Deriving economic profits from writing FREE software?

[igor@Algebra.COM (Igor)]

Hi,

At my leisure, I write free software. One of these programs is the usenet
moderation bot STUMP. Right now I am writing another free program. I feel
perfectly comfortable with the idea that I will not CHARGE money for these
programs; for one, I am a beneficiary of a multitude of excellent free
programs written by others, and just as well i realize that selling them 
would be more of a hassle than it is worth.

My another pet idea is that programming is poetry, and therefore a
person who only writes commercial software is almost surely going to
lose whatever gift in programming that he had from God.

However, aside from the psychic benefits, I would like to somehow derive
an economic profit from being a freeware author. So far, I feel that the
status of the author of a popular package does sound good on a resume, but
it is as far as I could get.

Does anyone else feel the same way? Has anybody come up with a way to 
cash in on the free programs that he writes? 

Thank you.
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