How to make Money by Coding ?
In this guide, you’ll discover 11 different methods to make money coding online.
Some methods are more profitable than others, but may also require additional work other than coding.
After I explain each method, I give you my opinion about its income potential.
For each method I tell you how reliable it is as a source of part time or full time income.
Furthermore, in the final chapter, you’ll find an estimated amount of money you can make with each method.
Some methods are easier than others, and so you can use several methods at once to increase your income.
Method #1 Freelancing
This is probably the most popular and easiest way to start making money coding online.
t’s easy because you just sign up with several freelance websites, complete your profile and find projects you can complete.
It’s a very good idea to fully complete your freelance profile.
Because employers will look at your past work, experience, qualifications and other things listed on your profile. How freelance works is explained in my other guide.
It can also be very profitable if you stick with this method for some time.
As you complete more projects, you earn more positive reviews/ratings and you’ll be able to charge more money and find more work.
There are a lot of different coding jobs, as you can see in these screenshots from one particular freelance site:
Here are some other benefits of working as a freelance coder online:
- You can work from a cafe, on the road, at home or anywhere you want to.
- You can work the hours you want to.
- You can develop a relationship with the people that hire you. In this way they’ll keep on giving you more and more new work.
- You can select the projects you want to work with, those that interest you the most.
- As your reputation improves by getting more ratings / reviews you can charge more money than what you’d get as an employee doing the same work.
Getting the first few jobs is the hardest part because you start with no ratings and reviews. But if you stick to it, eventually it will only get better.
You can bid less for projects at first just to get some positive reviews.
Here are some good freelance sites:
Is this a reliable source of income?
As you complete more and more projects your ratings and reviews increase.
Then it will be much easier to win freelance projects. And you can charge more money. If you join more than one website it will ensure you have enough work to do.
I’d say you CAN make a solid, reliable part time or full time income with this method alone.
Method #2 Work For A Company From Home
You can work for a company remotely, from your own home.
Use sites like FlexJobs, Monster, Indeed and others.
Search using keywords like “work at home coder”, “work at home coding”, “work at home programmer” and so on.
You can find part time and full time jobs this way, here’s an example:
Some types of work at home coding jobs include:
- Front-end web developer. You’ll need to know these 3 programming languages, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Back-end web developer. You’ll need to know programming languages such as Python, PHP, Ruby, and SQL.
- Mobile Application Development. You’ll need Objective-C and Swift languages and Java.
And More…
Is this a reliable source of income?
Since you’ll be working for a real company this is a very reliable source of income.
Method #3 Help Local Businesses
A lot of local businesses have poor quality websites or no website at all. Some of these websites look like they were built in the ‘90s.
You can help them by offering to build a quality website or improve their existing site.
You can do that using your own skills, and tools like Shopify or WordPress.
The most challenging part is to find and convince local businesses to do this service for them.
But you can use local business directories and other research techniques to find them.
You can also compile a list of businesses in your city and then search Google to find their website.
Then just contact them via email, phone or even go visit them in person.
If they already have a website tell them how you can improve it. Mention any design flaws that you can improve, such as a slow loading site.
You may want to build or improve the first few sites for free just to build a portfolio and even get some testimonials.
You can use this method alongside others if you have enough time to increase your income.
Is this a reliable source of income?
This is a good method to earn some extra cash. But you can’t rely on just this method to earn a full time or even part time income I dare say.
Most local businesses don’t have huge budgets to hire web developers. So you can’t expect to make tons of money.
Once again you can use this method alongside others to increase your income.
The only way this method can become a stable, reliable source of income month after month is if you turn it into a real business.
That means you’ll have your own website that sells these particular services to local businesses.
You’ll have to drive traffic, build an audience and perform all the other aspects of an online business.
A real business like that ensures you can get a steady source of new clients month after month.
Method #4 Paid Open Source Projects
Open source project sites like Github allow you to help with the development of software.
Most people think that contributing to open source projects is just a “waste of time”.
But there are sites like CrowdSourcer that will pay you a fair share of the profits for your contributions.
And you can also use it to develop your software and sell it on their platform too.
This quick video shows you how CrowdSourcer works:
Is this a reliable source of income?
It’s a good method to earn some extra cash. But you can’t rely just on this method to earn a part time or full time income.
If it won’t take much of your time you can use it in combination with other methods to increase your income.
Method #5 Coding Contests
You can earn some extra money (or other rewards in some cases) by entering coding contests.
You can track and join these coding challenges on sites like:
For example, some challenges pay these prizes:
Is this a reliable source of income?
This is also another method to earn some extra cash. There’s no guarantee you’ll win contests all the time so it’s not a reliable way to make a steady part time or full time income.
Once again if you do this along with other methods as well your total income can increase.
Method #6 Start An Information Business
This option can be very profitable but it’s also the most challenging I should say.
Building an Information business means you can sell information products from your websites.
Information products can be digital or physical products. They just give information and teach any subject.
In this case that would be on topics like coding, programming, software development and so on.
Digital information products can be ebooks, video courses, webinars, infographics, etc.
Physical information products can be DVDs, home study courses, books, etc.
What Can You Sell?
