
Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months? - noddly
I&#x27;m a dev with almost no experience in a 3rd world country. Considering the COVID situation, In the worst case scenario I&#x27;ll be without a job for a while. I have finances to manage for (probably) a year and a month or two.<p>I want to ask what are the ways with good probability of making ~ $1-1.5&#x2F;mo (enough to live and still have considerable remaining in my situation)<p>I&#x27;m asking for ideas because the popular ideas are out of question:<p>- Domsetic Freelancing&#x2F;Consulting does not have much scope, SMB don&#x27;t seem to be doing well so site-dev work for them also isn&#x27;t viable<p>- Making software for companies and govt. here isn&#x27;t much of an option either, there&#x27;s corruption and they don&#x27;t particularly care about having a $99&#x2F;mo solution when there are people willing to work for that rate<p>- More of a opinion, but overseas freelancing opportunities aren&#x27;t gonna hire a newbie and fiverr is a race to bottom.<p>I&#x27;d appreciate any advice on how to proceed, any problem you think is a opporutnity to have a solution for or just your experience from another economic depression.<p>Meta: 
Started coding 3.5 years ago and probably have enough under my belt to try multiple projects over this duration. Made a new account as I don&#x27;t want to link this to my real identity. I&#x27;m not looking for job offers out of sympathy. This is just considering the worst case scenario, and I want to have something to fall back to if it turns out to be the case.
======
3pt14159
What I've seen that has worked in the past is this:

Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and
commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make
sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs.

Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once
the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach out for
introductions to people hiring for remote jobs that you just wouldn't have had
access to before.

I've seen people make $500k a year doing this. Just make sure that you choose
wisely on the language and project. If you want to do frontend then it's
probably going to be a project in TypeScript or JavaScript, but if you want to
do backend then there are a lot of projects in tougher languages like Rust.
Python isn't a bad choice either, even though it is easy to learn. Google has
a Python style guide that is pretty good so look it up.

If I knew you were good at Python and you were asking for $1.5k a month I
would hire you and laugh all the way to the bank. Set your aim hirer than what
you need to survive.

~~~
latenightcoding
This is bad advice for someone who has only been coding for 3 years (according
to OP).

People who can make $500k/year through connections they make contributing to
open source projects could most likely just apply to a FAANG company directly.

It is way more common to see brilliant developers make $0 from open source
projects.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _People who can make $500k /year through connections they make contributing
> to opensource projects could most likely just apply to a FAANG company
> directly_

This vastly overestimates the efficiency of FAANG hiring channels.

~~~
myth_drannon
Yes, like the Brew guy interview at Google.

~~~
cpascal
For context:
[https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768](https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768)

~~~
lukeramsden
The tweet from Brian Acton[0] that someone replied with is truly legendary. I
want to frame that and put it in the lobby if I ever found a successful
business.

[0]
[https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/3109544383](https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/3109544383)

------
admax88q
This thread is great, every suggestion has a reply that says "This is terrible
advice."

Might I suggest people stop giving advice if they haven't actually done it
themselves? Just spewing what you think should work, or what you think you've
seen people do could be super harmful to this person's career. Let's hear some
first hand stories of what worked, not second/third/imaginary hard stories of
what people think should work having never been in this situation.

~~~
exolymph
> This thread is great, every suggestion has a reply that says "This is
> terrible advice."

That's good! Someone smart and driven will inhale every reply and pull out
common tidbits for experimentation.

~~~
ShamelessC
Where is the line between driven and desperate?

~~~
jagannathtech
How closer one is to the end of the runway.

------
nurettin
@noddly I have some actionable advice. You are in an excellent spot.

week 1, 2 maybe 3: search for popular android applications that have low
ratings that you can implement, sort them whichever way you prefer, do some
wireframes and plan your first project. Do not spend less than 3 weeks. Do not
spend more.

Week 4: This is the most important week. Figure out the tech you will be
using. Make lots of demos projects, fail a bunch of times, set up libraries,
APIs, accounts, integrations, link them to your project, whatever you need to
get this to work. You have to know what you are doing _before_ starting the
project.

month 2, 3: implement a very simple frontend and a backend for that project.
Cut corners on features, but make sure it doesn't crash. Test, test, test.
Plan ahead. When a feature is done, do not look back. Do not spend less than 2
months. Do not spend more. Monetize, that's why we are here. Free to download,
but put 1-2 features inside the app that can be purchased via google play.
Make them $10 each.

month 3 week 1, 2: Automate deployment on server side, deploy on google play,
send to friends, go on reddit, HN, itch.io, spread the word. Your goal is to
get at least 20 customers a month. So one person a day. Assuming you did
something that has a conversion rate of 1/100 (worst case), you need 2,000
people to see it every day. Google play will do most of the work for you.

Start the next project. Hopefully the first project will start getting
traction.

Repeat this 3-4 times. Let your previous project's ratings and money motivate
you. Things will accumulate over time.

Things don't work? No problem. Now you have four apps on the market to show to
your next employer and a bunch of new experience.

~~~
theblackcat1002
This is actually what I did, but with web application and services. I tried
app development in the one of my first few projects but finally gave up for
web apps because it allows faster trial and error ( mainly I can push changes
in UI and UX faster to a wider audience ). My take away is that stay away from
"hot" topics ( news, game app ) unless you have a solid background because you
need a really polish product to compete.

~~~
anaxag0ras
What metrics do you use for web applications and services? I mean with mobile
app, you have downloads and ratings. But for web apps, you have no such thing.

~~~
masked_titan
I'm not a web developer but I am aware of Alexa ranking. That can be used to
see how popular some website is worldwide or in a particular country.

------
tbran
Some business-y ideas:

1) Build an affiliate site. Some of the older posts on /r/juststart [0] are
helpful.

2) Organize information and sell it. See the stuff made by Pieter Levels [1]
or BuiltWith [2]. I just put together LotsofOpps [3] (which is just bunch of
information on online/offline ways to make money). There is lots of info out
there that will be interesting to someone if you can find the right angle.

3) Unbundle Craigslist [4]. Craigslist is terrible for some things. I'm
working on BuiltRigs [5].

4) Unbundle Zapier [6]. A great example is BannerBear [7].

None of these things are particularly easy. Marketing is the hard part, but
it's most important to actually build something and release it quickly.

[0] [https://old.reddit.com/r/juststart/](https://old.reddit.com/r/juststart/)

[1] [https://twitter.com/levelsio](https://twitter.com/levelsio)

[2] [https://builtwith.com/](https://builtwith.com/)

[3] [https://www.lotsofopps.com/](https://www.lotsofopps.com/)

[4] [https://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/345941486/the-spawn-
of-c...](https://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/345941486/the-spawn-of-
craigslist-like-most-vcs-that-focus)

[5] [https://www.builtrigs.com/](https://www.builtrigs.com/)

[6] [https://kamerontanseli.ghost.io/first-it-was-craiglist-
next-...](https://kamerontanseli.ghost.io/first-it-was-craiglist-next-its-
zapier/)

[7] [https://bannerbear.com/](https://bannerbear.com/)

~~~
brianbreslin
Bannerbear is actually an example that even if you have an audience, and
yongfook has been at this indiemaker space for ages, it is still tough to
break $1kMRR [1] . He is barely over $1,030/month after almost a year at this
project.

[1][https://bannerbear.com/open](https://bannerbear.com/open)

~~~
tbran
That's great then! BannerBear actually fits into OP's desire to be making
$1-1.5k in 13 months!

