Who Makes More Money, Programmer Or Computer Technician

Side Gigs That Volition Make You Money as a Programmer in 2020

An unbiased look at acquirement streams every programmer can use to boost their income

As the world of tech develops, the value of people with software evolution skills increases. The internet has given us an incredible number of opportunities without borders. With a fiddling scrap of programming cognition, access to a computer, and the internet, literally anyone can start making some money online, provided one has the right mindset.

Before I jump into the nitty-gritty of how to go about really generating your first dollar online, I just want to put this out there. This piece is not about making money fast. Information technology'south nearly actionable things you can exercise daily to generate an alternative revenue stream. What the stream volition be is entirely up to you. Getting into the culling stream game is well-nigh playing the long game and realizing early that there is no such thing as a complimentary lunch. Earlier you embark on this passive acquirement stream journey, keep 1 thing in mind: Follow through!

If you examine the lives of people effectually yous or online who have achieved some degree of success, there'southward a loftier probability you'll detect a story of dismal failures — not i, merely many — somewhere along the way. To quote IBM'south founder, Thomas Watson,

"If you lot want to succeed, double your failure rate."

With this equal opportunity provider called the internet, anyone can brand some money online if they're consistently diligent to the crusade. The internet is the greatest common denominator, where wealth is non exclusively reserved for the few. To succeed in generating some kind of revenue stream with your programming efforts, yous must understand that the thought is to neglect quickly, learn to pivot when something does not seem to work, and motion on to the adjacent affair. For some information technology will exist easy, for some it will be hard. That'south how things are. Everyone's path is different, and there is no ane definitive way of taking this passive online income journeying.

Permit's jump into the list of things you lot can outset proactively looking into today.

1. Freelancing

Freelancing is a corking mode of making some side income while still holding down your day job. Or perhaps, if conditions are correct, it could potentially become a full-time job. Though freelancing sounds great on paper, it requires a lot of subject and endeavour to observe clients and projects. 1 thing you demand to keep in mind is freelancing but works if you possess the ability to self-regulate. If y'all lack this ability, then honestly, there is no signal in starting downwardly the freelance path. Instead, a nine-to-five job would be best suited for yous equally it provides order and structure.

Without digressing and regurgitating the same content you lot'll detect online, I want to give yous a unlike take on what has worked for me. One matter I learned early on is that y'all shouldn't follow the herd. Carve your own unique path that sets y'all apart from the rest of the pack.

Platforms like Upwork or Fiverr offer a lot of opportunities but tin can easily plow into a perpetual rabbit hole you might non want to go down. The rates are pretty low if you lot don't accept a name, so I would only recommend them if yous just desire to dip your toes into the water for the first time or are satisfied with a little flake of additional income. This, of grade, doesn't mean yous can be successful on them.

A meliorate strategy would be to piece of work on your LinkedIn profile, contact recruiters and past clients from your network, go to conferences and meetups, and look out for platforms that match up remote workers with companies.

Take advantage of and leverage Facebook groups. At that place are dozens of Facebook groups that are designed specifically for freelancers. Programming-based groups are other places that teem with opportunities for freelance work. These are probably a better option than sourcing leads in places like Upwork and competing with C-grade, $five programmers. Facebook groups besides allow you to showcase your piece of work and garner back up, make friends, and expand your network and connections. Below is a listing of groups to get you started in your pursuit of finding that extra dollar.

Guavabean Freelancer Group
Remote and Travel Jobs
Freelance Incubator
Remote Tech Jobs
Remote Jobs, Work Anywhere — Inventive Hub
Remote Jobs & Projects for Developers
Jobs for Forepart-End Developers

In that location is no shortage of Facebook groups you lot can bring together and explore. Become ahead type "remote jobs" or "programming jobs" — or be creative about your search terms. You'll be surprised at how many groups at that place are.

Here is some professional person communication from ane software developer to another: Practise not — I echo, do not — burn your bridges when yous leave your current day job! At that place are exceptions, of course, to this dominion. Sometimes it'due south ethical to fire bridges, e.g., when your boss is a horrible director who treats employees like dirt and rips off your customers or deliberately acts in ways that get against your ideals and principles.

