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Ask HN: Becoming a freelance web developer

by shire on 5/25/15, 11:00 PM with 15 comments

Okay I need some advice friends. I want to become a freelance web developer code from home and make money.

Can I make this happen in 2015 or is too late?

I want to either go with the JS or PHP route to begin my journey which is easier and will show me results right away as far as money?

Before I go to barnes and noble or started taking courses I need your advice on the right way to become a freelance web developer.

  • by bopf on 5/26/15, 10:46 AM

    Never too late to do this. Just keep in mind that you are competing with super high skilled and inexpensive web developers from Eastern Europe and Asia. I would go down this route, build up great ratings on freelancer.com for example and slowly raise my rates. At the same time, I would always try to work on my own web projects with the goal to make an income from these. There are enough ideas out there and only very few who have the skills to bring them to life. If you are not sure what to build to make a living from your own projects, just read growthhackers.com - lots of stories there on how to build something that has a shot at becoming big.

  • by overallduka on 5/25/15, 11:17 PM

    I start how freelancer few months ago(2), already take some jobs, is not late..and if you have several years of experience this is good. Just a tip, learn some new which are few people making it, im Rails developer and have many people doing it but PHP is 100x more, so i recommend get experience in some language/framework ascending like elixir/phoenix, go language, cowboy, erlang,javascript(have tons of frameworks like ember), so learn some new and make many apps using this, you can take 4 years of experience in some months and put this is your description/CV of the job.

    Good Luck.

  • by fsk on 5/25/15, 11:24 PM

    You didn't give enough information to answer.

    Are you already an expert web developer? Are you a complete beginner? You sound like a complete beginner.

    Try making a simple website and putting it on the Internet somewhere.

    If you have no experience, it's going to be very hard to find clients. Maybe you should work a couple years as an employee somewhere first, to get experience?

    You can try bidding for jobs on those elance/odesk websites, but those will be bottom feeder clients. Those will be the type of people who expect you to make a Facebook clone for $100.

  • by deepnet on 5/26/15, 1:33 AM

    Go large.

    Do some fraction of something like this http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/post/56319597560/im-learning-...

    Learn and make a Portfolio and get a lot Publicity at the same time - when you ask for work people could know your name.

    Blog or Web-cast then your journey can inspire many.

  • by stevejalim on 5/25/15, 11:11 PM

    Am too tired to write a clever self-deprecating yet self-promoting post, so: please check out my profile - you might find a link there useful...

  • by mafellows on 5/25/15, 11:02 PM

    It's never been easier to freelance develop remotely. Definitely not too late, and I'm not sure it ever will be too late.