Kidding aside - yes, I get it. SAAS products take a while and are hard.
According to BareMetrics, after a year most companies are making $3333 in MRR
[0].

But if you're living in a 3rd world country that's usually plenty of cash if
you've got decent margins. The spirit of including BannerBear was more like
"think about the things people do in Zapier and put together that product".
Also, I just like the BannerBear story.

[0] [https://baremetrics.com/blog/how-fast-saas-companies-hit-
arr...](https://baremetrics.com/blog/how-fast-saas-companies-hit-arr-
milestones)

------
Gustomaximus
My view is coming from someone who hires people last few years.

1) People hate on Freelancer sites, but get on them and and build a profile.
If you are good it will show in time. Expect to work for peanuts at the
beginning - consider it advertising.

2) Don't lie about what you can do. Always do a good job. I've tried a bunch
of people from poorer countries and those seem to be the 2 main issues. Dont
have a mentality of cutting corners.

3) Build stuff hired or not. I watch guys blossom from jr to mid/snr after
work and work. You learn by doing. If your not working, work anyway. Pick a
business, and build something that would be good for them. Contact them and
see if you can sell it cheap. But keep building and getting better. This is a
long term game. You might pick up a 1 decent client a year, but 5 years from
now you will be flooded type deal.

Good luck - I think many of have the fear of what might be if this economy
truly tanks.

~~~
wokwokwok
> Expect to work for peanuts at the beginning - consider it advertising.

This is terrible advice.

Don't work for free, all you're doing is allowing other people to take
advantage of you... which, they will.

There's plenty of other great advice in this topic; this: "work hard and do a
good job, for free and it'll be great experience / advertising / whatever the
f" is total BS.

~~~
jasondigitized
I disagree. I know someone who approached a company and said "I will work as a
free intern for 3 months. If you want me to simply get coffee I will. It will
be the best coffee you have ever had." 3 months later he had a full time offer
and is now doing very well. Working for free indefinitely is bad advice, but
offering a "freemium" model is rather savvy.

~~~
mobilefriendly
A company that responded to this kind of solicitation would be unethical, at
best, and is probably breaking employment law in the West.

------
jdhawk
Possibly an unpopular opinion on Freelancing work, but generally avoid
anything that is highly saturated. Become a very deep expert in something
older or niche.

These can lead to opportunities to maintain older software, or work on very
specific projects. I did well updating and maintaining ancient Microsoft
Access databases for small and medium size businesses who relied on them for
day to day operations.

I'm currently utilizing several contractors who specialize in single products,
and know them like the back of their hand (Lucine/ElasticSearch for actual
full text search, not just elk stack)

There are TONS of "Full Stack" developers out there, so trying to work in that
environment until you have a solid client base is, like you said, a race to
the bottom.

On the local SMB side, I never told clients I was a Software Developer. I was
a problem solver who could use technology when appropriate. Ask some local
companies or SMB employees what the most painful part of their day happens to
be. Maybe its something you can solve with some out of the box open source, a
repurposed desktop as an SMB Server, or a little software development project.
These things turn into recurring revenue as you save the companies money and
time.

~~~
fxtentacle
Back in my freelancing days, everyone was doing php3 web development. I did,
too, and it worked out extremely well for me.

A very popular market might be saturated, which is a downside. But it might
also mean that customers already know that they want/need exactly this, which
makes finding projects extremely easy.

If you want to have the best possible salary, go for an obscure niche where
you can be the best in the world.

If you just want an OK salary with not too much work, go for the most popular
project categories.

~~~
jdhawk
Back in the php3 days, there were not tens of thousands of global PHP3 devs
competing on Fiver & Upwork.

------
rubber_duck
> I'm a dev with almost no experience

> Started coding 3.5 years ago and probably have enough under my belt to try
> multiple projects over this duration

This isn't enough information to go on, 3.5 years of programming could mean
you've built your own game engine and a CMS from scratch in an attempt to do
some project of yours, or it could mean you've been watching random
programming courses sporadicly in hopes of landing a higher paying job
eventually. (What third world country has median income of 1500$/month anyway
?)

Going off on what this sounds (because you didn't provide the info above) it
seems like you aren't even close to an independent developer/freelancer but
you're starting the discussion by determining your expected income.

IMO start with anything where you see you have potential to progress at any
price point - if you actually have technical skills it shouldn't take you long
to reach the level that matches them and if you don't it will give you time to
learn.

~~~
notRobot
> What third world country has median income of 1500$/month anyway?

Many of them: [https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/median-income-
by...](https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/median-income-by-country/)

~~~
billme
Might be wrong, but believe the point was not that $1500 is unbelievable, but
per the data you linked to - that the “median household income worldwide is
$9733“; that and the OP posted $1500 is above and beyond there needs; worth
highlighting that is household income, not individual income.

There’s a massive difference $811 a month and $1500 month; $811 is $9733
divided by 12, though really should be the divid by at least 2, since by
definition household has at least 2 members.

~~~
rubber_duck
> since by definition household has at least 2 members.

You can have single person household, and single income - but yeah - my point
is 1000$-1500$ for someone who claims to live in a "third world country" and
have no experience sounds like you have expectations on what you should make
because you've seen others charge that - in reality with no experience and
formal training you should consider yourself lucky to get any opportunity to
learn/validate your skills because more often than not (from my experience at
least) during the first 6 months to a year it will probably take more
resources off productive people to get you to be productive than you will be
able contribute

------
rmsaksida
Don't bother with domestic freelancing. Chances are you will be worked to
death and struggle to even get paid. Software engineers are rarely taken
seriously in developing economies. Focus on overseas freelancing.

Start small and gradually increase your rate. You probably won't get big
projects or a nice pay rate in the beginning. It's fine, in the long term
things will work out. You will build a reputation over time.

Impress people with the quality of your work. Even if you are working on a
small issue for a low amount, go the extra mile. Write stellar code and work
long hours to deliver it quickly. Your effort will pay off, as clients will
recommend you to others.

Communicate. I can't stress this enough. A big problem in outsourcing is that
it's hard to find engineers who are good communicators. Never disappear,
update your clients often, don't be afraid to show up in calls, write detailed
answers. This makes a huge difference.

In your free time, study. Practice. Become a better engineer. Don't limit
yourself to technologies you are comfortable with. Learn something new every
day.

When applying for a freelance gig, take everything I've said above into
account. Write a detailed proposal that makes it clear you understand the
problem at hand and are more than qualified to solve it. If possible, attach a
code sample that demonstrates how you'd tackle the problem. Don't forget to
mention you are available for a chat whenever and respond quickly if you get
an answer.

~~~
andi999
Do companies employ overseas freelancer? If the company doesnt have a
dependency in that country isnt this from a legal and tax point of view a
nightmare?

~~~
icebraining
One can help with that by creating a single-person company and just issuing
regular invoices for services. An accountant to manage the local taxes is
usually not very expensive.

~~~
andi999
I know that in some 3rd world countries this requires either huge bribes for
setting up the company, and/or good connection since it touches on foreign
trade (or both)

------
eaxix
Don't ask for $1.5k/mo. No one will think of you as valuable if that's what
you ask for. People who do pay you that much will treat you like shit and are
not the kind of people you want to work with.

The problem is you're referring to yourself as a newbie. I don't know where
you're from, but generally in America that would be seen as lack of
confidence. Don't be humble. You can learn on the job. Working from home you
can easily work 12 hour days if things take you longer than an experinced
developer.

Look for companies you'd like to work with. If you're fine with startups which
can be generally more approchable I'd look on AngelList. Email the founder or
CTO. Talk to them about their problems. Try to be genuinely helpful and
understanding. If they have job openings talk about how you can help them. Put
everything you did on your CV. Upload your projects on GitHub.

You can absolutely do this, but first you need to change your mindset.

