Forem: Opire

11 Practical Ways to Bring Side Income as a Developer 💰

Anmol Baranwal — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 11:29:20 +0000

It’s always smart not to rely on just one source of income.

Bringing in side income might seem tough at first, but for developers, it’s surprisingly easier than you think.

This post briefly outlines 21 practical ways to build some side revenue as a developer.

This guide will help you build a sustainable income.

1. Solve open source bounties.

This is one of the most underrated ways and is often neglected.

If you're a decent coder, you can earn from $200 to $10k with a single pull request.

That's the power of open source bounties.

You can find those bounties on Opire. They are moving towards the vision that anyone can make a living from open source.

As a developer, you can also build credibility and showcase it in your portfolio because you're solving real-world problems people are willing to pay for.

Many reputed organizations like Cal.com use these bounties to speed up their projects.

Even the subscriptions that Opire launched recently are very profitable. Developers receive 100% of the rewards regardless. No tricks in that!

If you're confused about where to get started, I recommend reading the official docs.

By the way, Opire is completely open source so it builds more trust. You can star the repository and join the discord community to show support!

Star Opire ⭐️

2. Technical writing for guest posts.

A lot of companies accept guest writers to publish content on their blogs.

All you need is the ability to create content around their product and possibly with different tech stacks.

The work is remote with a high pay rate and you reach more people (grow your network and secure future work).

The main thing is to communicate technical concepts in a way that is understandable to different audiences.

If you're struggling to get accepted into any of these programs, start by writing your own posts and publishing them to popular platforms like here on DEV, Devdojo, Medium or Hackernoon. This will build up your writing skills and help you show your knowledge to potential companies.

One decent website is whopaystechnicalwriters where you will find content agencies, publications and community writer programs. You can filter based on your tech stack.

Some other companies that pay high for quality posts:

Airbyte - $900 per article.
CircleCI - $350 - $600 per article.
DigitalOcean - $400 per article.
Linode - $400 per article.
AppSignal - $300 per article.
Auth0 - $450 per article.
Correlium - $500 - $1500 per article.
LambdaTest - $200 per article.
Tutorialspoint - $500 per article.

A great list of 84 such websites was put together by Julia here on Devto.

3. Participate in Hackathons.

Yes, I know. There is no guaranteed payout in this case.

But in the worst case, you will have a decent project in your portfolio which can help you land better opportunities.

Coding competitions are happening remotely all the time. These are usually sponsored by companies that pay out cash prizes to the winners.

Some of the decent websites where you can find the best hackathons to participate in:

MLH Global Hackathons - The best place to find remote and in-person events.
Devpost - The prizes can get upto $170k.
Devto challenges - Mini hackathons on this platform that allow you to build in public.
Kaggle - For Data Science and Machine Learning competitions.
Devfolio - another great place to find hackathons. They also offer a program to connect talented developers with startups.
Unstop - all kinds of competitions including no-code events.

Hackathons are a great way of meeting new people and learning new stuff, plus they're just a lot of fun!

When I was in college, I participated in around 100+ competitions combined on Unstop and Devfolio.

4. Make digital products.

Creating and marketing digital products like guides, website templates, plugins or courses can help you build decent passive income.

The best part? It needs very little maintenance and these products can be sold at any point in the future.

The only thing that is required is to create value that meets market demands. Plus, you should be able to market these otherwise it makes no sense to create it.

Popular platforms for selling digital products:

GumRoad - the best platform which includes subscriptions to email (10% flat fee)
Creative Market - For design assets and themes
AppSumo - Code, apps, extensions, templates, courses and more.
ThemeForest - For selling WordPress themes and website templates. You will become an Envato Market Author in the process.

This one might be tricky because it's tough to find a proper market fit but the more value you create, the better is the chance that people would be interested in your product.

5. Build a SAAS - Indie Hacking.

This is my favorite among the list and for obvious reasons.

Building a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup can be very useful, both financially and professionally as a developer.

🎯 What is Indie Hacking?

It is the process of building and selling a product independently, without the support of a large organization or team.

Indie hacking can be challenging and you will have to do everything. But as some say good will goes a long way.

There are many popular Indie Hackers like Tibo and Marc who have made more than $1M. In the process, they have built a huge audience.

Trust me, it's the best way to grow but you need to play the long game.

Two popular reads that I recommend checking out:

I’ve been indie hacking for a few months. Here’s what I learned by Tamerlan.
A guide to Indie Hacking by Rameerez.

$29 paid guide by levelsio that you can check out: The Indie Hacker Handbook.

If you're able to pull this off, it's one of the best revenue models you can get.

6. User Testing.

Companies developing production-level apps rely on user feedback to improve their products and that’s where user testing services step in.

You can spend 10–30 minutes testing a website or app, sharing your feedback or completing a survey and getting paid for your effort.

While this isn’t exclusive to developers, your tech knowledge gives you an edge over others. You can complete tasks faster, provide decent feedback and earn much faster than the average user.

In the process, you will learn the workflow and it might be useful for you if you are building your own app.

Some of the websites you can check out:

Trymata - Earn up to $10 per website or app test
User Testing - Pays via PayPal, requires screen share and/or webcam access during the test session. Earn about $10 per test, with longer or live sessions paying up to $50 for some tests.
Userlytics - Earn between $5 and $50 depending on the difficulty and length of the testing session.
IntelliZoom - Earn between $2 and $10 per 10-minute study. Paid via PayPal with a 3-5 day delay.
TestingTime - Option for in-person or video call tests. Less regular, but longer testing sessions. Lower paying than alternatives, when you take into account the delay between sessions.
uTest - $10 to $100+ per test depending upon session's requirements.
Respondent - You can also check this if you are interested in research work.

To be honest, it's repeated work so it is more useful for devs who love testing new apps.

7. Freelancing.

This is one of the most popular ways of sustainable income for developers.

But it's very saturated in my experience and income can be very unstable because finding clients is tough. You will need to build a reputation and manage your finances accordingly.

It can heavily vary based on your niche, platform and your experience.

Some of the popular platforms for developer gigs you can check out:

Fiverr - Kind of a huge marketplace, great for developers who are just starting out in freelancing. Ideal for very specific services.
Contra - You will be an Independent expert that helps companies because a lot of them like Framer hire from here. Plus, it's 100% commission free so you won't pay any charges. Please note that I've included my referral but it won't give me any revenue, so feel free to join using this.
Upwork - Upwork has a concept of connects and is generally for experienced developers. You can get long-term contracts and higher-paying jobs here. Suitable for those who prefer to work on more significant projects.
People per Hour - This platform is good for developers in the European market. It emphasizes local business connections and offers a good balance between short-term and long-term projects.
PeoplePerHour - Offers hourly and fixed-price projects.
Toptal - This is another platform for experienced developers with higher-paying offers.

I don't prefer platforms that require investment. For instance, we need to buy connects on Upwork (once the limited ones are used) and it offers no such guarantee of any return.

My suggestion would be to directly reach out to potential customers and work for them. It will make you feel better and stand out from the noise on the platforms.

8. Newsletters.

Email newsletters and subscription-based RSS feeds have grown huge these recent years.

All you need is a little bit of experience in your niche and the ability to write properly.

Developers need to be updated so they always love reading about new stuff especially if it includes your experience.

In the process, you will build up a large (and very valuable) subscriber base and will be able to offer advertisements during your newsletters. A lot of creators do the same especially since it creates more value.

Or you can charge a smaller number of users to receive your updates.

Console is a sample newsletter that has around 30k+ subscribers.

They send 2-3 of the most interesting dev tools every week

Popular platforms that you should check out:

It's important to take things one at a time, so research and choose one platform that might fit your needs. Substack and Beehiiv might be great choices.

9. Grants and open source internships.

There are grants and corporate sponsorships available across different fields like open source, innovation, DeFi and even AI. These funds are basically to support your living expenses for a short duration while you work on a particular project.

It's similar to open source internships.

Some of the ones you should definitely check out:

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) - Global program for developers (other than students can also apply now) to contribute to open source projects, with stipends typically ranging from $1500 to $3300. Became very popular in recent years.
Google Season of Docs - Technical writers contribute to open source projects. Participating projects receive between $5,000 and $15,000 grants which are then distributed to contributors, usually via Open Collective.
GitCoin - A crowdfunding platform that funds open source projects, particularly in Ethereum and Web3. Funding varies based on community support.
Outreachy - Provides three-month internships for underrepresented groups in technology, with stipends typically around $5,500.
Mozilla Open Source Support (MOSS) - Grants for open source software development, particularly for projects that align with Mozilla's mission.
The Linux Foundation Grants - Offers various grants and fellowships for developers working on Linux Foundation projects.
Knight Foundation - Offers grants for tech projects that promote quality journalism. Grant amounts vary widely based on project scope.
NumFOCUS Small Development Grants - Supports small projects in data science and scientific computing. Grant amounts vary ($285k split between all applicants).

