Ask HN: Shall I become a Freelance?

[csomar]

I have been an amateur developer for a long time. I was hooked to computers since the age of 10. I started with windows 3.1 and Qbasic. Few months, I moved to Visual Basic where I developed few applications just for fun. During this time I was always a novice, amateur developer.

Two years ago, I started seriously with Dot Net for windows developement and PHP for Web developement. I worked and learned for the both sides (Web and Windows, Microsoft and Linux). I now prepare (and I can take) the MS certificates. I made a huge progress in programming and it turned from a hobby to a serious (job??).

Yet, this is the problem. I live in Tunisia, where my programming skills have no value for our industry. I can't go abroad, as I'm not really that competent and also it's recession. (+ I'm 18 years old only).

I have tried building sites and blogs, I made about $800 with Google adsense (but that was a long year, which means $2 a day!!). + I like more coding that being a webmaster.

I'm now a good developer on MS Visual C# Dot Net, I have also a good knowledge on PHP/Mysql and AJAX. I can build sites and optimize Wordpress Blogs.

But I have very little experience about the Freelance World. I want you guys to share your experience with me. You may have experience in this field, so simply said "If you were in that time in my place, what should you do?"

1- Become a Freelance? What shall I really do, what articles you think are best for reading?

2- Take a virtual Job? they exist? Is it easy to take it? what processes shall I go through.

3- Other Options?

I want just your advice and some ideas and hints to start. No matter if you write long about your experience, I'm interested to know it. I have learned that the most I know, the least I will fell in mistakes and then I save time and money.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[keefe]

Dude, go to college! You should definitely take some online freelance work and submit to topcoder and all that. However, if you have a passion for this area and intend to spend a career in it, just bite the bullet and get a highly theoretical, mathematical education to understand the fundamental truths about information processing and computer architecture that underly every programming project. I don't have much advice about where to go, other than the best place you can afford!

[ScottWhigham]

Sure - why not. The nice thing about being freelance is that you can work full-time at one thing and freelance in your spare time. You don't have to go completely freelance if it makes you nervous.

Have you tried elance or odesk? I don't know if they are right for you but they might be good options.

Good luck!

[csomar → ScottWhigham]

They where suggested by many friends. I began with Elance, but it aksed for credit Card and other stuff, that I don't have, I didn't know how I can go...

[simplegeek]

I did some freelancing couple of years back. If you need a steady income then learn PHP and graphics design. I mean you should be really good at either PHP or graphics design (better yet, be good at both). Be patient, start small and just hang in there. You will win projects. If you're lucky, you will be probably find some good clients that will stick with you for a long time but this is a rarity. I'm honestly not too sure if you can make a career out of it. However, your goal should be to earn enough money so that you can get a good CS degree in near future. You can start with odesk.com, rentacoder.com as these are free , however, competition is fierce. Good luck, mate.

[nightowl]

If you do decide to go the freelance route, do what I did:

Get yourself a backup/recurring income project. I had a client who started a new "bad debt tracing" company. The final quote came to around $20k for the development of a pretty large management system (it would track all open cases, mail clients when the trace was successful, and figure out which employee is slacking off - among other things).

She said she cannot pay that money right now, so I made her a deal: I'll write the entire system and take 15% of each case handled via my management system. At the moment, that 15% generates enough money to cover my rent and utilities, so if I have a slow freelancing month, I won't get into trouble.

If you go this route I must warn you - people will try to take shortcuts. Don't trust anyone. My rule is - all code is protected by an encrypted key which contains an expiry date. I always send them a new key at the beginning of the month which gives them another month of use. They don't pay me = their system goes down. (And yes they tested me on this one, and yes they were down for 3 whole days. Now they pay on the 1st like clockwork).

Also, don't fall for the "15% partnership/shares in the company" crap, otherwise they start asking all sorts of favours (the printer isn't printing, you're the only one we know, please come fix). Structure the deal in such a way that they pay you a "rental" fee for your code, make sure you state that the code remains your property until they buy it out for the full price.

Overall this has worked very well for me. If they now call me and ask for a feature, I'm more than happy to code it - it is in my vested interest to make sure the employees get access to information as quickly as possible. The quicker they work, the more money I get. So no backwards and forwards with project spec v2.1233, I just code it and get it over and done with.

Of course this also comes with pitfalls - you could do this for a client and then their business never takes off. Try to find out as much as you can about the company (read their mission statement, ask them questions about their marketing plans, contingency plans, etc, etc). Two words: Due diligence!!

Hope this helps.

[christofd]

Hmmm... PHP and web design is not going to be enough to compete in the open freelance market. Most people have college degrees and use LOCAL contacts from school, work or friends to get jobs.

I mean what do you expect - you're 18 years old! To get this right - if you DO have the technical skill to do this (and I know people that were working as TA's in math at University at the tender age of 20) then age doesn't matter.

As mentioned previously on here - you should probably go to school first and at first try to get local jobs in your town... if you can. Good luck to you!

[nickfox]

Try www.elance.com If you are good, you should be able to make some decent money as a freelancer.

[vaksel]

freelancing right now is way too saturated, without feedback/reputation you'll be bidding on projects and noone will pick you since you are untested.

I'd focus on making some niche website for Tunisia since that market should be pretty open

[csomar → vaksel]

Tunisia don't connect to Internet alot, also they are not really interested on HighTech in the exception of few around the web.

[vaksel → csomar]

you need to look to the future, sure right now its probably pretty weak, but if you get your market share now, 5 years from now when everyone is on the web, you'll be the eBay, Craigslist, Digg, Facebook for your region.

[csomar → vaksel]

you mean I target "tech-savvy" people. So currently there are 10% person with ADSL, which means more than 100,000 connect in Tunisia.

Facebook won't work, as most TN goes to the real facebook. I think a Digg like news will be fantastic idea, as Digg share things related mostly to the American Culture, Digg TN can be TN related.

But as you said, 5 years are not few, I have Computer, Internet and many other bills.