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Ask HN: How to make an extra $50k+ per year without changing jobs?

38 points by ryanSrich ↗ HN
Curious if anyone here has either built a side project or started something with the explicit goal of making $50k+?

This would be in addition to holding down a 40 hour work week full-time job.

70 comments

[ 5.9 ms ] story [ 132 ms ] thread
crobertsbmw
I launched a baby book, Computer Engineering for Babies (https://computerengineeringforbabies.com/), back in September. And have surpassed my regular salary by a 3x. It’s still a side project because I am having a hard time leaving my own job. I’ll probably leave soon, but when you have a mortgage and kids, something about a regular paycheck is hard to leave behind.
BugsJustFindMe
You typoed the URL.
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ksaj
It's ironic because early on, people saw the video but didn't have the link, so his Kickstarter basically showed a huge flood of organic traffic to the campaign.
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taphangum
Fascinating!

I'm working on a book as well, but for the Frontend. I'm very curious to know more about how you marketed this?

I know it's a different niche, but is there any globally applicable advice you'd give?

crobertsbmw
I think the book has a really high virality factor. I was able to do a few posts on reddit, and people would like and share it. It's that whole "product market fit" thing. If you have a good product that people need or want, then marketing is pretty easy, and word of mouth (whether online or in real life) drives way more sales than anything else.
taphangum
That's awesome! And agreed, there is nothing better than natural fit/wom marketing. Congrats!
frontman1988
Making money from books is hard in general. OP found a great niche and amazing market fit. For frontend books, you will have tough competition not just from other similar books, but also bootcamps, free tutorials etc.
moralestapia
Very nice and congratulations :D

Would you mind writing a bit about how you got it in the market, do you run ads for it, etc?

crobertsbmw
I just got super lucky. I launched it on Kickstarter and did a post on /r/arduino the day of the launch that just kind of blew up over there, and that got me to my 10k funding goal on the first day. Then someone stole the video and crossposted on LinkedIn, and that REALLY blew up. The post got like 1M views or something. They didn't share a link to the Kickstarter or anything, so I was getting a lot of traffic but it looked like it was all showing up as direct/search traffic, because people had to go to google and actively seek out the book. Halfway through the campaign I brought on an ad agency that just does Kickstarter campaigns, and I had a pretty good experience with them as well. The campaign ended at just under $250k.

Since then I've continued to take pre-orders and have just been doing facebook ads. I expect that when people start getting their books, that will help drive a lot more traffic, and then I hopefully won't have to be so reliant upon facebook ads.

riazrizvi
Oh so at this point it’s unclear what you’ll receive as personal income from the project?
crobertsbmw
I have a pretty good idea of what my take home will be for all the current preorders. But who knows when the well will dry up.
voidfunc
Great idea. Selling educational materials might honestly be the best option for people in tech where our employers often own our code IP by default due to our contracts.
popotamonga
I know how it is, i only managed to leave my "real" job when my "side" things amounted to 22x salary the real job. Should have done it sooner, in retrospect.
fumplethumb
Amazing! Just placed an order. Im expecting my first child in May, so I couldn’t resist.
enonevets
I remember coming across this when you posted about it before. Congrats on the success!
watmough
Ordered.

My kids will love it.

illwrks
This is amazing, a fantastic idea! Well done.

How did you take it from idea to production? Do you have a design or print production background?

crobertsbmw
I’ve designed one or two circuit boards in the past but that’s about it. I did a lot of prototypes to get things to work the way I wanted it and then working with a manufacturer in China that was very patient with me while we work out all the bugs.
avinassh
How does the whole designing, printing actually works in this case? So the manufacturer would send a prototype and you would test it, make sure it meets your quality requirements and then give a go ahead? The to and forth would also take lot of time!

I am really interested in learning more about this and your journey

fossuser
This is great! I just ordered one for my niece :)
ta2234234242
It made me think that 555 timers for babies would be a fun book to write too...
jpurnell
I actually bought this, and got one from the first batch. Great book, my 3 year-old loves playing with it.
jpurnell
I actually bought this, and got one from the first batch. Great book, my 3 year-old loves playing with it. Definitely recommend.
bitxbitxbitcoin
Depending on how much cash you have sitting around, I have heard of people on /r/churning pulling that amount in from credit card and bank bonus churning.
lilsoso
Is this still possible? I thought the strategies for this were closed.

