Ask HN: How can I add 10-15k to my annual income this year? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I add 10-15k to my annual income this year?

54 pointsnahcub37 comments

I'm looking for something external that uses my programming skills. A new job with a higher salary would be great, but that's not feasible for me right now.

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I don't know why you want another 10-15k, or what your current situation is (though it sounds like you're a programmer making okay money), so this might not be useful advice, but you can get a surprising amount of mileage out of a good budget, with surprisingly few trade offs.

Cars are often huge money sinks. Also, people tend not to examine their housing situation for efficiencies (I have a number twenty-something friends in small towns who own houses with rental properties that cover nearly all their mortgages) - also, you can generally move closer to work and bike or take transit (assuming you're not a consultant and "work" is a fixed place); this goes back to cars being money sinks and commuting really being terrible. You can eat really well quite cheaply if you want to put in some time and make your own food (a bagged lunch over eating out at work could save you $1000 a year, and that's just one thing). Anyway, the Internet is full of useful tips to save money, but you can get a bunch done by just mapping out your monthly spending and looking for places to trim the fat. Maybe that won't cover the whole 10-15K you're looking for, but it's a good start.

  1. Build something on the side that creates recurring revenue
  2. Build something on the side that you can sell for $10-15k
  3. Build multiple things that, when combined, sell for $10-15k
  4. Negotiate a raise at your current job
  5. Start doing freelance work
  6. Get lucky in the stock market
  7. Get lucky in a casino
  8. Get lucky in a lottery
  9. Inherit some money

Why do people in tech think we work in some magically beloved industry that has shortcuts to success? Oh right.. Aaron Sorkin movies.

If you already have a job, then most companies have some clause that will not allow you to create new software that can generate revenue. Atleast this is my experience.

No. 1 is the easiest. See my more detailed comment below.

You have to multiply by the chance of it working to get the expected value. It's easy to write an app or a service and just never get the customers to even break even on your time. Contracting is much more likely to pay back since you just have to complete the project and the employers has to keep their word to pay.

Yeah, if you're going to talk about what's easiest in the "whats the least work" I'd say #9 would be the easiest. Chances of it working are probably pretty low for most people though.

Contracting at $100/hr will gross you $10k in 100 hrs (or about 2.5 weeks worth of work). You probably meant net so double it and you're somewhere in your ballpark.

Almost anyone that is a competent professional programmer should be able to find and execute on this much side work at a similar rate. If you're particularly good, have a particularly specialized skillset, a clearence, etc you can easily command a substantial multiple of this rate and accomplish your goal in even less time.

And you're chance of it working are very high.

Create a presentation on what non-technical founders need to know about programming, before they start a start up. Promote this webinar via facebook ads and make it 30 minutes long and packed full of super useful stuff. Then at the end point them to your blog with lots of helpful resources. Finally, mention that you are available for one on one coaching, for a select group of people (and have a web form using stripe ready for taking payment in exchange for scheduling a one-on-one call with you). Offer a money back guarantee as long as they demonstrate that they did the action items you suggested.

This will be way easier than building a SaaS app. Trust me.

EDIT: No idea why this is getting downvoted. Any insight would be appreciated.

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now." - Chinese proverb.

"Don't end the week with nothing" - Patio11 https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-en...

Start building something you can sell. It could be a book, an app, a SaaS. You might not (probability won't) get it to +$15k this year. That shouldn't stop you from beginning. If you make something thst people are willing to pay for, you should be able to EVENTUALLY get to +$15k (and more!)

It's not always easy/fun, but I've found that a) working like a fucking maniac (12+ hours a day), b) never turning down a chance to talk about a job, seem to help. You brothers girlfriends aunt wants a website for her garage sale this year? Yeah, not going to get you $10k, but talking to her, being awesome and giving some advice (even if you don't actually help, and do a "favor" by pointing her to ebay or something). You'll end up making a connection, and she might tell her wealthy relative about a really awesome developer (you). I've gotten a few well paying jobs this way. For me, it seems that not being a greedy presumptuous asshole seems to have paid off well. Also, did I mention working really hard?

http://www.mikeperham.com/2013/10/01/how-to-make-100k-in-oss...

The missing step in that post is: "Step 0: Write very popular and useful thing"

Isn't making money about doing something?

It's close imposible to get money without making something useful. If you are programmer your treasure is coding, so if working for someone else as freelancer is for somebody not good idea, because it won't make enough money and you have already full-time job, probably only another way is making something on your own.

I do not think that you have too many options. Part time job, develop an app, start a SAAS project, contract work. All of these things are easier to type as an answer to this question than they are to actually do.

