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Ask HN: How can I generate side income?

40 points by lewisj489 ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I work as a full time dev earning an OK salary (In UK terms). I find myself often struggling to buy any luxuries/pay off debt after my paycheck comes in.

I have lots of free time which I just spend doing side projects for fun. I need to turn this fun time into money time.

As a developer, what are some ways I could turn my time into money? Obviously I could try and sell some side projects, but I love open-sourcing everything I write.

Thanks

11 comments

[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 20.4 ms ] thread
smt88
This is a hard question to answer. For some people, it's easier to A) find a higher-paying job, B) lower their cost of living, or both.

Is your lifestyle or your city expensive? Do you actively apply to jobs with better salaries? Have you asked for a raise recently?

Passive/side income often results from luck and lots of hard work, despite the stories you see on HN making it look easy.

lewisj489
I'm not currently looking for another job because I'm moving country soon (And they're letting me work remotely). It's not that my lifestyle in general is expensive, but when I see a Wetherspoons I can't help but have a cheeky pint or two (Which adds up at the end of the month).

I have won money from hackathons before but they're normally in the week when I work, which is a shame.

eafkuor
You say you are moving country so I suppose you’re flexible. Try giving Poland a go. Polish language is not required to land a job and dev salaries compared to cost of life are insane. Just avoid Krakow for the pollution
BigBalli
I used to be in the same situation. Two pieces of advice come to mind from my experience.

1) If you have a problem, most likely someone else does too. 2) Although others can replicate what you have built (proves it is a good market fit), many will still prefer to pay something reasonable for it (to save time or simply because they can't build it on their own).

Just make a landing page for a handful of "projects" you already built, post on HN/twitter, and see how much traction they get (google will also pick them up if it's a good niche).

At that point, you will know if investing time for minimal packaging (payment system, user admin etc) is worth it.

Jack000
#1 is oft-repeated advice, but as a dev this is a great way to end up with another static site generator, obscure javascript library or css framework.

Might be better to apply this to non-coding domains, or applications that "normal" people will use.

BartBoch
Possibly do an occasional freelancer work? Earn a bit when needed.

Also, you can work your way up by offering an additional customization to projects you release as open source.

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twojobsatonce
I have a full-time office job running mostly automated systems that rarely need any intervention, leaving me free time to get another full-time job doing the same job remotely.

Technically I am working the two jobs simultaneously which most people would consider a no-no, but the remote job is aware of the local job so that's covered, and the local job really, truly doesn't need full-time attention so as long as the few tasks are covered I don't really see the harm.

marktangotango
With remote work becoming more prevalent I wonder why this isn’t done more; ie moonlighting. Any others doing this? Hiring managers, are you on the lookout for people doing this on the sly?
aussieguy1234
indiehackers.com is a good resource for this.

Your goals are different from the startups here, in that you're not after investor funding, but instead want to earn a side income.

Therefore you won't need to quit your job and spend 100 hour weeks on your side projects, like you might have to with a startup. You can simply build it and grow slowly.

helen842000
What kinds of things do you enjoy building? The best side projects play to your advantages.

Definitely try to sell some existing side projects on SideProjectors or Borderline.biz - even a small purchase feels like a success.

If you're stuck for possible profitable ideas, I can suggest quite a few depending on your preferred tech stack