~~~
stu2b50
I mean that would be true in the US, but OP explicitly said he's not in the
US. It really depends on where he is; 1.5k/month could be considered a very
good wage where he is.

~~~
eaxix
That's the wrong way to go about it. You want to be pricing based on supply
and demand, not based on your costs.

OP stated he wanted to work remotely, hence he's competing in the global
(remote work) market. Many US and other companies hire in this market and
often pay US-level (but generally not Silicon Valley-level) salaries. A lot of
digital nomad types have those jobs.

Judging by OP's good grasp of English and the fact that he reads Hacker News,
I'd say that alone makes him more qualified for those jobs than the bulk of
developers from his country. I'd wager many of them don't even compete in that
market to begin with.

~~~
matt_the_bass
I concur. Maybe OP prices themselves at $50/hour. That means only 20 hours of
work in a month is needed. Lots of people will pay $50/hour. Maybe op has
trouble finding full time work at this level starting out. But sure they could
find 1/2 weeks work over the course of the month.

------
whack
You say you don't want to use Fiverr because _" fiverr is a race to bottom"_.
But your goal is to make $1,500/month. If you work just 25 hours/week, that
translates to $15/hour. If $1.5k is truly your goal, then Fiverr is the
perfect platform for you.

Platforms like Fiverr and upwork get a lot of hate from the HN crowd,
precisely because their expectations are to make $50-100+ per hour. And that's
much much harder to do on Fiverr because you're competing against people like
you who are charging $15/hour. Their frustration is your opportunity.

Once you've grown your skills and have more financial stability, you can start
branching out into other career models. But as a newbie with low salary
expectations, don't be afraid to do unglamorous grunt work. It will give you
experience, build up your reputation, grow your skills, and most importantly,
pay rent.

~~~
neurostimulant
I started my career 10 years ago doing exactly this (also from a 3rd world
country). Within 3 months I reached 1.5k/mo while finishing my engineering
degree. It wasn't that hard (not sure about now) since all you had to do is
demonstrating that you're capable of completing the project in your bid. I did
this by describing what kind of stack that I'll use, potential problems that
will likely arise and how to address it, or even try to steer the project
owner to use stack I'm more capable of by describing its benefits compared to
their chosen stack (if they requires the project to be written with a specific
language/framework).

I imagine those freelancing sites is 10x more saturated now than 10 years ago,
but perhaps it's still possible to reach 1.5k/mo in a few months. Like other
people said, it's probably best to pick your niche to narrow down potential
projects and reducing competition. I was mostly bidding on python projects
back then (not as many python programmers back then and a gazillion of php
programmers).

After I got my degree, I emailed one of my past client that I'm now available
for full time work and he connect me to someone that was looking for full time
developer and the rest is history.

------
blizkreeg
Your best bet is going to be freelancing/software dev contracting. There are
many platforms other than Upwork and Fiverr. If you're on LinkedIn, post it to
your network that you're looking for some consulting work. Talk about what you
can build - focus on outcomes (how you can help clients deliver stuff). Join
Slack communities focused around your skills. Find _any_ community you can
join and keep an eye out for work.

Even in a "third world country" (fwiw I don't like that term), you can easily
get $25-40/h doing freelancing for US/Europe based clients. At $30/h, you only
need to freelance 50h a month to make $1.5K. It is very doable.

My personal 2c is ignore all the other advice you're getting in this thread
(some of it is outrageously impractical and divorced from reality) and focus
on finding freelance work.

NOTE: I'm talking from experience (though I'm in the US). Heck, I'll send some
work your way if you're good at your stack. Send me an email (in my bio).

~~~
alexitosrv
what freelance platforms do you recommend?

~~~
blizkreeg
Toptal and Gigster come to mind first. But I keep seeing ads on FB for more
and more of these "remote developer" platforms.

------
drorco
As someone who has been hiring a lot of freelance engineers for web dev
projects, here are my tips assuming you'd like to check that path and assuming
you are still not very experienced:

1\. Only take projects you're confident you could ace. Customers would often
not tolerate work that isn't accurate, not built according to best practices
and is not delivered on time.

2\. NEVER fail your client. Assuming the clients is honest and not someone
looking to abuse you, if you've committed to a project you must complete it on
time and deliver something great. If you can't make it one time, let the
client know ASAP. If you can't get the right quality, let the client know
ASAP. The client may ask to cancel the deal and get the money back but your
reputation will not suffer as much as if you'd waste any more of their time by
being late or delivering low quality deliverable.

3\. Never submit your work without THOROUGHLY TESTING IT. I see way too many
junior engineers saying "I'm done, check it out" only to find out whatever
they build easily breaks the moment we start playing with it. CHECK YOUR SHIT
before you deliver it or else your client will lose trust in you.

Even if your first few projects turn out to be not that great, if you'll learn
from your mistakes and push through, you should be able to maintain clients
who will be working with you for the long-term.

The amounts of money you're looking for are a non-issue for many companies.

------
ednc
If you are a good dev, with a good work ethic and some hustle this won't be
that hard.

Although the "almost no experience" and "Started coding 3.5 years ago" aren't
very congruent - you should really clarify that.

Here are two options for you:

1\. partner with someone and develop a SaaS product. There are thousands of
"business" people with no tech experience who have ideas and are looking for a
technical partner. But spend a lot of time doing due diligence and make sure
they really have done the market research, have customers lined up, and really
know the space well. From my personal experience, this usually doesn't happen
- they have an idea, get excited about it and want to find someone to work for
free and build it on speculation. So be really careful here. BUT if you find
the right person, this could be an amazing opportunity for you.

2\. As others have said, work on sites like Upwork, and start building a
portfolio. At $6.25 / hour (your $1k month goal) this is pretty low risk for
the customer. Start with small projects you know you can knock out quickly -
get the positive reviews and feedback, and raise your rates accordingly.

I'd be willing to help you with either #1 or #2 - get in touch if you are
interested.

~~~
Osein
If you are open to hiring a new devs I'd really appreciate it. I have more
than 4 years of work experience but no freelance. I can do PHP with frameworks
like Laravel, React or iOS native development and I do Flutter coding in my
free time currently.

------
fipar
Since you mention having finances to manage for some time, I can share that in
my personal experience, when I lost my job amid a regional financial crisis, I
focused my efforts on an open source project (something I built, I didn't join
an existing one, though at first I did have former coworkers hack on it with
me). I did it to stay busy (I found back then that it's important to stay busy
and maintain a routine when you're out of work) and improve my skills, but as
a side-effect, it got me a contractor offer from a remote company that found
my project useful (it was a set of ha scripts for mysql, this was 2002, before
there were proper ha tools for this database) and "hired" me using the project
as resume.

