

Ask HN: How to become a freelancer?  - shire

Is it possible to become a Web developer without a college degree or previous job experience?<p>What does it take to become a freelance programmer making decent amount of good money? 50k+ ?<p>What do I need to learn? what language? what stack and technology? To get started? Is PHP the right choice for a beginner Web developer who has never worked as a developer?
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brandonhsiao
Learn Python/web.py. Powerful framework with no learning curve. More
importantly, proportionate to how easy it is to learn, it gets the job done,
_fast_.

Anything that saves you time is good, because there will be a lot of
repetition. If you're doing web development, use single quotes instead of
double quotes (to save shift keystrokes). Use Jade/Coffeescript/SASS instead
of HTML/JS/CSS. Learn jQuery. Use Bootstrap instead of doing your own design,
unless you also want to sell yourself as a designer, but tell clients you'll
also provide design (they can't tell the difference). Build up a library of
code that you can reuse (basically anything you find yourself copy/pasting or
rewriting between projects). Use quick-and-dirty solutions instead of long,
conventional ones as long as (a) it results in a net decrease in time spent,
(b) the product quality stays the same, and (c) the client doesn't know or
doesn't care.

Build MVPs for clients from start-to-finish by yourself instead of working
with others unless the overhead is compensated by money. Learn how to write,
because being fluent in English will get you surprisingly far in a market
where a lot of your competitors can't use punctuation.

Charge per-project, not per-hour. This way you're rewarded, not penalized, for
being a fast worker.

Experience: freelance programmer here who dropped out of college and never had
a job; making enough to survive and spend the rest of my time on other things.

~~~
shire
Thank you for this, I'm familiar with Python and basic Django but honestly
comparing Python and Django vs PHP/MySQL the later seems more easier the
former seems a little bit to magical especially when MVC comes into play how
does one understand Routes or Models, View and Controller?. Using PHP/MySQL
seems like would be more easier to understand with MVC.

~~~
smartwater
Practice with CodeIgniter or Laravel. It won't take long to learn. Once you
learn MVC, it's all you will ever use. It helps keep things organized,
portable, and efficient.

~~~
JonoBB
Do not, under any circumstances, use CodeIgniter. It will teach you all sorts
of rubbish, and the framework is dieing (or dead). Laravel is light years
ahead.

------
fbpcm
Find a business owner that needs web development done that doesn't have time
to do it herself or knows a little bit less about it than you.

You can charge that business owner now. Any language will work and there are
trade offs for each language.

~~~
cylinder
Don't quote them an hourly rate. That means nothing to them. Tell them they
will get X for price $Y (flat fee all inclusive) and they are more likely to
go forward.