You’re not limited to just information products. You can also sell:
- Affiliate products for a commission
- You can also create your software, apps, plugins, etc., that other programmers/coders might find helpful and sell them as well.
- You can sell relevant physical (tangible) products. In this case that could be affiliate products like for example laptops for programmers.
You can discover the steps to take to start, build and grow your InfoBusiness in my other guide…
In a nutshell, you’ll be creating content ideally on your blog. And then drive traffic to your blog, build your list and sell products.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to sell products you can place ads, like Google Adsense in your blog. But that can be less profitable.
The advantages of building your own Info business include:
- It’s probably the most profitable option. Some of the most successful Info businesses make more than $10K a month.
- You’ll build an audience and can teach them all you know about coding. You’ll be creating content and information products about a topic that you actually love, which is coding…
- You don’t have to be an expert to start an Info business. If you have a deep interest or passion in coding that’s certainly a plus.
But other than that you just need to know slightly more than most people, so that you can teach them what they don’t know! - You’re your own boss.
The two biggest challenges of this method include:
- It takes years to build a successful Info business. This is not something you do part time.
In the beginning, you may have to work a regular day job, and work in your business evenings, nights and whenever you can. - You’d have to learn other skills to operate the business, such as how to drive traffic, build an email list and so on.
These are only challenges. And every challenge can be overcome.
Is this a reliable source of income?
If you manage to build a successful business this is a reliable source of full time income.
Method #7 Online Courses
This is similar to starting your own Info business.
But instead of teaching from your website or blog, you use platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, Teachable, Thinkific, Coggno, Curious, Edureka, Learning. Simpliv, Teachlr, etc.
You can use all of these websites.
You just create content to share your knowledge about coding, programming, etc.
You’ll earn money by selling paid courses on those sites.
Of course, this may not be as profitable as starting your own business. But if you create multiple courses and use multiple platforms your income grows.
This is way easier and less risky than starting a business. You won’t have to spend a lot of time to build your own website, drive traffic and all the rest.
Here’s an example:
Is this a reliable source of income?
I’d say this a reliable source for part time or full time income, assuming enough people can see your course. Because that’s precisely the issue.
These websites make it easy to have a product (a paid course) and sell it, without the need to build any website.
But they fall short when it comes to driving traffic to your course page.
You can’t rely on these websites to get your courses seen by a lot of people. If no one is seeing your course no one will buy it.
So you’d need to find ways to drive traffic to your course page yourself. But fortunately, there are many ways to do that.
To increase your income you can combine this method with #6 which is building an Information Business.
This, in essence, means you promote your website in your paid courses.
So that you can collect the name and email address of all those viewers. You’ll be able to build a list which is the main objective to build a successful Information Business.
Method #8 Youtube
This is similar to selling paid courses. You just create content about coding, and then make money from Youtube ads, selling products you create, affiliate products and some other methods.
You can do some Youtube SEO on your videos. Youtube search engine optimization is about a set of techniques to rank your videos.
This means when someone searches Youtube for particular keywords, your videos show up at the very top.
Youtube SEO will enable you to get more video views and grow a channel faster.
Joseph Hogue has 164K Youtube subscribers. He investigated 24 different Youtube channels to discover how much Youtube pays per view.
He reveals these insights as well as the best methods to make money with your Youtube videos:
One of the best methods to make more money with your Youtube channel is to combine this method with method #6 which is starting your Information Business.
In the simplest form, this means you’ll put a link to your website in your video descriptions.
So that viewers visit your website and subscribe to your list (by giving you their name and email address).
This is known as building a list and it’s the most important and fundamental aspect of building an Information business.
You want to do that because if you use just Youtube you’re building an audience on someone’s else website. You don’t have 100% control over what happens.
Youtube may decide someday to change their algorithm or some specific features and your videos will be seen less often. Your channel growth or income can decline.
For example, in 2017 YouTube made a new policy that channels would need 10,000-lifetime views before they could make money on ads embedded in their videos.
And something similar happened with Facebook pages too. When you post on your Facebook page that post will be seen by fewer fans than it used to be!
But if you promote your website in your videos to build your list you’ll own the email address of your viewers. You can contact them anytime.
Email isn’t going to change, or disappear away anytime soon!
Podcasting
Instead of Youtube, you can use podcasting as a channel to deliver content and build an audience.
Pat Flynn’s podcast has over 60+ million downloads. He has a very detailed guide on how to start a podcast.
Is this a reliable source of income?
This can be a reliable source for part time or full time income. That is, as long as you have enough channel subscribers and you know how to use the various ways to make money with it.
Method #9 Publish Kindle Ebooks
If you like teaching coding, you can also create and publish coding related ebooks and sell them directly on Amazon’s Kindle Store.
Amazon is the leading e-retailer in the United States.
They’ve got Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) which makes it very easy to get started.
The key to success is to publish many ebooks on the various topics related to coding. Not just one.
There are successful Kindle publishers earning $3K to $10K and even more in some cases.
You do have to research the market to determine exactly what they need to learn. So that you create ebooks they’d want to purchase.
One of the top experts about the Kindle Business is Stefan James.
