Is there a way to start earning steady but assured passive income for an experienced developer?
I'm fairly experienced with programming and can build moderately complex applications quick enough. I've been trying to create profitable software side business for more than a year now. In that period I built multiple mobile and web apps but didn't have much success.
The main issue for me has been inability to drive traffic to my products/services. The most success I had was getting 300+ subscribers to a landing page. However every other time I have struggled a lot to get anywhere close to that kind of response.
Given the time and energy spent into some of these projects it's starting to become demoralizing and demotivating to continue working when the chance of success seems so slim.
So given that I was wondering if there are certain ways, even if they don't have a very high ceiling or not likely to earn 4+ figures or the likes, to create products/services which have a high chance of succeeding and perhaps don't require extensive marketing expertise and so on. Is it possible for a developer to earn nearly assured money outside of a job or freelancing?
Is there something intermediate between job and a SaaS application? Should I be talking to specific companies and build highly specialized products for just one or two of them? What should really be my approach?
Paid plugins for professional SaaS software is a nice niche for a solo programmer. Think SAP, Atlassian tools, Stock broker platforms. These all have thriving, non-trivially priced plugin markets. The trick would be finding a need that isn't covered (or finding a need that is covered poorly).
You might try creating several bite-sized nuggets of education -- like a course, or an ebook. Developers like to spend money.
When you say bite-sized, how specific at most should an ebook be about in your opinion? Would a 20 page ebook be pushing the extremes? And any suggestions or resources about where to publish/host and how to market an ebook for greater visibility? Would it work to just have a clear and descriptive title and get it listed on an appropriate platform? I don't have much knowledge about this area but have come across the idea of selling courses/ebooks a few times recently and am considering it.
That depends.
I just published a 270 page eBook on Ruby on Rails and am closing in on $5K in sales. I'm using Twitter to get the word out.
@dvassallo also knows a thing or two about selling eBooks, so check him out on IH and Twitter.
Thanks a lot mate!
I would think the question is rather if you're solving a problem for someone. Don't just write an ebook. Find out who needs what first. I found https://shop.stackingthebricks.com/sales-safari-101 to be super useful in figuring out exactly how to approach this.
In my research, info products are the best path to reaching passive income (courses, e-books, tutorials, etc). But no product is completely passive. You have to spend time/money creating it, maintaining it so it stays relevant, and promoting it so you have a steady stream of new customers.
If you're dead set on building a SaaS, general best practice is looking for a pain point a group of people have and building a solution to solve their problem. Be careful to validate people will pay for a service that solves this pain point before you build your solution. This approach has a higher chance of succeeding because if you do it correctly, people will easily understand the value of your product and may even seek it out. In general though, SaaS are difficult to generate passive income from.
That's a good advice! What are some good places to look out for if following this strategy about building SaaS products? I know some people have been successful with this strategy by looking at forums about Shopify, WordPress etc. These places have people running businesses and thus willing to pay for plugins and other solutions. What are a few other apt places look out for in your opinion?
Regarding the info product though, I'm thinking of giving this a try but it still leaves me the persisting problem of how to get visibility to my info product. Any suggestions how to go about it? Should I reach out to a publisher (if they exist for this kind of market!), any marketplace to publish it and stuff?
B2b is always good, so that seems like a worthy strategy. Another good place to look is the niche's or subcultures you currently belong to. Regarding your question about visibility, you'll need access to your target audience in order to promote to them. If you're targeting a niche audience you already belong to (ex: home chefs, React developers), you'll have a better idea of how and where to reach them.
Agreed about already belonging to a niche. Thanks for your input!
Hi berk,
Awesome question and one I'm sure many people are asking. Passive income is a bit of a misnomer if you ask me because you still have to do something, money won't just fall out of mid air.
My advice to you would be to focus on solving a problem. But not just any problem, a problem that affects you or someone you care about because you will be more passionate and building a successful business is never easy so an abundance of passion will help you get through the tough times.
I would also highly recommend going to YouTube and watching some talks by Simon Sinek. Specifically the speeches about finding your "why".
Good luck to you berk.
I'm in a similar position. The most difficult part is getting the audience. Most of the advice you read on the internet is from people who already have a healthy online presence, or else you wouldn't be reading their stuff.
Also, be a aware that many people who claim to make their money from apps are actually living off the revenue of their app making course, so of course they have to make the financials look good.
So your first step should be to find a receptive audience that you can reach cheaply (think 1000 people in your email newsletter) or to team up with someone who has the audience. There's a reason why companies pay $10k per month to hire a sales guy. Usually, they'll bring their own contact lists and industry contacts.
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