Becoming a freelance programmer

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Hi all. I think I'd like to do some freelance programming, and I sort of know where to start. I know there are forums like here and digitalpoint, and there are places like elance and odesk. However, I don't really know what language to start with. I know a little C#, C, Java, and HTML. It's mostly book knowledge/made my own scripts and programs with them. Going through the C# elance is scary, as I have no idea what many of the jobs are asking for.

Any help you can give on a direction to go in would be greatly appreciated.
#programming #freelance #programmer
  • Recent posts on the same(or similar) topic on this page with relevant information:
    http://www.warriorforum.com/programm...-question.html
    http://www.warriorforum.com/programm...-i-choose.html
    http://www.warriorforum.com/programm...ogramming.html
    http://www.warriorforum.com/programm...t-php-asp.html

    Your post is too vague. You don't say what type of work you want to do(web, desktop, mobile), what type of clients(affiliate marketers, business owner, enterprise, consumer, etc..) Based on the post I recommend you go to elance/odesk, find the language with the most jobs of the one you know(C#,C,Java, and HTML), and start programming some of them. I don't mean apply for the job, but just look at the requirements and code them for yourself. Eventually you'll feel comfortable with the types of work expected and can charge money for it(and re-use some of this work in projects).

    Now if you give more information such as: I want to be a freelance web developer targeting affiliate marketers, then I think you'll get much more useful and specific information.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • mikeonrails - can you contact me directly I am having a hard time on this site getting a message to you: Mark Foss, mark.foss"at"us.army.mil (wouldn't let me post the real email address because my count was lower than 15).

      It is concering an idea for a moblie app I want to discuss with you.

      Thank you,

      Mark Foss
  • You should better start with the one you love the most... because if you're looking for what is other people is actually looking for... you could force yourself somehow... moreover pleasure and passion should be in front of any other interests.
    • [1] reply
    • Thank you for providing some clarity. Part of the reason I posted this was I don't know which of these I want to do or even what those options were. I posted this in hopes of exploring my options. If I were to pick the ones I had the most experience in (admittedly not a lot), I'd choose desktop development for the consumer. If I were to choose one where there is a lot of demand, I'd choose web development for ???

      Great suggestion. I'll set aside some time to do that tomorrow.

      As I mentioned, I can't do that yet since this is meant to be an exploratory post.

      I couldn't agree more adi. I gave affiliate marketing a shot, and hated hated hated damn near every second of it, but I did find that I liked programming during that time. That's the reason I think that freelance programming is a good fit for me, but as mikeonrails pointed out "freelance programmer" can mean a lot of things, and I just don't know what thing I want to be right now as I have limited experience.

      Since enjoyment is a given, I'd say the next most important qualities I'm looking for are (in order):
      consistency of work/ease of finding work
      eventually high-paying
      using what I already know instead of learning something new - I should add that I love learning. I love it so much that I foresee myself getting trapped in the, "I need to learn more and be a perfect programmer in every language before I start my first job" kind of loop. I'd like to get into my first project with enough knowledge to get it finished well, but learn a little along the way.

      Thank you mike and adi. I hope this post helps clarify things a little bit. It's certainly helped me.
      • [1] reply
  • I just joined a site called Scriptlance. They are pretty good. More professional and programmer friendly than freelancer.com and all that and you don't seem to have a limit on the number of quotes you can submit a month like the others which was really annoying.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • since you've been in more freelance site, i could say that you usually read what most programming language usually people there look for. then it would be a good idea to learn those language or if you know it already, learn more of the things your lacking at.
  • I think you should focus in 1 programming language first, eventhough knowing some programming language is awesome. because if you don't, you would not expert in any programming language.
  • I've been in the same place as you are a few years ago. I knew a bit of everything but could not find the job on any freelance site. They were either too heavy for me or noone would give me a chance. Then I got a perfect advice: One should not start working as a freelancer because these jobs are intended for experienced developers. You rather start working as full time developer or develop you own huge project and after 1 year return to freelance sites. Then you will have not only experience, but even a portfolio. This helped me and I think it can help you as well.
  • I suggest you start with HTML, php, and CSS. There are endless opportunity for a Web designer.
  • I've been through a few of those freelancing sites, and I admit they are scary. I've had moderate success with those sites, but I didn't pour myself into sites as well as I should have or I might have had more success.

    Most of the jobs are typically bid on 2 types of people, people that are charging the rate that you want to charge, and those people from overseas where they are charging the rate they want to charge. People will defend what you are charging versus the overseas guys with arguments like, well you want to work with someone in your time zone (or close to it) versus working with someone overseas, that doesn't quite do what you want them to do. You also pay for quality is the common argument that I hear.

    So here is what I suggest: build up your skills by working on a few projects on your own - try taking a few of the clients requests and build it out yourself. This will allow you to build your confidence and you know/understand how much work goes into those types of requests. This will allow you to accurately bill your clients without you feeling like you got jipped because you spent X when you should have said you would spend X, but you told the client Y, so now you're stuck (well not stuck, but you have to go back to the client and say I didn't correctly estimate the project, and stuff starts going downhill from there). Plus, like someone said, you'll be able to reuse a lot of the code that you developed in the previous projects, to make yourself faster at building that specific module in the future.
  • first decide if its gonna be an MS technology or Java based..
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    Becoming a freelance programmer

    Hi all. I think I'd like to do some freelance programming, and I sort of know where to start. I know there are forums like here and digitalpoint, and there are places like elance and odesk. However, I don't really know what language to start with. I know a little C#, C, Java, and HTML. It's mostly book knowledge/made my own scripts and programs with them. Going through the C# elance is scary, as I have no idea what many of the jobs are asking for. Any help you can give on a direction to go in would be greatly appreciated.