I'm not saying it's a sure path to getting income, but at the worst case,
you'll be left with something to show and some programming experience too.

~~~
noddly
Open source is one thing that has popped up multiple times in this thread and
regretfully something I have always ignored. Seeing that I have some time,
I'll start putting conscious effort into it.

------
grwthckrmstr
I'm probably biased, but you can build a Shopify app and have a very, very
high chance at earning $1k or $1.5k per month within 12 months.

Here's a list of ideas that I researched last year, if it helps.

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hnpcl1VAlPC9MuFvvsl2...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hnpcl1VAlPC9MuFvvsl2UsU0yu1iM6aKR-
iK30VtbwA/edit?usp=drivesdk)

If you do decide to go this path, I've written a guide from my experience that
might help you get things off the ground.

[https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/shopify-micro-saas-
growth](https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/shopify-micro-saas-growth)

Whichever path you choose, all the very best!

~~~
jagannathtech
Looks interesting. Thanks for sharing. I will take a look though I know
nothing about Shopify and only familiar with WordPress.

------
goatherders
Learn to write well. You can make 1k-1.5k/month starting next month if you can
author good blog posts for businesses. Writing content, like coding, is
something where the time investment cannot be "hacked." For a 1200 word blog
post someone has to sit at the computer and actually write the 1200 words.
That takes time. In many cases there is no content writer on staff and someone
has to do the work.

I'd say 90% of the posts you read by a company CEO, CTO, or COO are in fact
written by someone else and at least half the time in those cases they were
written by someone that doesn't even work there. My first professional writing
gig was for a German industrial paint company entering the US market. I earned
$50 for a 600 word post and wrote them 3 posts per day. Related: I nearly
failed chemistry in high school and know nothing about paint.

Until about a year ago I had been blogging for others for close to a decade. 4
or 5 years ago I surmised that I probably had someone in the neighborhood of 4
million words out there on the internet, mostly applying to subjects I have no
training in. I just like to write and people will pay for that. I've easily
made $400-$1000/month writing posts for businesses as I have a beer in the
evening and my wife makes dinner.

Businesses of all types will pay between $500 and $1000 for a well written,
well researched blog post between 800 and 2000 words. Can you create a
technical whitepaper or even an eBook/lead magnet with citations and some
science in it? That STARTS at $2000.

That means companies (like mine) that have those opps are more than happy to
farm them out to someone else for a few hundred bucks. You can easily command
a dime per word if you are reliable and write with quality. In fact, I don't
have $1k of budget for you/anyone right now but I'd be glad to pay a dime a
word starting Monday for someone to start pumping out all the posts for my
business that I've been meaning to write but - wait for it -simply cannot find
the time to prioritize the work.

THe content creation/professional blogging space is still full of opportunity
and based on the short post you have here it looks like your English is just
fine.

"So where do I find the work?" Craigslist - tons of opps, tons of competition
Fiverr Blogmutt and similar Content co-op sites Cold approach - send me an
email I'll send you the exact instructions for doing this.

Good luck.

~~~
reroute1
Interested to know who is paying you $1k for a blog post...

~~~
goatherders
I'm not telling you specifically who, obviously, but we have 3 clients that
order a post from us about once a month for at least $1,000. The posts
typically are:

\- 2000 to 2500 words \- FAST (48 hour) turnaround \- ready to be published
without more than a simple read through \- voice consistent with other posts
that we may not have written for them \- well cited or referenced

The clients are \- b2b environment selling into the enterprise \- companies
that generate b/w 10M and 100M in business \- tech companies that have a
disproportionally small digital marketing team thus the need to outsource.

Example, in early March we wrote a series of 3 blogs posts about security
challenges for transforming your organization to WFH. $2500 for a total of
~6000 words, ordered Monday morning and delivered Wednesday night.

~~~
agustif
As someone who has been thinking about doing some ghost writing for
b2b/enterprises/startups as a nice side-income but never got to actuallly do
it.

This is a great footprint for me to try and crack something to submit (monday)
ideally.

I already applied to a great SaaS which I see an open call to write blogposts
for in their newsletter. The CEO asked which topics I would like to write
about and I submited 2-3 rough ideas, and he thought they were OK and asked
for a draft.

I never followed through.

I don't have any blog although I think I could do it.

Would you mind emailing you for some more specific advice or editorial peer
review in the moonshot case I finally get to write some shit?

Thanks again for your great (free) advice

~~~
goatherders
Go ahead. And if you have a tech bent I can probably put you to work as well.

------
hrishios
It'd be hard to say without more information. Third world country is a wide
and shifting definition, and it's the most important aspect of your question.
Couple of general points:

1\. A large number of countries have agencies that will aggregate freelancers
and take on large jobs. I'm not suggesting large players in the size of TCS or
SAP, but smaller shops that hire out devs. It's a good place to start to get
contacts into companies you'd like to work at, then move to a direct position
there. Most countries make anti-poaching clauses practically unenforceable,
especially if the candidate is the one approaching the company.

2\. This is higher risk higher reward, but building micro-B2C/SaaS for a
different market then launching on sites like Product hunt have the
opportunity to bring in revenue. This is only if you're cut out for it.

Can't say much more without details, but I wish you luck in your search!

------
rukshn
I'm a doctor from a third word country and we make around ~$1.2k per month.

Imagine training to become a doctor and being a doctor with no family life and
making ~1.2k per month?

If I can make around 2-3k per month I would quit being a doctor and do that
job any day.

And someone from a third world country I can totally relate and understand
your situation. The politics and corruption has rotten the country to the
core.

If you would like to connect I'm open for taking. Hit me up if you are
interested on taking and maybe brainstorming something.

Good luck

~~~
giarc
This isn't related to OP questions but moreso to your situation. I work in a
hospital and I was talking to an occupational health safety advisor (probably
makes CAD $80k/yr). He told me he was an ED physician in his home country of
Colombia for 25 years. He can't practice here in Canada without going through
full training again. He would make $300k/yr or more if he was able to
practice. I asked him what was different about Colombia and Canada in EDs, he
said basically we have better access to imaging (CT, MRI etc). It's really
crazy to me that we make it so difficult for overseas physicians to practice
here.

