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My side projects tend to be libraries for other programmers. I usually get ideas by using existing libraries but being unhappy with the interface / api they offer. I love designing good apis that express the underlying concepts well, while hiding implementation details, and while many niche libraries have a good solution for their problem domain, many are lacking in api / UX.

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Do you have any revenue coming from these projects? From what sources?

Just answered this in another thread. One of these did get me a whole bunch of income allowed me to travel, but it's not why I do it today.

Any income from that? Beer money or car money a year?:)

It's been really in three categories:

1. Projects that yield nothing financially. 2. Projects that help me establish me as a .. idk.. thoughtleader(?) in certain specific niche fields. 3. I've written 2 libraries in particular that netted me a number of consulting gigs. For about 2 years I was able to travel around the world supporting myself with this, and I worked for companies on location in 4 continents. This was a pretty great time of my life, but I got bored working on a single project.

So definitely more than beer money for that last one, but it might have been a fluke. Generally it's not my aim to do this for my side projects. I make enough money, so I do it because I enjoy it.

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