I've been out of school for a couple of years due to medical and personal difficulties. I intend to get started finishing my CS degree soon, but I would like to be able to earn extra money and build my resume as well. The job market is poor, my resume is a bit empty, my degree is incomplete, and certain physical limitations of mine make work at a computer ideal. Freelance coding seems to be the direction I need to go in, but I need a little guidance. If anyone has any other thoughts (or anything to say at all really), I thank you very much in advance for contributing.

After looking at sites like Rent-a-coder, there are a few concerns I have about doing this kind of work:

1. There is not a whole lot of money being offered for any of the work that needs to be done. I was mostly looking to build my resume and earn some extra cash, but the pay is still really low.

2. I don't understand how you can be competitive on these sites. Whole teams of people from places like China get work done faster and at a lower price than one person like me ever could.

3. Some of the projects looked questionable (things like duplicating a whole website, including the shopping cart). While I obviously would never complete such a task, it did raise the question for me about how liable you can be for the code you write, should something go wrong; the economy is rough and people can be vindictive. Would I need to start a one man company or something to reduce my liability personally? I don't intend to behave unethically or have a dissatisfied customer, but I would like to know how to be prepared in case things go pear shaped.

Thank you again for your time and consideration!

I've been out of school for a couple of years due to medical and personal difficulties. I intend to get started finishing my CS degree soon, but I would like to be able to earn extra money and build my resume as well. The job market is poor, my resume is a bit empty, my degree is incomplete, and certain physical limitations of mine make work at a computer ideal. Freelance coding seems to be the direction I need to go in, but I need a little guidance. If anyone has any other thoughts (or anything to say at all really), I thank you very much in advance for contributing.

After looking at sites like Rent-a-coder, there are a few concerns I have about doing this kind of work:

1. There is not a whole lot of money being offered for any of the work that needs to be done. I was mostly looking to build my resume and earn some extra cash, but the pay is still really low.

2. I don't understand how you can be competitive on these sites. Whole teams of people from places like China get work done faster and at a lower price than one person like me ever could.

3. Some of the projects looked questionable (things like duplicating a whole website, including the shopping cart). While I obviously would never complete such a task, it did raise the question for me about how liable you can be for the code you write, should something go wrong; the economy is rough and people can be vindictive. Would I need to start a one man company or something to reduce my liability personally? I don't intend to behave unethically or have a dissatisfied customer, but I would like to know how to be prepared in case things go pear shaped.

Thank you again for your time and consideration!

You are competing with Chinese and other third world countries for those jobs. I honestly don't think it's worth your time.

[quote name='guyver23' timestamp='1297021943' post='4770548']
I've been out of school for a couple of years due to medical and personal difficulties. I intend to get started finishing my CS degree soon, but I would like to be able to earn extra money and build my resume as well. The job market is poor, my resume is a bit empty, my degree is incomplete, and certain physical limitations of mine make work at a computer ideal. Freelance coding seems to be the direction I need to go in, but I need a little guidance. If anyone has any other thoughts (or anything to say at all really), I thank you very much in advance for contributing.

After looking at sites like Rent-a-coder, there are a few concerns I have about doing this kind of work:

1. There is not a whole lot of money being offered for any of the work that needs to be done. I was mostly looking to build my resume and earn some extra cash, but the pay is still really low.

2. I don't understand how you can be competitive on these sites. Whole teams of people from places like China get work done faster and at a lower price than one person like me ever could.

3. Some of the projects looked questionable (things like duplicating a whole website, including the shopping cart). While I obviously would never complete such a task, it did raise the question for me about how liable you can be for the code you write, should something go wrong; the economy is rough and people can be vindictive. Would I need to start a one man company or something to reduce my liability personally? I don't intend to behave unethically or have a dissatisfied customer, but I would like to know how to be prepared in case things go pear shaped.

Thank you again for your time and consideration!

You are competing with Chinese and other third world countries for those jobs. I honestly don't think it's worth your time.
[/quote]

I understand what you are getting at. Do you have any other suggestions, then? I'm only considering this because I would like to earn a bit of money and build my resume. That is all I really wish for.

I took a serious look at Rent-a-coder (I think its name changed). Low money: (someone wrote, and I calculated it too) you can earn about 500 euros a month if you (can) do it full time (40-50 hours per week). And they are not easy tasks at all, they often require special knowledge. For easy tasks the money is very poor or even zero, and you are competing with thousands of coders if not more who would do the job for much less money than you (from China and other third world countries).

