[qwertyuiop924]

You guys are making cash off your side projects? Jeez. I usually just release them for free. I should get in on this.

...Assuming that I ever finish a side project.

...And that I ever come up with a side project somebody would pay for.

Neither is very likely.

[patio11]

Being able to successfully ship things is a useful muscle to develop. People who can program radically overestimate where the bar is for being able to charge money for things. (And underestimate how much money businesses pay for just about everything.)

[HeyLaughingBoy]

People who can program radically overestimate where the bar is for being able to charge

Very late response here just to second what Patrick said, but...

My latest anecdote to reinforce this is the person who wanted to pay me for the Arduino software I wrote for him in about 5 minutes, but I declined (that's on the order of the amount of help I give out on the internets for free). Not kidding: being generous, it took a grand total of 5 minutes including firing up the editor, while grumbling about how much overkill an Arduino was for the task...

It really is about providing value. He has a $250,000 machine sitting idle a lot of the time and that 10 minutes of code reduced the idle time so he could get more utilization out of it.

Phase 2 is figuring out how many other people have a similar problem and finding them...

[triplesec]

Can you give an example or two of such overestimation, and how low the bar might be sometimes, so as to encourage people more?

[benzor]

If you haven't heard, patio11 is the original creator of Bingo Card Creator [1], which is both an excellent example for your purposes, and as a bonus he's helpfully shared many useful lessons from it on his blog [2].

[1] https://www.bingocardcreator.com/ [2] http://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/

[iurisilvio]

Bingo Card Creator is a great example to patio11 answer. I'll never expect someone to pay for it, but we know it worked great for him.

[qwertyuiop924]

Well, right now, I'm working on a MUD engine, and an online version of Thud.

I might get sued for selling one, and nobody would pay for either, especially given how many implementations of both are free.

But yes, I should work on shipping code.

[Hondor]

They're interlinked. I've found that when I make more sales on my project, I'm motivated to do more work. Then when there's a lull, I think "I need to give up and start a new project". Money's a powerful motivator - if anything because it proves people really want your work.

[codingdave]

You might be surprised. I put together a tool to help my kids design an art project one weekend 4 years ago, and google indexed it, traffic came, I added Amazon links, and it has brought in just under 100 a month for a few years now. Nothing major, but sometimes the little things add up.

[kowdermeister]

I've started to create a side project with the sole purpose of generating extra revenue. Why do you see it as a sin? If you make just enough with your day job I would understand but just leave alone those who are savvy enough to grab some extra cash.

[qwertyuiop924]

I don't see it as a sin, or anything. It just kind of never occurred to me to do it. I mean, I've never made a side project worth anything, but if I did, I wouldn't have sold it. Not because of principles, just because I didn't think of doing it.

[kowdermeister]

Sorry then, your comment sounded like it :) I have only built one service like that, a torrent meta search engine. I haven't made any serious money, but it did buy me a nice laptop in 2009.

Now, after two failed startups I scaled back my ambitions/expectations. Best way to happiness :)