As you go through the journey of learning how to code, I’m sure the idea “How am I going to use this to make a living?” has crossed your mind. Knowing how to code is a skill that’s high in demand which means there are a lot of opportunities to make a couple bucks from it. In this article, I want to share some of those ways with you and hopefully you can walk away with an idea on how you can make money with your new learned new skill set.
Teaching what you know
As you gain experience and become better in your coding abilities, the opportunity to teach what you’ve learned to others is valuable. A few ways of making money with teaching is through creating tutorials/courses that demonstrate a certain technology, you can charge people individually for 1:1 lessons, or you can build a site that teaches code and charge customers a monthly/yearly fee for access.
Another benefit you get from this besides money is it helps you solidify what you know and what you need to go back and research. It helps you find those missing gaps in your knowledge. I was once told, if you can clearly explain a concept to someone, then you understand that concept pretty well.
Freelancing
Another way to utilize your new skillset is to find your own clients and help them solve their problems. With freelancing, you can work on your own schedule and choose the projects you want to work on. In the beginning, it won’t be easy. It will take time, consistency, and patience to get to a point to where you can live off your freelancing career. All that being said, if you stick with it and not give up, it will be pay off and will be worth it in the end.
To get started with freelancing, it is important you have a portfolio that shows all the projects you’ve done. Since you are just starting out, chances are you don’t have projects to show. In order to fix this, you can do one of these 2 things:
- Build a website or application for that can be used by your friends or family.
- Think of a problem you personally have, and figure out a way to solve that problem by building your own application.
The main thing to remember is, clients want to see the work you’ve done, they won’t hire you any other way. With that in mind, its a good idea to create projects that attracts the kind of clients you want to work with or the kind of projects to work on. Once you start getting a steady flow of clients, make sure to get testimonials at the end of each project. Testimonials from clients you’ve worked with will only raise your value even more.
Working 9-5
The most common way to make money from coding is to get a job in web development. Some of the things that apply to freelancing, apply to getting a job as well. It is still important to have a portfolio of projects that demonstrate you understand the language your using. Here are 5 others things to consider when trying to get a job.
- Make sure your resume is updated and is relevant to the job you are trying to get.
- Update your LinkedIn and reach out to recruiters. It’s also a good idea to reach out to people that are in the tech industry.
- Get use to interviewing and communicating what you can do. The more you do this, the easier it’s going to get.
- Attend local meet ups and put yourself out there.
- Always network. Look for opportunities to help others in your local communities and churches.
I will have another post that goes in a bit deeper on each of these, but for the time being, these are the things you want to remember while trying to find a job. Also remember these things won’t happen overnight, it takes time and many days of consistent effort to achieve this. So stay patient and hungry and before you know it you will be able to land that dream job you are going after.
Conclusion
There are many other ways to make money from coding, the ones I’ve mentioned in this post (teaching, freelancing, and a 9–5) are more of the common approaches. As the world continues to become more digitized, the more opportunities there are to make a living from knowing how to code.
Feel free to share some of your thoughts about how you’ve made money by using your coding skills in the comment section below or by sending a tweet to @jacwynnjr.