4 Ways To Make Extra Income As A Software Developer
Have extra time or looking for a bit more financial freedom as a developer?
As a programmer, you have a vast amount of extra opportunities to increase your income. A typical software developer permanent job is usually very well paid as it is, but that shouldn’t be a reason why you can’t look at earning some extra income, all from the comfort of your own home or anywhere else really.
In this article, we will be exploring my four personal favourite ways of making some extra money as a developer, all with the potential to grow over time. Each method varies in difficulty and is by no means ways of getting rich overnight, but they can quickly be started, and with hard work and consistency, you can scale these income sources to make a good income.
Offering Freelance Services
Possibly the most common way that developers increase their income is through offering freelance services. They are easy to set up, and the services that you offer are entirely dependent on you. Don’t think that you have to be an expert or have worked in a particular field for years to get into freelancing. Even a beginner can offer some essential services, whether that’s creating a simple user interface for someone or fixing a bug in another person’s code. These small tasks are a great way of building extra income and increasing your knowledge and experience. However, if you are more experienced in your field of work, you can offer more extensive and more complex services, charging a higher price.
Starting is simple to do, and there are many online websites that you can host your services on and look for extra work such as, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, UpWork, Freelancer and even LinkedIn is excellent for finding freelance gigs. Although it is easy to start, getting clients and regular work is where this method becomes more difficult. Generally, the more work you have done and more positive reviews you have, the easier it gets to build up a steady flow of clients, but getting those initial jobs and reviews can be a struggle at first. However, if you put in the work and keep looking for positions whilst providing an excellent service for the gigs you get, you can steadily scale this method to whatever your goals may be.
Build Either A Website Or A Mobile Application
Depending on what field of software development you work in and how much time you have available outside of your regular job, website or app development can be a great source of income. This method is one of the more difficult ones and requires a more significant entry threshold in terms of skill but can also have lasting benefits in making extra income more passively.
For website developers, you could build a website based on a hobby or interest of yours. Let’s say it was outdoor camping. You would create a visually appealing site and then write the content for the site. It could be reviews of various camping products that you have used, articles on a particular piece of equipment that has been of help to you, or just the latest update on changes to camping spots that you enjoy. With these posts, you can then add affiliate links for the products you mentioned or run onsite ads.
If you’re an app developer, it is a little more complicated. You can either develop an app that you want to use yourself or do a bit more research into areas with a void in suitable applications or services in high demand. Once the application is built and published, you could monetise it through either advertisement again, in-app purchases, or a subscription service that members would pay monthly or yearly.
As stated before, this method is a lot harder. You have to build up traffic to the website or application yourself, which could take a while. However, the income generated from either are mainly passive in that it doesn’t require much work once it’s up a running; the website needs new content published to keep it interesting. The app needs updating or fixing if any issues arise. You could also add new features over time to keep your audience engaged.
Start Your Own YouTube Channel
Another option that is again easy to start yet challenging to grow. However, if you stay consistent with weekly uploads and good quality content that provides value to your target audience, your channel can indeed succeed. The channel could be documenting your progress on learning a new programming language or framework or providing helpful video tutorials based on your expertise. By doing this, you not only build an audience that engages with your content on a viral platform but by teaching other people a particular topic or practice, you also increase your understanding of that topic.
Once you have grown a captivated audience of subscribers, you can start to monetise your channel through advertisements or affiliate marketing. With ads, you need to meet the minimum requirements to host Google ads on your videos. The requirements are a minimum of 1000 subscribers and a total of 4,000 watch hours. These requirements seem daunting at first, but with consistent uploads, these can be achieved in a relatively short time. For affiliate marketing, you could have a link in your video description to a course that you used to learn a topic or a particular piece of computer equipment that you use. Ensure it is genuine, and let your audience know that purchases made through your links profit the channel.
Create Video Courses
This method can be a great way to generate extra income, one that is very passive too in that once the course has been created and edited, there is not that much work to do afterwards. You can host the course on an already established service such as Udemy or Skillshare. Doing so allows your class to be seen and purchased by a large audience without the need to provide your own advertisements, perfect for starting out or if you don’t want to spend money to get your course seen by people. The other way is to have a website of courses that you would advertise and promote yourself; this is especially great for people with a well-established audience on a social media platform or YouTube. Just ensure that your course is valuable to others, provides excellent information, looks professional, and engages with your students.
Summary
There are many more ways to use your skills and knowledge as a developer to earn extra income. The ones above are just some of my favourites that have different levels of difficulty and commitment, allowing you to see whether they would suit your lifestyle.
If you are starting out as a developer, you can find more information on the mistakes I made as a freelance software developer. Or advice on how to start as a freelance developer.
*Not affiliated with any of the services or platforms mentioned*
