Good ways to earn income as a self employed developer

Question

I was just wondering if people could share their experiences and ideas about generating / earning income from a software product or service they have personally developed.

To me this seems like a good way to earn a living while doing what we love (programming) and working on projects and problems which interest us. Ie, NOT boring bank or marketing software etc 9-5 all week...

Some ideas I have are things like web 2.0 style sites (Facebook,Youtube,Twitter,Digg) etc etc... - These can be very very profitable as we all know but can take years to take off. Are there ways to survive until/if this does happen?

Mobile applications. Iphone, Google Android and the new up coming Nintendo DS app store. These have good potential to make it easy to find a market for your application and make selling it easy.

Shareware/PC software. A bit 80's and 90's and you kind of need to be a salesman/marketer to sell it but its the only other thing I can think of.

Also im not talking about doing freelance work. Im only interested in idea's you can come up with and develop your self (not other peoples ideas or problems which are you are payed to develop).

Things that a sole developer or at the most 2 developers could work on and have good potential for high returns on investment (in terms of time) would be great.

PS, I wish I thought of stackoverflow!

Answer 1

PS, I wish I thought of stackoverflow!

One of Stackoverflow key points is that it has to be free to use. ;-).

If you want to earn money as self employes developer you need to find a market or a general problem that can be solved (but is not yet solved). Be original, creative and prepared to work hard.

Answer 2

Big things like facebook, youtube, twitter... well, there's a dozen who succeed, and a few thousand who fail. Those who succeed have enough money for a good start, probably several millions of USD or EUR. (If it was so easy to make big bucks, everyone would do it)

Mobile applications... it might be a bit late with the iPhone, but better with the other platforms. Don't forget Windows Mobile, Symbian and JavaME btw.

Shareware... Probably already dead.

Stackoverflow... It's not just a matter of having a good idea, it also takes gathering lots of good people. That's actually the hard part. Several other sites have had similar ideas, but without popular bloggers like Jeff and Joel, it most likely would not have worked.

My take on it: For many people, consulting/contracting works, though it's only slightly less boring than your common 9-5 job. If you plan to make anything that could be called a product, don't forget that you also need marketing skills and money for advertising to make it happen.

Answer 3

Solve 1 problem well and make sure it's cost effective vs the competition.

After that market the Bleep out of it so you make sure it gets used a lot.

Answer 4

And also consider how much effort you need to support the product long after purchase. It's fun to craft a piece of software, sell it and watch some money roll in but not much fun having to support users for many years to come.