It seemed to me then, that it requires as much effort as a real job, so not just some free-time-portfolio-building stuff. I found it the same with Turbosquid (I took a serious look at that too): to be able to get real money, I have to work days and night with 3D models to compete with the stuff there and to get into the "market". I have submitted two models some 6 months ago, and I didn't get any money from it yet.

[quote name='SteveDeFacto' timestamp='1297023780' post='4770570']
[quote name='guyver23' timestamp='1297021943' post='4770548']
I've been out of school for a couple of years due to medical and personal difficulties. I intend to get started finishing my CS degree soon, but I would like to be able to earn extra money and build my resume as well. The job market is poor, my resume is a bit empty, my degree is incomplete, and certain physical limitations of mine make work at a computer ideal. Freelance coding seems to be the direction I need to go in, but I need a little guidance. If anyone has any other thoughts (or anything to say at all really), I thank you very much in advance for contributing.

After looking at sites like Rent-a-coder, there are a few concerns I have about doing this kind of work:

1. There is not a whole lot of money being offered for any of the work that needs to be done. I was mostly looking to build my resume and earn some extra cash, but the pay is still really low.

2. I don't understand how you can be competitive on these sites. Whole teams of people from places like China get work done faster and at a lower price than one person like me ever could.

3. Some of the projects looked questionable (things like duplicating a whole website, including the shopping cart). While I obviously would never complete such a task, it did raise the question for me about how liable you can be for the code you write, should something go wrong; the economy is rough and people can be vindictive. Would I need to start a one man company or something to reduce my liability personally? I don't intend to behave unethically or have a dissatisfied customer, but I would like to know how to be prepared in case things go pear shaped.

Thank you again for your time and consideration!

You are competing with Chinese and other third world countries for those jobs. I honestly don't think it's worth your time.
[/quote]

I understand what you are getting at. Do you have any other suggestions, then? I'm only considering this because I would like to earn a bit of money and build my resume. That is all I really wish for.
[/quote]

I made some money selling software on ebay but it was all hacking software and ebay kept removing it so I eventually lost interest. I say you try making little apps like file format converters and stuff then sell them for $5. It would be nice if there were an app store like the one mac has but for windows. You could also try to make a little game and try to get valve to put it on steam but this is not guaranteed to work. I honestly don't think there is a really good way to make money online...

I made some money selling software on ebay but it was all hacking software and ebay kept removing it so I eventually lost interest. I say you try making little apps like file format converters and stuff then sell them for $5. It would be nice if there were an app store like the one mac has but for windows. You could also try to make a little game and try to get valve to put it on steam but this is not guaranteed to work. I honestly don't think there is a really good way to make money online...

android app store.

Just ask all your friends one thing they wish they could do on their phone. One of them will tell you something totally trivial to implement and incredibly useful. Make it, and profit.

I made some money selling software on ebay but it was all hacking software and ebay kept removing it so I eventually lost interest. I say you try making little apps like file format converters and stuff then sell them for $5. It would be nice if there were an app store like the one mac has but for windows. You could also try to make a little game and try to get valve to put it on steam but this is not guaranteed to work. I honestly don't think there is a really good way to make money online...

android app store.

Just ask all your friends one thing they wish they could do on their phone. One of them will tell you something totally trivial to implement and incredibly useful. Make it, and profit.

Thank you for the replies! If I wanted to try my hand at making Apps, would I need to start a small business? I don't really know anything about that sort of thing...

[quote name='SteveDeFacto' timestamp='1297027020' post='4770607']
I made some money selling software on ebay but it was all hacking software and ebay kept removing it so I eventually lost interest. I say you try making little apps like file format converters and stuff then sell them for $5. It would be nice if there were an app store like the one mac has but for windows. You could also try to make a little game and try to get valve to put it on steam but this is not guaranteed to work. I honestly don't think there is a really good way to make money online...

android app store.

Just ask all your friends one thing they wish they could do on their phone. One of them will tell you something totally trivial to implement and incredibly useful. Make it, and profit.
[/quote]

I agree that does seem like the best way to make money as a f[color="#1C2837"]reelance coder. Trying to sell software without some type of online store is near impossible since even if you had your own site you would need to drive traffic to it before you could sell anything. Doing work for other people over the internet would be extremely hard to make a profit from since there is such a high supply of people willing to do the work but a low demand. Making money from ad revenues on the internet is completely random luck since you have to make something that goes viral or spend years and years building a following.
[color="#1C2837"]

[color="#1C2837"]There is no good way to make money on the internet but your best hope would be to sell stuff on an app store.

Thank you for the replies! If I wanted to try my hand at making Apps, would I need to start a small business? I don't really know anything about that sort of thing...

No you don't need a business but you do need good ideas which are somewhat hard to come by.