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Ask HN: Source of side projects

3 points by darklajid ↗ HN
I know that this was discussed over and over again, but I'd like to gather some thoughts on this if possible:

How do you fellow mortals (i.e. the sad people like me, corporate drone looking for extra income vs. people actually working on cool stuff) gain some extra cash?

I'm not talking about 'Do you have great iOS/Android application ideas for me to steal' or 'How can I build a blog to get rich', I'm seriously just talking about some extra bucks for the savings account.

What I tried:

- elance: What a rip-off. Lead literally nowhere, but I've to admit that I gave up right after checking it for 30mins or so. Mostly because if

- vworker: Ouch. Now trying to squeeze something out there is not a good idea if you're trying to keep your sanity and dignity. So far each and every project seems to be flooded by people from all over the world and the few projects that screamed 'I'm made for you' where closed to private bids _after I quickly finished the project and while I was typing a "I've got what you need, this is what I did" bid - or the employer went with a _more expensive_ alternative, probably because I cannot ramp up any ratings there.

Now I'm at a loss right now, trying to look into the recently discussed tinyproj (let's see what Saturday brings in terms of opportunities), but it seems that competition online is a disaster.

So - do you earn some extra money in the evenings/on weekends? Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong or what I'm missing so far?

4 comments

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icode
What surprises me is that you want to earn some extra cash while you are already have a (i guess) fulltime job. What impact would the extra money have on your life?
darklajid
Reading my submission again it was too money centric, let me rephrase it:

I'm looking for side projects that help me grow, learn - and get me away from my day job.... These projects should be payed, because otherwise I feel really bad about the time spent (I'm an oss guy here and contribute there as well. Not the same thing).

Talking money again: Yes, I have a day-job. The extra money would go into the 'pay off my wedding and put some cash aside to explore the country you moved to' fond, regulated by my wife and me.

subv3rsion
Network. Not virtually either, I did it all in person. A lot of my work comes in from personal connections, conferences, and social meet ups. I am selective about the work, as I love my full-time job, and I want the balance in my life (plus the extra money like yourself).

I started originally by reaching out to people starting a small business, and others from my (physical) social network reached out to me in turn. Put yourself out there.

darklajid
Good point, but hard to pull off.

On one hand for me, personally (I suck at selling, myself included) and on another hand it's a bad time for that (just relocated to a new country, don't speak the language yet, left most of my 'network' behind).

You're making sense, I just fail to see a way to follow your advice right now.