

Ask HN: Making Money Online as a Teen - zackfern

I've got a month to start making around $1,000 a month online. I'm 17, and basically need this money to bootstrap my life.<p>My skills include: HTML / CSS, Photoshop, Ruby / Rails, Photography<p>Any ideas, tips, or stories? Thanks.
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quizbiz
Charge 1k per website. Make a website every month. Spend one week working your
ass off finding someone that would pay 1k for the site. Spend the rest making
it.

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JBerlinsky
Coming from a current college student who spent his entire high school career
doing this: it is very possible, but it isn't about your skills. It's about
who you know.

I was very lucky. When I was 14, I ran into a very nice person, Mike, from
South Carolina through a PHP forum that we both frequented. He had no idea
about my age until I told him a few months after we started working together.

Mike had recently been laid off from his full-time IT job, and was getting
into the swing of freelance development, much like I was trying to do. He and
I explored business models together, shared ideas, and tried to encourage each
other's success. When I told him my age (he asked a tax question), he was
dumbfounded.

Mike's career quickly took off. He found an affiliate marketing company
looking for an awesome PHP developer, and is currently making more than enough
to live off of. However, he has absolutely no time for other jobs, nontheless
to learn new programming languages. As a result, he sent any excess work my
way. Since I am young and have an aptitude for this kind of work, I quickly
learned whatever tool(s) were necessary for the job. Ruby, Objective-C,
Python...I've had clients for tons of programming languages. (Unfortunately,
this means I have to use good 'ol Google for a refresher on every one, but it
gets the job done.)

It's all about who you know when you go into this at a young age. Make good
connections now; spend a little bit of time asking questions and making
personal connections. The opportunity cost of "wasting time" on forums and
sending e-mails WILL pay for itself in the long run. Trust me.

I assume you're still in high school, and I can only encourage you to stay in
school and take AP classes, especially AP Calculus AB/BC and AP Physics C.
They'll teach you how to really use the critical thinking skills that you need
to succeed in this business. That, and, if you plan to attend college, take AP
Chemistry, because general chemistry will kill any free/development time you
have in college. Additionally, whatever college you attend probably has a
student employment system for their web development; check it out. I know the
University of Michigan has a CAEN web team, which I am a part of (well,
technically, I'm on the database team, but it's close enough).

Best of luck, and feel free to shoot me an e-mail!

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ryanpetrich
A similar question was asked a few months ago and has some great ideas:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1692995>

Also, don't expect to hit your target in the first few months. If you
absolutely need a steady $1000 a month right away, look for a local part time
job and work on online ventures in your spare time.

