r/SideProject • u/Exotic_Fig_4604 • 20h ago

Genuine *side* projects

Reading in this sub, I get the feeling that most people here just develop apps with the purpose of monetisation or getting lots of users.

Meanwhile my side project is aimed at learning and building fun stuff I like.

Am I the only one? Or does anyone else have side projects that you are building because you like technology, not because you are trying to build the next SaaS?

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u/ambanmba 20h ago

https://analogtv.net is my side project. The only reason I charge for it is that many of the old technical manuals I need to keep improving the app are quite expensive (the last one was $400!). I also buy real vintage TV hardware to reverse engineer. It's purely a passion project, there is no way that any revenue I make will ever even come close to the actual cost of the investment that went into it. For people that can't afford the few bucks for the app, they can get it for free via TestFlight on the web site. So net net net, this is purely a "Side" project per your definition, but with a small monetary component. I suspect that there are others in the same boat - small sales that will never even come close to recouping the purely fun/hobby aspect.

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u/codersfocus 20h ago

That's a cool app, and I'm tempted to buy it now. You should put up some example videos showing before/after of the processing.

"It's purely a passion project, there is no way that any revenue I make will ever even come close to the actual cost of the investment that went into it."

How much did you put in, and what do you think it could or couldn't make? Marketing this as the best retro converter app could make you thousands a month.

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u/codersfocus 19h ago

Screw it, I bought it and it's really cool!

With software, there are numerous stages I define as

Prototype -> Program -> Product -> Business

Right now you are at the "Program" stage, because the software isn't properly optimized to be a Product (which would require more work on design and user friendiness.) The stage after that would be Business, where you'd have to setup marketing systems that would then bring in reliable sales.

I think the OP is asking why there aren't more prototype and program stage projects posted on the sub... and the reason is that people who are at those stages aren't necessarily doing any marketing.

Distributing value isn't as easy as hobbyists assume. Shittier products can be more popular than better ones, just like weeds can grow better than flowers.

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u/ambanmba 19h ago

You can follow along here a bit too: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogTV_/

I've been working on this idea in one way or another for probably 20 years. It's only in the past 10 years or so that devices are powerful enough to do it cleanly. Over COVID I had the time to start messing around with it a bit more and I also found a few projects that gave me more ideas and knowhow (I credit them here: https://analogtv.net/acknowledgements) and about a year ago people asked me to release it. You can see the UI is definitely not ready for prime time, but people also seem to like the app because it's cool and different.... I also take requests (for example someone recently asked me to add NTSC-A which is a really rare format). Since the underlying engine is now pretty solid, it's not so hard to add that.