Making money with Linux part time.

[MAnix]

Well if you want to make money out of linux, you need an angle. then you need to market it, then support it. use google ads. thats no advert for them, hell just get advertisers willing to pay, but it gives an income. get your website more popular and more people will see what you have. your idea will turn into a money pot.

whatever angle you take, there is someone who has a need for your idea...servers, classes, conversions, distro disribution, hardware, set-ups, systems, admins?? all the same, all about keeping to customers ticking over. it can be done. i made 8 dollars in a day for my website. not much, very little but thats 8 dollars. where is the harm in developing an idea. go for it.

dedicate yourself!!

[Melio]

no , i"m not going to do classes like for people switching to linux, I'm going to do classes to help users build a computer and use linux and learn about opensource. all for the cost of the class, and they get a working linux box and monitor n stuff like an ordinary pc out of the deal.

they did this when windows first came out and alot of people jumped on it to learn windows. but it obviously never panned out, ppl got a computer out of it. but didnt learn that much.

I just figure, since the object is to walk away with a working, functional linux computer - the class itself is valuable as training. so I'm not exactly selling any OS. just giving ppl a better alternative to learning computers then just stuffing windows on a cheap pc and saying "here! have fun"

[MAnix]

a noble enough goal, and im sure there are ways of making this work and making money.

As a side thought, local colleges (sixth form, in the UK, um where you go before University), and higher education establishements, are usually looking to run evening course just like this...and those kind of workshops usually have a fee, and thus you'd make money out of linux...

it may be worth looking into this by phoning up the principles or directors of the education places and see about running a course. Most are ok with it if you can demonstrate a legitimate intake (class numbers) and show them that you can run the course with little more than a room from thier college....they are usually good at these things in the UK as Adult Learning is very high on the governments hit list...

I dont know the American education system or politcal system enough to let you know how and where to go and sort such things out, but id p[hone the local school / college /uni and they should help...

[ltam]

You guys have some great insight. I'm taking notes and will definitely explore some of your ideas. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I want more discussions and ideas for this thread to grow. I hope the information here can also help at least one other user to make some money.

Keep up with the posts.

[cdlaforc]

Melio,
I think you have a good idea. I'm sure word about your class and the services you provide would spread fast in your area. You should setup the PCs so that initially at least when the open up the internet a web page(one you would create) would open up marketing youself and the services that you provide like the Fedora release notes do now after you install. Just an idea.

[ltam]

Melio, that's a really great idea especially some people may not have an extra box lying around to test their new skills on. How would one arrange to get these boxes? What sort of hardware spec would we be looking at? I would imagine something that is fast enough to not make the linux run slowly but old enough to be really inexpensive to acquire. Does anyone have any idea around spec? I'm running Cento4 on an old Duron 1.7ghz with 512meg of RAM. Are those available in the market place for a reasonable price? There is a balance to how old the spec can be as availability also will be the problem. How about the end of lease distributors?

Your thoughts?

[cdlaforc]

I'm running a pretty heavy version of FC5 on an Duron 1.6 with 1Gb of ram and I don't really ever experience slowness. I would think this would be a pretty cheap barebone kit.

[MAnix]

Originally Posted by ltam

Melio, that's a really great idea especially some people may not have an extra box lying around to test their new skills on. How would one arrange to get these boxes? What sort of hardware spec would we be looking at? I would imagine something that is fast enough to not make the linux run slowly but old enough to be really inexpensive to acquire. Does anyone have any idea around spec? I'm running Cento4 on an old Duron 1.7ghz with 512meg of RAM. Are those available in the market place for a reasonable price? There is a balance to how old the spec can be as availability also will be the problem. How about the end of lease distributors?

Your thoughts?

