I'm a full-stack developer (Python backend + Flutter mobile/web) working in the AI/LLM space. I'm working at Beijing China, And my day job pays about $2,500/month. I've built AI systems for companies in finance and healthcare — RAG pipelines, knowledge bases, AI agents, the whole stack. I can ship a complete product solo, from backend to deployment.

Last year I decided to seriously try making money on the side. Here's what happened:

*Attempt 1: Built a product (Telegram subscription bot)* Built a content subscription platform on Telegram — paid tiers, built-in shop, automated operations. At first it kinda worked: ~$70/month on ads, ~$110-140/month revenue. Tiny margin, but hey, it's positive. So I tried to scale — pushed ad spend to ~$280/month. Revenue? Only ~$220. Scaling literally made it worse. Turns out the small profit was just a lucky pocket of cheap traffic, not a real business. Shut it down.

*Attempt 2: Partnered with someone to build a product* Found a partner — I build, they sell. Built the whole thing. They tried promoting it for about two weeks, didn't see quick money, and just... stopped. Product died on the vine.

*Attempt 3: Another partnership* Different person, different project. I did all the dev work, delivered the finished product. Partner ghosted. Never heard from them again.

*Attempt 4: "Trust me, it's easy money"* Someone convinced me their business model was printing money. I invested ~$800 to get in. Lost all of it. Classic lesson, expensive tuition.

*Attempt 5: Freelancing* Started looking at freelance projects. Reality check: a $7,000 project takes one person roughly 2 months of full-time work. As a side gig on top of a day job, that's brutal. The per-hour math is honestly depressing once you factor in communication, revisions, and scope creep.

*Attempt 6: Small gigs* Just did a simple website for a friend — $300 for 2 days of work. Fine as a favor, but obviously not a path to meaningful income.

*Net result after one year: -$2,200 and mass of time gone.*

Here's what I think I've learned (but I'm not sure I've learned the right lessons):

- I can build things, but building ≠ earning - I keep falling into the "trade time for small money" trap - Partnerships have burned me every single time — I do the work, the other side flakes - I don't know how to find clients who actually pay well - My product attempt failed because I had no real distribution strategy — just threw ads at it and hoped - I'm apparently an easy target for "easy money" pitches

I'm not looking for "learn to code" advice — I can code fine. What I can't figure out is the business/money side.

For those who've broken out of the "skilled but broke" cycle:

- What actually changed things for you? - Did you find a specific niche? Change how you find clients? Build a different kind of product? - Is there something obvious I'm missing?

Genuinely asking. I'm not trying to promote anything — I just want to understand what I'm doing wrong.

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Ask HN: 10-year dev, tried earning on the side for a year – lost $2,200