[Thriptic]

Get domain expertise in something other than programming and make things to solve real business problems for people that aren't technical. Alternatively, partner with people who aren't technical. There are a million developers working on programming tools / knowledge aggregators and very few are ever successful because the community wants everything to be FOSS and they won't pay you. Far fewer people are working on annoying, unsexy, everyday business problems because the problems aren't interesting and the developers lack the domain xp to know that the problems exist or the scope of the problems. Non-technical business people are also very ready to pay money for simple solutions to real problems.

[maxander]

Seconding the "learn a new expertise" bit. Many fields that aren't programming are full of untended problems that are ripe for automation; these opportunities stay un-taken because outsiders never realize they exist. Learn something new, the practice of some other profession or even hobby, and even if it looks cut-and-dry when you're starting out you'll find that there are complexities and difficulties that, potentially, could be calling for some new kind of service to fix them.

[peterhunt]

Or team up with a domain expert.

[cloogshicer]

I think this is great advice. How do you get expertise in these other domains though? Finding a job in the other field could work, but it's a huge time investment (especially if you ultimately don't end up finding any viable problems in that domain).

[zubairq]

This is the best advice I found in the whole thread. Yes, devs don't generally buy from devs, but other fields have a lot of things that need fixing.

[mud_dauber]

Seconded.