This builds a huge credibility and in the meantime, you're paid a decent amount for the effort.

A great list of similar open source programs you can find on GitHub.

10. API as a Service.

Most of the developers are not aware of this method. You can earn a passive income from your API.

Another common term to refer to this is API Monetization.

You can try some popular API monetization platforms to publish, manage and monetize your APIs:

RapidAPI Hub - One of the largest platforms for discovering and monetizing APIs, using subscription-based pricing models.
Tyk - open source API gateway that supports API management and monetization, with flexible deployment options.
Apigee - Google Cloud platform with API monetization and analytics.
Postman API Network - Allows devs to publish APIs and use Postman’s ecosystem for collaboration.

You can read the detailed guide on how to Earn a Passive Income by Monetizing APIs as a Developer by RapidAPI. It covers how to first build an API from scratch before selling it on RapidAPI Hub.

11. Building a paid community.

This is another underrated way to build decent money using your experience as a developer.

Newsletters are another kind of community but it's generally one way of communication.

A community where members can talk and learn from each other is more useful. You can enable monthly or yearly subscriptions to avoid adding people who are not serious.

This is just 1/3rd of the active channels

Trust me, a paid community of 500 members is very strong. I've been part of several paid communities and the difference is very clear.

My community is public because I don't like sharing my experience only with people who can pay, but at the same time, nobody can deny the value of a paid community.

I know it's easier said than done.

These are just basic important ideas and it can be very hard to find the right clients at first.

But one single opportunity can change your life in a way you cannot even imagine. Take a leap and explore these methods to build a proper side income.

I hope at least one of these can help you.

Have a great day! Until next time :)

You can check my work at anmolbaranwal.com. Thank you for reading! 🥰

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Opire is a bounty platform for developers focused on open-source projects. Developers can earn money by solving real-world issues, collaborating with top organizations, and improving the open-source ecosystem.

Hiring in the Open - How Companies Can Discover Top Talent via Opire

Arindam Majumder — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:44:50 +0000

The job market today is fiercely competitive, with companies constantly seeking top talent and developers hunting for career growth opportunities.

Traditional hiring methods often focus on coding challenges, like Leetcode problems, or product-focused take-home assignments.

But what if there was a way to find the best talent without these extensive processes?

This is where Opire comes in.

We all know about open-source and its benefits to the developer community. Opire is leveraging the power of open-source to help companies discover top talent and hire the best developers.

By contributing to open-source projects, developers can showcase their skills, build a portfolio, get noticed by potential employers, and on top of it also get paid for their contributions.

In this article, we’re going to discuss how Opire’s approach saves companies time and resources while giving developers an effective way to stand out.

Let's Begin!

Improving Technical Assessments

Let's talk about how technical assessments are conducted in most companies. If you're going to give or take an interview, it's likely that you're going to be following at least one of the following methods:

1. Online coding platforms 👨🏻‍💻

These platforms are great for testing a candidate's coding skills, but they don't provide a complete picture of the candidate's abilities.

Candidates can prepare for these tests by practicing on similar problems, which may not be a true reflection of their skills.

It's also difficult to assess a candidate's problem-solving skills and ability to work in a team through these platforms.

2. Take-home assignments 💼

These assignments are a better way to assess a candidate's skills, as they allow them to work on a real-world problem.

However, they can be time-consuming for both the candidate and the company, and may not always be a good indicator of the candidate's abilities.

It is really easy to just copy-paste the solution from the internet. So, it's hard to know if the candidate has actually solved the problem or not.

3. Whiteboard interviews 👩🏻‍🏫

Whiteboard interviews are a common way to assess a candidate's problem-solving skills and ability to think on their feet.

However, they can be stressful for the candidate, and may not be a good indicator of their true abilities.

It's difficult to assess a candidate's ability to work in a team through whiteboard interviews.

4. Pair programming 💻

Pair programming is a great way to assess a candidate's ability to work in a team and solve problems collaboratively.

However, the experience can be subjective, depending on the interviewer's style and the candidate's comfort level with pair programming.

The "Hiring in the Open" Approach

This approach is based on the idea that the best way to assess a candidate's skills is to see them in action.

Developers can contribute to open-source projects, solve issues, and raise pull requests which in turn showcases their ability to handle real-world scenarios in production-level code.

This model provides a shift from quick solutions to programming problems to sustainable and maintainable code. This also helps in building a community around the project and helps in getting feedback from other developers.

The collaborative nature of open-source projects also helps in assessing a candidate's ability to work in a team.

Benefits of "hiring in the open model"

✅ Increased transparency: Developers can get an idea of the company's work culture, team dynamics, and the project they will be working on. They also get an idea of the codebase and the quality of the code. At the same time, for companies, it's a way to see how the developer can perform in a production-level codebase.

✅ Diverse talent pool: Open-source projects attract developers from all over the world, which means companies can tap into a diverse talent pool. This can help in bringing fresh perspectives and ideas to the team.

✅ Faster hiring process: Companies can save time and resources by hiring developers who have already contributed to open-source projects. They can see the developer's work before hiring them, which can help in making faster and more informed decisions.

✅ Cost-effective: Companies just have to add bounties on issues which can prove to be much cheaper than the actual recruitment process. At the same time, the applicant gets paid for essentially doing the same work they would have done in the interview process.

What is Opire, the key for transitioning to hiring in the open model

Opire is a platform that connects companies with top developers through open-source contributions. Developers can find projects that match their skills and interests, contribute to them, and get paid for their contributions.

This idea can potentially help companies to discover top talent and hire the best developers.

It's also a cheaper and time-saving approach where companies can raise bounties for the issues they want to get fixed and developers can work on them to get paid.

And this way, companies can also get a sense of how the developer works and if they are a good fit for the team.

The "hiring in the open" model connects directly with the way Opire is trying to shape Open Source contributions.

It's a win-win situation for both developers and companies.

Developers get paid for their contributions and companies get to see the developer's work before hiring them saving them a lot of resources.

Benefits of Opire

🌟 Opire Bot: Opire has a bot that allows smooth management of bounties and contributions directly from the repository and enables a certain use of commands within the issues and PRs.

🌟 No Upfront Payment: Companies only pay the reward after a developer submits a successful pull request. This risk-free approach means you can create bounties without any initial investment, and only pay when you receive working code that meets your requirements.

🌟 Rewards: As we have talked about bounties, Opire allows companies to raise bounties for the issues they want to get fixed. If you have the bot installed, you can create rewards directly from the repository. Otherwise, you can create rewards from the Opire dashboard.

🌟 Tips: It is another interesting feature provided by Opire which aims to express gratitude for a user's efforts/knowledge without expecting anything in return. Since they're not directly related to solving a particular issue, they can be used in both issues and PRs; you just need to know the amount to pay and the user whom you want to tip.

🌟 Simple Pricing: Opire has a simple pricing model. Suppose the bounty to be paid is $50. Opire will take $2 and the stripe transaction fee will be around $3.78, making the total $55.78. This makes it a cost-effective solution for companies while ensuring contributors receive fair compensation for their work.

Companies are slowly embracing the “Hiring in the Open Model”

Several companies and projects have already successfully implemented this open-hiring approach and seen positive results.

For example, OpenSauced has embraced this model by actively identifying talented developers through their open-source contributions.

Their success story includes hiring developers like Ogbonna Sunday, who started by making small documentation improvements and bug fixes before being noticed by the CEO and offered a software engineering role.

OGBONNA SUNDAY for OpenSauced

Jul 5 '23

How I Got Hired Contributing to open source projects

#opensource #webdev #javascript #career

472

Comments 86

4 min read

This approach helped OpenSauced find passionate developers who were already familiar with their codebase and culture, while also building an engaged community around their projects.

Golem Cloud has adopted this model by offering a $15,000 bounty for open-source Rust development.

Participants can contribute to their projects, earn money, and potentially receive a full-time job offer. By setting clear deadlines and rules, Golem Cloud ensures a fair process where developers can showcase their skills.

This method not only helps them discover talented individuals but also fosters a strong community around their projects.

Google has frequently identified and recruited talented developers who actively contribute to high-profile open-source projects, especially through programs like Google Summer of Code (GSoC).

Many participants who excel in their GSoC contributions are offered roles or internships, as Google sees value in recruiting contributors who have hands-on experience and a proven dedication to open-source work.

Google’s open-source hiring practices have helped bring in developers who are already familiar with its technological ecosystem, allowing for smoother onboarding and better team alignment.

Other companies using similar models have reported benefits like reduced hiring costs, better assessment of technical and collaboration skills, and improved long-term retention since candidates already understand the codebase and culture before joining.

The "hiring in the open" model is an innovative approach to hiring that can help companies discover top talent and hire the best developers.

By leveraging the power of open source, companies can assess a candidate's skills in a real-world scenario, build a community around the project, and get feedback from other developers.

