I've noticed it depends on one's personality.

To me, trying to make money with random projects is the most motivating thing. A dollar earned from some little project is emotionally to me worth many times that of the same dollar I'd earn as salary (as long as I don't starve). Most of my friends do not seem to share this feeling.

Also the internet is very big. You can sometimes have success with something, even it's a very silly badly implemented little thing. What people like, how you happen to get traffic, it's all quite unpredictable.