1.4ghz AMD cpu + cpu cooler + board = 45GBP @ eBuyer.com. see here:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/101499/rb/19935974903

a single stick of 512mb RAM would have a great machine up and running in no time. RAM there is 27.99GBP and an 80GB HDD is around 40 pounds and finally a DVD ROM drive 16pounds and case 18pounds. total it together and you have a decent machine...oh and keyboard and mouse kit combo comes in at 5pounds so real cheap and easy to build that together:

TOTAL: 146.99 Pounds STERLING, so rough conversion um 299dollars?? im no math wizz which is why i use currency converters and it is a TOTAL US$ 271.028 USD

Basically for 150quid, or for you yanks call it 270bucks, you have a complete computer system and i bet that is very low. Plus if you buy in bulk you'd get even more discount, and with that as a quote you can see if anyone is prepared to beat that, although that is pretty low. it is fast enough to run FC5 full install, and act as a home server, and needs no tweaks to get it working. Its one of the nicer boards i have worked with, and is a very cheap solution. None of this hardware is "old" in the sense that its out of date, and all of it is BRAND NEW, so even better. EBuyer have tons in stock as you can see above. Have a look, hope i helped...

MAniX

[oliver-fedora]

i'm also interested on how can we make the "love for opensource" not just hobby buy also money making....
hope we get some interesting ideas from this post.

what about red hat? i think they are making huge money now.
but for something like retail, like what we're discussing. yes we have to come up with good ideas.

[MAnix]

I make money writing technical docs, having adverts on my website, and selling distros from my website. also programming is a meagre, but possible income, that i also do (vb, c++, gambas, perl, html, etc) and so there shouldnt be much pursuasion needed. It takes time and effort and it can be done.

But surely isnt it more for the enthusiasm and love of opensource mean to be a hobby...regardless of profit, since we are not in it for money. Example 20 articles written for fedorazine.com gets me $20 dollars, but im in the UK so covert that, and i get 10GBP, so not much, given it takes around 5 hours to wirte all of those technical docs. And from advertisment on my web page i made 10 dollars in 3 days despite 400 visits, and 5000 hits, and as for programming i have been offered 2 pounds GBP for my program + source. I then sell distros for 2Pounds / $4 so you do math. Total earnings very low, love for linux = massive, and every article i write as a freelance and for the love of fedora and not for money...

just my thoughts but getting people to use fedora would be so much of a boost, that they could see how good it is, and money means nothing whne you consider the friends you make, the groups you join, the projects you can do, and the fun you gain!! lol

[ltam]

Originally Posted by MAnix

1.4ghz AMD cpu + cpu cooler + board = 45GBP @ eBuyer.com. see here:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/101499/rb/19935974903

a single stick of 512mb RAM would have a great machine up and running in no time. RAM there is 27.99GBP and an 80GB HDD is around 40 pounds and finally a DVD ROM drive 16pounds and case 18pounds. total it together and you have a decent machine...oh and keyboard and mouse kit combo comes in at 5pounds so real cheap and easy to build that together:

TOTAL: 146.99 Pounds STERLING, so rough conversion um 299dollars?? im no math wizz which is why i use currency converters and it is a TOTAL US$ 271.028 USD

Basically for 150quid, or for you yanks call it 270bucks, you have a complete computer system and i bet that is very low. Plus if you buy in bulk you'd get even more discount, and with that as a quote you can see if anyone is prepared to beat that, although that is pretty low. it is fast enough to run FC5 full install, and act as a home server, and needs no tweaks to get it working. Its one of the nicer boards i have worked with, and is a very cheap solution. None of this hardware is "old" in the sense that its out of date, and all of it is BRAND NEW, so even better. EBuyer have tons in stock as you can see above. Have a look, hope i helped...

MAniX

Wow... Thanks MAnix. This is a great start. With a monitor, we're upto $400. Where would we host these classes? I was thinking the local schools, community center, YMCA, church, etc... Somewhere low cost. Anyone with experience pulling together local/community type seminars or setting up education type environments? What would a setup like that compose of? I need to start budgeting the launch costs. Location rental, seating, facilities setup, courseware, agenda, curriculum, etc... What audience would this cater to? The home user? The techie enhancing their skill? The student?