So, if you're a developer looking for the right opportunity to showcase your skills, or a company looking to hire the best developers, give Opire a try and see how it can help you in your journey!

Join the Opire Community

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Thanks a lot for reading till the end.

💸 Make Open Source Contributions More Rewarding with Opire 🤑

Arindam Majumder — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 12:30:00 +0000

Introduction

In Open Source, we learn, build, contribute, and grow together.

Beginner developers gain experience by contributing to open-source projects and experienced developers sharpen their skills, explore new technologies, and mentor junior developers.

In Open Source, we all work in every aspect, from contributing to coding tasks like bug fixes, or feature enhancements to non-coding tasks like documentation improvement.

And, if you’re an open-source lover, you know how amazing it feels when your PR gets merged. It's like being on top of the world! With all these fun and learnings we can add one more element to our open-source journey and that is Bounty

Yes, to make open-source more exciting, engaging, and rewarding Opire is here to add an extra layer of bounty to your open-source journey.

Opire is a bounty platform for software developers. That helps maintainers to improve their project quality, and community engagement, and contributors to earn bounties for their contributions.

Free Code, Costly Time: The Open Source Struggle

Open Source is great, but not always easy. It's free in terms of freedom, but it costs us time and effort! Many developers spend long hours fixing bugs, improving code, or reworking entire sections of projects.

As a developer, you might have worked hard on a project, unsure if your work would be accepted. Or if you're managing an open-source project, you're probably familiar with the constant number of requests, and bug reports from users. It's a lot of responsibility with little recognition, especially when your project is in the early stages.

One of the biggest issues in open source is finding a balance between passion projects and earning a living. We enjoy the work, but it doesn't pay the bills. For contributors, it is difficult to align open-source passion with financial needs.

Here Opire comes in to solve these challenges. Opire offers a way for your open-source contributions to be recognized and rewarded financially. With Opire, an open-source contribution could be more rewarding.

Are you interested in learning how Opire could turn your open-source work into a rewarding experience? Let's see how this platform is changing things for developers in open source.

Introducing Opire: Where Open Source Meets Opportunity 🤝🏼

Opire is a bounty platform that supports all open-source contributors by providing bounties for their valuable time and skills.

It also supports open-source maintainers in keeping the community active and helps grow organizations or open-source projects.

Opire has a clear objective: Anyone can make a living from open-source.

As a contributor, you'll receive a bounty for solving an issue and submitting a PR. As a maintainer, your project will grow with the trust of community members and attract contributors who are truly passionate about your project.

Opire allows you to not only create bounties but also provide tips. As a contributor, you might put in a lot of effort but still not resolve the issue. In such cases, the project maintainer can tip that contributor.

The best thing about Opire? 🧐

Opire does not compromise the simplicity and authenticity of open-source. It understands the importance of quality contributions. It's not like you can make a simple and easy grammatical contribution to a project and get a bounty.

By following the Code Of Conduct of Projects for PRs, Opire promotes quality contributions rather than bad and cheap code.

Now we know what Opire is. But does it only benefit contributors?

No, Opire also benefits maintainers. Let's look at the benefits for both maintainers and contributors.

Benefits for Project Maintainers

As a project owner or maintainers, we always want to grow our project with valuable contributions and engage community members. Using Opire benefits your project in several ways.

Increased Engagement: Encouraging people to help with your project by offering bounties can get more people involved and make the community stronger.
Gain Popularity: Bounties in your projects will attract developers interested in earning them, putting your project in the spotlight for skilled professionals.
Quality Improvement: Bounties motivate developers to produce high-quality code, and since anyone can create bounties, a collective effort will form. This shared contribution improves the codebase and boosts overall project stability.
Prioritize Issues: The core team can focus on what brings the most value and on their priorities and let the community participate in other tasks with bounties.
Payment Security and Transparency: Opire does not hold funds, the payment is only made when someone has claimed the bounty and solved the issue. This way you can be sure that Opire will not disappear and take the money (as happened with BountySource).

Benefits for Contributors

Opire benefits contributors because it gives developers a unique chance to contribute to open-source projects and get bounties for their efforts. One of the best things about Opire is that it does not charge contributors any fees from their earned bounties.

So, if there’s an issue with a bounty of $50 and you resolve that issue, then after successfully merging the PR, you will receive the full $50.

As a contributor, you do not need to pay anything to Opire. The graph below shows the metrics.

✅ The bounty creator sets a bounty of $50.
✅ The total becomes $55.
✅ After paying $50 to the contributor, $5 is left. From that, Stripe will take its fee, and Opire charges less than 5%, which is great.

You can check the metrics for various bounty amounts here.

Apart from that there are also several benefits:

✅ Good bounties for efforts: Developers can earn money for their contributions, which can be a great source of income.
✅ Opportunity to work on high-priority issues: Developers can gain valuable experience by working on challenging and important tasks.
✅ Visibility: Developers can get noticed and appreciated in the open-source community by showing their work and getting bounties.

There are some open-source companies that hire based on the open-source contributions of developers and with Opire, candidates can show their contributions and get hired easily.

Now we know several benefits of using Opire, whether we’re a contributor or a maintainer. So, let’s see how to use it.

Getting Started with Opire

Whether you are a project maintainer or a contributor, the steps are almost the same, and easy to follow to get started with Opire. Let's look at the steps for both:

Bounty Creator
Developer (Contributors)

Create Bounty

Let's first see the process of creating bounties. Who can create bounties? Bounties can be created by anyone, not just people from the same organization or community but also someone outside the organization who just found the project and wants to add value to that project, can create bounties.

As you can see here, there are multiple people who created a bounty for this particular issue.

How to create those bounties?

For bounty creators, Opire provides two ways to integrate the bounty system into your project:

Install a bot
Add bounties directly from your Opire Dashboard

The bot option is optional, and it's entirely up to you whether you want to install the bot and integrate the bounty system. The second way is by using the Opire Dashboard. Both methods are easy, and we'll go through each one.

Create Bounties with Opire Bot

You can integrate the Opire Bot directly into your GitHub project, allowing you to interact with Opire on any issue or PR using just a few commands.

Go to this link to install Opire on GitHub.

You can go to this page and click on the Install in GitHub button.

After clicking, you’ll be redirected to a new page. If you’re associated with multiple organizations, it will ask which one you want to install the Opire Bot for.

Click on the organization you want to select

Now select which repositories you want to install it in. You can install it in all your repositories. Click on the All Repositories option and click on the Install.

If you want to install in some selected repositories, choose the second option, select repositories, and click on the install button to install Opire Bot in those repositories.

Now it’s installed in your organization, you can use Opire Bot’s commands in your issues or PRs to create or give bounties. Opire Bot provides multiple commands like:

Create Bounty: This command is used to create bounties. You can use it when creating an issue, in the issue's description, or by adding a comment to an issue. ☛ Command: /reward [amount] ☛ Example: /reward 20

Note: the amount will always be in dollars. Here 20 means $20*

Try: The second command is try. This command is optional but you should use this command when you're going to start working on that particular issue. This command indicates that you are going to try to solve the issue to claim a bounty. If you are not the first one, Opire will show you the list of developers who are also trying. This command is used when creating a comment on an issue.
☛ Command: /try
☛ Example: /try
Claim Bounty: This command is used for claiming bounties. After using the /try command, you’ll start working on that issue. Once you are ready to raise a PR, you can use this command in the PR description or in a comment on that PR.
☛ Command: /claim #[issue number]
☛ Example: /claim #84
Tip: This command is used when you want to give a tip to a contributor for their efforts. This command can be used when creating a comment on a PR/issue and in the same description of the PR/issue when creating it.
☛ Command: /tip [amount] @[user]
☛ Example: /tip #84 @jondoe

NOTE: All commands will only work when creating a new issue or PR description or adding a new comment. The commands will not work if you edit the description or comment.

Create Bounties without Opire Bot

The Opire bot is simple to install, but if the project doesn’t have the bot installed or you’re not associated with that organization or a project, you can still create bounties directly from Opire’s dashboard.

Click on this link and you'll be redirected to Opire’s dashboard.

You’ll see a list of projects with bounties and other options. Click on the Login button to log into the Opire dashboard.

After logging in, you’ll see your dashboard with multiple options like Rewards, Projects, etc.

Click on the My Dashboard dropdown and then click on Creator and then Rewards. Here you can create bounties for your projects.

When you click on the Create a new reward button, a modal will appear. Here, you need to add the issue URL for which you want to create a bounty and specify the amount. That's it. Clicking on the Create button will now generate a bounty for that issue.

Your bounty has been created, so now if you’re a contributor then how do you claim it? Let’s see the steps below.

Claim Bounty

The bounty creator creates a bounty, and the contributor claims it. To claim a bounty, you need to complete the issue. When you are assigned a bounty issue, complete it, raise a PR, and once your PR is merged, the bounty creator will pay you.

