Help HN: Want to build small web app for learning and side income.

You can spend less than that $300 until you get going if you use GoogleAppEngine, where you'd only end up paying if you get higher levels of usage.

Rackspace cloud will cost $10 a month for the basic server if you need to not use java/python, as it sounds like you might need to. You theoretically can do Ruby on GAE via a java implementation, and php I think...

If you need web design, you're going to be a little short there likely to get it done, but you may be able to learn enough to get going there.

I'd say you posted in the right place because lots of people here have the opposite problem - too many ideas, not enough time. Here's my list of random ideas that I feel can make some money each month if executed well: http://bulletxt.zetabee.com/share?n=1548888784&h=SHdydmJ...

I haven't updated it in a few months because I've been busy with an interesting project. Maybe something on the list will inspire you. You're welcome to take an idea directly too if you wish. Do let me know so I can move it down to the baked list :)

You should see if one of these works for you - http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

Numbers 1, 2 and 4 are very easy to satisfy. Several people have already posted lists of ideas that they and others maintain. I seem to recall Y-Combinator posting lists of the types of projects they wish to look at in the future too, so it would be worth searching for them. If you can't self host then .NET hosting is going to cost you around US$10 a month, although there are deals to be had - I think I pay $35 for 6 months of web and SQL Server hosting with a company that is passable for what I need it for. Unless you have a real passion to learn something new, I'd stick with the languages you now, it will be much quicker to get to where you need to go than if you learn a whole new language.

But the problem is in monetization. Firstly if you can get an idea from start to making money in 6 months (for example) then I don't think there is really a cap on what you can make, I can't see a reason why $400 per month would be all you would want to make, and if you make something that can make money you should always be able to find new users (an exception to that might be if you made something very specific to only a few people and had an easy way to market it - eg something 100 HN users might like and no one else).

But defining a web app that you can develop and easily make money is not easy. Most people's "idea lists" have lots of very interesting ideas, few of them I can ever imagine making a penny. My suggestion would be to look around you, you have a job, is any of the software you develop something you can clone and sell to other businesses (there are legal issues there, but you can often work around them and it depends where you are). Are there everyday tasks that people are using spreadsheets or Access DB's or paper to do that you could create a system for and charge $10 a month? Find an idea like that, spend 10, 20 or 50 dollars on Google Adwords pointing to a fake sales page and see if you have a market. Good luck.

I'm in the same boat with similar skill set. Do you want to get-together on IM for some brainstorming? May be we can work together on something. Contact is in the profile, if you are interested.

Talk to people about what sucks about their job. Pick the problem with the most whines per lines of codeit will take to fix. Fair warning: $200 a month projects get drastically bigger if you figure out marketing.

The $1,000,000 dollar question... Literally

I would go to Elance and look through the things people are paying for. If you can find something that lots of people are buying but can be commoditized you've found a winner. Since you are experienced in PHP, make some PHP component that people want but the current solutions are crap. Web Developers will easily pay $100 for something of quality that will save time. I think it is easier to sell a digital product than SaaS if you want to do this part time. It's nice to get your money and have no further obligation to your customer. As far as marketing, you can submit a PAD of your software product. That will give you a surprising amount of free traffic. Also, you can giveaway licenses of your product via bloggers. To accept payments I use FastSpring. It looks professional and there are no setup or monthly costs (so no risk). Good luck!

Here's a few links with ideas:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/

http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html

http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html

http://astartupaday.wordpress.com/

http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/

I've taken all these from a list in the 'Start Small, Stay Small' book here: http://www.startupbook.net/

Good luck!

When you're looking at ideas, filter not just for how much a particular idea interests you but how much it will cost to market. A productivity app that addresses a specific issue, for example, has a much more defined, low cost route to market than a website where you need to work with multiple manufacturers and attract consumers to launch a crowd-sourced clothing line production website.

The simplest formula is: 1. Solve a specific problem; 2. Tell the people who have the problem that you've solved it; 3. Convert them; 4. Profit. If the number of people you need to reach with #2 is vast, it's less likely you will reach #4 with the kind of budget you're talking about.

Play with Google CSE and build niche search engine http://www.google.com/cse/

I built a nifty search engine using Google CSE API over a weekend. It got over 30,000 unique visitors per day and made $2,000 per month.

It was probably one of the most advanced search engine built on Google CSE.

Not sure if you are still a student or working full time.

I have few ideas but I guess only student would be interested to work on it.

These ideas wont make you millionaire but you will definitely make enough money to pay your rent and will help you learn how to do business in general.

Start with Paul Graham's essay about startup ideas:

http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

Phrase the idea as a question worth exploring: can I build a startup on the idea of [insert idea here]?

To quote:

> Treating a startup idea as a question changes what you're looking for. If an idea is a blueprint, it has to be right. But if it's a question, it can be wrong, so long as it's wrong in a way that leads to more ideas.

So what I suggest you do, is build a webapp based on some idea, but don't count on it making you much money. You'll still be getting experience and learning how to run and manage your servers (and that's really the core of your business).

$200/mo is quite manageable if you just put Google ads and have a decent amount of visitors. To do that, you don't need to have a business idea, you just need a site that provides some cool service that a decent amount of people would want to use it.

Point being, you don't have to hunt for a business idea.

even I am a full time employee (but m a Fresh Graduate). I have been seriously giving a thought on starting something of my own or at least deploy some application on apps engine and throw it for review on HN. I work on Java. Currently located at Cornell University, working on Semantic Web Application. Interested in Information retrieval and Machine Learning. Currently working on Semantic search and developing a small hobby application of entity finder. Can I be of help to anyone ? or anyone wants to work together towards some idea/application ? I struggle to take out some time for hobby projects with all day packed with project and assignments ( I have taken some additional courses in Comp. Sci here) but still there is this constant urge to do something more interesting and throw it out to people.

Have you started working on anything ?