Ask HN - Turn open source project into a profitable side project?
3 comments
First thoughts ...
1) Paid support/install/configuration assistance for users (ie they get priority support but the normal support still continues albeit at perhaps lower priority)
2) Paid consultancy (perhaps there's a certain feature users would like, where you're paid to develop but it gets added to the open-source version
3) Premium version (I'd suggest not removing any features already in the open-source version, but adding new features to the premium version first)
No idea what your uptake would be on any of those ideas but that's the most common ways of monetising something like that I can think of.
1) Paid support/install/configuration assistance for users (ie they get priority support but the normal support still continues albeit at perhaps lower priority)
2) Paid consultancy (perhaps there's a certain feature users would like, where you're paid to develop but it gets added to the open-source version
3) Premium version (I'd suggest not removing any features already in the open-source version, but adding new features to the premium version first)
No idea what your uptake would be on any of those ideas but that's the most common ways of monetising something like that I can think of.
Thanks for the answer
I would look at the metasploit guys as a good example of how to move forward.
Keep an open source "community" edition with all its current features, then start on an enterprise edition. Still updating the community versions core but keeping some features just for the enterpriser customers.
Keep an open source "community" edition with all its current features, then start on an enterprise edition. Still updating the community versions core but keeping some features just for the enterpriser customers.
put up a donate button You might need to add more features. or other projects.
Do anyone recommend me to try to turn this into a profitable project instead of just a hobby code project? If yes, what would be a good approach?
[1]: https://github.com/pkhamre/wp-varnish [2]: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-varnish/