TLDR
I made a thing and would like your opinions... generating revenue from open source is a polarizing topic at times. If you want to check it out, it lives (for now) at https://livetechhelper.com. Docs are here. Much loves!
So what thing did I make and why?
Hey everyone! First time poster here and perpetual waffler... Although it fills me with anxiety to do so, I am sharing a project I have been working on for a while in the effort to get some opinions from good people like yourself. I have been reading articles on dev.to for a long time and to me it comes across as one of the least troll driven and most positive dev communities so I finally signed up for an account and figured now is as good a time as any to write my first post.
I'm super passionate about open source and making life easier for developers. Over the past few years, I've been working on a project called LiveTechHelper and finally feel it's ready to share. As we all know, it's never "done" but I could tinker forever and ever and get absolutely nowhere. This time I would actually like something to come of this.
Why I Started This Project
I was so sick of wasting hours on end trying to solve issues with libraries I was using either because of poor documentation or just my specific use cases were maybe a bit difficult. I also had a hard time getting any company I worked for to donate to open source projects we were using to make sure they stay alive.
Time is Money... and Money is Time:
I have easily spent 5 hours (or let’s be honest… much longer) on a problem that I know the creator of the code could solve in 5 minutes. I could have got my company to pay or would have paid when freelancing, even if just to keep my sanity! I have seen corporate sponsorships for quite well used projects for like $100. It’s not easy to get your company to just give money away, but when you can justify it in clear terms, and make them happy by getting things done quicker and show results, then it’s a different story. Yes, it can’t just turn into having them do all your work and heavy lifting but man I would have killed for this in some of the projects I have worked on over the years. I think I would not look as old as I currently do!
Upwork, etc. are garbage for this use case:
If you’ve ever tried to use Upwork, etc. to get help on specific smaller things, I am sure you’ve had the same experience of, waiting forever, getting lots of bids from sketchy profiles and then when you choose one with the best feedback in the world, it turns out all of their reviews are from non-tech people and they are not so good… and the whole thing can take a week or longer. I know this is not just my experience as have spoken to many others that have the same. For projects and stuff it can be OK, but even still, the “talent verification” is laughable IMO.
Support Open Source:
For me this is the point, and the biggest win-win. It is a way for companies (and people) to support open source. If they pay someone $100/hr as a developer and they spend 5 hours on an issue they could get solved in under an hour and they pay even $50 for 30 minutes of their time, it’s worth it… Getting companies and people to give back to open source is very difficult. We all use a LOT of open source projects and it’s not like we can all donate to all of them. I really believe LTH as an additional option to donations, etc. can help (especially small to medium projects) at least get a little here and there!
How it Works For Open Source Devs
I know from experience that things need to be quick and easy so I tried to make the onboarding as painless as possible to try and encourage the adoption as “another means to source revenue” for open source projects. You can see more info about everything in my first attempt at the Help Center I put together, but in general, it goes like this:
- Register as a “Helper” on the site (yeah I need a better name for this…)
- All it takes is a one click login with GitHub and I import all of the public repos you own or are a contributor of
- Fill in your payout details:
- Takes roughly a minute, but this is necessary to be able to actually payout money so it’s needed before you can accept any “Help Requests”
- Done… Now simply add a link to your profile on your site, project’s readme, etc. and wait and see what happens…
The whole thing takes probably 2-3 mins max and the aim is that you can just set it and forget it to see if it can be helpful to you or your project.
How it Works For Devs Needing Support
Simply register for an account and create a "Help Request" which just details what it is you need help with, include code, replit, codesandbox, etc. whatever you can, and the developer can accept or deny your request. If they accept, you get a private chat room created for you and when the session starts, you can do screenshare, video, audio, chat, etc.
Why I am personally passionate about this project
Developers Helping Developers:
Who is more qualified to help you than the people that wrote and work on the code you’re using? This is my genuine opinion regardless of any money being involved. Plus I am sure we’ve all experienced a time when we’ve logged our first issue on a GitHub repo we use and feel good about ourselves that we’re helping (or more likely feel frustrated because it’s blocking something we’re trying to do…), only to have the project developer clearly point out that it was your n00b mistake (publicly, and probably weeks later). Not the best experience I must admit… maybe that was just me…
Give Back Time:
So many of the “issues” I read on projects I regularly use are just support really and not necessarily bugs. If even a fraction of these could turn into paid support requests that could be huge for some projects. The amount of effort involved from some of these awesome devs to get a few $5 donations is unreal sometimes. So if they can make $30 here and there for helping someone out (as they should), then that’s less time spent trying to “raise money” and more time spent updating docs, fixing bugs, paying for hosting fees, etc.
A Bit of Background
I started this project in 2020 and poured my heart into it. A mix of running out of time and budget brought things to a standstill. Recently, I picked it back up, upgraded the tech, and I'm finally at a point where I'd love your honest feedback. (FYI - I built 99% of this myself, I paid someone I found on YouTube to do some fiddly Vue.js chat bits for me because… let’s just say front-end is not my forte).
It’s not the first product I have built, but it’s the only one I am actually passionate about. Back in 2018 I built a fully functioning retail analytics platform that integrated with point of sale systems (it was kind of like New Relic for bars and restaurants). The feedback was great, I had customers ready to pay and then all of a sudden the vendor I used for PoS integration (who shall remain nameless..) doubled their fees making my entire business model unfeasible. Not a great experience, but I am almost glad it happened because I didn’t have time to pivot at that point and had to go back to a job as I’d ran out of money and time. A little distance made me realize that actually what did I care about retail analytics? Could I see myself working on the project for 5 years? While I did love the project and I learned a lot while doing it (again great learning experience as a solo dev), I knew I should be working on something that I felt strongly about that I would work on even if it didn’t make me any money really, and that’s what LTH is for me.
If you would be so kind… I would love a minute (or 10) of your time
Anyone that’s worked on anything knows how valuable (but very hard to come by) any feedback is. I would immensely appreciate it if anyone could help me out by answering any of the following questions, or just giving me your (constructive) feedback on my project so far before I go much further.
- Would you use LiveTechHelper, either to get help or as a way to monetize your knowledge?
- What features would make this a must-have tool for you?
- Is this concept worth pursuing? Can it genuinely benefit the open-source world?
- Do you think the name is ridiculous (I do but I am stuck with it for now ha), suggestions welcome…
Side Note: If you are an open source developer
I have a quick survey I would be forever grateful to you if you could take a few minutes to fill out. I have 25 responses so far (including from some quite popular devs!) but am trying to get to at least 100 to be able to analyze this a bit better. If you have a few minutes, it’s a Google Form linked below:
Any Advice Reaching Out to Open Source Projects?
I'm excited about the potential to partner with open-source projects for beta testing and beyond, but I know maintainers are incredibly busy. I'd love advice from anyone with experience in this area:
- What's the best way to approach small, medium, and larger projects?
- How can I show I genuinely value their time and am not just trying to sell a product?
I have a focus group planned in the coming weeks to drill into some of these things, but any thoughts or constructive criticism are super appreciated!
Let me know what you think! Thank you so much in advance!
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