Learning to code is a valuable skill that can open a range of career opportunities for you. You can go down several streams to turn your coding skills into a source of income. This blog post will go through the various ways you can make money with coding. We’ll start with the simplest options and then we will progress to methods that may require more dedication and expertise.
Create front-end themes and templates
Suppose you learn the basics of web development which are HTML, CSS and Javascript. You can learn to make front-end themes and templates for personal and company websites. There are frameworks such as Bootstrap and Tailwind to increase your development process. Once you’ve created the templates, you can simply put them on platforms like ThemeForest and sell them.
Blog Writing
This is one of the easiest ways to make money with your coding skills, all that is required is just to have access to a computer and the internet. Whether you are running your blog website like this one or you are guest blogging to other programming-focused blogs that will pay you to write content for them.
You can write for Medium.com through their partner program Or build your website on a platform like WordPress and run your own blog and then you join Affiliate Marketing Programs and run Google Adsense. Running your own blog is more rewarding as you probably will make more. however, guest blogging is also useful for building backlinks to your own website and gaining popularity which will drive more traffic to your own website.
Start a Youtube channel:
You’ll need to make quality content as there is competition in this field, therefore, you’ll need to invest in some basic equipment and tools such as a camera ( you can use your phone to start), a good microphone, and a machine with video editing software. Before you can make money with this method, you need to meet the minimum eligibility for Youtube Monetisation. Once you’ve met the threshold as long as you keep providing quality content and increasing your number of subscribers, you will continue to get paid.
Make Coding Courses and sell them
There are many places you can make money with coding by making videos demonstrating your skills and sharing them on platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, and Udacity. It is also a good place to follow and direct users to your other content.
Once you gain popularity you create your own subscription-like platform where you only showcase your courses exclusive to paid subscribers. Take someone like Jeffrey Way from Laracasts, who initially gained popularity by posting programming tutorials focusing on web development on platforms like Youtube and Envato. The Laracasts website which is dedicated to the Laravel framework and web development now has a massive following.
Become a freelancer
Depending on your experience you can charge at a flat hourly rate starting at £20 ( $25) dollars an hour to £100 (120 dollars). I know some freelance web/software developers that earn £500 a day. Try to avoid working on a fixed-rate budget. Although specific clients may prefer this, it is not advisable especially if you don’t know how long the work is going to take you. However, with experience, you can give accurate predictions on how long a project will take you. You can either work for a company or register yourself on Upwork.
Plugin / Package Development
Improve functionality and efficiency of existing languages/platforms by writing packages/plugins and selling them online. WordPress plugin repository and Shopify app store have the biggest market for this. Most plugins offer a Freemium model, unlocking all of the versions with a paid yearly subscription fee. Yoast SEO and Advanced Custom Fields are perfect examples of this.
There are often businesses that require a custom plugin and package development to integrate with other platforms and services. For example, an e-commerce website might need to integrate with eBay / Amazon API to automatically post its products onto these websites.
Mobile App / Game Development
Although the mobile app/game development world is highly saturated, you can still build an app that solves a specific niche problem or a game that you may consider highly profitable. Most games make money by placing ads on their games or in-app purchases, whilst apps also place ads but may offer premium features at a cost.
Bug Bounty Hunting
Bug bounty hunting involves finding and disclosing security vulnerabilities in software or websites to the respective organization. Many companies offer rewards for successful reports of vulnerabilities.
Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Uber, have their own bug bounty programs and will offer rewards for finding and reporting vulnerabilities on their websites and software. There are also bug bounty platforms such as HackerOne and Bugcrowd.
Build your own software product
I have left this to last as it’s the most difficult but the most rewarding. If you build an application that can fix a particular niche issue and with the right marketing and pricing. Although it requires a lot of work and effort, you may require a team to help you build the entire product. You can make a good living with passive income from a one-time purchase or subscriptions from customers.
Conclusion: Make money with Coding
Not only will the above methods make you money but they also give you learning opportunities to grow as a coder and push you to improve yourself in your programming journey. So What’s next? If you just read this entire article and are not sure where to start with coding take a look at my articles on how i would code if i started again Or if you want to get into web development, take a look at my roadmap to web development.