The general method would be to open a cash back credit card with lucrative bonuses/incentives and then figure out a way to spend money on the credit card yet have it return back to you at a lower cost than the rewards rate.

I am not aware of anyone successfully pulling off that trick at scale anymore. And even if it were possible, I believe it might cause tax headaches.

Gamging credit card sign up bonuses works well for say an international vacation or two a year, but beyond that I'm not sure it's worth the time.

Given your alias that includes the name bitcoin, I tend to believe there are still arbitrage strategies in crypto markets that would meet the goal easier. The problem with both credit card churning and crypto trading is that when the 'alpha' is shared, it's generally competed away -- so successful strategies aren't often shared.

bitxbitxbitcoin
For credit card churning, there are no tax headaches because reward points aren't taxed as income. There are still many viable ways to "spend money on the credit card yet have it return back to you at a lower cost than the rewards rate."

Most of the people that I see pulling in 5 figures from churning are doing a combination of that plus bank account bonus churning. I'm talking about the kind of deal where you put in 200k for a few months and get a 2k bonus - hence the question about how much cash is around. It's a little active but you'll get closer to ~10% APY chasing those bonuses. That is taxed as income, though. Still, it's pretty straight forward on taxes since everything comes in as a 1099.

I also believe there are arbitrage strategies in crypto markets that would meet the goal easier. On the spectrum, though, that's going to be the most tax headache approach.

Happy to share some alpha with you. DM me on Twitter!

jensv
Yes, doing Amazon FBA as a side hustle.
huijzer
> Curious if anyone here has either built a side project or started something with the explicit goal of making $50k+?

No, but in general:

"The desire to get rich fast is pretty dangerous."

- Charlie Munger

What he means by this is that a lot of dumb things are caused by the desire to get rich fast. On average, slow but steady strategies outperform quick but risky strategies. See also the nice book The Dhandho Investor which talkes about placing "heads I win, tails I don’t lose much" bets. And yes, investment advice applies here because the question is about where to invest time (and possibly other resources too).

rco8786
To be fair, an extra $50k a year is not "getting rich" in the sense that Charlie is talking about here... This is a perfectly reasonable goal for someone with enough time to devote to a side project.
Matthias247
It really depends on where you are coming from. For an US software engineer with a salary of 300k$ it might not be a lot and a reasonable goal. For lots of others it might mean doubling their salary, which sounds a lot like "getting rich".
rco8786
I guess so. “Rich” is relative not to your current self but to those around you, IMO. If I doubled my salary from $20k-$40k I might feel better off but by no means would anyone consider me to be rich, at least in the US
amelius
"Yeah, but that advice only holds for people who are not as smart as I am" :)
melony
This is poverty advice to keep the middle class in their lane. You cannot get rich on a salary alone. This is well known advice. Even if you invest all your savings into long term investments/high yield ETFS and get a mid 6-7 figures job right out of college, at most you will be able to retire in the early thirties. To be rich enough to own private jets and high end yachts, you need to fundamentally create value or be very lucky. Some options are joining a promising, almost-IPO ready startup with generous equity or building something society needs. Either that or having a small fortune to start with and then becoming successful on the commodity markets. Side projects also work if they truly generate overwhelming value. You cannot however expect to reach 100+ million by working hard alone unless you are extremely well compensated in equity.
AndrewOMartin
A lot of these statements might be factual, but if it's middle class to retire in your early thirties then I've overestimated my lot in life and will be adopting a flat cap and a Whippet on a rope forthwith.
melony
If you have no kids, it is actually quite doable.
ryanSrich
As other's have said, I don't see how an extra $50k per year would constitute being rich. If I had said "what's the fastest way to 10x $100k" then yes, you'd fall into the trap of speculative assets and gambling. I'm talking more about strategies to make $50k over the course of 12 months while still having time for a full-time job and family activities. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
elric
Been with the same company for ~10 years. Am now making roughly 50k (EUR) more than when I started. Probably no the answer you were looking for, but it's worked out pretty well for me.
tyingq
If you started at €100k, you'll get to €150k in 10 years with a 4 percent raise per year. But that's not particularly stellar if you assume 2-3% annual inflation :)
elric
Good luck getting a consistent 4% raise over 10 years when starting out at 100k. Virtually zero software engineers (in Belgium) are on 100k/year.
jokethrowaway
My main client has its main office in Belgium and I'm charging roughly 200k/y (while living in a cheaper European country).

