
Ask HN: Passive income ideas from content website? - throwaway_yc
There are many posts here about people making money off side projects or businesses they manage on their own, but it seems like almost all of them are selling a product or a service. I&#x27;m wondering if anyone is making substantial money from a site that just generates content (and isn&#x27;t selling a service&#x2F;product) ? (Looking for examples of people doing this on their own, not big companies running news&#x2F;content sites)
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stevesearer
I run [https://officesnapshots.com](https://officesnapshots.com) which is a
content website that started off as a side project. We have a few employees
now and it is anything but passive income.

Content is interesting to me because the monetary value of an individual piece
of content in most cases is basically zero, so the value ends up coming from
the way you curate, organize, and present a specific type of content.

One site I created a while back curated photos of wedding bouquets and
organized the photos by the types of flowers that were in each bouquet.
Another that I am currently running for fun organizes a specific type of
information related to the city I live in which is really only useful to
people who live here.

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throwaway13000
So how is the "curated wedding bouquet photos" site different from Pinterest?
Is it just a more focused site?

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stevesearer
From my experience people who are searching for something specific enjoy
finding a tool specifically made for what they are looking for.

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soulchild37
Why not compile your content and make it into a product (ebook, course
whatever) ?

I periodically blog about iOS development, compiled few posts (and added
additional chapters not available in the blog) into an ebook and sells them.

Wouldn't say substantial money but I have earned $1k+ from selling a $29 ebook

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spraveenitpro
1\. Set up a WordPress site, regurgitate content from content farms. 2\. Set
up WordAds. 3\. Profit.

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non-entity
Out of curiosity, will search engines not punish you for regurgitating content
farm stuff?

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Scoundreller
Eventually, but evidently a lot get away with it.

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Nilef
Can you mention the subject of the site? Would make it much easier to give a
specific answer (and as someone with a content website which is profitable, I
think I can give a decent answer)

