[csallen]

I did remote contract front-end development for about 3 years. Working contracts gave me a TON of flexibility to work on my own projects on the side. I also tried to take high-paying contracts and save as much money as I could. When my last contract ended, I had enough money in the bank to survive for ~18 months without another paycheck, even while paying rent in SF. Currently, I'm about 9 months into that.

I've worked on several projects since then, one of which (TaskforceApp.com) is making $500-$1500/mo. The other I just launched on HN about 3 weeks ago: http://www.IndieHackers.com. It's gotten almost 300k pageviews since launch, and I've lined up some awesome sponsors who combined are contributing about $1000/mo. My plan is to keep growing the site by adding interviews, writing more blog posts, and adding forums/AMAs.

If you're interested in hearing lots of other stories similar to this (most of which are more impressive), I recommend checking out Indie Hackers. I publish average monthly revenue stats in addition to interviews with the founders behind all these companies.

[codegeek]

I have been watching indiehackers since you shared on HN. It looks really good and high quality stuff. Another bookmark for me as I obsess with the various products being shared and their stories. The revenue transparency is an icing on the cake :)

[csallen]

Sweet, I'd love to hear your feedback/ideas sometime! @csallen

[skadamat]

Super cool! I used to use Taskforce and actually cold emailed you way back in the day (4 years ago?) back when I didn't know much about web development!

[infinite8s]

IndieHackers looks really nice, although it would be useful to have the interviews dated to see how recent they are.

[csallen]

Good point, will add dates soon!