Ask HN: Passive income ideas from content website? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Passive income ideas from content website?

15 pointsthrowaway_yc8 comments

There are many posts here about people making money off side projects or businesses they manage on their own, but it seems like almost all of them are selling a product or a service. I'm wondering if anyone is making substantial money from a site that just generates content (and isn't selling a service/product) ? (Looking for examples of people doing this on their own, not big companies running news/content sites)

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I run https://officesnapshots.com which is a content website that started off as a side project. We have a few employees now and it is anything but passive income.

Content is interesting to me because the monetary value of an individual piece of content in most cases is basically zero, so the value ends up coming from the way you curate, organize, and present a specific type of content.

One site I created a while back curated photos of wedding bouquets and organized the photos by the types of flowers that were in each bouquet. Another that I am currently running for fun organizes a specific type of information related to the city I live in which is really only useful to people who live here.

So how is the "curated wedding bouquet photos" site different from Pinterest? Is it just a more focused site?

From my experience people who are searching for something specific enjoy finding a tool specifically made for what they are looking for.

Why not compile your content and make it into a product (ebook, course whatever) ?

I periodically blog about iOS development, compiled few posts (and added additional chapters not available in the blog) into an ebook and sells them.

Wouldn't say substantial money but I have earned $1k+ from selling a $29 ebook

1. Set up a WordPress site, regurgitate content from content farms. 2. Set up WordAds. 3. Profit.

Out of curiosity, will search engines not punish you for regurgitating content farm stuff?

Eventually, but evidently a lot get away with it.

Can you mention the subject of the site? Would make it much easier to give a specific answer (and as someone with a content website which is profitable, I think I can give a decent answer)

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