I made $37k from side projects while working full-time. AMA
Last year was my first full-year trying to grow my side project income while working full-time.
Background: I work full-time as a software engineer for a startup. I started indie hacking in 2020 launching my first course (Vim for VS Code). Before that, I was making courses for egghead and earning royalties.
I also experimenting with a SaaS in 2021 (dip.chat - accountability groups for developers). In addition, I do various creator/brand engagements and run a job board.
2021 was my best year for side income revenue. My original goal was $20,000. I almost doubled it (mostly luck and timing).
I made $36, 942.02
AMA!
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How much did you make from your full-time job?
Hahahaha hitting me with the hard questions. I don't feel comfortable saying it publicly but it's 6-figures.
you literally said - AMA (ask me anything) - so you better deliver ;)
😂
How many hours a week did you put into your side income?
Thanks for the inspiration!
It varied! With the courses, a couple hours per month. With the job board, 1hour per week. With other activities, it varied. I would say minimum 30mins/day and then max 2hours and then usually 2-4 on the weekend. Haha sorry, it varied a lot! I had a baby in October so it's cut back quite a bit now :)
What is your side project? How long did it take to get here?
It's a combination of things:
Nothing is guaranteed though (not reoccurring revenue). The job board varies from $100-$1000 per month. Some courses are one-off purchases and others are based on royalties. The miscellaneous things vary. The largest single-item amount of revenue came from job referrals last year ($10k).
I break it all down in this post.
I started doing courses 2-3 years ago on a site called egghead. I launched my own course in 2020. And then last year was the first year I started experimenting with various side project ideas. I also started the job board last year.
How did you know that this was the right course to launch for your audience ? Twitter poll, user requests ? Also, how long did this take for you to produce this content ?
Thanks.
Luck! I chose something that I knew well and thought others would want to learn. I launched the very first version after two weeks then have iterated on it since then.
I wrote more about launching my first info product/course here
Congrats! What are your plans and revenue goals for 2022?
Thanks Bart! For 2022, I want to focus on the courses and job board. I'm actively working on a TypeScript course and hope to launch before the end of the year. As for revenue goals, minimum $50k but ideally doubling my 2021 revenue.
Sounds like an achievable goal! Good luck :)