
Ask HN: Getting to 6 figures as a PHP dev - discardafteruse
I&#x27;ve been making websites and apps in PHP for around 7 years now, always as a freelancer. Due to personal ineptitude, only recently did I transition from a poor hourly rate to a more respectable daily rate, which has made a big difference in the stability, and size, of my income. However I still feel like I&#x27;m treading water, and I read about other devs routinely commanding 6 figures p.a. I&#x27;m based in Berlin, but work remotely usually for British companies. How can I move from around 50k per annum to double that? Is that even a reasonable ambition?
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ramtatatam
Being in similar position I'd say if you want to earn London rates you'll have
to move to London. There is a reason why companies in London hire people from
Europe and that's because they won't be paid London wages... Having said that
you will see much less money staying in your pocket once you move to London,
it's horribly expensive city. And if you have family it becomes even more
expensive..

People do earn a lot when they find a niche - in example trading software.
There is lots of money in trading (i.e. Forex) and trading software which is
low latency type of software. If you go mainstream you will earn what
mainstream earns, think outside of the box.

From another perspective in the very moment you start specialising you might
find yourself out of work when your niche disappears. So it's always a chase
for holy grail and there is none - take risk, invest your time, be different
and you'll get paid more :-)

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walshemj
Might be hard to get that as a remote contractor. £450pd is not unreasonable
for a contactor working on site in London - though anecdotally PHP doesn't
command such a high rate as say perl or java.

When people use remote contactors they are doing it to get a cheap rate

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imaginenore
Double your rates.

Spend your time on looking for clients.

Market yourself as a problem solver, not as a PHP dev. Companies have
problems, you are there to make them go away.

I make up to $150/hr doing PHP, JS. Rates around $90-100/hr are common.