To claim a bounty, first log in to the Opire dashboard. Go to this link and log in to Opire with your GitHub account.

To receive payments through Opire, you need to connect your Stripe account with Opire. Go to the settings and click on the Connect Stripe button.

A modal will open where you enter your payment email and country.

Here is the list of all the supported countries

Once your account is connected to Stripe, you can find bounty issues and try to solve them. You can visit Opire’s homepage to search for issues directly from there.

Once you have the solution to the issue, create a PR and use Opire bot commands or a dashboard to claim the associated bounty.

In case you want to claim your bounty manually, you can claim that too from your dashboard. Go to the Programmer Rewards section in your dashboard and click on the Claim Rewards manually.

Enter the issue you worked on and the PR you have submitted. Once confirmed, it will notify the bounty creator, and they will pay you your bounty.

If multiple people create bounties for the same issue, each creator will only have to pay for the amount they offered. They won't have to pay the full total of all the bounty.

Pay Bounty

When a contributor claims a bounty, the creator is responsible for making the payment. To pay a bounty, go to a Creator Dashboard. Here you’ll see a list of all the bounties that you need to pay to contributors. Click on the Pay button to pay the bounty to the contributor.

You’ll pay through Stripe. Everything is connected to a stripe, so your payment will be securely sent to your contributor's account within 1-7 business days.

And that’s it. Claiming and creating a bounty is done. You can Checkout the Docs for more information. Now, let’s see some projects that are using Opire and rewarding their contributors.

Real-World Projects Using Opire

Many projects use Opire to set bounties for their issues. You can always check your Opire dashboard to see a list of these projects. Here are a few projects that are using Opire:

One example is the bounty created for the repo named restfuncs, Here, you can see everything is mentioned, such as:

✅ Whether a bot is available in that repo
✅ The language associated with the issue (TypeScript in this case)
✅ Bounty amount
✅ Share option. You can share this bounty with your friends or community.
✅ or If you want to add more bounty to this issue, you can click on the Add reward button to add more bounty to it.

Everything is easy to access and use. Besides that, there are several well-known projects on Opire like:

⚡️ Appwrite
⚡️ Three.JS
⚡️ Angular
⚡️ Vercel
⚡️ Keycloak, etc.

Projects also show if the bounty is claimed or not.

For example, this issue was created 21 days ago, and 2 days ago, a contributor resolved the issue and claimed the bounty.

Team Opire Supported me for writing this article, but they did not influence the content of this write-up.

Conclusion

Open Source is great in itself and Opire adds a new layer of "Bounty" to it. While maintaining the authenticity, and cleanliness of open source, Opire brings an approach that helps contributors and maintainers. By offering bounties for contributions, Opire encourages developers to tackle important issues and build stronger, and more active communities.

If you're a project maintainer who wants to bring talented developers and speed up development, or a developer looking to earn bounties while making a positive impact, Opire is the perfect solution.

Join the Opire Community

Follow Opire for more content like this.

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Thanks a lot for reading till the end.

🎯 Case Study: How AutoKey is Exploring Opire to Attract Python Developers

Anmol Baranwal — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:54:42 +0000

There are millions of open source projects struggling right now to get the visibility and the contributors to keep the progress going.

Today, we will see a case study of Autokey, an open source project that currently has no active senior developers on the team and how they are trying to search for contributors to keep the project alive.

We will also explore how they are using the Opire development rewards ecosystem to attract development support.

This will be very interesting.

In a nutshell, we are covering these topics in detail.

What is Autokey and what it's used for?
Their history and the problems they are trying to solve.
How AutoKey is using Opire.
How AutoKey hopes to benefit from using Opire.

Star Opire ⭐️

TL;DR

The AutoKey open source project is looking into the Opire rewards system to attract the development support it needs. It is a mature project but the original developers have moved on to other things. From time to time, AutoKey still needs developers to make updates so it works well with new Linux technology. Historically, the project has had difficulty attracting attention from developers who can help address these needs. AutoKey is now exploring the use of the Opire ecosystem, where AutoKey's community of users can collaborate to offer rewards to developers who are able and willing to address the project’s most pressing issues.

1. What is Autokey and what it's used for?

Autokey is a trigger or selection activated, automation utility program for Linux and X11.

I know it might sound technical, so let me explain it in simple words.

AutoKey is a tool for Linux that helps save time by automating tasks on your computer. It allows you to create shortcuts called "abbreviations" or "hotkeys" that automatically expand into longer text or perform actions, like running a small program.

For instance, you can type "addr" and AutoKey will replace it with your full address or it can even press buttons for you in other programs.

It works across all apps and can be customized using Python scripts for more advanced actions. It's especially useful for people who type a lot of things or need to automate repetitive tasks.

How Autokey works.

AutoKey operates by detecting user-defined triggers—like typing a certain abbreviation or pressing a hotkey. When a trigger is detected, AutoKey performs one of these three actions:

✅ Runs a Python script.
✅ Inserts predefined text (a "phrase") at the cursor.
✅ Opens a pop-up menu where the user can select a script or phrase.

Users can also write Python scripts to automate more advanced tasks.

These scripts can control other programs, send commands and even perform actions like resizing windows or moving the cursor.

They also provide their wiki page where you can find detailed installation instructions. I also recommend checking out the API configuration page as well.

Autokey has 3.4k stars on GitHub and you can read the docs to learn more.

2. Their history and the problems they are trying to solve.

It's important to know about the history of every open source project.

AutoKey originated as a tool for Linux and X11 users to automate repetitive typing tasks and control programs.

It started as an open source project, allowing users to create shortcuts, run small scripts and simplify their workflows.

Over time, it gained popularity, particularly among people who type frequently or deal with multiple software applications. Their community is still actively supporting one another in every way possible.

Let's see some of the problems that Autokey solves:

✅ AutoKey eliminates the need to type the same phrases or blocks of text over and over. For instance, instead of typing your address or company name repeatedly, you can set a shortcut like "addr" that AutoKey automatically expands into your full address.

✅ Some software applications require complex or lengthy key combinations to perform certain actions. AutoKey simplifies this by allowing users to assign these commands to a single key or hotkey, making the workflow faster and many times easier.

✅ Instead of just inserting text, a script can be used to manipulate several different running programs, transfer text between them, start and close them as well as send keyboard and mouse input to them.

✅ AutoKey’s scripts can work across multiple applications, eliminating the need to configure each app separately. Once you set up AutoKey, your shortcuts and scripts will work universally on your system.

✅ If you use database, CAD/CAM, engineering or scientific software that require complex key combinations, AutoKey can be configured to send commands that will activate those features with a single keystroke.

In general, AutoKey can be very useful if you write or edit business documents, novels, documentation, articles, web blogs, programs or fill out a lot of forms.

Autokey on Wikipedia

If you're interested in interacting with the community users, head over to the autokey-users Google Groups forum or explore more options like Gitter and IRC chat.

In the next section, we will see about the issue where an interesting problem occurred. And the case is the same for millions of other projects.

3. How AutoKey is using Opire.

AutoKey has always faced challenges with development, often having only a small group of contributors, sometimes as few as one or none at all.

Despite this, it's a well-loved program with a dedicated user base and there is a hope that development will pick up again.

They are exploring Opire to reach more developers to get the development support they need.

🎯 If you don't know about Opire.

Opire is a platform for solving and creating bounties in open source.

As a developer, you can solve real problems to show in your portfolio and build credibility. As a project owner, you can create those bounties to increase the growth of your project.

The specific issue that Autokey is offering reward for.

The AutoKey community has just begun to offer rewards on Opire.

If you are a developer who can help enhance AutoKey to run under Wayland, have a look at the reward offering for that work.

You can find it in the opire dashboard.

This is why I really love open source.

Opire contributed $20 from their own funds to give that issue a small boost. What makes it even more impressive is that Opire isn't funded so this money is coming directly from the founders' pockets.

I hope someone sees this and helps Autokey. If you do, please leave a comment or reach out. I would be happy to thank you on behalf of the whole community.

If you are confused about how to proceed with it, then I recommend reading the below section which has all the information.

🎯 How to create and solve those bounties using Opire?

You can create and manage bounties in 2 simple ways:

✅ Install the bot which handles communication with the Opire API. That way, it will be shown in the Opire dashboard.

You can use commands such as:

-→ /reward [amount] : to create a reward.

-→ /try : try to solve the issue.

-→ /claim #[issue_number] : to claim rewards.

-→ /tip [amount] @[user] : for tip in USD to the mentioned user.

✅ If you don't want to install the bot, then you can also create those rewards from the dashboard. I have attached a snapshot.

You can read the docs for a detailed flowchart about the lifecycle of rewards and how it actually works.

4. How AutoKey hopes to benefit from using Opire.

AutoKey is a mature project and the code base is also stable but the original developers have mostly moved on.

