Do you consider monetizing your expertise?

[mmaximov]

I work as a Linux Sys Admin for a trading company, I have base + bonuses, so I'm doing pretty well. But I'm thinking of creating content, courses, anything along these lines... Did you ever consider doing this? If yes, what were you doing? If no - why?

It's just becoming obvious to me - people reach out for "free help" constantly... Why do not start making some extra cash out of it?
Any input would be appreciated!, whether you have thoughts, or just making up

Thank you! have a good one everyone!

 

[KGIII]

I'm the author/owner of https://linux-tips.us and write a new article every other day.

It's a lot like work, but it's nice to give back to the community. There is some ad revenue but don't count on it being all that much. I can count all the donations on a single hand. Still, I keep on keeping on. It doesn't really make me any money, quite the opposite actually.

 

[mmaximov]

Thank you for sharing here! It's a great site tbh! And it looks like you're staying consistent for years with that! Kudos

 

[KGIII]

And it looks like you're staying consistent for years with that!

It's not easy but I probably learn more than my readers do. So, it has its benefits.

I get regular offers to post sponsored content, but I ignore most of those. If I did, the site would definitely be making a profit. I let one through and felt bad - and Google knocked me for a couple of months. I now realize why and how to avoid that, but I still ignore the requests.

I am entertaining one company's request as they appear easy enough to work with. They even allow me to mark the article as a sponsored article. That makes it much better in my eyes.

 

[bob466]

I believe Linux is a community of people who help one another and there should never be a monetary price attached to it.

 

[Alexzee]

Like our moderator, KGIII, I too write articles for our Linux Community.

I have considered making courses and teaching people how to install Linux on there pc's.
I've also considered starting a small business building pc's and installing Linux for folks.
I just don't have the funds right now to purchase all the things I would need to get the ball rolling.

What's your ideas on those things mmaximov?

​

 

[KGIII]

This thread makes me think...

I'm perfectly okay with people getting paid for their time. Quite a lot of the tools we use are made by paid developers. Companies like Red Hat have become billion dollar companies by offering paid support.

I did some very lucrative contract work after I retired. If I charged those rates to help people with their Linux problems, it'd be a costly (for them) venture but rather profitable for me.

I'm a pretty big fan of people making a living by spending their time. So, I'm perfectly okay with people monetizing stuff. The code is still perfectly free and this has been 'okay' since the very earliest days of the FOSS movement. It was never really about free as in beer, but free as in liberty. (We still get a lot of free as in beer type stuff.)

 

[Alexzee]

I'm not trying to get rich off of folks by building desktop pc's and installing Linux on them.
Just attempting to pull in a little extra because things are so tight.

For some paying the light bill and putting food on the table is very hard at this time. Not anything anything left over isn't a comfortable place to be.

 

[mmaximov]

Thank you guys for replies in this thread. Got me thinking even more.

I think the idea "everything in the world of Linux should be free" is ignorant. The code - yes. But not the education of a great quality. I'm a big time learner... And I've noticed that I am "okay" with paying money for guidance and practical knowledge. It makes me progress faster. I paid for courses to study for certs.. Now I pay for mentorships when I need to improve my knowledge on the topic... Yes, all of that info is for free out there. And we all love tinkering with stuff. But my time is not limitless so, I choose to save time by throwing money at the knowledge gaps. Buying someone else's experience is a smart development decision... You just need to find someone who's competent enough, with the right experience.

Last example - I've had a poor knowledge of the underlying data model in MaaS. And we started running into provisioning problems that might have been eaily solved by a person who knows Django+MaaS really good. So, one way to solve this was to go and study documentation, test things... well, pretty much do the same thing that everyone of us does... And spend a couple of weeks figuring that out. I've chosen another path - found a guy who's really good at it and asked him to teach me. We had a couple of hours training, he pointed me to the right directions, answered all of the questions. In less than a weekend, I had a working solution to our problem, and now I'm considered a MaaS expert on my dayjob (which is not true lol)... That's a big plus to my karma, it's worth every penny.

So, it was a wise decision. And I believe we all should consider that type of a side gig...

The thing is - I'm doing business on the side that brings me some good money. And I sell stuff in email mostly. It's not that hard for a dedicated person to build a decent email-list to sell educational content. I was just wondering if anyone ever thought about something like that... kgiii, for example, in your case - NOT setting up an email list and start sharing your EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE in exchange for dollars, would be a disservice for the community. That does not mean you should not share it for free, that only means - you can offer more massive courses to your audience. As you've mentioned, we learn when when we teach. To my mind, it's a win win...

That's my pov

Thank you Kgii, bob466 and Alexzee for your responses again

 

[Alexzee]

Thank you guys for replies in this thread. Got me thinking even more.

I think the idea "everything in the world of Linux should be free" is ignorant. The code - yes. But not the education of a great quality. I'm a big time learner... And I've noticed that I am "okay" with paying money for guidance and practical knowledge. It makes me progress faster. I paid for courses to study for certs.. Now I pay for mentorships when I need to improve my knowledge on the topic... Yes, all of that info is for free out there. And we all love tinkering with stuff. But my time is not limitless so, I choose to save time by throwing money at the knowledge gaps. Buying someone else's experience is a smart development decision... You just need to find someone who's competent enough, with the right experience.

Last example - I've had a poor knowledge of the underlying data model in MaaS. And we started running into provisioning problems that might have been eaily solved by a person who knows Django+MaaS really good. So, one way to solve this was to go and study documentation, test things... well, pretty much do the same thing that everyone of us does... And spend a couple of weeks figuring that out. I've chosen another path - found a guy who's really good at it and asked him to teach me. We had a couple of hours training, he pointed me to the right directions, answered all of the questions. In less than a weekend, I had a working solution to our problem, and now I'm considered a MaaS expert on my dayjob (which is not true lol)... That's a big plus to my karma, it's worth every penny.

So, it was a wise decision. And I believe we all should consider that type of a side gig...

The thing is - I'm doing business on the side that brings me some good money. And I sell stuff in email mostly. It's not that hard for a dedicated person to build a decent email-list to sell educational content. I was just wondering if anyone ever thought about something like that... kgiii, for example, in your case - NOT setting up an email list and start sharing your EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE in exchange for dollars, would be a disservice for the community. That does not mean you should not share it for free, that only means - you can offer more massive courses to your audience. As you've mentioned, we learn when when we teach. To my mind, it's a win win...

That's my pov

Thank you Kgii, bob466 and Alexzee for your responses again

You're welcome.
Best wishes for continued success.

 

[vs2-free-users]

Our destination is to bring linux and the "bad black terminals" to the people. So we try to help where we can. Linux is from the community to the community i our point of view.

 

[Terminal Velocity]

I received free help when I moved to Linux and I feel obligated to give it back if I have the chance, so No, I never thought to make money by helping the community. If everyone were thinking like you there would be no communities