What do you guys do for income on the side?<p>I am devoting my entire time working on a startup (bootstrapped so no income yet), and completely living off savings, I am sure a few others here have done the same.<p>I'll start. I usually aim at very low time commitment tasks.<p><pre><code> Photo shoots for people (just with a simple dSLR)
Fix Computers/Networks and IT guys for local businesses.
</code></pre>
Share your ways, helping your fellow HNers ease their bank drain.
iPhone apps and consulting work.<p>From a boot-strappers perspective, I had hoped for more sustainability from iphone sales, but we make far more building apps for other people (for cold-hard cash) than we do from our product sales. Nevertheless, it's a nice global gumball machine that we're participating in. Hopefully AppStore makes some much-needed changes in the near future.<p>Animosity aside, I'm still very bull about the mobile market. You can build it and put it out there for nothing.<p>Lastly, MEANINGFUL income on the side == full time job. Sorry to break it to you but there are no shortcuts outside of luck (or perseverance).
I occasionally do FreeBSD / security / cryptography / algorithms consulting; it doesn't make much money, but I find that it's worthwhile just for the sake of helping keep me aware of what's going on in the world around me (if I'm interested in something and not too busy, I'll normally offer to spend an hour or two listening to people and throwing out ideas for free).<p>It's not really about easing the bank drain, though -- I take consulting work when it comes up, but I don't chase after it.
I write articles (about various tech) on my blog, albeit my startup has definitely decreased my rate. Used to post stuff everyday, now its more along the lines of every 3-6 days, but with much more substantial articles. Obviously, I have some ads on there. Pays the rent, utilities and most of my health insurance.<p>Supposed to be doing consulting for a local ISP for 5-10 hours per week sooner or later, just waiting on their CTO to get back to me.
design a few websites and help local business's get found on the web - more "best practices" that others are selling under the name SEO - which is starting to make me feel dirty.
1- Write articles it's simple, but gives a great revenue<p>2- google adsense from sites/blogs i built/build/will build<p>3- Twitter; a new income, advertising/selling accounts/ and other tricks<p>That's it, i live with my family so i don't really need that much money
I just finished my first bit of private consultation work. Basically I told the guy I'd do a website prototype free of charge, and if he's happy I'd continue with the "real" work. He was so happy with the prototype has wanted to use it in his production environment. After that he needed a few changes and enhancements and I think he's getting ready to demo it to his business partners as I type this.<p>Post-mortem:<p>No matter how simple the task seems it's usually more work than you anticipate.<p>Stick to the requirements. I spent about 40% of my time implementing nice-to-haves that noone would probably use anyway.<p>Proper documentation is paramount
This strikes me as slightly funny/ironic. As a sysadmin/IT person I do small programing jobs for side cash. :) When possible I try not to contribute spaghetti into the wild.
I write articles about SQL Server. The pay is minimal but the practice writing and solidifying what I think I know is far more valuable to me than the income.
Prior to the summer, I've been working part time at the local university bioinformatics lab. It's been incredibly fun and full of learning, and time consuming.<p>I intend to continue in September.<p>Other than that, I keep starting personal projects and failing to finish them.
Freelance web development (not much) and corporate training (might sometimes make more than my day job). This is in India where service companies abound and they have high training budgets.
I write contacts for businesses, file trademarks and copyrights, and an occasional probate. Unfortunately, the law degree doesn't help the day to day start-up too much.
Freelance sysadmin and web development work brings in a bit of money. I've never gone out and looked for this type of work, but I've gotten to know a handful of good clients over the years.<p>I do the work more because I like them than for the money, and I'd still help them out if I was rich enough not to work, but getting work from them has really helped when money is tight.