Occasionally, issues come up that need attention. Right now, it's hard to find Python developers with the right skills and interests to fix these problems.

One current issue is the ongoing migration from the X11 desktop framework to Wayland by the leading Linux distributions.

AutoKey was originally developed under X11 and currently only works there. Users who migrate to Wayland-based desktops lose the ability to use AutoKey.

For some users, this fact has been enough of a concern to prevent them from upgrading to the latest releases of their distributions. The AutoKey community sees this as a problem and is actively looking for a developer to help finalize Wayland's support in AutoKey.

Some initial work has been done but so far the community has not been able to find anyone to complete the work.

AutoKey has begun to explore the use of the Opire development bounty rewards ecosystem to attract developers who have the necessary skills and interest to help complete this work and address additional development issues in the project’s backlog.

Some community members have already offered rewards to developers who can help.

Recently, AutoKey's GitHub administrators installed an Opire bot in their project repository, making it easier for the community to contribute to rewards and for developers to claim them when they contribute code.

This also increases the visibility of the development rewards offered through Opire within the project’s GitHub.

Based on previous experience using another development rewards system, the AutoKey project supports the Opire method for paying out rewards.

When using the Opire system, reward payments flow directly from the person who made the offer to the developer who claims it. Opire only acts as a "market maker", collecting a small fee for connecting the two parties.

At no point does Opire hold the reward payment itself. In the past, the AutoKey community was burned when they tried to use a development bounty system called BountySource.

That service collected money from community members who wished to offer rewards, held it internally and paid it out to developers who made code submissions that qualified for a reward.

When BountySource subsequently went out of business, the reward money it held was lost. The AutoKey community members who had put up rewards were left out in the cold.

bountysource shuts down

The reason why they switched to Opire is that it saves you a lot of money compared to other platforms and you only end up giving the reward if the issue is solved which was not the case with BountySource.

Even the subscriptions that Opire launched recently are very profitable. Developers receive 100% of the rewards regardless. No tricks in that!

The problem is that there are no developers in the team and their project cannot be kept up to date.

So if you are a developer who can solve this, please head to issue87 and give it a try.

Let's be honest, many open source projects like AutoKey are struggling to find the resources they need.

Here at Opire, it's our mission to help projects like AutoKey attract the resources they need.

I'm a writer for Opire and trying to help reach more developers so they can benefit from this.

Have a great day! Until next time :)

If you loved this, please follow me for more :)

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How to Grow Your Open Source Project: 11 Tips and Examples 🎯🎁⚡

Anmol Baranwal — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 10:09:12 +0000

There are millions of open source projects on GitHub, but only a few ever reach 500 stars and even fewer hit 1,000 stars or more.

If you want to grow your open source project (not only in terms of stars), this article would be the perfect place to start.

I've been an open source maintainer for very long and will use my experience to give you 11 tips with detailed references.

Let's jump in.

1. Create Open Source Bounties using Opire.

This might be the most underrated way to grow your project by attracting a huge number of contributors.

All you need to do is create small rewards for solving issues on GitHub. By offering those rewards, you can motivate developers to get involved.

Opire helps you create those bounties in the easiest way possible.

As you would have guessed by now, Opire is a platform for solving and creating bounties in open source. They are moving towards the vision that anyone can make a living from open source.

As a developer, you can solve real problems to show in your portfolio and build credibility. As a project owner, you can create those bounties to increase the growth of your project.

Reputed organizations like Cal.com use these bounties to speed up their projects. It also gives a strong message that the project is serious about the growth and the value that it creates.

Nobody wants to contribute to the repository that might be archived the next day, creating those rewards is an indirect way to say the project is going for long-term growth.

It will spread the word and can lead to more Recognition ⟿ more Stars ⟿ more Contributors ⟿ 100x Growth of your project.

🎯 How to create and solve those bounties?

You can create and manage bounties in 2 simple ways:

✅ Install the bot which handles communication with the Opire API. That way, it will be shown in the Opire dashboard.

You can use commands such as:

-→ /reward [amount] : to create a reward.

-→ /try : try to solve the issue.

-→ /claim #[issue_number] : to claim rewards.

-→ /tip [amount] @[user] : for tip in USD to the mentioned user.

✅ If you don't want to install the bot, then you can also create those rewards from the dashboard. I have attached a snapshot.

You can read the docs for detailed flowchart about the lifecycle of rewards and how it actually works.

Some of the useful use cases can be:

⚡ Collaborate on open source projects and earn money for your contributions.

⚡ Include paid technical tests as part of the selection process in your company by adding rewards. This can help you evaluate your candidates' skills while valuing their time, which sends a very strong message.

⚡ Support maintainers of open source projects by contributing financially. They don't get enough recognition for the work they do!

Algora is active in this domain but the main reason you will love Opire as a creator is because it will save you a lot of money. Algora charges 19% which is very expensive while Opire takes only 4%.

Even the subscriptions that Opire launched recently are very profitable. Developers receive 100% of the rewards regardless. No tricks in that!

monthly subscription

yearly subscription

Moral: Save money with Opire and grow your project in the fastest way possible.

Opire is open source with docs and the website. Please star the repo to show your support!

Star Opire ⭐️

2. Build a standard community profile for your project.

There are some guidelines that every project on GitHub needs to follow to meet certain community standards, which are often overlooked but crucial for your project's health and growth.

This is referred to as the public repository's community profile.

It helps others to understand HOW anyone else can contribute to the project with a few other requirements.

These standards include:

-→ Contributing guidelines (contributing.md) :

It is the guidelines that contributors should read on how they can contribute to the project. The best example that I've come across is from Simple Icons.

-→ README (Readme.md) :

This is the most important document that provides information about a project, including its purpose, installation instructions, tech stack and more. It can vary for every project but a good Readme always attracts more contributors. A good example is dailydotdev.

-→ Code of conduct (CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) :

This file sets the ground rules for participant behavior, helping to create a friendly and welcoming environment. A solid example is the GitHub Community Code of Conduct.

-→ Description :

A clear project description increases visibility and can help your project get featured in GitHub's Explore more repositories section. This is what your people users see first.

Example of a project's description

-→ License (LICENSE) :

By definition, every open source project must have an open source license. If a project doesn't have a license, it is not considered open source.

Open Source is an unusual circumstance, however, because the author expects that others will use, modify, and share the work. But because the legal default is still exclusive copyright, they need to explicitly give these permissions with a license.

You can refer to the official guide on which license you should choose for your project. Find all the licenses.

-→ Security Policy (Security.md) :

GitHub repositories involve lots of packages and dependencies, which can lead to security vulnerabilities. A security policy helps address these issues.

Learn how to Add a security policy to your repository in the official docs.

This will be helpful because whenever someone creates an issue in your repository, they will see a link to the security policy associated with your project. A good example is the security policy of Novu.

-→ Issue templates .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/file_name.yml :

Issues are used to track bugs, feature requests, and other tasks related to a project. They can be opened by anyone, and everyone uses it to track and prioritize work that needs to be done.

Issues can be assigned to specific team members, labeled with tags, and can have discussions related to them.

Read on how to create an issue in GitHub in the official docs.

You can create these issue templates that contributors will see when they try to create a new issue.

You can find a list of issue forms in this gist.

-→ Pull Request template .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/file_name.yml :

These templates ensure that contributors provide clear and consistent information when submitting pull requests.

Read official docs on Creating a pull request template for your repository.

You can create multiple pull request templates to offer options for required information in different types of pull requests.

If you're wondering how to find these guidelines, then you can check the insights tab in your repository as shown below.

community standards under the insights tab

You can read more about community profiles for public repositories on the official docs of GitHub.

Remember, there's no rule saying you have to promote an open source project when you launch it.

There are many simple reasons to work in open source that have nothing to do with popularity. For instance, most project maintainers do the work without expecting anything in return!

Moral: Instead of hoping others will find and use your open source project, you have to spread the word about your hard work!

3. Figure out the value your open source project makes.

Before you start the actual work of promoting your project, you should be able to explain:

✅ what it does.
✅ why your project matters.
✅ why you created it in the first place.

All the people who will get involved with your project as users eventually can become contributors because your project solves a problem for them.

Just think and view the value proposition through the lens of what users and contributors might want.

For example, seed (recently open sourced) tells about the motivation to make this and how they're solving it.

repo: github.com/supabase-community/copycat

They have used the code example so developers can easily tell what is the overall solution.

It's important to realize that ONLY you know how amazing your product is: its unique features, good user experience and the impact it can bring in others' lives.

The users will not know. Most of the time they don't care and normally they do not even make an effort to understand. Even if they try to do it, you can't guarantee that they will do it right.

So it's all up to you to deliver the right message.

Moral: Creating a clear value proposition helps people understand what makes your project super valuable.

