Jellyfin Sub/Income/Monetize

[SmurQ x (SmurQ)]

Hello, I would like to know how I can generate income from my Jellyfin server(Continue reading please).

Currently, I am running Jellyfin on a cloud server that I pay for with usenets, costing me approximately $20 per month. As a student without a job, this amount is quite significant for me. I share my Jellyfin server with friends and family, and the storage space is expected to reach its limit soon. I am interested in finding ways to earn money to sustain this project, not for personal profit. I understand that monetization goes against the principles of Jellyfin, but I'm hoping to explore alternative options based on my circumstances. Thank you!

[mcarlton00]

There's not gonna be a lot of ways to make money using a server at your scale. The only remotely viable one is selling access to services you're hosting, and in the case of jellyfin this is almost surely illegal. Self hosting services is rarely if ever a profitable situation.

[GavGaddis]

Yeah I'm with mcarlton. Short of being brutally honest and passing the digital hat around saying "hey all, glad you like the server. If you can chip in, we can keep this going and possibly expand it for more space."

You don't have to hard-sell them, likely, but you can also dangle the carrot of more content, as well as the stick of strongly implying not chipping in for hosting fees is going to cause existing content to go away as you downsize.

But, again, zero legal way to properly monetize a Jellyfin server. Think more lemonade stand than food truck when thinking of ways to recoup hosting costs.

[abpjf]

+1 for what gavgaddis said. also to be brutally honest - if you're saying that your costs are primarily due to providing other people with access to your server - then just cut them off. look, if the content expansion is due to them, then don't expand. on the other hand, if you're the primary beneficiary of the content and infrastructure, then suck it up. if you can't afford to host content for yourself, that's your problem. no one's forcing you to keep a server running.

my take is that _my server and content_ are exactly that, mine. I bear the costs of maintaining it, expanding it, populating it. it literally does not cost me anything extra to _grant_ access to it for other people, that's a bonus for those lucky peeps. I don't have the infrastructure for them, I have it for me. if I don't have what they want to watch, tough, not my problem. I'm certainly not gonna go obtain whatever it is someone else wants to watch that I have absolutely no interest in myself.

[elephantLYFE]

This post sounds off topic to me.

"Ideas to make money" to afford tech hobbies is not within the topic of "Jellyfin Technical Support Questions".

If this was a question about hardware itself, and Price Vs. Performance, to meet Jellyfin Technical Specs,
that would be more relatable to this forum.