Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Indie developers and entrepreneurs are sharing side projects that earn at least $500 a month, from niche SaaS tools and browser extensions to online courses, games, and even simple utility sites monetized with ads. Many describe scratching a personal itch, then slowly growing revenue through organic search, word of mouth, existing communities, or small amounts of paid marketing, often without quitting their day jobs. Others focus on the value of seeing concrete, modestly successful projects: they use these examples to learn about customer acquisition, validate that small ideas can pay bills, and find inspiration for their own ventures.

Scope and Threshold of “Side Project” Income

  • Original prompt is about projects earning ≥$500/month; some argue inflation means $1,000/month is a more meaningful target (e.g., “pay the mortgage”), others see $500 as a necessary first milestone.
  • Cost-of-living differences noted: in some places $500 barely covers property tax; in others, favorable tax rules make it significant.

Types of Side Projects and Revenue Levels

  • SaaS and developer tools:
    • Wiki from Google Drive folders, Kubernetes GUI, uptime monitoring, web scraping API, static-site CMS, DevOps course, GraphQL middleware, PDF-to-CSV bank statement converter, file-manager UI, radiology teaching platform, app analytics, browser extensions, etc.
    • Revenue ranges from ~$500/month to several thousand; some ex-side-projects became main jobs.
  • Consumer / niche apps and content:
    • Language-learning tools, checklists app, Japanese reading app, casino bonus automation, Obsidian templates + course, coding challenge newsletter + courses, Excel/Sheets course, Sudoku sites, dream interpreters, road-trip map visualizer, AI portrait/diffusion tools, online book notes, art stories.
  • Games and entertainment:
    • .io browser game, GIF meme generator, Android launcher, IMDB-for-music idea.
  • Physical and hybrid products:
    • Grounded MacBook power adapter, travel deal site, horse-records platform, real-estate search for Europe.

Monetization Models and Pricing Debate

  • Mix of subscriptions, one-time payments, affiliate sales, ads, ebooks/courses, Patreon/GitHub Sponsors, consulting/custom plugins.
  • Discussion around:
    • Subscription vs one-off fees, churn from one-time use cases, non-profit discounts, per-org vs per-seat pricing.
    • Ad-based models working when organic search volume is huge.

Customer Acquisition and Growth

  • Common tactics: Product Hunt launches, Indie Hackers write-ups, SEO, organic search, browser/extension store search, affiliate programs, word of mouth, social media, newsletters.
  • Several ask how to get first users; responses stress:
    • Solving clear pain points, direct outreach and demos, refining value proposition and messaging, testing calls-to-action, reading “do things that don’t scale.”

Meta: Value of These Threads

  • Mixed views: some see them as self-promotion; many say they’re inspiring, useful for idea discovery, monetization patterns, and as a “lightning rod” that centralizes promotion instead of scattered spam.