I used to think I was pushing the limit when I was working in the UK as an individual contributor and started working with US companies (which I don't recommend, terrible SJW culture and insane workload). Eventually I found European companies are happy to pay as well, you just need to find the right circle and sell your skills well.

I agree it's not as easy as the states and there are a bunch of "bean-counting" roles in Europe. At the same time, you're not living in the states which is a big pro, if you ask me.

If you're looking for something better with a similar climate, quality of life but way more money maybe you should try the north side of Switzerland.

Also, you could have probably done better with job hopping every 2 years, that seems to be the norm to maximise salary raises. When you job hob you try to aim for a 20% raise which probably beats getting 5k every year at your current job.

elric
If you're charging 200k, you're not an employee. Contractors are a different breed entirely, with their own woes and vagaries.
discobot2
FANGs now hire remote workers and pay much, much more than 100k.
avinassh
Which all FAANGs hire remote now? I thought they all had requirements of office
elric
Was approached by Amazon and Google somewhat recently, they both wanted me to relocate to Dublin. Perhaps FAN hire for 100% remote, but AG don't seem to.
rco8786
I have a side project SaaS that nets about $30k/yr income - it takes about 2 hours a week of my time to maintain (99% is responding to user support), though I spend another 5-6/wk trying to grow it (~50/50 marketing and eng development).

Full disclosure, however...I bought it (on Microacquire) for ~$100k. But there's no reason I could not have/you cannot build something with similar economics, though you will need to frontload many more hours to get it going.

ryanSrich
How much was it making when you bought it? What is the profit margin? Have you recouped your initial 100k investment? I've always been curious about Microacquire, but the risk seems very high.
rco8786
I only closed a few months ago, things have just been flat mostly since I took over. The previous owner had done very little marketing. Still figuring it out.

I have not recouped yet, obviously. Profit margins are like 80-85%. But it’s no riskier than buying a biz elsewhere IMO

ttul
There are honestly so many small problems that need to be solved with software. Many if not most of these problems are too small for a real company to take on. Find one of them and solve it and you’ll easily clear $50,000/yr from your side project.
lordofgibbons
Can you please give an example or two of what kinds of problems you mean?
DougN7
Sometimes it is making other software easier to use. I have a buddy that works with traffic lights for a city. Some of the software they use has an awful UI. The city would gladly pay a few thousand for an add-in/plugin/whatever to make it easier to use (the company producing the software won’t do it).

These kinds of problems are found by talking to people, and really digging in. They probably are everywhere.

zrail
If you're a software engineer, start interviewing. A $50k raise is entirely possible.
jollofricepeas
Assuming you’re a developer or similar type of tech worker.

Ask your previous employer if they need any work done. You can easily bring in $50k+ by renting our your time.

Friends charge anywhere from $80-250/hr.

If you don’t have a previous employer, then try Upwork. Start with a low rate then work your way up.

amelius
> Ask your previous employer if they need any work done.

This is actually a great idea!

dataspun
Lol. “try Upwork, start with a low rate” must be a joke. You could easily waste 5k hours grooming your profile and responding to “jobs” before you earn your $50k.
jollofricepeas
That’s too bad. I wish you better luck.

I’ve hired lots of people through Upwork. Most of them have been with me for years and I’d say all have made $5-25k with me annually depending on need.

The trick is to generate leads and have multiple sources for lead generation.

bbayer
I think starting a side project with a goal of revenue is not practical. For me, doing side project is doing something that you can't normally do in day to day job. So, it has to something that I love to spend time for. On the other hand, I always think about making many part when I start something new. My side projects are generally about making games and mobile applications, search engine optimization, writing programs that transform data from one form to another. When I finish a side project, I don't hesitate to putting some ads and make passive income. It is lovely to make money while you are sleeping from something that you have enjoyed creating it.
missedthecue
Most surefire way would be Upwork or similar platform. There are "easier" passive income type ways that many have listed here, but they are high risk (Amazon FBA, mobile apps, side project SaaS, etc...)
stevage
Consulting on the side would be the obvious way. At 200 per hour you need about 20 hours a month.
gw67
- Pick up the top 10-20 B2B SaaS by revenue (not money raised). A very crowded space is better.

- Try to used them for a few weeks

- Carefully talk to users and read feedback online about what it doesn't work good

- Build an MVP which solve really well that particular feature and it's 10x easier to use.

- Crete a landing page with Webflow/Umso and try to sell it