# Any advice re best way to make money as a RoR developer in your spare time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 6, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/any-advice-re-best-way-to-make-money-as-a-ror-developer-in-your-spare-time/150241 "2008-10-06T13:16:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/any-advice-re-best-way-to-make-money-as-a-ror-developer-in-your-spare-time/150241/1 "2008-10-06T13:16:13Z")
Hi all, Any advice on, realistically, what’s a reasonable approach to try to make some money in ones spare time (after a 9-5pm job) using one’s Ruby on Rails skills? So therefore in my case I may only have 5-10 hours a week available, and these would be scattered throughout the week. Options that come to mind, however I’m interested in people with real life experience trying to make this stuff happen… (a) part time development - an obvious one - but what would be the best way to try to identify such work given my constraints (b) some niche website product - obviously the question here is what 🙂 [this one would be great/fun if I had the right idea] © develop a client app - like (b) but then developing for either Mobile / Windows / Mac / iPhone (d) community site - then go for ad sense style of income (e) sell electronic content on your web site (f) sell non-electronic content on your web site Cheers Greg ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 1:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/any-advice-re-best-way-to-make-money-as-a-ror-developer-in-your-spare-time/150241/2 "2008-10-06T13:19:44Z")
Greg H. wrote: > Any advice on, realistically, what’s a reasonable approach to try to > make some money in ones spare time (after a 9-5pm job) using one’s Ruby > on Rails skills? So therefore in my case I may only have 5-10 hours a > week available, and these would be scattered throughout the week. In terms of a sustainable pace, hardcore programming after hours tends to bring down your day job. If it’s not Ruby, hop! – Phlip ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/any-advice-re-best-way-to-make-money-as-a-ror-developer-in-your-spare-time/150241/3 "2008-10-06T16:52:28Z")
I guess the main thing would be to somehow keep track of what you have done and then where you are planning on going from there. The main thing is to let this be fun so that you WANT to do it, and not to let it affect the rest of your life. I would recommend maybe trying out some of 37signals’ products to see which one might work the best for you. I use Basecamp with another company I do some web programming for, but I use Backpack for myself for my independent web stuff and all of my Ruby on Rails work as well. I keep a page for each project and then always keep little reminders of what I was thinking last time. It has helped me take a day or two off without missing a beat. ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/any-advice-re-best-way-to-make-money-as-a-ror-developer-in-your-spare-time/150241/4 "2008-10-07T05:10:29Z")
Greg H. wrote: > Any advice on, realistically, what’s a reasonable approach to try to > make some money in ones spare time (after a 9-5pm job) using one’s Ruby > on Rails skills? So therefore in my case I may only have 5-10 hours a > week available, and these would be scattered throughout the week. Greg, why don’t you develop and sell Rails plugins? I think this is a good thing, as I argued here: [http://railswheels.com/site/faqs#why](http://railswheels.com/site/faqs#why) – Rails Wheels - Find Plugins, List & Sell Plugins - [http://railswheels.com](http://railswheels.com)