I would add one more advice: find your niche and become a go-to person for that kind of projects. There are areas where demand is greater than supply, usually because they are not very common, or hard or both. But when you have a good track record doing those projects, your offer can "sell itself" and get you a stream of job invitations.
I made quite a bit of money configuring and debugging corporate IPsec setups for example. IPsec is a complex protocol with many not quite compatible implementations, but being an expert pays off. When Ubiquiti released their controller appliance with its inflexible way to add custom configuration for EdgeRouter products, for a time I've been the guy to hire for those jobs in some circles, because I knew EgdeRouter internals enough to pull that off.
It's best to have several niches of course because technologies go out of fashion or get replaced with something better.
Daniil, thanks for a very insightful comment!
I absolutely agree! Having a niche is very important. It will allow you to really become an expert, have a high skill-level and a portfolio, which are all necessary for selling and high rates.
Narrow specialty can sometimes mean that people will look for you, and you won't need to do much selling. But it is hard to find such a sweet spot, because most of the time a narrow niche will mean a small market and, thus, fewer chances of getting a project. So you should definitely take time to research the market and find a perfect (or at least) a good enough niche for yourself.
And definitely agree that things change and you'll have to reconsider your choice in a year or two.
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I would add one more advice: find your niche and become a go-to person for that kind of projects. There are areas where demand is greater than supply, usually because they are not very common, or hard or both. But when you have a good track record doing those projects, your offer can "sell itself" and get you a stream of job invitations.
I made quite a bit of money configuring and debugging corporate IPsec setups for example. IPsec is a complex protocol with many not quite compatible implementations, but being an expert pays off. When Ubiquiti released their controller appliance with its inflexible way to add custom configuration for EdgeRouter products, for a time I've been the guy to hire for those jobs in some circles, because I knew EgdeRouter internals enough to pull that off.
It's best to have several niches of course because technologies go out of fashion or get replaced with something better.
Daniil, thanks for a very insightful comment!
I absolutely agree! Having a niche is very important. It will allow you to really become an expert, have a high skill-level and a portfolio, which are all necessary for selling and high rates.
Narrow specialty can sometimes mean that people will look for you, and you won't need to do much selling. But it is hard to find such a sweet spot, because most of the time a narrow niche will mean a small market and, thus, fewer chances of getting a project. So you should definitely take time to research the market and find a perfect (or at least) a good enough niche for yourself.
And definitely agree that things change and you'll have to reconsider your choice in a year or two.