Ask HN: Those making over $1K/month on side projects, what did you make? - kashifzaidi1
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donutdan4114
I built an app plugin for Shopify called Custom Fields
[https://customfields.bonify.io](https://customfields.bonify.io)

I must say, if you want to build something that instantly has a market
consider building plugins for existing 3rd party systems that allow you to
charge a fee. It ends up being a much smaller project than trying to build
your own, huge web app, and it comes with a targeted, focused audience who can
easily install your app with a couple clicks (and get charged). You don't
really have to market anything.

Build something good and people will find it.

~~~
k__
Yes, sounds reasonable.

I know a few companies and people who make good money with shopify-,
wordpress- or atlassian-plugins.

There should be a directory for such systems with market places.

~~~
coreymaass
I started looking for opportunities in WordPress a couple years ago. Anytime I
found a new app, I got in the habit of checking if it existed as a WordPress
plugin. I've since built a nice side business that I hope to grow into a day
job.

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jbigelow76
Semi-tangent: about 2 months ago someone posted a site that listed potential
SaaS eligible services requested and suggested price points, does anyone
recall that url?

~~~
mjlee
[https://www.demandrush.com](https://www.demandrush.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14552615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14552615)

~~~
jbigelow76
Thread and link I was thinking of, thank you!

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everdev
[http://indiehackers.com](http://indiehackers.com) is a great resource for
learning about profitable side projects

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mikejarema
Namevine: [https://namevine.com/](https://namevine.com/)

Find a domain name with matching social media handles. Instantly searches as-
you-type. Also provides some simple "suggestions" based on common startup
prefixes and suffixes.

Monetized via affiliate commissions on referred domain sales.

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benjohnson
Selling Rsync/ZFS-Storage as a service at $.05 per GB - figured how to combine
Cygwin Rsync and Volume Shadow Service on windows to backup locked files.

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drdoooom
nothing to contribute on my own, but this may interest you:
[https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses](https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses)
\- probably something worth reading as it goes in to ideas and their
implementation. interesting to note that there is a weather app chrome
extension there that seems to make 2.5k per month.

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shutton
Gaggle Mail ([https://gaggle.email/](https://gaggle.email/))

Group Email SaaS

~~~
coreymaass
Thrilled this exists and monetization was figured out. Years ago, I used a
similar service that shut down unexpectedly because the creator couldn't
figure out how to monetize it. I've thought about rebuilding it myself twice.
I even own the domains! :-)

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client4
I facilitate high value in person Bit/Alt coin transactions.

~~~
thisisit
Fascinating. How did you go about building this as a business?

~~~
client4
I wouldn't call it a business per-se. It seems about once every month or two I
can organize a connection, but I have thought about making it a bit more
commercial.

~~~
thisisit
Ok but how did you make your start in this space?

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spot
[https://gold.electricsheep.org/](https://gold.electricsheep.org/)

~~~
corobo
That elevator pitch people are always waffling on about, this is a good place
for it :P

~~~
spot
The Electric Sheep is an infinite animation created with the collective
intelligence of the internet, crowdsource, AI, and distributed computing.

It has been a free service for many years but now there is a premium HD
version.

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chrisabrams
GPU miners

~~~
mahdix
Bitcoin? I thought there are lots of free stuff for that.

~~~
mchannon
GPU's aren't used for mining Bitcoin. Bitcoin's algorithm is CPU-intensive,
and is nearly exclusively done on from-the-Silicon-up purpose-built chips like
Avalon and Antminer.

GPU's are used for mining other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Ethereum.
These can be traded for Bitcoin or fiat currencies.

~~~
simias
Bitcoin was GPU mined for a while (it's "just" SHA-256, it's not particularly
designed to be GPU-hard unlike other PoW algorithms) but you're right that
since ASIC mining became the norm it's not really cost-effective to mine BTC
on the GPU.

Some other cryptocurrencies have algorithms that are designed to be hard for
GPUs and ASICs (cryptonote for instance) but I think it's just postponing the
inevitable. If those altcoins become valuable enough I'm sure people will
start making micro-optimized dedicated hardware to mine them and eventually it
won't make sense to use GPUs for them either.