A couple of blogs I recommend reading to help you refine your message:

Brand Messaging Guide - explained with powerful examples of Dove, Apple, Redbull, Volkswagen, and L'Oréal. Too awesome to ignore :)
How to Identify Your Core Marketing Message by Hubspot - Amazing examples of Nike and Zoom.
6 Tips For An Impactful Product Messaging - Hey and Apple are the only examples.

4. Help people find and follow your project.

This might be slightly related to building your community but both things are entirely different.

As Peter Cooper and Robert Nyman suggest, you need a single “home URL” where people can learn about your project. It doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive, a simple, memorable focal point will do the job. You can check out their blog on How to Spread The Word About Your Code for more insights.

There are two simple ways to do that:

✅ Online presence can help you promote your work.

Having a Twitter handle, GitHub URL, or IRC channel makes it easy for people to find your project. These platforms also give your growing community a place to gather.

If you're not ready to create separate accounts for your project, you can always promote your personal Twitter or GitHub handle in everything you do. It's a simple way to let people know how to reach you or keep up with your work.

✅ Create a website for your project.

Even a basic website can work really well. It becomes even more powerful when you add documentation and tutorials, but starting with something simple is just fine.

If your project is hosted on GitHub, you can use GitHub Pages or services like Vercel to host it for free. There are many simple templates available to help you get started.

most of the successful open source projects have a website

Moral: Even a simple website can make a big impact because you never know where your first users will come from.

Now that you have got a clear message and an easy way for people to find your project, let's get out there and talk to your audience!

5. Go where your project's audience is (online).

Online outreach can be a great way to spread the word quickly.
With the right approach, you can connect with thousands of people without too much effort.

There are a lot of platforms that you can use:

⚡ Hacker News, Reddit, Quora.

⚡ LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube.

⚡ Stack Overflow.

⚡ Dev.to, Hashnode, Medium.

Find the channels where you think people will most benefit from or be excited about your work.

A good rule of thumb: Any platform that has more than 1B users will always have your target audience.

Some of things you should avoid (❌) and some you can try (✅):

❌ Do not ask for things in return and not focusing on helping others.

❌ Pitching to everyone irrespective of the target audience.

❌ Don't cross personal space for feedback.

✅ Search through related forums for people who fall into your project's target audience. Answer their questions and when appropriate, suggest your project as a solution.

✅ If your project is perfect for data scientists who use Python, get to know the Python data science community. As people get to know you, natural opportunities will arise to share your work.

✅ Listen and respond to others' feedback, rather than simply promoting your work. Treat them with respect.

As Pazdera wisely said, Each program has very specific functions that only a fraction of users will find useful. Don't spam as many people as possible. Instead, target your efforts to communities that will benefit from knowing about your project. You can read more about this in Spreading the word about your open-source project.

Remember not to get discouraged when nobody pays attention or responds to your initial outreach! Most project launches are an iterative process that can take months.

If you don't get a response the first time, try a different tactic, or look for ways to add value to others' work first. Promoting and launching your project takes time and dedication.

6. Go where your project's audience is (offline).

Offline way is the best way in my opinion to reach an engaged audience and build deeper human connections, especially if you are interested in reaching more developers.

Once you're ready, consider speaking at a conference to promote your project. Conferences can help you reach more people, sometimes from all over the world.

⚡ Start by finding a local meetup that's related to the language or ecosystem of your project.

⚡ Look for conferences that focus on your specific language or ecosystem. These events draw an audience that's already interested in what you're doing.

⚡ Before submitting your talk, research the conference to understand its audience. This will help you increase your chances of being accepted as a speaker. You can get a feel for the audience by checking out previous speakers at the event.

offline meetup in Philippines

When you speak at a meetup or event, be sure to include your contact information in your bio or slides. This makes it easy for people to reach out to you afterward.

Major conferences like ReactConf or Nextjs Conf are great examples of events where you can make an impact.

James (CEO of Payload) speaking at Nextjs conf

You can check a lot of conferences and meetups happening around the world at dev.events.

Moral: Getting out there and speaking about your project in person can be one of the best ways to someone get interested in your work.

7. Make a community around your project.

A community is a place where people have an emotional connection to your product. They can connect with each other and your product.

When people are emotionally invested in your community, they're more likely to stick with your project, digest your content, tell their friends and family about your company and stay engaged with your content.

In simple terms, a strong community shows the best kind of loyalty to your project.

You might think about starting a newsletter but the problem is that it's just a one-way connection. From my experience, it's not as effective. Instead, focus on creating a community on platforms like Discord or Slack.

Here's why building a community is so powerful:

⚡ You can get instant feedback without going anywhere else.

⚡ Some of your users might get converted to contributors or maintainers in the future.

⚡ Growing your community ensures you'll always have an audience. You will always have instant access to your users.

⚡ That will validate your solution and more people will be interested to join them, considering there are already others who trust your project.

For example, LEGO has its own community called Insiders, where members can earn loyalty rewards and share their creations with other LEGO enthusiasts.

Taipy has its own community

Copilotkit has its own community

Opire also has its own community

Join Opire community 🔥

You should read about 7 tips for building a brand community.

Moral: Create such a strong community that every user feels like a Brand Ambassador.

8. Make your community inclusive and organize weekly calls.

Now that you have your community set up, it's time to increase engagement.

A lot of communities hold weekly calls where users can discuss their questions, share ideas and get help directly through live interactions.

Some even have weekly office hours where small issues are fixed on the spot and users can stay in the loop about what the core team is working on. Or if anything is being planned for the community.

These calls make the community feel more connected and personal. While chat is useful, hearing someone's voice makes a big difference. We all enjoy real conversations :)

appwrite weekly calls

copilotkit office hours

Moral: Making time for live interactions builds a stronger, more connected community.

If you want to read an article, then I recommend 13 Secrets to Increase Online Community Engagement (2024).

You can also watch this video by Pat on how to build an engaged community!

9. Focus on organic word of mouth.

In a world full of ads and promotions, people are getting tired of constant marketing. A study by Optimove shows that 27% of people feel overwhelmed by ads (including me) and 66% want fewer ads.

Instead, people are turning towards recommendations from friends, family or online communities when making decisions.

Imagine a stranger who just found your project very helpful and then sharing the word with their friends or community. That's the most powerful way to get your project noticed!

As long as you keep your Developer Experience (DX) and User Experience (UX) solid, everything else will follow.

It's like creating something amazing and letting your satisfied users do the marketing for you. This also shows that your project really connects with the people you're trying to reach (target audience).

A great example is Canva. They started by focusing on people who had no design experience but wanted to create great designs. They've grown by building an active community (plus free sign-up to try the product). One of their successful word-of-mouth strategies is their ‘Design Stories' series, where users share their experiences.

Moral: People trust each other more than brands.

Two articles that will give you effective tips on how to increase word of mouth for your project:

A Guide to Word of Mouth Marketing by Digital Marketing Institute.
Word of Mouth Marketing: What It Is and How to Make It Work by Hubspot.

10. Building more apps around your domain.

Another underrated strategy that many popular projects follow is to create more apps around your main domain.

Let me explain with a simple example, let's suppose you have a domain of devz.com and your target audience is developers. You can build a job portal like jobs.devz.com or any simple tool app that could be useful.

It will somehow redirect the traffic to the main website because most users will just check it out. Eventually, you could reach more people by building a product that the user wants.

Latitude created a jobs platform to redirect the traffic.

Moral: Growing your project isn't rocket science. Create more value to get more traffic.

11. Building a solid reputation.

Once your project has a solid user base, it's important to highlight the positive feedback you've earned over time.

Building a strong reputation is a simple hack for attracting more users. You can display testimonials from users or even from companies that have benefited from your project.

resend showcasing the powerful reputation

It doesn't have to be complicated. Most users are happy to provide strong feedback, which you can proudly display on your website.

Moral: When people see that others have had a great experience with your project, they're more likely to jump on board too.

A couple of more resources that I recommend checking out to help you get more ideas to grow your project.

A video by Kunal Kushwaha (a bit promotional but decent enough)

Official open source guide on how to find first users for your project. Very interesting to read!

I have covered everything about open source in one of my articles including the legal side. You can check it out!

A complete guide to open source - 100x simpler

Anmol Baranwal ・ Feb 1 '24

#opensource #tutorial #github #beginners

I have tried to cover everything I could think of.

If you have any awesome ideas, please share them with us in the comments.

Also, share your project (this is the audience) you're trying to grow, I might share a few tips using comments.

Have a great day! Until next time :)

You can join my community for developers and tech writers at dub.sh/opensouls.

You can check my work at anmolbaranwal.com. Thank you for reading! 🥰

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Benefits of Rewarding Issues with Opire.

Ivan Cordoba — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 17:19:48 +0000

Since I began my journey as a developer, the open-source community has been an invaluable source of support and learning. Thanks to it, I've had access to code examples, integrations with external services, and libraries that have greatly simplified my work. This constant generosity and collaboration made me feel indebted to the open-source world. That's how Opire was born.