I'm getting excited...

[ltam]

Originally Posted by MAnix

just my thoughts but getting people to use fedora would be so much of a boost, that they could see how good it is, and money means nothing whne you consider the friends you make, the groups you join, the projects you can do, and the fun you gain!! lol

True enough and I have the same love and sentiments for this stuff. The magic is when you can make a decent living doing what you love. I'm an IT Architect by trade. Working in it is not enough for me. I'm not reaching the community with my message. At the same time, I have to put food on the table and pay the mortgage and put my kids through school. Now if I can make a living with this, then that would be golden. It's all the life responsibilities that put the pressure on the need for cashflow... I would do it for free if I can afford it.

[ccrvic]

Originally Posted by ltam

With a monitor, we're upto $400.

Monitors can be had for free.

15" monitors are generally being thrown out, both by companies and by private individuals. They often have to pay to have them taken away.

Keep your ear to the ground & you can find tens of monitors going begging - in fact, the owners will be pleased to let you have them.

Vic.

[ltam]

Originally Posted by MAnix

a noble enough goal, and im sure there are ways of making this work and making money.

As a side thought, local colleges (sixth form, in the UK, um where you go before University), and higher education establishements, are usually looking to run evening course just like this...and those kind of workshops usually have a fee, and thus you'd make money out of linux...

it may be worth looking into this by phoning up the principles or directors of the education places and see about running a course. Most are ok with it if you can demonstrate a legitimate intake (class numbers) and show them that you can run the course with little more than a room from thier college....they are usually good at these things in the UK as Adult Learning is very high on the governments hit list...

This is a great idea as well. I used to teach Java many years ago for adult education. What sort of curriculum would you suggest? There is so much we can on the education front. I wonder if it should be along the lines of a traditional Unix course or should this be a specialization course to complement those who already have Unix background. Should the courses be tiered, based on complexity? Hmmm.... Has anyone on this list been on a Linux course?

[Melio]

I'v never taken a single linux course, and I don't think good ones exist, even online.

the windows courses I took for college credit made me cringe, they were online, yes. but they were horribly boring. I skipped almost every video just to take the quiz at the end to finish the class. my wife thought it was funny.

But that's not exactly what one would do in a linux for beginners class.

you have to sit down with a group of experts like ourselves and plan out what an entire semester or 2 week course or whatever lenght of time would be for the class. organize it into lab time and discussion/educatinon time.

then basicly break down your lab time into part of your daily routine.

discuss say history of opensource, linux and why this stuff is free and available. and how to find it.

another section of learning may be understanding hardware and computers in general - why they need an OS, and why Operating systems don't always have to be distributed With a computer.

and of course, breaking down a general pc and what the componants are of each - simply, not too complex. don't wanna scare these ppl, .. of course explain the differnces between old school hardware like modems and winmodems and why they are generally dispised by the opensource community

then of course, break down your differnt distros, and explain them breifly so they know the differnces between bsd, linux, mac stuff, windows, ect.. then start labs and start with stuff like Live cds to test bootability before anyone does installation.

the trick to selling a class like this is, walking away with a full computer they build and install the system on.

if they start a linux group from the class - to assist eachother further afterwards, you can charge dues monthly to be part of the group, and give them organized linux meetings with cake and pie

building computers that are cheap isnt tuff with linux

no one needs modems anymore, most motherboards have networking built in. video built in. just do some research for a motherboard that has supported features that work in the distro you choose to distribute with it. then get a cheap case and some ram and cpu of choice.. and let the people choose monitor upgrades as they sign up with the class. keyboard/mouse/speakers are standard and inexpensive also

in several lightly loaded classes, they can learn all sorts of stuff and have a lot of information that is useful in the future.

even if the class ran for 400$ it would still profit you about 100$ per student (usd) .. if they upgrade for monitors or ram or something, just tack it onto the price. and they walk away happy and educated. and linux users a bit.

if they run home and install windows on it, who cares.

:P