~~~
triangleman
Nurses too. But it's a bit more of a nuanced problem. The nursing exam in the
U.S. is called the NCLEX. American nursing school grads pass this test at a
rate of 90%. International candidates pass at a rate of 36%. Are the
international nurses that bad? No, they are not acclimated to the cultural
milieu that is unwritten in every question (including English vocabulary of
course).

~~~
lgl
That's one of those typical US healthcare problems you think you're so great
for. For example in Europe, medical professionals are free to seek work in any
member country [0]. Although definitely not perfect due to "EU membership",
it's still pretty valuable (and logical, common sense, etc) when we're talking
about healthcare providers. Also note, that while a lot or most of European
nurses will of course speak English, only 2 of the member countries are
English natives, yet that's still doesn't seem to be that much of an issue.
The entire US healthcare system is just basically a capitalistic shitshow
which everybody in the planet knows except for most of you guys apparently.

[0] [http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-
us/partners/observatory/pub...](http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-
us/partners/observatory/publications/policy-briefs-and-summaries/how-can-
countries-address-the-efficiency-and-equity-implications-of-health-
professional-mobility-in-europe)

------
graeme
> More of a opinion, but overseas freelancing opportunities aren't gonna hire
> a newbie

Everyone on upwork is new at some point. You do a few jobs, do the, well, get
reviews for reliability, then you can seek better stuff.

$1000 a month at $10/hr = 100 hours, which is a bit less than 25 hours a week.

Your long run rate would trend much higher, I’m just considering the very
initial rate when you’re building a reputation and a client base. I’m sure you
can get at least $10 an hour with your skillset, even if only doing random
upwork jobs.

If you can get $20/hr, then the hours needed cut by half. Others have more
programming specific advice, but wanted to lay out some of the economics of
upwork. And I did hire newbies when I hired from there.

------
napolux
This is what I'll do, I've personally tried some of these (not the onlyfans
account :P) and despite people will tell that it won't work, it will, somehow.

* Create info websites and put banners/affiliation there. Target a specific niche where you have some knowledge, try to write at leats 15/20 articles for 2k words per article, optimize a bit for SEO and taget the eu/usa market, there are plenty of guides out there. After some months if you're lucky you can make 100/200€ per website, with not much effort. * Sell stuff online. Is your country famous for some specific thing? Are you able to create templates, plugins, etc? Sell them online using gumroad or something similar. Create a landing page and include gumroad, that's it. Avoid marketplaces, they're overcrowded * Try to write for some tech blogs, they pay peanuts, but it's ok if you can't find anything else. * Do you have the guts to open an onlyfans porn account? That can be an emergency solution. * Scrape websites and sell interesting data. Like I don't know, a list of all the shops of a specific category in the state of Illinois for 5$, always on your website using stripe, gumroad, etc...

Many small activities can at the end of the month ammass a decent amount of
money.

------
mtsmith85
I would apply to something like Toptal. When we were first built our team for
my startup, we used Toptal contractors for quite a while. They were solid, and
to my understanding, made good money. Toptal takes a significant cut of
course. The bar is you have to pass a qualification test, which given your 3.5
years of experience, should be enough to get up and running.

~~~
dep_b
> The bar is you have to pass a qualification test, which given your 3.5 years
> of experience, should be enough to get up and running.

It's a 5 step test, you might retake one or two steps depending how much they
like you and how you failed. I had a problem with my tooling doing a live
coding test, could take it again within a month. Others have been told to be
sure to apply again in a year. Some haven't been invited back. Speaking
English at a pretty good level (not accent free per sé but you should be able
to get a complex technical point across) is required.

Another problem is that most people don't use basic algorithms too much in
their daily jobs, for example because collections are too small to feel the
difference or because you kind of "feel" what is the optimal way to do things
but you can't just whip out an optimal pathfinding algorithm under pressure.
This requires some training.

------
isuckatcoding
I don’t know which country you’re in but your written English makes you sound
very fluent.

That aspect alone probably puts you ahead of other devs globally (and heck
even in the US).

Communication is the biggest thing IMO for overseas devs. Ukraine is a pretty
good example (lots of very talented devs who can speak English pretty
fluently).

I’ve worked in the past with devs from Ukraine and Russia.

------
kwiromeo
Since you have about a year worth of exploration, you could look at
[https://www.indiehackers.com/products](https://www.indiehackers.com/products)

You can filter out SaaS products, and explore other business models and what
kind of revenue to expect by browsing the products and interviews.

I hope this helps.

~~~
noddly
Wow, that list looks pretty amazing. I had no idea these super targetted
products can be this profitable.

------
jll29
Here's a trick (that I haven't tried personally): say you're looking for 3
(paid) internships, say you don't care about money, you only want them to
improve your resume. Ask if they want to be one of the three companies on your
resume. Say you will need $1,500/month just for food/rent, otherwise you work
for free. The good thing is you can get an income immediately, and internship
income isn't considered a "salary", so in case you do a great job and they
want to hire you, you can start a negotiation without the low $1500/month
working against you.

The reason this can work is that many companies (including all the ones I
worked at) are happy to pay for a small number of interns over the summer.

~~~
anaxag0ras
$1500/month is a lot in 3rd world countries. Senior engineers in my country
get paid somewhere between $800 - $1500 (maybe even less due to weakening of
currency).

------
rememberlenny
If you have design or product mindset, then the idea of spending a few weeks
to launch products make sense.

One good reference is the "stair step" approach. You can make something that a
few people will pay $50-$100/month for. Maybe like a theme or a designed
landing page. Then you can ramp up to make something that does
$100-$250/month. Once you have those two, then aim for something that brings
in $300-$600 month.

If the 1000-1500 range seems daunting, then aim for an intentionally low, but
consistent amount, then repeat.

Link: [https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approach-
to-...](https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approach-to-
bootstrapping/)

------
timurlenk
Do you think there are more people around you in your situation?

If there are, there might be strength in numbers. You could organise to
deliver a signifficantly larger project than any of you could get done
individually. You do not need to hire anyone - use the principles of a
cooperative and get like minded people that share the profits in an equitable
way.

Along the same lines there are companies that may be looking to expand to
capture the avilable workforce in your geographical area but lack the
apropriate contacts to get started. Your written communication skillks seem to
be above average which I consider quite important for such an engagement. If
this sounds interesting, do leave some contact details.

------
tannerbrockwell
Open a Developer account on Gitcoin and start contributing to open bounties.
[1]

The track record you establish by completing jobs is more than compensated by
the payments. I suggest Gitcoin rather than Github as you are directly
compensated. Contributing to Open Source projects is useful and you can
certainly point to your Github portfolio. I think that your near term goals
will be easier to achieve with Gitcoin.