In this video, he’ll show you “How To Make Money With Kindle Publishing On Amazon”
Is this a reliable source of income?
This is a reliable source of part time or full time income.
But just like with method #7 which is Online Courses your success is determined by how many people view your ebooks, and your ability to create high-quality ebooks that people actually want to buy.
One other thing you can do is to combine this with method #6, which is to start an Information business.
You put links in your ebooks and Amazon profile, etc., back to your website. So that you can collect the name and email of your audience. That’s the primary goal when building an Info business.
You can then communicate with your audience via email over and over again.
You can give them valuable content via email and sell affiliate products, your own Info products or software and tools.
Method #10 Start A Software Business
This is just like building an Info business.
But instead of selling information products to teach coding you sell apps, software and other tools you develop in ANY niche you like.
A niche is just any category where people buy products or services. So there are thousands of niches.
You just have to find out what people and businesses need in a particular niche and create products to fulfill those needs.
So for example in the search engine optimization (SEO) niche webmasters want to increase their rankings in search engines.
You can build certain keyword research and other SEO software, apps and tools to fulfill that need.
Ideally, work in a niche market that interest you.
And of course, you can also sell your own Information products in that particular niche, as well as affiliate products. Not just software and tools if you want to.
If you choose this route make sure you analyze the particular niche you select using niche research strategies. This will allow you to find a profitable niche.
You don’t want to create products in a niche where people don’t BUY anything.
Once again building your own business is probably the most profitable method, but also challenging.
What you’re required to do:
- You’d have to find a profitable niche e.g. search engine optimization
- Build your own websites
- Drive traffic to your websites
- Build an email list
- Learn copywriting
- And more…
It’s a very profitable method because you can build an audience of 5,000, 10,000 or even 50,000 people.
You’ll be able to promote and sell products to all those people from your website, via email and possibly (depends on the strategy you use) other channels like Youtube.
Is this a reliable source of income?
Yes, this is a reliable source of income for the same reason as that of method #6, which is starting an Information business.
As long as you manage to build a successful business there’s almost no limit to how much money you can make.
Keep in mind that if all you want is some extra cash you don’t have to build a business around this method.
You can, for example, simply create one or more Android or IOS apps and sell it on the app stores.
And there are tools like PhoneGap, Appcelerator or Apache Cordova to build apps faster and easier.
If you build a really successful app you can make more than just some extra cash.
Method #11 Code Marketplaces
A simpler, easier and faster way to sell your software, plugins, tools, etc., is to use platforms like CodeCanyon, SugarKubes.io, Themeforest and more.
The success of this method is determined mainly by your ability to create one or more high-quality products that people want.
Here’s an example:
Is this a reliable source of income?
This can be a good reliable source of part time income.
If you create higher-quality products, get more traffic to your product’s page, use multiple code marketplaces and other strategies, you will increase your income.
You could make a full time income if you manage to create an evergreen product that becomes popular.
An evergreen product is one that you’ll be able to keep selling for many years to come.
This is one of those methods you can do alongside others if you want to increase your income.
Those are the 11 ways you can use to make money coding online.
Now let’s see an estimate of how much you can make with each method.
How much Can You Earn Coding Online?
These stats can give you a good idea about the earning potential for some of the methods listed in this guide.
These are only estimates, and of course, various factors determine how much you earn.
Freelancing: Some freelance programmers make over $100K. According to salary.com, the average salary is between $51K to about $76K depending on the level of experience.
Code Mentor analyzed 5,302 freelance coders. Those in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand earn up to $70 per hour. Canadians $65 per hour. Those in the Middle East and Western Europe earn $64 and $63 per hour, respectively.
Some of the very top earners:
Working for a company from home: According to Glassdoor which allows users to anonymously submit and view salaries, front end web developers in the US earn on average $76K per year.
Computer Engineers $92K per year. Php programmers $63K per year. Java Programmers $79K per year.
Online courses: One guy said he had 2 courses that made around $30K in two years. He has two other courses that made $3K in 2 years. That’s just from Udemy. He sold more courses on other sites.
In total, he earned over $100K in 3 years.
Another guy said after one year he made over $6K in one month alone.
How much money you make is greatly determined by how much traffic you can send to your course page.
The more people that can see it, the more sales you can make.
Code Marketplaces: One guy has about 6 products in total. He sells about 1.5 items per day and makes about $300 per month.
“Booking Core – Ultimate Booking System” was sold 647 times in the 8 months it’s been on CodeCanyon. That’s about $57K.
“WP Job Openings PRO” earned its owner about $14K in 8 months.
Information Business & Software Business: If you manage to build a successful business you can expect $2K – $10K a month on average.
Youtube: YouTubers make around $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views (from Ads alone) according to Forbes and other sources.
Of course, you can increase that income way more by selling affiliate products, sponsorships and other methods.
Kindle Ebooks: One guy made on average $377.87 per month selling an ebook for $2.99.
Another guy named Garrett makes about $300 per month and he has about 30 ebooks.
Another guy earns about $2K a month. Yet others like Steve Scott make $40K a month
I HOPE THIS HELPS YOU ALOT!........
FROM KINFE MICHAEL TARIKU!.