In the effect that y'all take cipher against your employer, I would urge you to keep in contact and found little seeds to go along doors open once you resign. Seed planting is the idea that you periodically accomplish out, not seeking work but to maintain that ongoing rapport. Let your former employer know once in a while that you're open to new creative pursuits. Every bit long every bit they have that thought, information technology's easier to ask for freelance work in the futurity. It does assistance if prior to leaving your previous task, you excelled and built a reputation as the get-to guy.

I encourage you to take some time out to read my other piece on hard truths virtually being a freelance programmer. It'll help you navigate this uncharted territory.

2. Bounty Programs

Software failures afflicted $one.7 trillion in assets in 2019. Co-ordinate to the survey, these failures were found at 314 companies and affected half the world'due south population. These are some facts nosotros can't ignore.

In hindsight, most of these incidents were probably avoidable with proper QA best practices. If there's one thing in life you tin always count on, it's that developers make mistakes. This brings us to the compensation programme, a good opportunity to make some passive income online for you.

Hunting for bugs, or what'southward called bug compensation hunting, is the process of beingness paid to find vulnerabilities in software, websites, and spider web applications. The act of crowdsourcing ways a visitor can tap into a pool of collective intelligence. The more people who piece of work on a trouble, the higher the probability of finding flaws in applications. Nearly companies do not have access to a full-fourth dimension, dedicated security team nor practice they have the money to invest in dedicated resources for such efforts. So some of these companies achieve out to individual contractors similar you for help or, improve still, just open-source this to the public.

Some programmers make tens of thousands of dollars a year on side-hustling via bounty programs. Below is a list of websites y'all can start looking into to find some skillful paying gigs to build up your passive revenue stream.

HackerOne
Bugcrowd
Vulnerability Lab
Fire Compensation

three. Coding Contests

If this is your first time learning most this, then yes, you can make some pretty good alter from this attempt. There is, though, a large but y'all need to exist aware of: Programming contests are not everyone's cup of tea. Yous really need to know your craft for this to work.

That said, doing online coding contests has so many other rewarding benefits beyond the opportunity to win cash prizes. One of the key things that one derives from doing programming contests is that such contests provide a platform for you to showcase your creativity and learn new means of doing things. At that place'south too an opportunity to network with agreeing individuals.

For those of you who might be running out of project ideas to work on, this is an alternative manner y'all can spark your creativity. The by-product is that if you do succeed, you can earn coin. Or possibly yous can earn yourself a total-fourth dimension position in a company that can pay you lot well, maybe even skipping the interview process entirely.

For those who would like to become started, there are dedicated platforms that organize programming contests for real prize money. One of the biggest is Topcoder, with more than a million members and a lot of competitions. They have three main focus areas: design, data science, and development.

Y'all would work on real projects initiated by more than 2,000 companies or in single matches against opponents. Fun is guaranteed, then is a fast learning curve. If you similar challenges, this might exist something for you.

Below is a list in no detail gild of websites you tin start looking into to practice and participate in coding contests with monetary rewards. This mode of making money online is not for anybody, and there is no guarantee you'll win.

I would besides recommend looking into hackathons that require you to build an application based on ideas. These tend to be less stressful compared to the algorithm-based, problem-solving coding contests. Project-based hackathons are always fun when done with friends as the experience is more engaging.

Here are some of the superlative sites that host contests as well as provide platforms to exercise and prep your mind for future contests.

Topcoder
HackerEarth
Coderbyte
Projection Euler
CodeChef
Codeforces
Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ)
Google Lawmaking Jam
CodingBat
Codility
HackerRank
InterviewBit

Competitive programming for income is non exactly the best long game y'all can play as it'due south very hard to maintain consistency. There is no guarantee of futurity revenue, but it does serve every bit a platform for other online opportunities and to showcase your portfolio and your feel, which could atomic number 82 y'all to other coin-making opportunities.

4. Get an Online Instructor

Becoming an online instructor is killing two, if not three, birds with one stone, and here is why. As an online instructor at one end of the spectrum, you become to practise what yous love (i.due east., code) while reinforcing your knowledge past teaching others. It has the side benefit of earning some semi-passive acquirement while y'all're at information technology, depending on the arroyo you take.

