Freelancing has an entire learning cycle of its own. Not only do you need to get the code side (sounds like you have that), you’d need an understanding of marketing (both your own and clients), advertising, SEO, billing, contracting, cold calling, relevant tax laws…
You can do it, and it can be rewarding. But it is a lot of work.
Vlogging or blogging present a somewhat different set of challenges: what to write or cast about? What are your pools of knowledge, and are they monetizable? You could, for example, look at places that will pay bloggers based on actual page views, but then the second challenge arises: once posting valuable content, how do you grow your audience (and we’re back to marketing, advertising and SEO).
There are ways to get started with a fairly basic set of development skills. Many folks are applying for work before completing certifications, or as they progress.
The best way to get experience first is to contribute to Open Source projects you depend on already, with fixes to their issues reported, updates to their documentation, and answering questions for people confused on how to use something you already understand.
As you gain a reputation and self-respect, as well as the respect of others, which can take a short time or a long time, depending on how you do it, your name starts to mean something. But if people still do not know who you are, you can still point to your work, and people can decide to trust you. Going down the path of freelancing in the online markets is not as fulfilling in my experience, and it gets you to depend on certain markets rather than being part of a community who knows who you are.
Your different talents and skills are each desirable to businesses and other organizations, and if you take the time to build a reputation, or you work with a company that already has a vision you respect and want to help succeed, you will have a long term and fulfilling future.
This question comes up alot on the forum but the key thing is that you have to think of it as a business.
As was mentioned earlier, you will need to put the work in and be patient because it takes time.
This is also not a get rich quick situation.
You are going to need to grind it out before you start making money.
I would suggest watching Leon’s video on freelancing which provides actionable steps to getting started.
Start writing what you know.
Talk about your learning experience so far.
Provide tips on self learning.
Create a list of resources that you have found helpful on your journey so far.
As for technical articles, write about different html tags and css properties.
Research using documentation and then explain it in your own words and with your own examples.
You can start writing on platforms like devto.
Become interactive in the community there to help build out a following.
Write for a few months and strengthen your skills.
Once you become confident in your skills, then you can write for other platforms like freeCodeCamp News.
If you are a strong writer and develop a following, you can get paid good money for your articles.
But like freelancing it takes time.
I would start by studying the successful programming channels and video blogs and seeing what makes them successful.
Then you can ask yourself what kind of videos you want to make.
Some people go down the route of making tutorials while others do a video blog series.
Just like with blogging and freelancing you have to build an online presence, become more active in the programming community, slowly put out content and build up a channel over time.
My general advice would be to not try and do all 3 of these things at once.
Pick one area you are interested in and go done that path.
Do your research and slowly build out your platform.
But don’t the mistake that this will be quick easy money.
All of these things you mentioned take time and hard work.
Thanks for the writing again. I was thinking to start all together, and after some time I will make shift towards one, with which I am more comfortable.
Here on Hashnode, I started writing article. and posted whatever came in my mind . It would be great if you see it, and share your thought and guide me accordingly.
I think you are off to a good start.
Make sure to create a twitter account and promote your writing on there.
You can also cross promote your writing on other writing platforms like devto.
Your next step could be to write some technical articles on basic css concepts.
For example, you had a post about your windows 10 project.
Here are some topics you can write about just based off of that article.
What is box-sizing and border-box in CSS?
What are CSS variables and how to use them?
What are the differences between absolute and relative positioning?
How to use the before and after pseudo elements?
What are CSS keyframes and how to use them?
I have a question, I watched Leon’s video about how to freelance… and came to an idea to approach local businesses and the plus point is, I know lot of them and about their businesses. Most of them don’t have website and remain own outdated poorly configured website even if it is has WordPress installed.
I worked for above firm about 6 months, for $30/month when I was in High School, it was accounting related work.
But the problem is How to approach, they all know me as Upcoming Chartered Accountant, which is not gonna happen anymore that is not for me. There are only few people know that I am into programming now. OK, I can answer them, that was a nightmare.
Now the final question is, how to decide, how much to charge. In Leon’s video he said you should ask for his budget, how much client is willing to pay. But what if it is below my base price, and what should be the base-price?
You get to control the narrative and how you introduce yourself to people.
If you want to be seen as a web developer that provides solutions to businesses, then you say that.
I would suggest reading through Kyle Prinsloo’s article on how much to charge.
It is very detailed and he has written dozens of articles on freelancing and helps freelancers of all stages. That will give you a better idea of pricing structures and strategies.
Be very careful of conversations about “how much should I charge?”, as your bordering on legal territory. Discussing actual prices and suggesting concrete pricing has, in the past, been construed as “price fixing” in certain circles.
It is a great idea to shop around your area, see what web shops are charging. See how long you think a job might take, and decide what you feel your time is worth.
But be careful having conversations where pricing as a concrete are discussed and set. That can be considered questionable, from a legal standpoint.
That’s a good point.
That’s why I like Kyle’s articles because he provides a higher level approach to pricing and strategies as opposed to establishing set prices that everyone should follow like in other articles.
