visit the USA about 8 times per year, so every time I do I buy 10
phones in a state with no sales tax (usually Oregon) and make about $5k in
profit selling locally (which does eat up a ton of time, but not $5k worth).

~~~
NLips
So... smuggling?

~~~
anotherthro313
:shrug*, why not?

It's a very honest business. Could you say the same about Google, Facebook, or
Twitter?

------
caprese
Attempting to make money making side projects and instead just expensing
servers and subcontractors and getting the tax refund from everything my
employer withheld by April

~~~
js4
You aren’t really making money here. Just getting the money you made back.

~~~
caprese
Obviously? Thats why it says “and instead just” after “attempting to make
money”?

------
throwawayman194
Throwaway because I don't want to risk losing my job for asking this.

Is all the comments here only from men, or are there any women here who make
money from side projects?

~~~
clubm8
> Throwaway because I don't want to risk losing my job for asking this.

Do you often have issues at work when you feel you're "just asking questions"?

I haven't seen a single person mention their gender yet. For all we know
_everyone_ who has replied is female.

Maybe don't assume someone's gender based on data like hobbies?

~~~
nimonian
> I haven't seen a single person mention their gender yet.

That's why, in order to establish the answer to OC's question, it is necessary
to ask.

> Maybe don't assume someone's gender based on data like hobbies?

Directly asking is the opposite of assuming.

Your attitude is why OC made a throw away.

