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Florin Pop
Florin Pop

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at florin-pop.com

Ways to make money as a developer

Update: I wrote an eBook on Ten++ Ways to Make Money as a Developer. You can get it now by clicking here.

Below you can find a list of ways you can make money as a developer. I've wrote these items a while back and I thought that people might find it valuable so I decided to share it with you. ๐Ÿ˜„

  • The most common is to have a job at a company or work as a freelancer for multiple clients
  • Create and sell digital products (plugins, components (in React, Angular, Vue, Bootstrap, etc), themes, etc)
  • build a SAAS (Software as a Service)
  • create web, mobile and/or desktop apps where you can have ads or in-app purchases
  • Create a blog and monetize it via:
    • ads (Google Adsense, carbonads, etc)
    • sponsorships
    • become an affiliate and promote other peopleโ€™s products
    • promote your own products
    • get paid to write articles for publications
  • write and sell ebooks and/or physical books*
  • create a YouTube channel (on topics like: tutorials, developer lifestyle, tips & tricks, news in the field, etc) and monetize it via:
    • YouTube ads
    • sponsorships
    • affiliate marketing
    • promote your own products
  • create online courses and/or online programs
  • live stream (on Twitch, YouTube, etc) and monetize it via:
    • donations
    • monthly subscriptions
  • create a podcast
    • sponsorship
    • promote your own products
  • work on Open Source projects and get donations and sponsorships
  • create a Patreon page where people can support you
  • create a job board and get paid by companies to connect them with developers, designers, etc...
  • sell swag
  • sell a newsletter
  • have 1-on-1 coaching sessions
  • create a trading bot
  • participate in paid coding challenges
  • participate in bug bounty programs

Feel free to suggest anything else that should be added to the list! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

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Latest comments (54)

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gangsterus profile image
Gangsterus

Programmers in our days are making a lot of money, and because this field is constantly developing you will always find a job if you are a good specialist. I worked as a developer some years ago at a local company based in my home town, and it was a really cool job, but I had to work way too much, and after reading some articles on howtofire.com/how-to-make-200-doll..., and after a consultation with my family I decided to change my job and to start a small business. I can only say that I don't regret anything.

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amdbarak profile image
Ahmed M Hassan

This is an amazing list, I am glad to have found it. Thank you Florin for all your contributions to the dev community

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kirajw profile image
KiraJW • Edited

Thank you for a great article, I am very interested in this topic! I want to get a job online and I learned a lot of new information thanks to you. Well, I would really like to become a developer, because I realized that they get a good salary. But the problem is that I don't have time to study, so I think I should find another way to make money. To be honest, I have another option that I found on the Internet. And I think retail arbitrage is what I need. Here is more information about this yourmoneygeek.com/retail-arbitrage/. If you have some tips on this topic, please share them.

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morgana profile image
morgana

I'm new at web development and just want to do something(for earning money). I'm not a native English speaker but want to start blogging in English. I'm a little scared about that. I don't know what to do.
any suggestions?

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mrcartoonster profile image
Evan E. Baird

A job board... Never thought about that one. Gotta read up on that one.

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jherzeybruhl profile image
Erl

Hello.
I would like to know if i need to learn ux design to become a freelance front-end web developer

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ahmedmkamal profile image
Ahmed Kamal • Edited

You know what? I'm going to create a todo list with all the options that you mentioned and I'll work on them one at a time, also, I'll bookmark your post to get back to it after a couple of months and share my experience and results with you ๐Ÿ™‚

Update
Here are the options that I've picked, I removed the job/freelancing options as I do freelancing already, and a couple of other options that I'm not interested in ๐Ÿ™ƒ

  • Create and sell digital products (plugins, components (in React, Angular, Vue, Bootstrap, etc), themes, etc)
  • Build a SAAS (Software as a Service)
  • Create web, mobile and/or desktop apps where you can have ads, in-app purchases or sell it
  • Create a blog and monetize it
  • Write and sell ebooks and/or physical books*
  • Create a YouTube channel (on topics like tutorials, developer lifestyle, tips & tricks, news in the field, etc) and monetize it
  • Create online courses and/or online programs
  • Live stream (on Twitch, YouTube, etc) and monetize it
  • Create a podcast
  • Work on Open Source projects and get donations and sponsorships
  • Create a Patreon page where people can support you
  • Create a job board and get paid by companies to connect them with developers, designers, etc...
  • Have 1-on-1 coaching sessions
  • Create a trading bot
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andrejika profile image
Vasilevs P.

Florin, it awesome!
I tried a several of the ways you defined here, everything works as expected!
Just need to start working on it.

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