Ask HN: Do you have side-projects that generate >$500 revenue/month? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you have side-projects that generate >$500 revenue/month?

What inspired you to build that project and how long did it take?

I run a niche analytics business for like $4000 MRR currently, genuinely 'vibe coded' it to try out LLM capacities (late comer on the LLM train here). I felt like the need was there and competition was weak, low tier SWE, overall really easy to take over and so I did and now I'm scaling up and expanding the product line. It cost about 4 months of $200 claude, about $700 of proxies since launch, a very optimized bare metal hetzner server. 'Content creator' industry.

I’d like to start something like this, do you mind sharing what kind of business analytics it is?

To invite tens of competitors... No he shouldn't.

Lool it is probably onlyfans client management software.

I raw http://www.lokobee.com/ Doordash like restaurant food ordering website. We have some active restaurants. Brings in few orders per restaurant per day. But surprisingly we drive more traffic to some restaurants than uber eats. Revenue(GMV) is better than $1000 per month.

Please keep this up. I wished someone would run a DoorDash competitor in my area after hearing that drivers and restaurants are both fed up with the incumbents, it’s so encouraging to hear of someone pulling it off.

Even at a glance it gave me confidence that the UX will be far superior than Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Thanks Can you please elaborate what you like about the UX? Given our scale we dont have any insight into why customers like or dislike us.

awesome

Bug bounty and security research keeps me a good bit above 500 per month...

I experienced an initial influx of positive results and rewards as I ramped up AI use initially. However, as time goes on, I expect that to trickle out at some point since everyone and their mother now has something that can hunt and find better bugs than me. so I will have to either find a better niche or do something else with my time, but for now - that is my only side project.

I quite enjoy it so I have been brainstorming ways to stay involved and contribute without getting behind the times. Any ideas are welcome. Lol.

Uruky [1] has been doing €2k / month or more for the last few months (not a subscription, though).

PodBy [2] is still below €100 / month, though.

Uruky started out late last year, and was publicly released earlier this year. My wife and I couldn’t stand the bad state (of AI) search and the lack of a simpler Kagi alternative in Europe.

PodBy was recently launched under that name, but its “tech” had been powering a few sites and projects for over a year (partially Uruky, too).

[1]: https://uruky.com

[2]: https://podby.com

I do, a Shopify app that helps merchants track orders across long manufacturing/fulfillment processes. I built it ages ago when I was working as manual labor at a printing company, watching everyone run around all day trying to figure out where each order was. I'd daydream about how I could improve things and make them more efficient, write my ideas down in a notebook, then go home and build it in the evening.

I think the app is something like 12 years old now, but I still work on it to this day. I'm adding a new feature to it right now, and would like to kick the Shopify dependency someday soon.

I have https://www.drawdb.app/ a database diagram editor. It generated a bit more than half of my 9-5 salary this month. ~3 years open-source and 3 months of building pro and now trying to figure out all the non-development parts of running it. Fingers crossed this month wasn't an outlier

very cool. wish you well!

I built a trading algo that gave me a 29% return over the year > $500 month. I applied the lessons I learned while building major trading solution like Murex and Calypso.

And now finalizing an open source development harness that I hope will be successful and will drive consulting business in AI. Check www.nomorehappypath.com

Trading algo generating revenue in a bull market is a meme among many trading communities.

No, bull market or bear market- this is why it is a trading Algo. You have to make sure you make a reasonable profit in both directions.

It seems you never built an intelligent one!

But that's exactly my point?

Most algo's, especially ones made as a 'side project', are actually just directional bets and not true algorithms. And there are cheaper ways to take directional bets thus most of these are actually losing money - if the author just understood their directional bet, they could buy relevant stock/options to have the same risk profile for cheaper. But compiling algorithms back down into their directional components is an entire field in quant finance, akin to something like DS&A for CS.

Which is the joke I was referencing. When you take a directional bet and win, that isn't proof you're algorithm 'worked', it proves your directional bet won. Akin to someone who "vibe codes a website" and then sends you a localhost url. It's proof you're just making shit up and not aware of what it is you're building or how it works.

I see your points. The difference is that I do not intervene nor I select the strategy. The algo can decide if it buys/close position on stocks , bonds, stock options. Depending on the macro economy and situation, strategy adapt (again with no human intervention ). Also the algo analyzes every night several thousands stocks from European , Asian and US markets.

I wish this was '<' 500! :D I want to still pitch my 'SAAS'. It's called FormBeep: https://formbeep.com it's at $38 MRR

Thanks, guys. Very interesting to read. I’m glad that some people are earning more than 500. You’re awesome.

I do, a saas running for nearly 20 years.

How long is not as important as does anybody want what you are selling.

My advice is aim at something boring that people rely on everyday. Be the person who sells razor blades, so to speak.

No. However I am improving the visibility of the project via multiple channels like HN, PH. My project: https://apxy.dev/

No. But I am continuously improving the visibility of the project so I can pitch to teams for Sponsored Ads on the site.

The project: https://agentfriendlycode.com/

What is this about? Are you training AI through github repos?

For a while I worked weekends at a retail store for about $900/mo. It's not glamorous, but this is the highest percentage way get an extra $500/mo.

Highest percentage? What do you mean?

You've got a capped return for every hour invested.

It's the lowest risk method, maybe you meant that. It's also low risk to beg for money, but there's probably better options.

You have the highest probability of earning $500/mo with a second job. Yes, your hours and rate provide an earnings cap, but we're talking about $500, which is low for a whole month even at minimum wage on weekends. Begging for money may not be as low risk as you think. It's also low probability for $500/mo as a side hustle.

It seems all AI "moneymakers" are on Threads :) I often come across posts where Threads users show off their success in automated app generation and making thousands from it. But the sad truth is that they are not. It's not that easy when you have no sales/distribution channel, a large community, or a budget for running ad campaigns.

I had a consulting customer refuse to believe me that his cheap housing was actually costing him more in downtime, one week to launch, i'm still working on it 4.5 years later.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com