I used to do side projects to earn extra income, but it became difficult to predict, and kind of a pain in the ass with invoicing, overdue clients, bug fixes, scheduling headaches (evenings and weekends working for mostly 9-5 companies), fatigue, family life, vacation time, etc.

The work dried up, partly "naturally", but also partly because I wasn't pursuing new work. I've been in a somewhat dead-state for almost a year, and have recently stumbled on two ideas that I've made my "passion projects". Neither idea has a (directly foreseeable) method of making money, but both ideas are near and dear to me.

I work on these ideas when I'm not too tired in the evening, or can find a stretch of time to concentrate on the weekends. So far it's hit or miss, but I'm progressing. One idea challenges me mentally, and has a near-epic scale result at the end of it's very long yellow-brick-road, it's a vision that in addition to all of my coding effort will take 10-20 years to come to fruition.

The other idea is effectively a CRUD system for a specific market demographic that's not being serviced the way I think it should be.

So far, neither is ticking, but give me time, and they will. :)