By "the approach yous take," I mean:

Create a grade, upload information technology to a marketplace, sit dorsum and let the market do all the marketing (the hands-complimentary mode).
Create a grade, host information technology yourself on a content management platform, and market information technology yourself.
Bear teaching sessions that foster face-to-confront interactions with students. These could be one-on-one or in a grouping setting. They could be offered via market platforms or over conventional video conferencing or as webinar-fashion sessions. This arroyo tin can be carried out through the marketplace or past cocky-promotion.

The reason why I phone call this semi-passive is that, depending on the route you lot take, the instructor business tin be something that might accept up a lot of your time initially. The procedure of creating courses, editing your content, and preparing lecture textile and homework exercises can exist quite a bit of a time investment. It could take you anywhere from i to iii months' worth of work (at least from my personal experience getting started from scratch) considering technical subjects are hard.

Do not believe the BS you come across online almost "How I made my course in 5 days and made 10k USD." The large bulk of those courses are not technical programming courses. Secondly, those people have invested years. They've accrued a large post-obit and already accept a big target audience when they hit the Publish button. It's a known secret, but withal very unknown.

While course creation is peachy, something to keep in listen is that you have to pay your taxes or the taxman will come knocking on your door.

Most platforms such every bit Udemy are profit-sharing marketplaces and take 50% committee. The U.S. government imposes a 0 to xxx% revenue enhancement deduction for purchases made by U.S. citizens — that'south if you do happen to be an instructor who's a not-U.Southward. citizen. If your land has a tax treaty, and so your tax applied will exist less than the maximum 30% on your profits.

Above is the harsh reality view of how things are, but this should not be a deterrent to your success. I am a big abet of instructor-based teaching equally a passive revenue stream. I am personally a Udemy instructor and have gone through the birth pains and seen success.

Below are platforms you tin can first to look into to sell or teach online to generate some semi-passive revenue. Accept note that almost of these are open to everyone regardless of which country you come from. In that location'south e'er PayPal and Payoneer to aid facilitate your transferring your profits.

Udemy for creating and publishing your own online coding courses. The profit-sharing is loftier at 50% just Udemy brings to the table millions of students and an audience y'all can directly tap into when you hit the Publish push.
YouTube for publishing your own video coding tutorials. Revenue is generated through an ads programme.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for creating and selling your ain books
BitDegree is a Udemy alternative for creating and publishing your own online coding courses.
Udacity is another culling to Udemy.
Skillshare is also an alternative to Udemy.

There are other platforms similar Frontend Masters, Lynda, or Pluralsight that are on the high stop of the spectrum. They are past invite only, merely worth the time investment to get into every bit they have a large audience and some of the best instructors you can get to learn from.

I don't mean to make things sound easy; they aren't. Making consistent loftier-quality content is what will ready you apart from the rest of the pack. Competition is high, and part of the game is marketing. The best instructors constantly update their courses to stay relevant and at the height of their game. The beauty of creating courses is that once yous build traction, it'south an endless stream of passive income.

5. YouTube Channel

YouTube still has massive potential for you every bit a programmer to make some pretty decent passive income through the YouTube Partner Plan. In 2019 lone, YouTube made xv.1 billion in profits. That's enough cash to get around for everyone.

The barrier to entry is a bit high if you're trying to bring together the partner program, though. It requires that your aqueduct accept an aggregate full of 4,000 watched hours of video over 12 months and at least 1,000 subscribers, which is no small feat when you're getting started and you lot're a nobody.

At that place are culling ways of generating value from your channel, even if they're small, similar blogging or article creation. Yous need to leverage this platform as a atomic number 82 and audition generator.

Observe something you're actually good at. Brand sure it's also something related to programming that you lot genuinely enjoy educational activity others. Notice out what beginners are struggling with in that surface area. So record short videos of yourself solving those issues. This doesn't have to be anything likewise fancy. You can screencast and see how your viewers answer.

