HN Explorer

From $0 to $20,145.92 in 2 months with a side project

6 points by zenorocha ↗ HN
(screenshot: https://share.getcloudapp.com/yAu288nm)

I've been building open source software for the past 10 years. And I always thought that monetization was evil.

It took me a while to realize that money is not evil, money is oxygen.

In December 2019, I decided to learn more about sales. So I went to Amazon and bought several books.

In the end, I only read one - but I quickly realized that if I really wanted to learn this, I'd have to practice it in real life.

I love my job and I was definitely not looking to leave it. However, you can always start a side project, and that's what I decided to do.

I opened GitHub, looked at my open source projects, and built a plan around monetizing Dracula, which is a dark theme for developers.

At first, this seemed like a crazy idea. Who would buy a color scheme for their code editors?

When you start, there are all these inner voices trying to stop you, but deep down, I knew I could build something meaningful.

In February 2020, I launched and... people started to buy. The feeling of receiving even $1 for your side project is unbelievable.

It's really hard to explain. It opens your eyes to a different reality.

Two months later this side project already made $20,145.92.

If you're considering creating a side project, stop waiting, and do it. Do it now. I mean it, close this page and start it right now.

I'm sure you're not going to regret it a couple of months from now.

If you're curious about this side project I created, you can check it out here: https://draculatheme.com/pro

8 comments

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jpistell
> At first, this seemed like a crazy idea. Who would buy a color scheme for their code editors?

I have thoughts like this all the time when I look at my github repos.

zenorocha
Totally! We think that our own projects will never be that successful, but we'll only discover if that's true or not if we try.
jpistell
I have a long drive this afternoon. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thank you.
seddin
That's great, how are you handling sales?

edit: i found out its via stripe

zenorocha
I'm using Gumroad to manage transactions, affiliates, etc.
rcacho
What sales books did you read? Which would you most recommend?
zenorocha
I read Launch by Jeff Walker (https://amzn.to/2xoLNav). I would say it's a great book for starters like me, which didn't even have a mailing list yet.
justaj
This is honestly the first time I'm hearing about someone monetizing a color scheme. I didn't even now such a thing was possible.

Was it already popular before you started to monetize it? I see that the Github repo [0] has 12k+ stars, so I assume it was already pretty popular beforehand. Did you get more exposure (and GH stars) after the choice to monetize it?

Also, what things does the bonus screencast cover?

I just downloaded the Alacritty theme [1] and to my liking the background is too bright (I guess I prefer it darker than Dracula hehe), so I changed it to 0x000000, but other than that I like it, it's definitely pleasant on the eyes.

[0]: https://github.com/dracula/dracula-theme

[1]: https://github.com/dracula/alacritty/tree/af38d360e9589a75a2...