How to make money with a software side project

introduction

I’ve been fortunate to work at a company that supports employees who want to start side projects. This has allowed me to develop some exciting side projects, including one that has become very popular in our design department. I’m looking forward to it because it allows me to explore new technologies and develop something useful for my colleagues. Plus, I can make money from it – something any software developer will appreciate!

So what is this project? As most of you probably know by now (especially if you follow me on Twitter), I’m a huge fan of React Native (and React in general). I give workshops on how we use React in my company, using examples from an open-source mobile app called Coffee Potatoes.

As soon as we started using this app, I knew right away that converting it to an iOS version using Swift instead of JavaScript would be fun and challenging. There are so many great tools for building web applications with React these days.

If you have a software side project you want to make money from, you have three options:

Offer a monthly subscription for premium features. This is the easiest way to charge users, but it requires building a large enough user base before it’s worth it. Ideally, your software should have at least 50,000 registered users or more. You can use Stripe for this type of payment system.
Offer a one-time purchase for premium features. It’s also an easy way to charge users once they’ve reached the point in their relationship with your product where they feel it would be worth paying (e.g. after months of use). The downside here is that if someone wants one feature and not another, this isn’t ideal because they don’t want to pay twice just to get access!
You can use stripes for this type of payment system. Sell your software as a service or product on a marketplace. It’s the hardest way to make money from software, but it’s also the most lucrative.

You can place ads on it

If you want to monetize your side project, ads are a great way to do it. But they can be annoying and intrusive if you’re not careful. Fortunately, there are ways to make them less intrusive, e.g. B. by using non-invasive displays or placing it in a place where users are not likely to interact (like at the bottom of the screen).

There are other challenges in generating advertising revenue from software projects. For example, there may not be enough traffic – in which case the ads aren’t working for you – or there may be a lot of traffic but not enough money from users clicking ads.

Ads can also serve as a way for businesses to target their products and services to specific demographics by choosing what types of people see their ads on specific websites or apps.

They can offer a monthly subscription for premium features

There are a few things you can do if you have a software side project and are looking for ways to make money from it. One option is to sell your software as an online service, for example by charging $10 a month for premium features. This option has several advantages:

Monthly subscriptions are more profitable than one-time purchases. You earn more because your customers pay you every month (or every quarter). And while they’re paying, they’re also using the feature that sets up the subscription. So if someone pays $10 a month for three years, they’ll be paying almost $1000 before their subscription ends! That’s quite a bit of money compared to a one-time purchase of around $300 (which would only be required once).
It’s easier to process payments through Stripe or another similar service than processing individual sales yourself. With these services, all you have to do is set up price tiers and send payment details when someone buys something; then, whenever possible, collect revenue from those services on a regular basis. If you want even more automation in this area (and who doesn’t?), consider using Zapier as well; It allows developers to connect different apps without writing code themselves!

You can offer a one-time purchase for premium features

A good option for non-platform software is to offer premium features for a one-time fee. This can be an attractive option for users who want to use your app but aren’t interested in paying recurring fees (e.g. $10 per month).

Some software companies have had success with this method. For example, fxapi offers two options: Free and Pro. If you go Pro, it costs $10 per month or $99 per year; This gives you unlimited access to all of the company’s features without ads or restrictions on disk space or file size.

Showing ads is the easiest to set up, but it does require a lot of traffic to generate meaningful revenue. Instead, try offering one-time purchases or monthly subscriptions

Serving ads is easy to set up, but the amount of traffic you need to generate meaningful revenue makes it impractical for most developers. Instead, try offering one-time purchases or monthly subscriptions.

One-time purchases are more profitable than monthly subscriptions because they have higher revenue per user (RPU). However, monthly subscriptions are likely to have a lower churn rate (the percentage of users who unsubscribe from your service each month) and therefore may be more valuable in the long run.

Focus on organic growth

Start with a good product.
Optimize your website for search engines.
Use social media to get attention.
Use email marketing to convert visitors into customers.
Measure and improve with analytics including Google Analytics and Facebook Insights

Focus on SEO

To make money from a software side project, first make sure you have a great product. If your product isn’t good enough to sell on its own, you’re going in the wrong direction with this type of project. It’s better to focus your efforts on creating engaging content or building a community around your product rather than trying to promote it through SEO alone.

However, if you want to make money from SEO, there are several things you can do:

Focus on search engine optimization (SEO). This optimizes your website to rank higher when users search for keywords related to what they are looking for (e.g. “best email marketing software”). The goal is to rank high and convert visitors into customers by making sure they find exactly what they need when they land on your website. There are several ways we can optimize our websites for search engines, including:
Using meaningful titles and meta descriptions that provide helpful information about our business, rather than just using keywords; Give our website visitors more information about what we offer without forcing them to buy something right away, without knowing anything about us first – which often brings them back later because they now feel we care, to help them solve their problems!

Conclusion

If you have a software side project that you want to monetize, there are three ways you can go about it. You can run ads on it, offer a monthly subscription for premium features, or sell one-time purchases for premium features. Focus on organic growth by focusing on SEO and making sure your product has good reviews and ratings.