How I'm Trying to Make $30K from CLI Tools: A Transparent Revenue Experiment

In January 2026, I set a goal that most people would call delusional: make $30,000 from developer CLI tools and related hustle in one year. Not from a VC-funded startup, not from a SaaS product with recurring subscriptions, but from the raw, unglamorous grind of building command-line tools, writing technical articles, hunting open-source bounties, and freelancing on Upwork. Two months in, I have earned exactly $90. This is that story, with every number exposed. The Hypothesis The thesis was simple, maybe too simple: developers need tools. The npm ecosystem has 2.5 million packages and counting. Every week, new CLI tools trend on Hacker News. Surely there was room for one more developer to carve out a sustainable income from building useful things. My plan had five revenue streams: npm tools sold via Gumroad (premium versions with extra features) Open-source bounties on platforms like Algora, Expensify, and Cal.com Paid technical articles for publications like Smashing Magazine, SitePoi