There are numerous ways to support open-source and its philosophy. The most well-known include GitHub Sponsors, Patreon, and ko-fi. However, these platforms often channel donations without a specific goal, which may not be the most beneficial option in the long term. I'm not suggesting that financially rewarding the resolution of issues should replace these forms of support, but rather that it complements them, offering unique advantages that the other options can't provide.

Benefits of Financial Rewards for Open-Source Project Issues

There are numerous benefits to financially rewarding contributions to open-source projects. When you reward a behavior, it tends to be repeated. Just as when you praise someone for a job well done, that person feels more motivated and will want to continue doing good work to gain recognition. Financial rewards are an excellent way to value effort and dedication.

While rewards can take many forms, such as words of appreciation or public recognition, money adds a tangible value that can be especially beneficial for the developer. By placing an economic value on the effort, it acknowledges and supports the work in a more substantial way, thereby incentivizing the continuity and quality of contributions to open-source.

🚀💪 Improve Motivation and Productivity

When we have a clear goal, our productivity increases significantly, and if that goal comes with the possibility of earning a reward, our motivation soars even higher. Although developers enjoy coding, sometimes we lose the drive that keeps us working for long hours. One effective way to stay motivated is by having close targets; small objectives help us maintain focus on what truly matters at that moment. This is why it is more effective to reward specific issues rather than donate money to the project in general.

For those offering the reward, they are interested in resolving a particular issue because it causes problems or unlocks a crucial functionality. From the developer's perspective, seeing a small, quickly achievable goal provides additional motivation to work on that specific issue.

🎮🏆 Gamification of Issue Resolution

Adding a reward element turns issue resolution into a more fun and engaging activity. Just as games keep players competing for points and achievements, rewards incentivize developers by offering tangible prizes for their efforts. This gamification fosters greater participation and creates a more dynamic and vibrant community. Additionally, it creates an environment where developers healthily compete to earn the prize as quickly as possible, meaning that rewarded issues will be resolved faster than those that don't generate the same interest.

🔝✅ Promoting Quality Contributions

When a reward is at stake, developers are more likely to put in their best effort to provide high-quality solutions. Motivated by the desire to earn the prize as quickly as possible, they will aim to minimize friction during the code review process and be prompt in addressing any review issues. This results in more robust code, with thorough testing and well-documented contributions. It's a classic case of "you get what you pay for." The larger the reward, the higher the quality of the contribution.

🌱⚙️ Avoid Open-Source Project Stagnation

Thousands of open-source projects become stagnant because they can't evolve at the pace their users demand. I've come across incredibly interesting projects where, due to a lack of time and resources, maintainers end up burned out and consider abandoning what they built from scratch. Platforms like GitHub Sponsors, Patreon, and OpenCollective, while useful, are often not sufficient to sustain a project because they don't address the root issue. Donating money to the project in general doesn't accumulate a significant amount to keep it going. However, by offering rewards for specific issues, a larger sum can be reached, and it also doesn't require the maintainer to spend additional time beyond reviewing pull requests. Thus, rewarding issues proves to be a more effective alternative than simply donating money to the project without a clear goal.

👨‍💻💨 Faster Issues Resolution

Thanks to gamification and the increased motivation we've discussed, issues are resolved much more quickly. This is crucial for maintaining a high-quality product with the latest features and fewer bugs. Companies cannot afford to rely on unresolved issues in open-source projects they use. This drives companies to be the main stakeholders in rewarding issues in those projects. By allowing any interested programmer to handle the development, the primary maintainers are freed up to focus solely on reviewing pull requests, which accelerates the project's evolution.

🔍🌟 Attracting the Best Talents

Another benefit of rewarding contributions for issues instead of donating money to the project is that it attracts high-quality talent. This is advantageous both for the project and for companies looking to hire new employees. Developers incentivized by rewards will showcase their skills through tangible contributions, allowing companies to assess their work and determine if they meet their expectations. Additionally, by attracting new contributors, the project benefits from fresh perspectives and approaches, which can drive innovation and enhance overall development.

📚🧠 Improve Existing Talent

Current contributors can enhance their skills by working on real projects. Introducing oneself to a new language or tool can be challenging, and basic projects, such as a typical TODO app, often aren't sufficient to fully grasp all the concepts. The best way to learn is by applying those concepts in a functioning project. This is why new developers may choose to resolve issues in existing projects, which not only helps them gain experience and improve their skills but also enriches the talent pool of the contributing community.

♻️🛠️ Sustainability of Open-Source

Many developers love contributing to open-source, but they often struggle to find the time or resources to do so consistently. The current open-source landscape is frequently unsustainable. Often, it is the companies behind these projects that ensure their sustainability by providing the necessary resources, while many individuals are forced to abandon their side projects. Offering financial incentives helps developers justify the time they invest in open-source projects, thereby contributing to the sustainability and longevity of these projects.

🤝💬 Creating a Supportive Community

Resolving issues in a project strengthens the sense of community within it. This collaborative environment not only enhances the quality of solutions but also allows developers to learn from each other and refine their skills. Moreover, this interaction can lead to new ideas and features for the project, enriching its development and growth.

Opire Takes Action!

Opire is a rewards platform designed to create a mutually beneficial environment for both developers and reward creators.

Opire connects two parties interested in improving open-source projects. On one hand, we understand that developers want to focus on coding without being bogged down by bureaucracy and management. On the other hand, we know that individuals and companies need certain issues in their favorite projects resolved.

Additionally, the open-source community has always needed more support. Maintainers often feel overwhelmed, with limited time to dedicate to their projects and increasing demands from users. That's why they have always been open to external contributions.

The idea is to provide developers with a marketplace of issues where they can collaborate and earn money, while those who want to see their issues resolved can offer financial rewards to encourage developers to tackle them.

Great, but... How Does Opire Work?

On Opire, anyone can create a reward for any open-source project. This is crucial for growing the open-source community, allowing everyone to contribute their part. Additionally, rewards accumulate: while not everyone can offer large sums, if everyone contributes a little, significant amounts can be gathered. This means that a single issue can have rewards from multiple people, and even multiple rewards from the same person.

To create a reward on Opire, you have two options:

(Recommended) From the creator dashboard on Opire, click "Create Reward." You’ll only need the URL of the GitHub issue and the amount you're willing to pay upon resolution. Don’t worry, you won’t need to make any payment at this stage 😉. This method works for any GitHub repository.
For projects with the Opire bot installed: In the specific issue where you want to create a reward, use the command /reward 50, where 50 is the amount in dollars you're willing to pay upon resolution.

It’s that simple. Once the reward is created, you just need to wait for a developer to resolve the issue and claim the rewards. You can make the payment when the developer creates a Pull Request and claims the reward, but in most cases, it’s preferable to pay once the Pull Request has been merged. We offer the option to pay when the developer creates the PR claiming the reward because there may be cases where the Pull Request itself provides value even if it’s not merged into the main codebase.

So Easy! And What's The Price?

Currently, Opire charges a transaction fee of 4% to reward creators. Thanks to our low operating costs, we can offer this fee at a very reasonable rate. This means that the programmer receives 100% of the proposed reward, and the reward creator will only need to pay a small additional amount when completing the payment. You can see the final price by using the calculator in our documentation.

We will soon be launching subscriptions with exclusive benefits and new features, so stay tuned to Opire's social media for updates ✌️

Conclusion

Rewarding issues has the potential to revolutionize the way developers and maintainers of open-source projects interact. It enhances motivation, accelerates project development, promotes open-source contributions, and provides financial benefits to developers. If you're looking to make a significant impact in the world of open-source development, Opire is the platform for you.

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or ideas about Opire, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Don't forget to follow us on social media to stay updated on our latest news.

👾 Discord: https://discord.gg/Rfq8CMZH4b
👽 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/opire
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/opire_dev
🧵 Threads: https://www.threads.net/@opiredev
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opire

Let's build something amazing together!

Finally, here's a video to help you get to know Opire better.

The Secret to Business Success: Embracing Open Source

Ivan Cordoba — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:22:10 +0000

Before embarking on the development of Opire, I was already an avid supporter of open-source as a developer. The projects I encountered on GitHub instilled a sense of security and trust in me, even without delving deeply into the code. These projects also served as invaluable guides whenever I needed to integrate features similar to those they offered.

As I progressed with the development of Opire, my curiosity about open-source deepened. I began to explore the myriad of companies that embrace the philosophy of open code. Initially, from the perspective of a product creator, this seemed like a wild strategy—something only the tech giants would dare to undertake, presumably because they could afford to be less protective of their products. However, over time, I gained a clearer understanding of how open-source can benefit businesses of all sizes.

