Make money programming online

[code junkie]

Happy new year! This year I want to figure out some way to make money programming online. So far I have come up with the following possibilities:

* Run-of-the-mill freelancing, i.e. find people who need some coding done and charge them to do it.
* Make some stock scripts, widgets, etc and sell them. There are a bazillion sites where people sell graphics and CSS templates, but I'm having a hard time finding one for programmers to sell stock code. Hotscripts was all I could find. Anyone know of any others?
* Make an app and charge people to use it. The most obvious, but also the hardest and most time-consuming.
* Offer expertise. Go on Liveperson or similar and charge people to help them with their programming.

Any other options? Anybody have a brilliant idea? Anybody with experience of doing any of the above have insights to share?

 

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[Darkside]

Happy new year! This year I want to figure out some way to make money programming online. So far I have come up with the following possibilities:

* Run-of-the-mill freelancing, i.e. find people who need some coding done and charge them to do it.
* Make some stock scripts, widgets, etc and sell them. There are a bazillion sites where people sell graphics and CSS templates, but I'm having a hard time finding one for programmers to sell stock code. Hotscripts was all I could find. Anyone know of any others?
* Make an app and charge people to use it. The most obvious, but also the hardest and most time-consuming.
* Offer expertise. Go on Liveperson or similar and charge people to help them with their programming.

Any other options? Anybody have a brilliant idea? Anybody with experience of doing any of the above have insights to share?

What are your skills? I might hire you myself since I'll need lots of programming done on my site and I don't have the time to get it all done myself meanwhile handling all of the other operations. Also, what's your age and marriage status? I only ask because I don't like working with people who have too many responsibilities like family, kids, etc.

 

[dkt91]

I have to agree to the second point you mentioned. Indeed, compared to what's going on with images or templates being sold online, buying stock codes online is barely existent. This is what I see the most Fastlane potential in - you are not trading your time for money but you are coding something once and then you can sell it as often as you like without any additional work involved.

If you manage to offer stock codes people actually need, this can be a great success. Or why not build a social network around it? And not only offer your own code. Give other coders the chance to offer theirs, as well. Then let the crowd become active - let them rate codes, let them help the coders improve their work. Let people support each other through forums. Whatever you feel like and think is going to be beneficial for your business!

Good luck!

 

[FDJustin]

* Make some stock scripts, widgets, etc and sell them. There are a bazillion sites where people sell graphics and CSS templates, but I'm having a hard time finding one for programmers to sell stock code.

That is one more possibility that you overlooked. Are there other programmers who would like a better way to sell code, and can you provide them the means to do it?

 

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[griffinsdesigns]

That is a good idea. The other script site is dynamicdrive.com. Other than the one you listed, and the one I mentioned, I think that is it.

 

[code junkie]

That is one more possibility that you overlooked. Are there other programmers who would like a better way to sell code, and can you provide them the means to do it?

I consider that to be the fourth point: Make an app and charge people to use it.

It is one of many, many possibilities I could set up, but I don't think I want to make a fully featured website including all the marketing and everything else involved. It's a lot of work and money to set up and maintain, so I would like to do a lot of smaller things (like stock work) instead of one big thing for the time being. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, as they say.

 

[LightHouse]

Also, what's your age and marriage status? I only ask because I don't like working with people who have too many responsibilities like family, kids, etc.

Not to de-rail this thread but....


WHAT?!?!!?

 

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[Darkside]

Not to de-rail this thread but....


WHAT?!?!!?

LOL! I meant no offense to married people with kids.

 

[FDJustin]

LOL! I meant no offense to married people with kids.

Sound logic, but I think it's flawed none the less. Have you noticed how family commitment is one of the greatest reasons people remain as employees, which is essentially what code junkie would be in that case?

The only reason I could see to be against someone who has an obvious passion for the art behind their job, and a family to feed, is if you wanted access to the person literally 24/7.

So out of curiosity, what are your programming talents, and if you chose the time for money approach, would you be charging per project, or per hour?

 

[Darkside]

Sound logic, but I think it's flawed none the less. Have you noticed how family commitment is one of the greatest reasons people remain as employees, which is essentially what code junkie would be in that case?

The only reason I could see to be against someone who has an obvious passion for the art behind their job, and a family to feed, is if you wanted access to the person literally 24/7.

Yea, that was my line of thinking. If there's an emergency with the site, can I count on this person to respond within a few hours to any messages that I leave them or will they be at their kids soccer game. A young guy in his twenties or teens would pretty much have no real responsibilities so they could devote more time to the site if I needed them to.

So out of curiosity, what are your programming talents, and if you chose the time for money approach, would you be charging per project, or per hour?

I know html, xhtml, some css, some javascript, and very little php. I'm currently trying to learn more about javascript and php since they are important programming languages for building sites and doing some of the things that I want to do like post xml data and retrieve it.

I pay an hourly rate for some minor programming jobs. It would be in the range of $100-$200 a month for 5-10 hours worth of work when it's all added up, so about $20 per hour, which while not the highest I've seen is some pretty good extra income for just a few hours worth of work, especially for someone who enjoys programming already and would be doing it for fun anyways.

