I’ve been writing code for the past 6 years. In certain areas (PHP, MySQL), I consider myself beyond proficient and more in line with “fluent”. Other areas I have no real experience: Ruby on Rails, .NET, Java.
For most of those 6 years, I’ve freelanced with the thought that if I could jusst generate enough work on the side, I’d be able to sustain my income and be self-employed.
I’ll say that I think that there is a market for stellar programmers at the top of their games who are well-connected and have brilliant and innovative ideas. For most programmers, there is no market for your expertise. At least not as a freelancer.
SitePoint user tmark938 poses the question (typos corrected), “I am looking to develop some unique scripts over the coming months - is there a market for new and unique codes / scripts?” The reply perfectly sums up my own reaction to this question, “It depends on what you classify as “unique”. With so many programmers out there with access to free development software, there’s lots of already built solutions for even the most bizzare things.
The money is in consulting. Of course, with technical consulting, you have to have some knowledge of the programming and project management, but very few people are getting rich on their own. The same can be said of design work which very few people build enough notoriety to do flying solo.
So in other words, this is not 1999 and most of the cool Web 2.0 services out there aren’t making a dime and have no funding from venture investors. They are cool services, but they aren’t making money. If you’re going to make it in the web game as a living, you’re going to need to find your way into the elite top 10% and make a name for yourself. If you can manage a team that you build, the chances are even better that you’ll make it.
Stumble it!
About the Author: Aaron Brazell is the lead editor of Technosailor.com and a social media expert. His passion is to see companies and individuals use the internet and web technologies wisely and effectively to promote their brands and companies. He is Business Development Manager for Lijit and he worked as Director of Technology at b5media from 2005-2008 and is currently an independent consultant.
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When providing a server or even a downloadable app, the hard part is all the "extras" you have to account for.
So, now you need to provide support, trouble shoot issues, fix bug reports, prepare and roll releases, handle sales, specials, coupons. Don't forget about PR and advertising / marketing.
When you look at it, unless you have some money to get started when your providing a script or server, your up shits crick. Your going to have to handle all the above yourself which is by far no easy task. Unless you can afford to employe some people to help you with this, your going to feel like your drowning under your own work load - something that is not very fun.
So, my opinion is that it isn't worth it for him. Aaron, your exactly right that the money in is consulting.
- Eric
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There really aren't many niches that haven't already been plugged up a hundred times.
The money is in consulting, you're both right. It's in figuring out what your client needs, then integrating and customizing it to fit. Only rarely do you need to write all new code yourself nowadays.
That said, I make a living writing custom code full time, and I'm nowhere close to the top 10% of coders so maybe I'm just dumb lucky.
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Misled me for a second.
But then again, I like having a 401K and health benefits :)
If I were to go self-employed, I'd be doing a mix of things to keep a steady income stream. I'd build some software, offer services to clients, come up with some moneymaking sites on my own, etc. I do this on a somewhat irregular basis now as supplemental income. I'd lean more heavily on the non-client-focused work though, because in freelancing you're never really self-employed; you just have a lot more bosses.
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I agree with what you're saying about having a lot of bosses. I don't want to do freelance web development to save my life for that reason. I'd rather do something easy that just makes money whether I'm sleeping or awake or on vacation or out on the golf course. That's one of the things I like about blogging since I've learned how to monetize it (still can learn more, reading Steve Pavlina alot)...
I generate content. A year from now, it comes up in search engines, traffic continues to flow. I have no boss. And if one income well dries up, I've got others.
I'm not rich, but I'll tell you what, for the first time since I started blogging, I'm getting ready in the next month to break 4 figures a month on blogging income alone. Still not enough to be self-employed on, but certainly better than the two figures from two months ago.
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I make a pretty nice living too. Between my own sites and businesses and consulting, we are able to keep the mortgage paid and food on the table. My wife is now a stay at home mom and it gets tough sometimes but it's going well.
As for just programmers, I have one programmer on staff and am looking for a few others (with proficiency in Ruby and Rails primarily). I think there is a lot of "freelance" work for good skilled programmers.
And about the "web 2.0" apps... there are a lot of unique ideas out there still. The problem is most people are looking at other services like MySpace and trying to come up with something similar. Solve a problem for yourself and chances are more people needed the problem solved too.
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The ability to code, in any language, on any platform, is worth exactly zilch. It's on the same order of business usefulness as the folks who spend their time defining and learning the Klingon language.
The majority of programmers I have worked with have an inverse ratio between business acumen and coding ability. The deeper they get into code, the less interest they have in how that code might help the company earn money.
To make money in the free lance world you need to "imagineer" the way to solve a problem or fill a need and then code it. Google is a good current example. Alta Vista was built on the best computer platforms available, coded by some pretty darn good PhD's, and reached the otherwise unattainable goal of indexing every publicly available web site. They had no real business model; they were bright people from Digital spending tons of money to build something technically way cool.
Along came two college geeks who said, hey, let's build our own, but better, and while we're at it we'll develop ways 9many ways) to monetize it. Anybody looked at Digital's stock price lately? Is it still even traded? We know what Google is worth, and it's for sure that there is some fantastic coding talent within the Googleplex. But Google's value is based on "x" (the value of their technical skills) plus "y" (the value of their business skills) and I can guarantee that x
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I launched a new website to help freelance programmers find projects last month. Check out www.freelancelocaltech.com. You can post your services on the site for free!
I believe that smart freelancers want to bid for clients and not jobs. Most of the sites that I have come across don't allow you to market the consulting aspect of your work, just being the lowest cost provider. Big money doesn’t come to those who bid against cheap overseas work. Instead, the best $$ comes from finding local clients, building the relationship so that you’re the “go to” person whenever there’s a need in your area of expertise, and then building on that to land more clients. If all you focus on is bidding jobs you could find yourself living on minimum wage.
FreelanceLocalTech only supports clients and consultants in the USA.
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