[1]:
[https://gitcoin.co/explorer?network=mainnet&idx_status=open&...](https://gitcoin.co/explorer?network=mainnet&idx_status=open&applicants=ALL&order_by=-_val_usd_db)

~~~
Stevvo
This is great advice. I made $20k+ on gitcoin, averaging ~$100 an hour working
just a couple of hours a day.

Once you have done a couple of bounties for a company, you will have started
establishing a relationship with them, and they will come to you directly to
avoid Gitcoin's fees.

------
mifeng
If you know Python, your background is perfect for a role with my company
Hummingbot
([https://github.com/coinalpha/hummingbot](https://github.com/coinalpha/hummingbot)),
an open source project for crypto algorithmic trading.

We have devs from Nigeria, Malaysia and Phillippines on our core team, and we
work with extended devs all over the world.

Even if it's not a fit, I can try to help you find gigs. Because most crypto
companies are remote-first and maintain open source codebases, we tend to work
better with remote devs in developing countries.

------
golergka
> I'm a dev with almost no experience

Experience, as in experience that a person who hires you can read from your
CV, is the key for the developer's career. However, $1-1.5/month is a junior
developer salary (and I don't live in a first world country either), and one
year is more than enough to build a CV and/or github profile that shows that
you know what you're doing. I was just recently hiring junior developers (and
probably will again in the near future), and if I would see someone with
relevant tech stack (sorry, I think that for a junior, matching the tech
matters - although I believe that a senior can easily switch and learn),
experience with different aspects of that stack (not implementing the same
feature 10 times on very similar projects, but doing something different each
time), projects complete and even some code on github (alhtough I work in the
industry where this is much less common), he would jump to the top of my list.
There's plenty of advice on how to write CV: focus on what you've done (as
opposed to what you've been doing), drop keywords (but convey your level of
expertise truthfully), it's all common knowledge, but it works.

And regarding remote work - now it's the best time for remote it's ever been,
and there's plenty of companies from first-world countries that hire from
anywhere in the world, with montly salaries for seniors reaching up to $6-10k
a month. It may not be easy to reach that level, but it's certainly doable.

------
sbm15
1\. Try to pick a product in a large market. 2\. Look at a few existing
products and identify a couple of things that you can do better than the
incumbents. 3\. See if you can solve those 2-3 problems better than others.
4\. Speak to potential users and find 10 people who would be willing to use
and pay for your product. I can’t emphasize this enough. 5\. Give yourself a
timeline on how long do you want to persist with an idea. 6\. Rinse and
repeat. 7\. Stay at it and keep iterating. 8\. Good luck!

------
Hasz
Most of these projects are waaaaaaay to slow to reach profitability. You want
product market fit ASAP. I also don't think it should be a programming
project. Code is a tool, like anything else, and if you have no experience,
it's tough to compete with experienced toolmakers. Instead, leverage some
domain specific knowledge to be competitive.

Does your country have a robust eBay market? I've found plenty of "beer money"
success selling specific things there. If you know more about something than
almost anyone else, you can monetize that via eBay easily and with excellent
reach.

For example, there's plenty of sellers in Russia/Eastern Europe selling
vintage soviet machining/radiation equipment. In SE Asia, a million mom and
pop shops moving ICs. In Japan, high quality tooling. Plenty of people all
over just hawking the results of a university auction. I even buy from a guy
in the US who only sells refractory ceramics. You can find incredible niche
stores on eBay who are doing very well.

Where the coding comes in is automating everything. For example, code to
automatically print labels for my packages. A local database to manage
quantities. A (rudimentary!) pricing algorithm to maximize volume or profit;
the possibilities are endless. These projects are easy to justify, and the
immediate improvement is clear.

------
diegoperini
This is my anecdote, I hope it serves you well.

I'm a computer engineer with a respectable bachelor's degree from Turkey.
Google has enough material to see what kind of 3rd world country Turkey is.

I found myself in a similar situation 2 years ago. I had 5 years of experience
at that time. Due to my father's decreasing health condition, remote had
become by only option. I don't know if it was luck or simply how the system
works but in my case Upwork saved my situation 1 month after I signed up. I
created a modest profile and clicked a bunch of gigs I found interesting. I
did a bunch of Skype calls to present myself as approachable as I can and even
took some disappointing gigs just to get used to freelancing (it was my first)
without causing harm to my reputation. Somewhere along the second month I
spent in the platform, one employer from another country approached to me.
Unlike my other gigs, this employer valued trust more and asked me if I can
join them part-time for a month, to be able to evaluate my performance without
taking too much risk. I was promised the one time payment even for failure.
Luckily I didn't fail. Now I am a full time remote employee and have a
competitive salary even for European standards.

TLDR: Try upwork.com, maybe it will work.

~~~
mifeng
This is exactly how we hired most of our devs at Hummingbot. We used to hire
expensive Silicon Valley engineers before realizing that the folks we found on
Upwork were just as good , if not better.

------
metalforever
OP, please send me a message by adding me on discord at metalforever#4052 . I
have some work and want to learn about your skills for a possible arrangement.
Thanks.

------
tiborsaas
> 3rd world country

That might be your advantage. You know the language, companies and culture.

I'd look into cloning something that international companies overlook or
poorly optimize for.

It can be really boring stuff: can you build the best site in the following
niches?

Classifieds, auction, product search engine, travel location aggregator, real
estate search engine, used car website, etc.

Do you have beaches? Focus on tourism.

If done right, over time you can have your $x000 and many more.

------
fabiandesimone
I have an idea that I've wanted to build since about 18 months to scratch my
own itch (and I know of many users that could benefit from this as well).

I have asked and this is at month something that can be built in about a
month.

If you want to do a joint venture, I'll be the first paying customer and take
care of finding paying customers for the tool.

------
code-faster
1 - Create an online portfolio on LinkedIn. Don't worry about what's on it,
just make it. Keep it updated.

2 - Log hours programming whatever it is you like programming to build your
resume and skills. Since you need money and you're remote, your resume is what
will land you an interview. Your skill important because that'll land you an
offer. The number of hours you log will matter most and that will depend on
how much you like what you're doing. You want to have the "oops I worked too
much again" problem, not the "oops I forgot to work again" problem

Finding a job: Find a remote engineering job. You may find luck in crypto,
check out
[https://cryptocurrencyjobs.co/engineering/](https://cryptocurrencyjobs.co/engineering/)

DM me on twitter, @code_faster if you have more questions.

------
jorgemf
> More of a opinion, but overseas freelancing opportunities aren't gonna hire
> a newbie and fiverr is a race to bottom.

Why? have you tried? I had a company for some time and we hired remote
developers who have just finished their careers. I am sure more startups will
be willing to do the same. It is a matter or knowing where to look at. Try
angel.co, or the monthly thread here for jobs. These jobs might not last for
all your life but they will give you the initial experience you need to be
freelance.

Freelance sites could be a good option too. You will have to offer a lower
rate than others to get a job, but as I said, you need something to start,
them things get easier (or not).

Anyway, best way to find a job is to be able to show what you are able to do.
So you must need some open source projects the people who potentially will
hire you can see how good you are.

------
smdz
From an economics point of view - We cannot say whether we are in a recession
or a depression or none of that. Depression is supposed to be much longer.
Probably we are in a recession and won't get into a depression unless some
major geopolitical conflict occurs

It is good that you have 1 year of backup. Others have already given good
business or technical ideas, my comments below are more philosophical

You should not target 1-1.5k. It may be enough today, may be better than
nothing. But not okay, even for a 3rd world country. To begin with - you
should target 2x of your job income at least. Once you have a figure in place,
find out what you like to do (and that pays). It will be easier for you to
filter opportunities as they come by. Believe me, opportunities come in
truckloads and almost simultaneously. Everyone has just 24 hours and without a
filter you will not be able to grab the right opportunity.

If you lose the job, you could get into panic driven fire-fighting mode. With
a job today, your fear of losing it might drive you into a half-hearted effort
to do something. In the safety of your job, you can plan for your progression
to become independent. Tech skills are just one small part of the progression.
Read books (or watch videos or listen to podcasts) about entrepreneurship,
sales and/or people. Learn about finance and good financial mindset - it helps
in the long run too. Take a notepad or use boards like Trello and keep writing
the ideas that come to you, what you want to do, how will you achieve it, what
problem it solves for you and others. Then prioritize and do the practical
stuff one step at a time. That list will never come to an end. Other than a
house mortgage, stay away from debt and even the house mortgage should be low
or reduced.

Consulting for someone or some company is a good way to make yourself
financially independent/safe sooner. But unless you enjoy it, do not stay with
that too long. It consumes you and it is a different mindset. I've seen people
(including myself) not able to leave consulting for a long time.

------
momokoko
Start a business. Even if it fails it will help you migrate towards a not pure
software engineering role which, as you are now seeing, is highly cyclical.

It is 100% okay if the business fails. I cannot stress this enough. Starting
and running even a failed business combined with your technical ability will
separate you from almost all other candidates if you need to re-enter the job
market.

You sound like you are in a lower wage country so I would recommend a
marketing or sales tool. That is typically a growth industry during slowdowns
as sales people search for new tools to turn their numbers around. That makes
it easier to sell to people in higher wage countries without having a physical
presence that is sometimes important in typical b2b sales.

------
mostlyghostly
So a couple of thoughts...

\- Don't write off working for domestic SMB's just because their sales are in
a downturn. At least 50% of my earnings over the past decade was building
software & analytics tools for companies that were in outright financial
distress. The pain of the downturn will prompt people to change their
organization and process in ways they never imagined. As a developer, you can
make an excellent living as an enabler of that change.

