Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
651 side hustles, each one described by the person running it, in a podcast, a YouTube interview or a Hacker News thread. Every idea links to its source. Filter by what it costs to start, how much time it takes, and how it earns.
67 ideas, page 1 of 2
- Co-wrote a Spring Boot and AWS e-book with a companion online course, sharing the income among authors.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2024
- Writes a newsletter of real-world projects for learning programming, and sells paid courses.Hacker News, 2024
- Made a course on spreadsheet functions and formulas hosted on a small course platform, earning a commission share.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2024
- A template for a note-taking app with a user guide and video course based on the owner's personal system, sold to customers.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2024
- Created an online course teaching DevOps to small companies and self-hosters, which keeps selling even against bigger instructors.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2024
- Writes and self-publishes science fiction romance books on the side.Digital productsUnder $100Hacker News, 2022
- Found a popular product category on a code marketplace and built a better JavaScript image cropper and uploader to sell there.Digital productsUnder $100Hacker News, 2022
- Wrote and sells a technical book on deployment that shows the steps without higher-level tools.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2022
- Self-publishes fiction and is growing a backlist and an email newsletter to increase sales.Digital productsHacker News, 2022
- Wrote helpful articles, collected them into a book sold on Gumroad, and also builds a monitoring SaaS on the side.Digital productsHacker News, 2021
- Sells a curated list of places to promote side projects, for makers wanting traffic, directly through Gumroad.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2021
- Creates and sells courses on Udemy.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2021
- Compiles articles and tips from a newsletter into ebooks sold on Leanpub and Amazon.Digital productsHacker News, 2019
- Built a level design package and sells it on the Unity Asset Store, relying on organic discovery.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Sells a boutique Jekyll theme aimed at software people and academics, with a free base version and a paid version.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Sells a Ruby book on a self-publishing platform, first in the owner's native language and now being translated to English.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Writes and sells books about programming, currently covering Angular and related tools, with little promotion.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Wrote introductory programming tutorials and sells them as ebooks on Leanpub.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Created sticker sets for a popular messaging app and earned from their sales.Under $100Hacker News, 2019
- Sells a harmonica instruction book and science fiction short story collections on Amazon, and also sells stories to magazines.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Writes travel and lifestyle books and sells them as ebooks and print on demand on Amazon and Apple. Little ongoing work after publishing.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2019
- A site selling themes for static site generators that has started making sales.Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Translates well-regarded public domain works into English and sells them as ebooks. Finding niche topics is the key.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2018
- Wrote and self-published an e-book about CSS that has kept selling a year after launch.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Wrote an ebook on starting and growing a subscription box business, drawn from running one. Sold through Gumroad, Amazon and iBooks, and still sells a little each month.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2018
- Writes and publishes erotic stories as Kindle ebooks and earns from sales.Digital productsUnder $100Hacker News, 2018
- A small shop selling pre-production, storyboard and film treatment templates through an online marketplace.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2018
- Sells online courses on algorithmic trading through its own site and Udemy. Maintenance is mostly answering student emails.Digital productsHacker News, 2018
- Created video courses on Udemy that keep earning money after the initial work.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Lists virtual machines on major cloud marketplaces that come set up for Ethereum development, with video tutorials. Revenue comes from VM sales.Hands-offHacker News, 2018
- Wrote and self-published a book about a game framework. Earns a small monthly income from sales.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Writing and self-publishing a tutorial book on the Angular framework.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Produced a video course and a book about the Flask framework. Earns ongoing royalties from sales.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Created a user experience design course with a friend and sells it through Udemy. Profit is split between the two creators.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Designed responsive device mockups and sells them on a graphics marketplace. Sales were strong early on and have tapered off since.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Wrote and published an e-book on Amazon about saving money so you can work less and pursue goals.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2016
- Wrote an ebook aimed at bootcamp graduates looking for their first developer job. It sells directly and through partnerships with a couple of online bootcamps.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2016
- Co-wrote a book on user acquisition and built a video course to go with it, funded through crowdfunding backers. Income comes from sales of the book and course.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Sells paleo diet guides and a meal plan service online.Hacker News, 2016
- Writes and sells a technical book about the Redux library through Leanpub, sharing the sales with a friend.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2016
- Designed watch faces for a smartwatch and sold them at the lowest price in the store. Sales were strong at first, then copies appeared and they pulled the apps.Under $100Hacker News, 2016
- Wrote a book that helps bootstrapped startups pick the right hosting setup. Income comes from book sales.Digital productsHacker News, 2016
- Teaches people the Swift language with a self-written book and an online coding exercise platform. Money comes from selling these products.Hands-offHacker News, 2016
- Developed payment gateway and product feed extensions for online store platforms and sells them.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Wrote and sells an ebook about building an app business.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Wrote an add-on for the ExpressionEngine CMS and sells it through a marketplace.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2014
- Developed an add-on for a popular video game that earns small, usage-driven income.Hands-offHacker News, 2014
- Wrote and sells an ebook teaching game development with a JavaScript framework.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2014