How do you guys come with great ideas for side projects.

[Eoghan]

I sometimes feel like I'm in tutorial hell. And when it comes to coming up with a brand new ideas, my mind just goes blank.
I did manage to come up with an idea for my final year project, just gotta hope that it get accepted.

if someone wants to hear what it is and give some feed back, that would be greatly appreciated.

Aother conundrum that I had is that, in the past I have build an android app. I was thinking of using React Ntive, to add a bit of difficulty and learn a new technology.

Again any feedback would be freatly appreciated

Cheers 🍻

 

[Gummibeer]

I have one side project, since 3 years now, that I've created because of the need of my girlfriend.
It's a tool for photographers to let the customer decide which photos he wants and send him the processed ones.
Fun fact: we do the big brother, for photostudios, in my company. 😅 But I've started my before joining them.

In addition I create some small pages for customers which I do together with a friend.

Except of this I have enough to do with open source projects.

PS: there is a category for feedback, just post them there and you will get feedback. 😊

 

[VickiLanger]

Have problem, must fix.

(I’ll go into more detail later)

 

[Michael]

I mostly try to fix my own issue(s). If I have a problem that needs fixing, build it… I always find that if you build it for yourself, and then open to others you have more of a passion for the project.

 

[seb]

I basically just come up with solutions to problems that I or people in my community have. The problems don't need to be important -- some of them are just solving challenges for the "cool factor" more than actually dealing with a real world problem -- but there has to be a goal/purpose to it that I want to deal with.

 

[ek1]

Echoing some other sentiments in this thread, what I was told and which resonated with me is "solve your own problems". Work from your own life. Something I want to do is have an interface for marking on a map and pinning pictures and notes of the different hikes I take with my partner and friends.

 

[jdourlens]

My projects starts in 2 ways.
Ieither try to solve some annoying problem I have myself (Mostlry like previous replies) or I fall in love with something (surf, food, place..) or a technology and got and come with an idea to play in this field.

 

[Yuval Halevi]

Hey there, I actually answered a question pretty similar to yours a few months ago on Quora.

If you want to build your own business but you don’t have any great idea
I have a tip for you:

What if you could get an army of 20,832 top-level engineers that will work full time for you just to help you to find your next business opportunity will it help?
And If I tell you that more than 88,000[1] people will work together just to make sure finding your next idea will happen sooner than you think, will it help?
88,000 people working for you and you don't need to:

• Pay their salaries
• Give them food
• Water
• Basic conditions

Well
Just use Google.
Since September 4, 1998, Google is working non-stop on improving its search engine.

The websites that Google ranks on the 1st page of its search results for any given search term are the ones that they consider to be the most relevant and useful. They determine which websites are the most useful and relevant by using a complex algorithm (mathematical process) which takes into account 200+ factors.[2]

What's my point?
When you search for something on Google, they will give you the most relevant results which in many cases are also the highest quality sites for your search terms.
You can use Google as your personal business opportunity finder.
Google uses over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm.
We can compare those factors to the way entrepreneurs find a real estate opportunity.[3] Some of the factors you should consider when investing a real estate are:

• Location of the Property.
• Valuation of the Property.
• Investment Purpose and Investment Horizon.
• Expected Cash Flows & Profit Opportunities.

So… Google can be your online business opportunities finder.
Google algorithm takes into consideration more than 200 different factors that determine how good a site/online business is performing. [4]
And when you search something they show you the best result based on all those factors.
Cool right? Now give me money!
Well, it’s not that easy.
You can use Google as a tool to find your next online business opportunity, but you need to know what to look for and then you need to act.
So how can you find your next online business opportunity?
In short: You need to google something related to the industry you want to research.
Check all the top 10 results (first page).
Ask your self these questions:

• Do you find the content useful?
• How long the content is?
• Do they provide REAL VALUE to you and answered what you looked for?
• Do you like the design, images, videos, and the way this site/article looks?

Do you think you can create something that looks, feel, sound, and basically much better than the average level in the top 10 results in this search term?
Use Ubersuggest[5] to understand how many people search for this specific search term and what is the difficulty or ranking in the first page for this keyword.

To save you some time, The last column will tell you the SEO difficulty of getting to the first page for this specific search term.
They have rank from 1–100
The higher the number, the more competitive this search term is.
You can user AnswerThePublic to find many keywords ideas and run keyword research in the niche you’re interested in.

I searched for ‘Wordpress Resturant Themes’

Champions tip:
Use Keyword Everywhere[6], It’s a free chrome extension tool that shows you how many people search per month for this search term.
It will save you time. You can more useful tools for startups here.[7]
Even after you find a great opportunity there is a lot of work to be done.
Building a website, becoming an expert in your niche, creating content that gives real value to your target audience takes time!
But that's the beautiful thing about creating your own business… It’s hard
and you might fail.
And that’s why success is damn sweet.
Good luck!

Footnotes
[1] Number of Google employees 2017 | Statista
[2] How Does Google Rank Websites? | SEO Mark
[3] The Most Important Factors for Investing in Real Estate
[4] Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2019)
[5] Ubersuggest's Free Keyword Tool, Generate More Suggestions
[6] Keywords Everywhere - Keyword Tool
[7] StartupStash - A curated directory of tools and resources for your startup

 

[VickiLanger]

Have problem, must fix.

(I’ll go into more detail later)

Okay, I’m back to give more details.

Having problems is great! It means you can figure out how to fix them. For example: the attic and garage lights are the most often to be forgotten and left on. So, I solved this problem by installing motion sensor bulbs.

I find it easiest to fix my own problems or even the ones of people next to me.

If you’re constantly running >git push origin maybe you’d like to make a simple GUI to run git

 

[VickiLanger]

One last thing, we don’t always come up with great ideas. I personally have tons of weird crappy ideas that are just ridiculous. Just keep paying attention to problems.

A problem I see often is, at the grocery store, people will just leave items wherever if they decide they no longer want them. This is a problem for workers and for customers. What if cold items were left out too long and they are no longer safe?

 

[xtbhyn]

I constantly look for opportunities to cut down time, effort and money.

I have built few scrappy products for myself ranging from:

• a python script to quickly connect to my EC2 instances (saves time)

• to a library of web components that I can plug into a website to collect emails, feedback, etc. without developing backends (saves time & effort)

• to a snippet manager that uses Airtable as database (multi-device, stored on cloud without spending a dime)

After developing a crude working proto, if I use it regularly, then I hop around online forums showing it to people, gathering feedback and emails of interested folks (if possible) :p

Speaking from experience, if a few people show interest and give you their emails then you somehow become more devoted towards your side project. It kind of forces you to remain consistent with your efforts as @Michael mentioned.