My Best Side Project Made Exactly $0
Last weekend, I did something that made my stomach clench.
I scrolled through my private GitHub repos and landed on that one. The project I was so proud of. The one that solved a real problem. The one I spent six months coding on nights and weekends.
Total revenue to date: $0.00.
I haven't charged a single dime for it.
I'm not alone in this insanity. I asked my developer friends, and the answers were a painful chorus: "I built it, but I don't know how to handle payments." "My project isn't 'professional' enough to charge for." "I'm just going to keep it free, it's easier."
We're all doing this wrong.
The Dirty Secret About Monetization
Here's what nobody wants to admit: most of us are paralyzed by the idea of charging money, not the reality of it.
We convince ourselves that accepting payments involves creating a C-corp, hiring a tax lawyer, and deciphering 200 pages of international VAT regulations. It's a convenient excuse to avoid the one thing that truly terrifies us: asking someone to pay for something we made.
The real kicker? I spent more time worrying about hypothetical legal problems than actually trying to get a single customer.
That's not a business strategy. That's a psychological prison.
What Actually Works (Based on a Real Project, Not a Tweetstorm)
I was stuck in this loop until I stumbled upon the story of a developer from Turkey. Let's call him Oz. He built a simple AI app to rename files. For months, it made nothing. Then, he changed his approach. Five months later, that "little project" pulled in $1,370.
That number won't buy you a Lamborghini. But the path to it will change your entire mindset.
Here's what he learned (and what I learned from him):
1. Your First Dollar Is a Therapy Session
For most of his life, Oz thought making money online was a corporate beast he couldn't tame. "I'm from Turkey and we don't have Stripe," he said. "I always thought I need to create some sort of company."
This is the first dragon you have to slay. The fear of the unknown.
So he found a simple payment platform, slapped a price on his app, and waited. Then it happened. One sale. One single dollar. His reaction? "The day I made the $1 all my fears gone."
This is the most critical lesson. That first dollar isn't about the money. It's proof. Proof that you built something of value. Proof that the "complex" world of payments is just a few clicks away. It shatters the illusion that you're just a hobbyist.
2. Your Harshest Critics Are Your Best Consultants (And They're Free)
Oz's first launch on Reddit was a classic "vanity metric" success. Huge upvotes, tons of views... and one sale.
He was listening to the compliments, not the complaints.
The comments were a bloodbath of one single issue: privacy. His app uploaded files to the cloud. Users, rightly, freaked out. "I'm not sending my private files to your random server."
This is where most of us get defensive. We try to "educate" the user. Oz did something brilliant: he listened. He spent a month rebuilding the app to run the AI models locally, on the user's own machine.
The result? Sales started trickling in.
The lesson? Objections are a treasure map written in complaint ink. "This is too expensive" or "I'm worried about privacy" aren't insults. They are a free, high-value consultation telling you exactly what to fix to make people buy.
3. The "I Can't Get Paid" Problem Is Already Solved
"We don't have Stripe."
This line is the dream-killer for thousands of builders outside the US. If you think this applies to you, you're looking at the problem backwards.
Oz used a platform called a Merchant of Record (MoR). Here's the difference, in plain English:
Stripe (Payment Processor): They give you the tech to charge cards. YOU are the seller. You handle taxes, VAT, and all the compliance nightmares.
An MoR (like Lemon Squeezy or Paddle): THEY are the seller. They resell your product, handle the payment, the taxes, and the compliance. Then they just pay you out.
This is a complete game-changer. The MoR worries about the global financial mess, and you worry about building cool stuff. It's why Oz could get paid through a system that uses Stripe on the back end, even though Stripe doesn't directly support his country for payment processing.
Stop letting your location be an excuse. It's a solved problem.
4. Stop Coding, Start "Vibe Coding"
The other myth is that you need to be a 10x developer crafting perfect code. Total nonsense.
Oz's secret weapon? He calls it "vibe coding."
"I'm a developer but I'd say 95% of it vibe coded with [an AI tool]. I always ask for small tasks to avoid generating complex code... it's like I'm writing the code but now it's 10x faster."
This isn't about asking ChatGPT to "build me a file renamer app." That never works. It's about being the director, not the typist. You hold the vision. You break the problem down into tiny, manageable pieces ("create a button that opens a file dialog"). The AI is your lightning-fast junior dev who handles the grunt work.
Your value is no longer your typing speed. It's your ability to ask the right questions and direct the tools.
The "No Marketing Budget" Launch Plan
Oz said he "didn't do too much marketing." But what he actually did was execute a perfect, lean launch.
Go to the Community First (Reddit): He went where his users already were. Niche subreddits are perfect for getting raw, honest feedback from early adopters.
Go to the Curated Platform Second (Product Hunt): After fixing the privacy issues, he took the improved product to a broader audience.
Go for the Long Tail (AI Directories): This was the smartest move. He submitted his app to dozens of AI tool directories. These don't create a tidal wave of traffic, but they create a slow, steady trickle of highly qualified users forever.
That's it. No ad spend. No influencer campaign. Just a simple, repeatable checklist.
The 1-Week Test That Will Earn You Your First Dollar
Here's your homework:
Pick ONE project that's sitting in your GitHub, 80% finished.
Sign up for an MoR like Lemon Squeezy or Paddle. This week.
Set a "no-brainer" price. It can be $5. The amount is irrelevant. The act is everything.
Tell three people. Post it in one subreddit. Email it to a friend.
Listen to the feedback without getting defensive.
The Truth About Making Money From Your Work
The best side project isn't the one with the most elegant code. It's the one that actually makes it out of your private repo and into the hands of a user.
Your project should be a tool people use, not a trophy gathering dust on a digital shelf.
The real question isn't "Is my project good enough to charge for?"
It's "Am I brave enough to find out?"
Start there. Your mindset will thank you.