Staying ahead of the curve is no easy feat in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Companies must constantly seek innovative strategies to remain relevant and build trust with their users. This is particularly crucial for startups, which often struggle to attract early adopters due to limited resources and a lack of established reputation. Open source offers a compelling solution, fostering collaboration and transparency to help these fledgling companies gain a foothold in the competitive market.

Why embrace Open Source?

Short Answer: Why not?

Many entrepreneurs fear that their ideas will be copied. Making the code, which you've worked so hard to develop, readily available seems to make it easier for others to replicate your efforts. However, I believe that code is merely a tool to help you achieve your goals; it's not the ultimate goal itself. Your business should offer more than just code. Even if your business is entirely digital (a SaaS, a PaaS, and so on), you still have three significant advantages over your competitors, even if they copy your code:

Knowledge of the Code: You possess all the knowledge about the code, including the architecture, patterns, models, and structures. This translates to a time advantage over competitors who attempt to copy you, keeping them perpetually "behind."
Vision and Roadmap: After spending considerable time building your business with the functionalities you've chosen to implement, you have a roadmap and a vision for your product's future (even if it's not formally documented). You know what new features you want to release, which distinguishes you from your competitors who will always be playing catch-up.
User Trust: If your competitors copy your code but do not open theirs, your users are more likely to trust you. If they do open their code and violate your license, you can take legal action. Even without legal measures, simply exposing this practice on social media can tarnish your competitors' reputations.

In summary, there's no reason to dismiss open source. There are no downsides. But why should you embrace it?

Opening your code to the world offers numerous benefits, including:

🚀 Improved Quality and Security: With more developers able to review the code, vulnerabilities and improvements are detected much faster.
🌱 Community Growth: If your project attracts developers, you can build a community that helps grow your product, not just by developing it but also by promoting it and suggesting new features.
✅ Reputation and Credibility: An open-source product that people use earns respect for your company. Allowing other developers to learn from your code also positions you as a technical leader.
🤝 Ease of Hiring: Developers from your community will be eager to work for your company and will already have technical knowledge of your project, reducing the initial learning curve. This also saves you from lengthy selection processes as you've already seen them work on your codebase.

There are more advantages, but these are the most significant from my perspective. However, I don't want to stop at theory. Let's explore examples of open source in various sectors to see the impact it has had.

Examples from Industry Giants

Major companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta have extensively leveraged the power of the open-source community for their internal projects, such as developer frameworks and tools. Examples include Angular from Google, VSCode from Microsoft, and React from Meta. However, open source goes beyond just these tools. Some large companies have built their business around open source and become highly profitable. Here are a few notable examples:

Grafana Labs: Founded in 2014, Grafana Labs has over 20 million global users and is valued at $6 billion. It has become a leader in the observability sector, competing with proprietary solutions like Datadog and New Relic, which do not have as large a community as Grafana.
Elastic NV: Founded in 2012 and valued at $11.46 billion, Elastic NV is another key player in the observability space with products like Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Filebeat.
HashiCorp Inc: Established in 2012, HashiCorp serves more than 4,300 clients, including over 200 Fortune 500 companies and approximately 470 Global 2000 companies. It provides cloud infrastructure and security tools, with popular products such as Terraform and Vault. The company is valued at $6.75 billion.
GitLab Inc: Founded in 2014, GitLab has an estimated 30 million users and a valuation of $8.48 billion. It is a direct competitor to GitHub, offering distinctive features like self-hosting, which makes it a preferred choice for many enterprises over Microsoft's GitHub.
MongoDB Inc: Since its inception in 2007, MongoDB has grown to serve over 47,000 businesses, becoming a leading choice for non-relational database management and competing with services like AWS's DynamoDB. The company is valued at $18.59 billion.
Docker Inc: Docker, established in 2010, has become the leader in application deployment. Although other technologies like Podman (also open-source) attempt to challenge its position, Docker remains dominant. The company is valued at $2.1 billion.

These examples demonstrate that making the core of your business open-source can be highly beneficial and lead to the creation of valuable companies. A common thread among these examples is the strong support from their communities, which helps grow their products and encourages more people to incorporate them into their work.

New Startups Embracing Open Source

The trend of building a business around open source is being adopted by many new companies, and more are joining every day. Some of these innovative startups include:

Daytona: This company aims to simplify development environments for remote team collaboration. Not only is their project open-source, but they also strongly support this strategy by donating money to other open-source projects.
Dub.co: Dub.co offers a simple yet powerful link manager and shortener, competing with Bitly. It provides advanced features like creating subpaths in links and an SDK for integration into your project. Its interface is attractive, simple, and user-friendly.
Resend: Resend addresses the common problem of sending emails with personalized templates. It offers an easy-to-use solution that ensures your emails are delivered perfectly. Their generous pricing plan is quickly being adopted by many businesses.
Cal.com: An open-source competitor to Calendly, Cal.com offers free features that Calendly charges for. It has a large community with over 30k stars on GitHub and has been the top product on Product Hunt for the day, week, and month.
Fonoster: With a small team, Fonoster is achieving great things. They position themselves as the open-source alternative to Twilio, which speaks volumes about their capabilities.
Documenso: As digital signatures become more crucial, Documenso provides a solution for electronic document signing, a highly demanded feature across many sectors.
Appwrite: This platform enables the creation of scalable backends in minutes, offering integrations for authentication, databases, storage, messaging, and AI. It’s a very interesting option for developers.
Replexica: Maintaining documentation, especially in multiple languages, is a common issue. Replexica solves this with their AI-powered text translation service. It supports various formats like JSON, YAML, and Markdown, making it ideal for internationalizing products.
TypeBot: TypeBot offers a service for building conversational chats with just a click, featuring numerous interactions and functionalities. It competes directly with TypeForm.

Each of these startups has enormous potential and is reshaping the rules in many sectors. They demonstrate that there is no need to fear creating a full open-source business.

Open Source in AI: Driving Rapid Evolution

Open source is prevalent across all software sectors, and AI is no exception. The AI field is also harnessing the power of open source, building incredible communities around it.

AI has evolved at an astonishing pace, thanks in large part to open-source contributions. Models like Meta's LLAMA have pushed private code models, such as those from OpenAI, to up their game. Despite this, many prefer Meta's model for the freedom to modify it and run it locally, ensuring their private data remains secure.

Steps to Follow to Embrace the Open Source Culture

After realizing that open source truly works, how do we embrace this culture?

The mindset in open source is to give before you ask. Generally, I believe this philosophy always yields good results. Before asking people to use your product or hire your services, you need to offer something. People need to see value in what you provide, and they will decide, without you asking, whether to help you or not.

First and foremost, offer your code as open source. Ensure there are no vulnerabilities, such as private keys in the code or security flaws. This should already be taken care of, but it's worth mentioning.

Once your code is open, you need to build a community. You can do this by creating posts that provide valuable information to users. If you look at the companies mentioned previously, they all have blogs with lots of information. The information you provide shouldn't just be about your company and your business; people don't want constant product pitches. It should be external information related to your business, such as showing your company's evolution, discussing the challenges you've faced and how you've solved them, or analyzing different tools you use.

Additionally, it's important to create a community. The previous point will help with this, but you also need a way to communicate more directly with your followers. Use Discord or Reddit to create internal forums, be available and visible on Twitter... All these actions make you more approachable to people interested in your project. Keep an open mind and let people contribute new ideas. Remember, your business isn't just the code you have but everything generated around it. So, if there are ideas like self-hosting or specific integrations, don't dismiss them outright. If your community is happy, you'll gain more than by privatizing and closing all options.

Offer a guide on how people can contribute to your code. Good documentation with clear rules is essential. The Linux codebase, for example, would be unmanageable with so many contributors if there wasn't order. A guide makes it much easier for your followers to collaborate on your project, helping your product grow. Make life as easy as possible for others; if they want to contribute but lack the knowledge or face barriers, they will get frustrated and won't try again. Remove any obstacles that hinder others from helping you.

Related to removing barriers and making it easy for people, detail issues as much as possible depending on their needs. A good issue template can help with all of this, but it's a concept that needs to be internalized:

Add labels like good first issue to help newcomers familiarize themselves with your code.
Show images if necessary to clarify the problem or what is desired.
Specify necessary information like the operating system or the product/browser version.
Define when the issue is considered closed (definition of done).

Reward your contributors. Value the effort and work of a person who has decided to help improve your software. They did it because they wanted to, in good faith. When we reward good behavior, it tends to repeat itself; this applies to children, animals, and programmers. It's natural for people to gravitate towards happiness and away from pain. If we reward and make those who help us feel good, they will continue to support us. The best way to reward work is through monetary compensation. This can be done using tools that facilitate it, like Opire (😉 😉).

Conclusion

Given all this, it's no surprise that data from sources like Gitnux shows that 78% of companies use open-source code.

Personally, I am convinced that open source is the way forward. This doesn't mean your business can't succeed without leveraging open source, but it certainly starts at a disadvantage compared to those that do seize this opportunity.