On: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

[thibaut_barrere]

It all depends on what you put behind the word 'project' (and there's no judgment in my sentence).

For most programmers, a project is something that has already a decent size, is complex to get out and test on the field.

If you think this way, a "side-project" can only be rare.

On the other hand: a friend of mine started exactly the way Max describes a long while back, and currently runs way more than 400 sites/projects.

He is also doing way more than 12k€ per month.

The thing is 95% of his projects wouldn't even catch the 'regular' (if there's such thing) programmer's interest :)

[tjogin → thibaut_barrere]

It would be really interesting if you could describe some of these projects briefly.

[thibaut_barrere → tjogin]

Those I know revolve around affiliation, alternate search engines, porn/erotic stuff, niche technological forums and such topics :)

Not by him but in the same kind of idea, here's an example:

http://fastpowertools.com/

A while back I know the owner of this site did a few hundreds $ per month. It was really an eye-opener to me :)

Of course this requires SEO skills to earn more than a few bucks, that need to be learn on the way.

I started a couple of sites like this one, and although I earned a bit of money, I wanted to try sites that are really useful to myself, which I'm focusing on now.

I think it's always good to remind myself that between what would look a half-spammy site to a regular programmer, and the typical too complex projects regular programmers would start, there's a sweet spot in the middle.

[aw3c2 → thibaut_barrere]

That site looks like a shady search engine spam site. I could never earn money like that and feel good about myself.

[thibaut_barrere → aw3c2]

Well, it's a fun experiment per se - but for one it's hard to really get past the few bucks stage here.

I do understand what you say, that said. My overall feeling is that these kind of sites are not really "changing the world", if I dare.

So now I'm trying to solve real issues I have. It's more fun for me!

[jacquesm → thibaut_barrere]

What I wouldn't give for a way to filter all sites like that from search engine results ;)

[thibaut_barrere → jacquesm]

I would pay for that as well :)

Do you know of projects that achieve that correctly ?

I know about custom google search engines with all the big retail stores removed, for instance.

[nitrogen → thibaut_barrere]

Is there a generic webapp (something like OSCommerce) that can automatically create an affiliate store like the one you linked when supplied with a list of item names or URLs?

[thibaut_barrere → nitrogen]

Search for "affiliate store script" and I think you should find some.

[flog → thibaut_barrere]

Thibaut, are they all advertising based?

The major pain point for me is payment processing.

[thibaut_barrere → flog]

nope: it's really a mix of affiliate/commissions, regular ads and micropayments (allopass).

[axod → thibaut_barrere]

>> "and currently runs way more than 400 sites/projects."

I'm guessing they're some sort of auto generated content sites ranking and making money off ads?