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A Feew Tips To Get Your First Freelance Programming Gig

Programming from home is the new normal.

By Jonathan GPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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A Feew Tips To Get Your First Freelance Programming Gig
Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash

If you're looking for a job as a home-based programmer it can be overwhelming not knowing where to start.

  • "What's worth my effort?"
  • "How do I make sure I'm moving in the right direction?"
  • "What's the best strategy for getting a job as a home-based programmer?"

These are all questions that could be going through your head right now.

And I'm not here to tell you what to do and what not to do, but if it's something I can tell you is that the main problem with the methods they usually recommend is that:

• They may work in the short term but they suck in the long term.

• They don't position you as the expert in front of a client but only as 'just another programmer'.

That includes the famous idea of starting out just by applying to freelance platforms.

Put Your Name Out There...Wherever

The main reason why it's hard to get your first customer is because no one has enough confidence in you yet. They don't trust your ability to do the job and do it well.

When you create relationships (or even when you take the ones you already have) you can double the chances of being hired.

"But... how can I do that?" you might ask.

You can use the conventional method of doing it in person and attend events, conferences or seminars where you can build relationships with people in your field.

But if you want a job as a home-based programmer, chances are you want clients from any part of the world. And with the internet, it is possible to network online. The competition on the internet is quite different than competing with local talent.

The goal of networking is simple: to put your name in front of potential customers-or people who might refer potential customers to you.

The first thing you need to know is who your customer is.

Most likely it will be a business owner perhaps with a website that doesn't work or an entrepreneur with an idea for an application he wants to bring to market.

It is very, very likely that your customers are browsing the web right now.

What you have to ask yourself is where.

• Can you find them in a LinkedIn group?

• Can you find them in a Facebook group?

• By answering some of their questions on Quora?

• In a programming forum?

And these are just some of the more common options. If you get creative and investigate, you're sure to find alternative ways to market yourself online.

Forget About Customers...

It is valid to think that to find clients you must do your best to put yourself in front of those clients and those clients only.

But maybe they're not as accessible as you'd like them to be right now.

What can you do in that case?

Remember the definition above: put your name in front of potential customers-or people who might refer potential customers to you.

If you can't reach your customers directly, who can put you in touch with these people?

Contact and interact with developers like you in the same communities we mentioned-LinkedIn, FB, Quora, etc.

You might think that a developer will never refer you to a client, but remember: we only have 24 hours a day.

Maybe other programmers working from home have more work than they can handle and may end up referring a client on their behalf.

Forget About Developers...

If you feel intimidated to contact your client directly or people in your same profession, why not try to relate to those people with whom you are not directly competing but who are complementary.

If you're a web programmer, there are probably thousands of web designers who don't know how to program and could refer you some jobs if you show your knowledge.

Likewise, if you know someone who works with mobile application interface design and you have the knowledge to program applications, you can be the one in charge of making that interface a functional application.

The point here is: relate to a circle of people to give and receive mutual help in any way.

Contribute to an Open Source Project

In case you don't know the term, an open source project, as the name implies, is a project that anyone who wants to have access to view, inspect and improve their code.

The fact that you, as a developer, contribute to an open source project speaks not only of your technical capabilities, but also of you.

You can register on GitHub, the leading software development platform, and look for a relatively new project (so you don't get lost in the code's progress) and contribute by solving some of the problems or difficulties it presents.

This is something you can use strategically to position yourself as an expert and boost your authority immediately.

It's a way to gain real experience and use it to your advantage without working directly for a client.

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About the Creator

Jonathan G

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