(In fact, I get a premium due to my experience in this space)

\- Overseas freelancing is a meat market on the provider side; that being
said, most of your competition sucks. (speaking as someone who spends five
figures a year on offshore talent). Lots of exaggerated resumes, lousy rush
jobs, and general lack of professional service. There is a high risk you're
going to have to fix the work later. This is particularly true for clients
with an established business and something to lose if the project goes sour.
Avoid "aspiring CEO's" and other cheap d-bags lurking on the platform. Raise
your prices and you'll be surprised to find decent clients who are willing to
pay for value.

Rate also isn't everything. Consider % of time billable and % of time chasing
clients or payment. One big advantage to places like Upwork (if you can land
the right clients) is you don't need to screw around with the even larger pile
of BS involved in working with small businesses directly. (Like um, tire-
kickers and people that slow pay invoices)

\- I wouldn't write as an overseas freelancer. I would consider publishing and
affiliate marketing. Your content and code is just as good as that published
by a high cost country and you have a cost advantage. It's not all junk either
- take a look at SAAS affiliate marketing... it's a fairly natural place to go
if you've got real world IT experience and doesn't involve mortgaging your
soul to push someone's fake pills or dating scam...
[https://highestpayinggigs.com/affiliate-
marketing/saas/](https://highestpayinggigs.com/affiliate-marketing/saas/)

------
abinaya_rl
\- Pick an idea that people are already paying for.

\- Talk to the users on a community or cold tweet or email them asking about
the difficulties.

\- Start solving the problems and onboard them as users

\- Pitch other users with the same problem

\- Charge them upfront, don't give it away for free

------
pabs3
In case you are interested in open source stuff, check out these pages,
especially the internships, which are a good way to build contacts with open
source companies, especially if you pick the right projects (like the Linux
kernel).

[https://www.fossjobs.net/](https://www.fossjobs.net/)
[https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources](https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources)

------
growt
Judging from your post you speak/write excellent english. Maybe you can
capitalize that. Start an outsourcing shop for international customers or
something like that.

------
binarysolo
Speaking as a former developer (~5 years) + current business owner (~10
years):

"Race to the bottom" freelancing for a dev with no experience is as intended
-- the priority is to 1) develop a portfolio of experience to get better cred
2) filter/find long term partners who treat you right. This is a grind and an
investment to get out of the race to the bottom.

$1-$1.5/mo is straightforward as long as you keep grinding + filtering for
good partners.

------
jklein11
I would happily pay you 1k a month for 40 hours a week of work. Would you be
open to that? My email address is in my profile if you want to explore this
further.

~~~
wic8
Is the offer specific to OP? I'm kinda in similar predicament, would
definitely open for this.

------
frodopwns
Most devs lack actual proof of the ability to deliver when under their own
supervision. I would choose a tech that is high in demand. Javascript, Golang,
Kubernetes. Use the learning process to develop a project. Deliver it to open
source with all the bells and whistles. Know how to pitch the project and
speak to its architectural decisions.

Eng managers love this proof of delivery. It will help in getting remote
positions as well.

------
snazz
Combine two interests or abilities. Try combining writing (which you seem to
be good at) with computer skills or security with web application experience.
You'll be able to charge more if you carve out a niche for yourself.

Fiverr is actually fine if you can do that. It's only a race to the bottom in
saturated segments with no differentiation. You might be able to apply to be a
Fiverr "Pro" and charge more.

------
umut
I think your best bet is to find someone

\- who thinks (s)he can generate $3k/mo (essentially 2x of your target),

\- who has reasonable proof that this is plausible and

\- who cannot build it (her/him)self.

It is also great to have company, to keep you on track, motivate each other
when you need it (and you will), and help you sell.. Don't take this as a
freelancer gig, make sure you are cofounders/partners in this

Best of luck for whatever life throws at you! Cheers

------
projektfu
If you’re going to write a SaaS project (most of HN success stories) then
consider what market you’re targeting. I found this article useful:

[http://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-ways-to-
build...](http://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-ways-to-
build-100-million-business.html)

------
timwaagh
Eh just get a job with an outsourcing company that sends people to client
locations. They will send you overseas eventually. Then switch to a company
located there before your residency permit runs out. You will no longer have a
third world salary. I don't know whether this is possible in a year but I've
seen it many times.

------
didip
1\. Do you live by yourself? If so, moving back to your parents will help a
lot (if you have a good relationship with them).

2\. Pick the skill you are most comfortable with and focus on that when
freelancing. The more efficient you are the quicker you can finish the tasks.

Combining 1 & 2 will buy you some time to get a better full time job for the
future.

------
jyriand
I might be totally wrong but I think making online courses might give you some
passive income and learning opportunity at the same time. Of course it
requires you to focus on one small/niche subject and becoming expert at it.
Maybe someone with experience in making courses could chime in and tell if
it's doable.

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major505
weel, you problably is in a similar situation like me, live in a country where
the local currency is falling like flys in relation to the dollar, so you can
try remote jobs.

Don't sell yourself short. You problably cheaper than local works, and there's
always jobs that a noobie can do (dull jobs most of the time, I know, but they
put food on the table). You clearly speak english well, so this helps a lot.

Here are some sites that may help you bud.
[https://www.workingnomads.co/jobs](https://www.workingnomads.co/jobs)

[https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/)

[https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/)

[https://angel.co/remote](https://angel.co/remote)

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pplante
What languages and technologies do you have experience with? I agree with the
other posts telling you to checkout IndieHackers and build something. In the
meantime, there are probably some contract gigs you could pick up to extend
the runway.

Email me if you are looking for projects.

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deathhand
I've hired through UpWork.com

~~~
dessant
People are usually exploited on freelancing sites like UpWork to work for
considerably less money than the market value of their work, so I wouldn't
recommend that, unless they're in a desperate situation.

~~~
caymanjim
OP is in a desperate situation. They already said they have modest needs and
are looking to get a foot in the door.

~~~
dessant
> Considering the COVID situation, In the worst case scenario I'll be without
> a job for a while. I have finances to manage for (probably) a year and a
> month or two.

> I'm not looking for job offers out of sympathy. This is just considering the
> worst case scenario, and I want to have something to fall back to if it
> turns out to be the case.

They are very, very far from being in a desperate situation, and they have not
said that they are looking to get a foot in the door.

------
sushshshsh
I see two options for you:

-Try to emigrate to a country with a strong tech sector and get a day job there.

-Build a web service that people love and will pay money for, because it does something very useful for them.

Everything else probably isn't going to result in you making money.

~~~
safog
Out of curiosity, can you build a service and collect payments from US
customers while not being a US resident?

~~~
sushshshsh
In addition to the reply below, I imagine there are some other less costly
online services or cheeky ways to send money through PayPal, Amazon GiftCards,
Western Union, Bitcoin, some other strange way that one can think of with
credit cards or bank transfers.

If a service is really that useful, and the person behind it is already
demonstrating to me that they're trustworthy, I will bend over backwards to
jump through hoops to pay them.

Otherwise I wouldnt be buying in the first place :)

------
rdbell
My company ([https://packetstream.io](https://packetstream.io)) is hiring
technical account managers.

Send an email to ronald@domain

------
tr33house
It's hard to give advice without knowing what kind of experience you have.
I'll go with all the signals I can get. I grew up in Uganda and Kenya but now
live in the US so I have a bit more context. I also have a few businesses
making more than what you're looking to make so this might help too.