Of course, as my business expands and I make more money, I could afford to pay a higher rate or hire a full time programmer and pay them a salary. I need to be careful with spending early on though as I need to make sure I don't run out of money to keep my business alive.

 

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[FDJustin]

I actually meant that latter part to code junkie (My bad for not specifying), but it's still cool to see you've actually got an answer for it, too. It was a nice surprise.

 

[Darkside]

I actually meant that latter part to code junkie (My bad for not specifying), but it's still cool to see you've actually got an answer for it, too. It was a nice surprise.

Sorry. I figured you meant me because you included it with the rest of the post instead of separating the two parts. I should have figured that you weren't addressing me though because you were asking how much I charge, while I just pay people, not charge others for services.

 

[code junkie]

So out of curiosity, what are your programming talents, and if you chose the time for money approach, would you be charging per project, or per hour?

For the web, I do PHP, SQL, Javascript/AJAX and a bit of CSS. For desktop, I do Java, C#, C and Assembly. I prefer charging per hour because it saves me having to predict how long a project will take, but I can do per project as well.

A young guy in his twenties or teens would pretty much have no real responsibilities so they could devote more time to the site if I needed them to.

Here is my completely unsolicited advice. If you want to hire someone with a particular skill or characteristic, then look for that skill or characteristic itself. Don't think to yourself what age/marital status/gender/race/religion/whatever is likely to have that skill or characteristic and then look for someone who meets that demographic. For one thing, that's how people get sued for discrimination. For another thing, it's a very unreliable method for finding someone with the skill or characteristic you are looking for. You are likely to skip over people who would be perfect candidates because they don't fit the demographic, and hire some sub-par candidate because they did fit.

 

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[Darkside]

Here is my completely unsolicited advice. If you want to hire someone with a particular skill or characteristic, then look for that skill or characteristic itself. Don't think to yourself what age/marital status/gender/race/religion/whatever is likely to have that skill or characteristic and then look for someone who meets that demographic. For one thing, that's how people get sued for discrimination. For another thing, it's a very unreliable method for finding someone with the skill or characteristic you are looking for. You are likely to skip over people who would be perfect candidates because they don't fit the demographic, and hire some sub-par candidate because they did fit.

Thanks for the advice. I will try to follow it from now on.

 

[FDJustin]

Sorry. I figured you meant me because you included it with the rest of the post instead of separating the two parts.

Yes, I normally would have. But if I didn't make the mistake, I and anyone else who might be interested for whatever reason wouldn't have seen your skillset.

For the web, I do PHP, SQL, Javascript/AJAX and a bit of CSS. For desktop, I do Java, C#, C and Assembly. I prefer charging per hour because it saves me having to predict how long a project will take, but I can do per project as well.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[healthstatus]

Back to the original posters question. I would suggest looking into writing specifications for non-techs before they outsource a project. I have already seen 4-5 posts on this forum, of "I have this idea how do I get it created?". You have a 1-2 day brainstorm session with the idea person, flesh that out to a detailed written spec, then hand it back off for them to get it outsourced, you could also have your own network of freelance teams and offer to manage the implementation of your spec as well.

 

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[Icy]

Back to the original posters question. I would suggest looking into writing specifications for non-techs before they outsource a project. I have already seen 4-5 posts on this forum, of "I have this idea how do I get it created?". You have a 1-2 day brainstorm session with the idea person, flesh that out to a detailed written spec, then hand it back off for them to get it outsourced, you could also have your own network of freelance teams and offer to manage the implementation of your spec as well.

This is generally why I try to push people to 'make' it themselves. Obviously most of the time they will not be able to, but they need that understanding that just saying "I want to a program to do x" is not enough at all. If you don't have some understanding what goes on, and have no one that does you are not going to be able to write out what you want correctly.

Many of the 'ideas', if you take what they say at face value it'd be super quick to create it. The problem is that is not what they want, and they don't know it until they see it, which then causes the cycle over again, more money, etc.

Edit: Heck, most things I've created even after thinking through what I want as I make it they change. So even getting a written spec of it will be off, but it will put you in a better place to make changes.

Programming is a thing of architecture, and some seemingly small things may involves big changes if not clearly expressed in the beginning.

 

[healthstatus]

You can make a business out of the pushing people to make it themselves. You do the prodding and inquiry, (do you need a registration page? ok, what are we collecting on that page? when they register do you want them added to your aweber account?) and come out with the written spec that will be 95% of what they want. Sure I get changing things as it gets closer and closer, but their should be a LOT LESS to change, and you can coach them about feature creep, and focus on get it done and make notes for version 1.1.

 

[CEBenz]

Not to hijack, but does anyone have any suggestions for a person looking to have a site built and who only knows enough HTML to be dangerous?

 

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[healthstatus]

One of the easiest ways to spec software/website is to build each page in Powerpoint, for graphs and menus, put a text box and say, line graph of money saved, or whatever the graph is about. Then go through each slide and write down what is to be done with every button, entry area or clickable thing. If you have money, hire someone like Icy, or me (very expensive right now), to help you flesh out your idea into a working spec, then go to elance/odesk/blahblah outsource website and have them bid based on the specification.