Ask HN: How to maximize chances of earning money online? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to maximize chances of earning money online?

7 pointsmake_me_rich9 comments

Dear HN community,

today I would like to kindly ask all of you, how one with reasonable programming skills, working as a Platform Engineer, can maximize their chances to earn large sums of money on the side of a job.

I‘m from Germany and the quality of life is declining rapidly here. Even with a cushy tech job and above average salary, it‘s not possible to rent a nice appartment, let alone own a house. For my family (wife and daughter) I‘d like to provide at least a decent home in a nice neighborhood. At the current situation that means I/we need at the very least 1Mio €.

I‘m aware that the chances of earning such a large sum of money are almost 0 (especially while working full time), that‘s why I asked how I can maximize my chances. No need to comment on how I should just forget it (please :)).

So what could I do? Build yet another tiny/1-man SaaS? If so: in what area? It seems like everything has been built already. Sell courses? Also seems like this has been done ad nauseam. Freelancing on the side seems not feasible.

What would you do?

Your question resonates with me. The path, using your programming skills, that I believe has good chances of significantly & rapidly improving compensation is to uplevel your skills & attempt for the highest tier of compensation band by interviewing aggressively.

Checkout this article for details: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engineering-sala...

It kind of feels to me like the internet is about to enter a new phase that’s dominated by AI that’s going to turn everything on it’s head. Traditional websites will still be kept around as official presences but an increasing amount of our online interactions are going to be replaced with AI equivalents. It’ll be a good time to get rich if you’ve got AI skills but if you haven’t I think the money is going to dry up.

Rather than focussing on a global scale, have you thought about focussing on your immediate community and it’s problems? There’s normally tons of small local businesses and organisations that have poor and outdated websites, or may not be even aware how they could expand their business through tech. You never know what something might lead to, maybe you’ll make some quick and easy websites and end up making a name for yourself in the area and then landing a big opportunity.

Yeah AI seems to be very relevant for the future unfortunately I never really dabbled in that space, so I don't have any experience with it.

That's a good idea thanks!

Hi, i was never really successful with selling tools i created (saas or similar)

The only way i managed to make some money is by "hacking the system", one example is when i used my coding skills to find sport betting arbitrage opportunities but after making some money i got shut down. I also managed to make some money by trading crypto, which i did after gathering some data and making some simple analysis over it.

Anyway i would still enjoy to partner with someone who has business skills including selling or rather has some way to guarantee that what we build would sell.

Put all your disposable income into lottery tickets until you win ;)

Alternatively, wait out the property price boom, move to a cheaper city (eg Stuttgart over Munich), etc.

If none of those is acceptable, I am always surprised at people not seeing things that can be improved: I usually struggle to decide which of the hundreds of ideas to pursue first, and how can one best monetize it while keeping my principles unscathed (free software mostly). Talk to others in your region about what they think might be missing to make their life easier.

Haha... I tried, never worked out for me ;).

Has one of the hundreds of ideas actually materialized into something? If so what was it?

Is Immigration an option for you? as a German you have good chances to get to US, work there in a high paying job to get to your desired portfolio.

Just leave this shitty materialism and live a life of faith in God.

One Just need soap, so it can be saved on paper.

Me as a german: We have some guys living in Forrest for median x > 20y

They're doing well. The nature has everything you'll need to offer w/o paying for.

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