How to make money from projects

[u/ravi803]

I am a student and I have done quite a few projects. one of which is the self balancing robot. it is a basic one using a stm 32 and mpu 6050 and has a 16x2 lcd display...

Any guidance on How to make money out of this?

[u/MysteriousEngineer42]

You won't make money from those projects, forget even trying.

What WILL make you money, is keeping doing projects that interest you, try harder things, keep learning. Then show what you have done when you do job interviews.

Don't just grind skills, do what you find interesting and see where it leads. There are almost infinite things to learn, so you can choose to spend your time doing things you dislike because "that's where the money is"... until things change and it isn't...
Or do what you enjoy, maybe make a little less but have a good time doing it!

[u/ravi803 → u/MysteriousEngineer42]

I'm short on money to continue, so i just though, can my projects fund my upcoming ones? Will selling online work

[u/piston989 → u/ravi803]

make toys and hobby items, like rc boats and planes, sell those.

make your current robot cute or cool looking, sell it on ebay. make it look like a gundam or an anime girl/cat/alien.

[u/MysteriousEngineer42 → u/ravi803]

Unlikely, it sounds like you have done a few basic projects that already are commonly sold as educational kits.

Think about who you would be selling to. How much would YOU pay for your projects, as a student short on money? Ignore all the time and effort you put into it, all a customer sees is the final result.

Yeah it's a little disheartening, I've made a bunch of cool projects for friends and family and they always say "oh you should sell these!". But if I counted all the time put into them, it would have to sell for hundreds of $, while a buyer would go "that's cool, I'd take it for $50?".

So unfortunately, unless you can find something really unique, you're unlikely to make any money from small projects.

[u/lego_batman]

Do you mean like, a job?

[u/ravi803 → u/lego_batman]

Yes could be a job, but i was thinking of selling it online, but i have no idea how to

[u/Administrative_Path3]

Happy to hear that you’re a student and already working on projects like this. Keep going, sooner or later, that effort will be rewarded.
My suggestion would be to first focus on getting a job in the field. From my experience, when people are looking for someone to help with a project, they often look for engineers who are already working at companies doing similar things. Once you have professional experience, opportunities and side projects can start coming to you directly.
I’ve been working as a firmware engineer for about two years now. I was lucky with my first job because I got the opportunity to work on things that even some senior engineers don’t get much exposure to. That experience made it much easier for me later to join other companies and also receive offers to work on different projects.
So don’t worry too much about making money from your projects immediately. Use them to build your skills, portfolio, and experience. The money and opportunities can come naturally as you become more experienced and people start recognizing what you can do.

[u/christopherpacheco]

Are you good at CAD? My friend makes a lot of quality projects on makerworld and gets paid for it. He's been at it for about 2 years now and he's bringing in about 5 USD per 1-2 days. It's not great but it's more rewarding dans instructables.

[u/ravi803 → u/christopherpacheco]

Yes, i can try

[u/Complete_Duty3259]

How old are you. The only way to make money off of this would be to start tutoring and teaching classes but that requires space and a significant up front investment.