Figure out a logical learning path that you lot'll guide your viewers along. In one case yous have gained some traction, content created on your channel can link to articles or ebooks or whatever digital material yous would like to sell to your target audition. To brand some money, you need to build that social proof, and that ordinarily requires yous to give something for free in return, such as the valuable content y'all'll exist creating for your YouTube channel.

vi. Build an App Y'all Can Sell

Hither is the strategy that requires the most work of the bunch: Brand your own piece of software in order to sell information technology. It's no easy feat, but can exist incredibly rewarding. One of the things we programmers suck at is understanding how to market our arts and crafts. Y'all need to come up with a concern plan and strategy of how to monetize your application. You can devise models that are subscription-based, pay per license, or outright "build one time and sell in one case" (including source lawmaking and documentation). This means relinquishing your ownership rights.

Build a software product that the market needs or that helps other people solve their problems. The first steps are to find a problem and solve information technology with software. This can exist as simple as walking down to your local store and having a conversation with the owners to see what pressing issues they're struggling with, and then providing a solution.

7. Blockchain Grant Coin

With cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses working towards adoption, there's never been a better time to beginning developing on top of blockchain technologies. In 2018, we saw cryptocurrencies crash in a massive sell-off that acquired the market to drib past lxxx% from its peak in January 2018, mainly due to speculation and greed. The by-production of the crash was that weak startups were weeded out. Those that remain provide real, tangible value. Now that the market is smarter, people accept learned and are now focusing on the existent value that blockchain technology provides.

Though this engineering science is still in its infancy, there is a existent opportunity to build on top of the blockchains that survived the market place crash and to build distributed trustless applications that will drastically change the way conventional applications and finance works.

Almost blockchain technologies run on incentive structures. Incentives are what encourage communities of participants to cooperate and create the value that volition ensure the success of their platform. Go on this in mind. That's where the grant money idea comes in.

Grant coin from blockchain startups is an out-of-the-box way of generating money. Grants are typically awarded on the basis of need and generally do not accept to be repaid as long every bit you lot meet all of the obligations and milestones set out.

Since these blockchains run on incentives, they need developers to build applications on superlative of them. If the application gains adoption through the incentive structure, then more money can exist generated. Thus, if the blockchain visitor awards, for case, $100,000, that's money that tin easily exist recouped. So from the blockchain companies' perspective, it's a worthwhile investment to get you, the developer, to generate ideas of applications you want to build on superlative of the blockchain. Recall of information technology as a market place: The more online sellers, the more money the owner of the market place makes. It'south a volume game.

In lodge to understand why blockchain startups laurels grants, you need to sympathise the nature of the blockchain itself. Each blockchain has its ain incentive structure. Below is a listing of blockchain startups that offer grants to build on their platforms. So think of it equally complimentary money with strings to deliver.

ConsenSys

ConsenSys is a gateway for funding open-source Ethereum projects. Projects built must benefit the whole ecosystem. Funding: dispersed in amounts of $10,000 and $25,000 via GitCoin

Aion network

The Aion network is a multi-tier blockchain network designed to support a future where many blockchains exist to solve unique manufacture problems. Funding: $five,000+

Waves

Waves Grants is a program aimed at startups and individual developers interested in building new products based on Waves technologies. The funding corporeality depends on the proposal. Funding: anywhere from 800 to 3,000 Waves tokens.

Zilliqa

Zilliqa is the first blockchain platform that uses the technology of sharding to enable increasing throughput as the network expands. Funding: around $20,000 upwards to $fifty,000

eight. Don't Write for Greenbacks

Await…I wrote, "Don't write for cash." What does that even hateful?

For every coder out there who knows their craft, there are more than 100 more than who are merely getting started, hungry for noesis, or chasing the Silicon Valley dream. Where practise most of them start learning? Online, of course.

Making money writing without an audition is hard. Having a preset mindset to write for money as makes it hard to sustain consequent writing momentum. Hence, information technology'due south important to not write for cash simply to share knowledge. The past-product is money. It's important to practice the seed planting kickoff.

Below are some things yous can do if yous don't accept your own audience and yous would similar to go started, but don't desire to finish up creating content that will end up in a void without anyone reading it.

Join the Medium partnership plan and start creating content.
Sitepoint is another website that pays developers to write technical tutorials.
Contribute to UX Booth. Uxbooth does non accept fully written drafts. Instead, they pair authors with editors in guild to collaborate throughout the writing process.