If you cannot change jobs now, why don't you add to your skill set over the next year with the view of using these enhanced skills when you can look for a new job?

It depends a lot on what your current income is.

Are you a programmer? Try to find freelancing work..

Isn't most freelance work a race to the bottom? This would be great, but most online job boards seem to go to the lowest bidder (who normally works for $10-12 an hour)

Remote freelance work is a race to the bottom. A better way to earn some extra money is to build a small service (SAAS) like OLark, or, Launchrock, and charge $10/month. Support your customers with a passion, add customers slowly, and before you know it, you will have 100 customers. That will earn you $12K every year forever. It is far better than doing odd programming jobs for others, there is no capital required, and, it is a far more certain way to make extra money than developing an App for iOS or Android.

If getting 12k/yr in annual in revenue is easy, then getting 1MM/yr is also easy (after going from 0->100, just make two more hops: 100->1000 and 1000->10000). Since we know that building a MM/yr business is anything but easy, one of our assumptions must be wrong. Which one is it?:

a) 0 -> 100 users is easy

b) 100 -> 1000 users is easy

c) 1000 -> 10000 users is easy

My gut feeling is that a) is actually the hardest step.

There are plenty of niches where the total market is smaller than a thousand users. It simply isn't worth a startup or existing businesses time.

For example I know a guy who sells detailed study guides for software engineering subjects tailored to his university. Even if he captured 100% of the market he would have maybe 300 paying customers.

Last time I spoke with him he was earning around 20k from the guides and another 30k from tutoring the students. An extra $50k on the side as an individual is massive but it's not really worth it to a growth focused business.

No. 0->100 is not easy (I know from my own experience), but it is a realistic goal and you can get there slowly. Adding even one user every weekday, you will get to 100 in six months. But, and this is a big one, if you support your users well, you will get referrals -- which is the best way to grow.

My whole point is to go for recurring revenues, and, aim for slow, sustainable growth. If you want to go for 10K users, you will need funding. And, that will be a much, much riskier path.

Yes a) as that requires the largest amount of new skills that you likely did not have before (ignoring repeat successful founders).

e.g. customer development, sales, marketing.

Once you have 100 there will be new challenges like recruiting, managing people etc. But it won't be as hard as going from 0 - 100.

That's by far the best response

That kind of freelancing is yes, however, finding local clients who you can meet face to face to genuinely provide value to their business and you'll make decent money. Do a few talks at local business meetups on something really simple, like "5 Steps on how to win business online" or something, then just run through things like, get a website up, sign up to social media and update it, get involved in online trade forums, put "how to" videos on youtube and get listed on google places, etc. Theres your talk, and theres easily more than 10k - 15k a year, theres a full time wage.

I get paid ~$150/hour for freelance work I perform on the side of my Big-Corp job. If you sell yourself as high quality you can get paid as high quality.

If the only value you add is 'I can do it cheaper than the other guy' then yes it is a race to the bottom. However, I would strongly urge your consider what type of signaling 'I can do it cheaper than the other guy' sends to serious people who have serious amounts of money to get it done without too much involvement from them.

That's always been my problem with it: unless you consider $10/hr good pay (and some people do, and there's nothing wrong with that), but $15k at $10/hr is almost another full-time job. If you're in North America, you can get $10/hr or so as a greeter at Wal Mart.

You'll get paid a lot more in person. Go to local tech meetups. Many already have a who's looking/who's hiring announcement at the end any many others will let you take the podium for a minute to ask, not to mention the person to person networking afterword eating and the like.

1. Switch to technical sales (typically you get a bonus based on the sales quota; downside is you travel a lot)

2. Post your resume and ask for 15k more

3. If you're not in the SF Bay Area, move there but note your cost of living will probably go up by 20k so you need to ask for $35k more than you currently make.

4. If you're in the SF Bay Area, see if your company will let you work remotely, and move to a state that has no income tax.

5. Marry/Date up (lawyer, doctor, programmer, executive :-)

#5 Since when dating somebody saves you money...?

The 'up' part is the key. If the person makes more than you do, I think it should save you money. It does for the people I've dated anyway :).

Arbitrage in any market you may know well (used cars, used laptops, domain names, etc.).

Honestly it isn't that hard to save 7k and make an additional 7k. Do something mundane, like write a craer that assembles vote data on different issues in various municipalities in your state then sell it to a newspaper.

You might find a few ideas in this similar thread from last year:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6390709

Tutor programming and math

If it was easy everyone would only work 5-10 years ;)

Nobody said it was gonna be easy.

buy something... Sell it for more than you paid...

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