How do Web Developers make money?
Hi friends, in today’s insight, we will look at how you can make money as a self-taught web developer.
Web development skills are in demand and there are a lot of people and companies that need web developers.
If you do not have a college degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering, it may not be easy to get a job in many countries.
But away from a professional job, there are many ways to have an income as a self-taught web developer.
As long as you sharpen your skills and you are able to make functional web applications, you can earn enough to live off of, you can even earn more than one with a full-time job.
For the sake of Diana, let’s get started.
FREELANCING
Freelancing is one of the ways to make money as a self-taught web developer.
Start with making your own projects for your portfolio if you are not experienced and then show those projects to prospective clients.
You can talk to local businesses and advertise yourself on social media and to your family and friends.
One of the best approaches in freelancing is to have your own website where you can list your projects and the businesses you have worked with.
Clients are more attracted to your actual work than to what you say you can do, let your work speak for you.
You can also join platforms like Fiverr or Upwork to have a large pool of clients who are looking for web developers.
You are going to earn less when starting on these platforms but as you level up and improve your ratings, you will be able to charge more for your work.
You must take note that freelancing can be time-consuming and does not guarantee a regular income.
You may earn thousands of dollars in a month and zero dollars in the other month, just take note of that.
Overall, freelancing is a great way to earn money while building your entrepreneurship and marketing skills in the process.
Freelancing was the first way I was able to make my first dollars as a developer by making WordPress websites for my friends and some local businesses.
BLOGGING
No, you don’t have to take literature classes to be a good blogger.
Blogging is one of the amazing ways to share what you know on your blogging site and earn some income in the process.
To be a good blogger, you need to share valuable content, content that will keep your audience engaged.
Blogging helps you to do more research in your field in order to share accurate and valuable information.
You can monetize your blog with Google’s Adsense or other Ad Network companies like Ezoic, Mediavine, etc.
You can also sell affiliate products on your website; affiliate income is one of the major income sources for most bloggers.
The Amazon Partner program is a great place to start your affiliate marketing journey and is the biggest affiliate program in the world.
It takes time to start earning a significant amount of money through blogging. You will have to be patient and consistent.
Once you have enough traffic to your blog, the income that your blog will be able to generate can be life-changing.
I run the blog you are reading right now and the experience I have had is so enriching, I wish I had started much earlier.
You can learn more about blogging in my article What is it like to run a blog.
YOUTUBE
Youtube is another great platform to showcase your skills as a self-taught web developer and earn an income from it.
There are many people whose Youtube career has been so lucrative and has changed their lives.
Brad Traversy a self-taught web developer of Traversy Media stated on his Youtube channel how his life and finances have been transformed because of Youtube.
You can make money on Youtube using Google’s Adsense which you can join when you have 1000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours.
You can also make money through sponsorship deals, affiliate marketing, selling your own products to your audience, live streaming, etc.
I have a YouTube channel Arkim Phiri (a subscription will be greatly appreciated) that I use to express my ideas in programming and also share what I know with others.
If you enjoy being in front of a screen or making videos generally, YouTube will be a great platform for you to grow your skills, grow an audience, and also make money along the way.
CREATE COURSES
Selling courses is another great way to make money as a self-taught web developer.
Courses are a convenient way for many people to learn what they would love to learn in this fast-paced world.
There is always demand for great, valuable courses that will teach others in an easy-to-follow way.
You will need a big audience, good developer experience & skills to make and sell courses.
So, if you understand Web development so well and you are able to put together an engaging course for your audience, you will be surprised how much you can make from your course.
You can list your courses on platforms such as Teachable, Udemy, Skillshare, and many others.
These platforms will take care of most of the technical parts so that you don’t have to do everything on your own. Podia is great to try an online course for free
When you think of developers like Shaun Pelling (The Net Ninja) or Brad Traversy (Traversy Media), they have made thousands of dollars selling online courses on Udemy.
Consider the screenshot below of Brad Traversy’s course and estimate for yourself how much he has made from his courses.
DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Digital products are a game changer and help you to earn some passive income.
You can design APIs that you can monetize, an ebook that you can sell on Amazon, or design templates that you can sell on marketplaces like Envato.
You can also sell custom-made WordPress themes and plugins or Shopify plugins or components kits and so on.
There are many digital products that you can work on. Mobile apps, desktop apps, games, game assets, and 3D renders can all broadly fall into the digital product category.
There is so much to do within the Web development category of digital products. Try to explore and see it for yourself.
The cost of distributing such digital products is very small, which makes digital products highly profitable and a great stream of passive income.
You really have to put in the work initially and thereafter there is not much to be done.
You can start your own store and sell digital products with Shopify
CREATE A SAAS
Not every company wants to have an inhouse built software for all company activities.
Many of them prefer to subscribe to a service for a monthly or yearly fee.
This is where you come in as a developer. You can create a Software as a Service (SaaS) and leverage such opportunities.
From Accounting firms to Law firms, Churches, Non-Profit Organizations, and sports clubs, they all need some form of a service to run there day to day operations.
Big companies such as Twilio, Dropbox, Netflix, and Web hosting companies leverage this opportunity to offer subscription-based services to their clients.
Creating Software as a Service will take a lot of time and effort but it is greatly profitable.
You can also bring in other developers of similar interests to help you. You can further build a startup around your SaaS and impact the community on a large scale.
TEACHING OTHERS (1 on 1)
Another way to make money as a web developer is to conduct one on one coaching.
You can charge a fixed rate per hour to teach someone Web development skills on a one-on-one basis.
This will take a lot of your time but you can charge more than when you are teaching a group of students.
One-on-one coaching is very helpful for a learner and this is why it can be very expensive.
It is easy to ask questions and get clarification when learning one-on-one than say using a video or a blog post.
Teaching others is generally a wonderful way to make an income. You will be helping someone to progress and earn at the same time.
OPEN SOURCE
Contributing to open source and creating open-source software is one of the best ways to give back to the developer community.
Open-source software is essentially free but you can still make money from creating open-source software.
You can make open-source software publicly available for free and have addons or premium features that can be accessed at a fee.
You can also receive contributions from the community that finds your project helpful, and there are also Github sponsors who can sponsor you if your project is amazing.
JOB AS A WEB DEVELOPER
Finally, it is also possible to get a job as a developer even if you do not have a college degree.
This, however, will not be easy, but as long as you are able to demonstrate in many ways that you are valuable and capable of contributing to the growth of the company, you will definitely be given a chance.
Even big corporations like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Tesla, and others employs developers who have no college degree.
A job would be another great way to have a regular income as a developer. Just make sure to follow the Bloomtech Strategy if you are interested in getting a job.
So, those are the ways in which you can make money as a self-taught web developer.
It is not going to come easy and you must put in the work, but once you remain consistent about it, you will be able to see that breakthrough.