Overall, the by-production of writing every solar day is you lot become to own your craft. It opens upward new opportunities as you constantly take to learn and showcase your expertise on the subject field affair. Ane of the first manufactures I ever put online was written fifteen years ago, before I graduated from academy. Fast forrad to today: I'm yet at it, and information technology's been quite a rewarding experience.

9. Sell an Ebook

Ebooks, and books in full general, deserve a place of their own equally this type of writing is more all-encompassing and more than time-consuming. Writing a volume can be a great way to marketplace yourself and even make money. Past writing a book, yous can build your make and generate leads for your business (consulting, speaking, etc.).

You can also make a few bucks selling ebooks with coding tips. You can publish and sell them through different forms of media, including social media, your website, or Amazon. It sounds piece of cake in practice, only it does take an incredible amount of patience and follow-through to get started. Personally, I'1000 even so in the middle of creating one. What matters is that you lot take the showtime steps.

x. Make a Plugin or Theme for WordPress

One of the all-time ways to generate money online past playing the long game is to build plugins and themes for WordPress. WordPress is now the dominant content management system on the market. WordPress has lx.8% market share in the content direction system market and powers 14.seven% of the earth'south top websites. The WordPress Plugin Directory features 55,000+ plugins.

The market may seem oversaturated, but think for a moment about the number of plugins or apps that oasis't been built yet on WordPress. Or the number of restaurants and businesses opening up around your neighborhood that even so practise not have an online presence. To get started making coin with your plugins, you can starting time posting to various online marketplaces, such as:

Themeforest
CodeCanyon
TemplateMonster Marketplace
Mojo Marketplace
ThemeSnap
Creative Marketplace
Codester
WordPress.org

You lot can choose to make your plugins and themes premium. Or you lot can charge perusers, utilise advert-driven monetization, or accept donations through Patreon. Y'all can also requite your plugins and themes away gratis, to build social proof. Like all things, if no one knows who you are, sometimes it'south practiced to showcase a few freebies.

This Doesn't Fit Into the Listing

There's one side gig that doesn't seem to fit into the list as it falls into the category of idealism. That'southward open-source sponsorship. GitHub recently appear its Sponsors platform, a fashion for companies or individuals to sponsor (i.e, tip) developers working on the projects they honey. Information technology's the same manner Patreon is used by some open up-source developers.

Equally software developers, we're all aware that edifice anything and ensuring it stays relevant and maintained is quite challenging, more than so if it's done for free. Getting incentives to keep pushing forward is one way to strike a residuum. This is something you may be inclined to look into.

Final Thoughts

At that place are numerous ways to make money online equally a programmer. You can create a full-time income with these methods, all from the comfort of your dwelling house. However, just as in any other job, you need to put in the fourth dimension and effort and to develop a keen sense of business. The notion of truly passive income does be. Still, the amount of work that one needs to do before reaching that level is equal to or and so much more than than the corporeality in your 9-to-half-dozen day job.

There is no such thing as fast coin. If deliberate steps are taken and you take action, making money through programming can be immensely lucrative. It's a route paved with adversity, rejections, and failures. Only one doesn't demand to win all the time; one needs to strive to find one thing that works. Don't get distracted. Focus on a few, then 1, and adjourn your desire to chase the adjacent shiny thing.

Always make sure to bank check with your employer's contractual policy to ensure you are non violating any contract when performing things like freelancing for other clients, peculiarly if you're working with clients in the same domain equally your employer. Doing then could be a alienation of trust and possibly end upwards with yous beingness terminated prematurely.

Some of the best programmers that I have come up across got skillful at what they did due to the amount of freelancing hours logged. Though some employers may feel intimidated by the prospect of you generating revenue elsewhere because information technology may seem more than of a distraction to them, it's always skilful to accept a conversation with your employer about information technology. Some employers, if they see tangible benefits they can derive from your extra extracurricular activities, may arrange company policies for you.

If y'all plant this piece helpful, pass information technology forward to the next developer.

Please feel free to drop me a line in the comments below! I'd dearest to hear how your journeying is going and things that accept worked for you.

Source: https://betterprogramming.pub/side-gigs-that-will-make-you-money-as-a-programmer-in-2020-9124760f3c8

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