How do I make money off my Programming Skills?

[RayanMargham]

I have self taught myself programming as a hobby for 4 years now, I'm amazing at it to the point of being able to write entire operating systems. I want to turn this skill into a "specialized skill" and make money off it but I'm unsure how to find people who need this

 

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[UK_Mike]

Your last sentence is always the tricky one, and the key. Find something that solves a problem for someone, and go from there. Have you looked at starting off somewhere like Upwork or similar, either to get a few paying projects and some experience, or for an idea of what problems people are looking to solve?

 

[Yula]

I have self taught myself programming as a hobby for 4 years now, I'm amazing at it to the point of being able to write entire operating systems. I want to turn this skill into a "specialized skill" and make money off it but I'm unsure how to find people who need this

Is there any niche/industry you've worked in before? One where you have more knowledge in than most other programmers? That's where you should apply your specialized skill.

If you have made some programs to fill up your portfolio that'll help you a lot along the way. What @UK_Mike said is a good place to start. I've found the majority of my clients through Upwork as well and soon they'll recommend you to other business owners.

Afterwards you can create your own website and run ads to generate leads.

 

[RayanMargham]

Is there any niche/industry you've worked in before? One where you have more knowledge in than most other programmers? That's where you should apply your specialized skill.

If you have made some programs to fill up your portfolio that'll help you a lot along the way. What @UK_Mike said is a good place to start. I've found the majority of my clients through Upwork as well and soon they'll recommend you to other business owners.

Afterwards you can create your own website and run ads to generate leads.

I have a lot of low level knowledge on how a computer works (which allowed me to write operating systems) and I can write a good bit of assembly

 

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[RayanMargham]

I really just wanna make just one sale from something just ONE, I feel like I've done nothing but action fake for the last 6 months and I really need to do some execution. I will literally do anything even cleaning peoples musty cars for 2-3 hours.

I just want that one sale

 

[UK_Mike]

I will literally do anything even cleaning peoples musty cars for 2-3 hours.

I just want that one sale

OK, try that. Maybe don't stop after 2-3 hours though, it seems a bit pointless to put a limit on before you've even started.

The trouble with writing operating systems is that not many people want an OS that isn't one of the mainstream ones, and I say that as someone who spent a lot of years selling and supporting a non-mainstream OS and developing device drivers and applications for it. It gives you a lot of in-depth, specialised skill, but while that sounds as if it's really valuable, there's also a limited market for it as far as I see it.

 

[Subsonic]

I really just wanna make just one sale from something just ONE, I feel like I've done nothing but action fake for the last 6 months and I really need to do some execution. I will literally do anything even cleaning peoples musty cars for 2-3 hours.

I just want that one sale

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I know how you are feeling, haha. I was at your position as well last year.

 

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[genkifire]

I have self taught myself programming as a hobby for 4 years now, I'm amazing at it to the point of being able to write entire operating systems. I want to turn this skill into a "specialized skill" and make money off it but I'm unsure how to find people who need this

Hi I'm also a self-taught developer. I started freelancing after I made my first website and I market to a niche: agriculture, farming, and agtech companies. I've made $50K in my first 6 months. I used upwork, social media, and now it's just word of mouth. You should just have a contract and be letting people especially people with businesses know your services. I just told people in my circle at first I was offering to do backend and fullstack work. Then I got better on upwork.

 

[genkifire]

Is there any niche/industry you've worked in before? One where you have more knowledge in than most other programmers? That's where you should apply your specialized skill.

If you have made some programs to fill up your portfolio that'll help you a lot along the way. What @UK_Mike said is a good place to start. I've found the majority of my clients through Upwork as well and soon they'll recommend you to other business owners.

Afterwards you can create your own website and run ads to generate leads.

I second Yula here. I stick to a farming/agriculture niche and now its just word of mouth not just Upwork for me. Try to solve an issue with your software skills for your niche business.

 

[svekk1]

You could partner up with someone who is more like an idea/sales/marketing person. Soyou can compliment each other skills/work

 

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[Filippos]

Dude, if you can program operating systems, start programming smart sensors and embedded monitoring systems for manufacturing companies. There are so many applications where no small business are active. There are only large companies providing solutions on these kind of stuff and they have shitty services. If you set up a local business and also provide commissioning and troubleshooting services, people will love you.

