“How can someone make a living from writing open source or free software?” I get questions like that a lot when talking about open source. Coding Horror has a recent post that’s a great example of how one can profit from free software. It highlights the flash-based game Desktop Tower Defense and how the author is making about $8,000 per month in ad revenue by making the game freely available on the Internet.
So minus the time he spent programming, and his nominal hosting fees, Paul Preese is clearing almost $100,000 “salary” per year with Desktop Tower Defense. And he did it all on his own: he wrote the game, placed it on a public web server, hooked up AdSense, and then submitted it to a few social bookmark sites. No selling his soul to a publisher, no middlemen, just pure income, controlled directly by him.
There are lots of ways to make money on software without charging for the software itself. Ad revenue, support, and distribution can all be sources of revenue.