Temporary Solution:: Your English is good so I'm guessing you're from a former
British colony. If you're above average as a developer, look into sites like
toptal for some consulting opportunities. They're fully remote so that
shouldn't be a big problem. Also, don't necessarily ignore domestic
consulting. Just pick your clients more carefully. Reject opportunities that
are clearly WAY below market. Have a secondary reason for accepting a gig e.g.
learning more about the inner workings of a business/industry or building
rapport with the business owner.

More Permanent Solution:: I'd strongly suggest going into the B2B SaaS space.
The more money the companies make, the better. It may be a developing country
but there's still real money out there. I have a friend making more than $400K
a year in a SaaS business with <5 few employees (I'll keep details vague to
protect his identity). Reach out to business owners (I know this is hard but
you really have to believe in yourself to make this work). Spend time with
them and discover _REAL_ problems that they have and are willing to pay. I
guarantee you'll come out with some really nice ideas doing this. Don't
necessarily take the first idea you discover. Verify that other business
owners in the same industry have a similar problem. An area I'd suggest
looking at is the agricultural/horticultural sector. These folks export goods
in the billions of dollars and there are definitely some things you could work
with them to improve. The harder the better (few choose hard problems and
churn is low once things start working). At times, you'll discover they're
already paying for some software but the licenses are like $10K a month and
they only need it for a single thing. Work with them to create something new
with exactly what they need for a steep discount. Trust me, these
opportunities exist. I'd also suggest the insurance, banking and healthcare
fields. There's little competition there. Logistics (trucks, freight) is also
something you can look into. The better you are as an engineer, the easier
developing solutions will be. Nothing should be beneath you. e.g. Don't
necessarily look for AI/ML problems. Use the right tool for the problem,
however simple. Also, listen to your customers.

Sometimes, people have real problems but they just can't find someone they can
trust enough to execute them. Trust takes time to build but once it's
developed, many more opportunities open up. You want to be invited to meetings
where finances are discussed. Seeing the finances will show you exactly what
they pay for and this is invaluable.

Hope this helps. All the best and may God bless you in this journey!

------
pezo1919
Try getting a job in react or python(Django?) or nodejs. There are huge demand
for these and these are the easiest to learn.

~~~
yummybear
With 20+ years of experience, I certainly wouldn't call React "easy". While
core React is pretty intuitive and minimal, once you factor in redux/flux
architecture, various client libraries and the general rigors of client-side
web development you are looking at considerable time investment.

------
Mo3
Well, what kind of experience do you have?

~~~
noddly
I have only worked for a web-dev agency (they clamied some services apart from
web, but I have't seen them work on anything else). In unrefined words, it can
be said to be an outsourcing hub.

~~~
mkl
Okay, but what technologies and languages have you worked with, and what have
you built with them?

------
brianbreslin
@noddly, what stack are you comfortable working with? Do you have an upwork
account?

------
reinder
Great question! And I think that where you are right now is as good a starting
point as any. With COVID and lockdowns and economic recession going on, I
think more and more people are going to ask themselves how they can bridge the
gap on their own for the next 6-18 months.

I'm saying "good starting point" because this is where you are right now.
Start from there. Start where you are. Don't think "I should've" because it
never helps.

3.5 years of coding experience is terrific! I wouldn't call that "almost no
experience". Even if you wouldn't count all 3.5 years since starting. In my
experience, for gaining experience, a good mindset and a little bit of a head
start is what you need to tackle new projects. After 10 years, I still feel
like (and am) a beginner every day.

I recommend you revisit your assertions about consulting, SMB, etc. I'm sure
things are tough right now, and the market is getting smaller, but it's going
to pick up at some point too. Consulting as a freelancer for you could mean a
few extra months of runway. The upside you can get by experimenting with
freelancing far outweigh the negatives. This is even more true for online
freelancing with platforms like Upwork.

Invest time into building a network online. When you're supported by a network
of peers, you'll get more opportunities. It's also fun, you learn a ton, and a
network is generally an asset that doesn't go away quickly if you keep putting
energy in it. For me, networking starts with putting stuff out there: writing,
helping others, building projects. IMHO, networking doesn't merely include
chatting on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., but contributing in thoughtful forums and
communities definitely helps. The best way to start here is to start building
projects. I've always met people through their works and their projects.

How can you make $1k a month? With the above (freelance + networking) I think
you can already get there, if you get opportunities to build projects for
people. It's also smart to start thinking in terms of assets. Freelancing is a
trap in the sense that time == money, and if you stop working, you stop making
money. Can you build something online that makes money? A SaaS, an app, an
email newsletter, a website about something you like, teaching/mentoring
people, a service – anything.

(Before you start, get a good book/resource on launching a business. It helps
avoid so many mistakes and reinvented wheels. A few hands-on ones come to
mind, but see what works for you: $100 startup, traction, AppSumo $1k course,
"This is marketing" by Seth Godin.)

I'm mentioning SaaS last, because it takes time and luck to make that happen
quickly (or at all). You want to bootstrap yourself first, extend your runway,
work on time-for-money projects, and then spend 1/3 or 2/3 of your time on
building a SaaS or app.

The last bit of advice I wanted to give is that it all starts with people.
Freelancing, networking, building a project – it's all people. Find your
people first, and then build something that helps them. Instead of the other
way around, is finding a product first, and then retrofitting it for people.

Good luck!

(My credentials: I've been a freelance app developer since 2009, I now make a
living teaching iOS development online.)

~~~
noddly
Hey, thanks a lot for your advise. The ongoing pandamic was the reason I asked
this, when you see more people being laid-off than being hired, the feeling of
uncertainity of future gets the better of you. I got some serious advise here
which is difficult to get on most platforms (It's worth the socorn I'll get
for asking _the same damn moneymaking question_ yet again)

------
melenaos
I would hire a junior dev with 1.5 k salary per year.

~~~
lapaz17
Do you have any java jobs?

~~~
sah2ed
The parent wrote: “I would hire a junior dev with 1.5 k salary _per year_.”

Better to confirm that they actually intend to pay that much _per month_ and
not _per year_ ...

~~~
melenaos
Yes, you are right. I meant to write per month.

------
tehlike
Can you put down your email on your profile?

------
rimjongun
I can’t really speak to your question, but Good luck! Hope you find something
that meets your needs. It’s out there, waiting for you.

------
metalforever
I think open source projects are a good avenue of fulfilling income if you
live in a third world country.

------
jstone9192
What is your stack?

------
MathCodeLove
Commenting to save

------
villgax
You need a niche.

------
thrownaway954
these constant posts of how to make money are getting ridiculous. i feel for
people and what not, but really at this juncture you can just do a search and
go through all the answers to the previous times this has been asked.

~~~
noddly
As I mentioned above to someone, again I apologise for asking the n-th
iteration of the same question. The situation in this pandemic is so
unpredictable that I wanted to get advise fit for the situation. If not
myself, it would help many others who're in the same boat.

------
dangus
It seems like this is a big list of things you aren't willing to try, but you
still want someone else to come up with a $10,000 idea for you.

What you're asking for is an easy way out. There isn't one.

If you've got over a year of financial runway, I'd say you could feel pretty
happy about that. I'm sure you'll figure out something in that time.

~~~
noddly
I'm sorry if I'm giving that impression. It hasn't been long since I've come
into this situation. As someone who haven't had much exposure into the working
of the world, I was just seeking opinion from others on what can be done.