Here are some example applications:

1. monitoring chatter in cutting machines and using that to increase machine productivity and tool lifetime
2. monitoring the process parameters to optimize product quality, such as wine production or chocolate production
3. monitoring the wear of machine elements in production machines to predict their lifetime and notify ordering spare parts
4. monitoring auxiliary systems like cooling lubricant and motor spindle temperature to get an automatic notification for pre-ordering more of the necessary consumables

 

[Roli]

I have self taught myself programming as a hobby for 4 years now, I'm amazing at it to the point of being able to write entire operating systems. I want to turn this skill into a "specialized skill" and make money off it but I'm unsure how to find people who need this

Surely it's as simple as writing a piece of software and selling it? If you can write an entire operating system then surely you can code an app or SaaS.

Find something people want, look for weaknesses in that product and then improve it.

Your post highlights the problem of just learning something without an initial idea of why you're learning it. Why would you even need to know how to write an OS without actually wanting to write one, or get a job writing one?

It would be like me learning to code a game even though I have zero interest in that area. At the end I'd have all this knowledge and I wouldn't know what to do with it.

You say you want a sale. Code something, put it on the app store and get a sale. Or, perhaps you do what @Fox suggests and browse company websites (within a profitable industry), find bad ones and improve them.

Then put the new site on your private server, tell the company they can use it for a week for free, then sell it to them for $XX,000.

When I say a "bad' website, I mean one that looks great but isn't converting to sales. You'll be able to tell if it's not converting if the 'buy now' and 'contact now' buttons are hidden and you have to work to find them.

All in all, I'd say you don't have a problem. You have a marketable skill (which you say you're amazing at), it's now up to you to look around, find a need/problem and fill/solve it using your skill.

 

[Trismigistus]

I would try and find something that is detached from your time like what was mentioned above, build a piece of software and monetize it. It seems like the model you are getting at is selling your programming skills which is essentially a job. Use your programming skills to create something people want that you can sell devoid of your time.

 

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[EmotionEngine]

I have self taught myself programming as a hobby for 4 years now, I'm amazing at it to the point of being able to write entire operating systems. I want to turn this skill into a "specialized skill" and make money off it but I'm unsure how to find people who need this

How did you gain the low level knowledge such as ASM which is used to build it?

 

[kanunay]

I have self taught myself programming as a hobby for 4 years now, I'm amazing at it to the point of being able to write entire operating systems. I want to turn this skill into a "specialized skill" and make money off it but I'm unsure how to find people who need this

The embedded space is most likely where these kind of low-level programming skills would be in demand. Stuff like machine control, telecom, building automation. Or perhaps writing device drivers for specialized hardware. The trick is finding someone who needs this kind of work done.

I have struggled with the same problem: self-taught from the time I was eight years old. 40 years later, I've done everything from hardware design and FPGAs to writing my own operating systems, compilers, debuggers, databases. Unfortunately, most of this was for myself and part of some childhood dream of building this 'Great Computer System', which to this day remains unfinished. It's a hobby project with no practical application, and could possibly qualify for an award for the world's greatest waste of time. Very little of it crosses over into real world applications, other than the problem-solving skills.

 

[neel##]

Hi I'm also a self-taught developer. I started freelancing after I made my first website and I market to a niche: agriculture, farming, and agtech companies. I've made $50K in my first 6 months. I used upwork, social media, and now it's just word of mouth. You should just have a contract and be letting people especially people with businesses know your services. I just told people in my circle at first I was offering to do backend and fullstack work. Then I got better on upwork.

Hi.. excellent progress!!

I'm in the process of learning web development. would you mind sharing your journey of becoming a self taught developer in a bit more detailed way pls. the stack and the sources you learned from. How actually you started freelancing and how the first sale happened etc.

Also, do you suggest to completely learn full stack and then try freelance or is it good to learn a part of it and start freelance and learn the rest simultaneously??

 

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[Onion]

Thank you for posting your journey. Personally, I think it's really cool you have such a low-level depth of the OS. I wish you all the best but I can't say much as I'm in a similar spot. Do let us know of any updates in your journey .

 

[StrikingViper69]

Have you seen this thread: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...rom-an-8-figure-valuation-to-a-billion.73281/

There may be some other software development stories on here too.

 

[genkifire]

Hi.. excellent progress!!

I'm in the process of learning web development. would you mind sharing your journey of becoming a self taught developer in a bit more detailed way pls. the stack and the sources you learned from. How actually you started freelancing and how the first sale happened etc.

Also, do you suggest to completely learn full stack and then try freelance or is it good to learn a part of it and start freelance and learn the rest simultaneously??

Hi there! So I stuck with the 100Devs program but taught myself python based off project requests. I say just do it and try stuff.

 

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