Ask Slashdot: Money-Making Home-Based Tech Skills? 332
New submitter ThatGamerChick writes "I'm a stay-at-home mom, but I'd like to be a work-at-home mom. I've done a few writing gigs, but I'm not a really good writer and cannot charge the fees needed for it to be worth my time. I'm just looking for something that I can teach myself in a few months and start taking small projects and working my way up from there. I've found that PHP, HTML and CSS to be the most demanded skills on sites like Elance, but the talent pool is flooded with overseas workers and Americans with so much more experience than me. Even when I was offering writing and virtual admin services on Elance I was having a hard time against them. So I'm asking here, because I think most of you may have a good insight on this type of thing as an employer of freelancers or as the freelancer themselves." What success have you had, either working from home, or employing those who do?
Video Game Commentary (Score:3, Interesting)
Sell local, not global (Score:3, Interesting)
There are tons of organizations near you/anyone who need help with their web sites, but who would feel very uncomfortable working with an eLance or an overseas company...and they don't have the budget to really pay the costs of what most consulting firms would charge. This means you are going to have to get out and make some contacts. The easiest thing you can do, assuming you can present at all, is to put together a talk (approx 20 minutes) that you can give with power point and without on "Promoting your company on the web" and then offer it to your local chamber of commerce and Rotary and women in business organizations. The information has to be useful whether they hire you or not. But there will be leads that come from that and off you go.
Re:Do something local (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree on this. About a year ago I quit my job to try my luck as an independent web developer. Pretty naively I assumed that all I had to do was make sure I was visible online and people would find me. Nobody did. I started browsing various sites that offered contracts on a freelance-basis but just like the original poster, I was shocked to see pretty complex projects being sold for 1/10th of what I would have offered without even trying to make a profit! Would I have made a better job than them? Probably. Did they care? No. So what to do?
After a couple of months I gave up on trying to outbid the competition and started calling some local companies. Turns out a lot of them needed help either with web related projects or IT in general, such as networking, small office servers, etc. While web development was what I was going for when I started, I've noticed I really like the variation in the tasks I'm assigned now. And I still get to do web development.
So yeah, going local is good advice.
YMMV - It's very hard (Score:5, Interesting)
I've tried what you've tried. I was on Rent A Coder, Moonlighter, Guru, and a few others.
First of all, with a '0' zero score, it will be extrememely difficult to get work - even if you offer your services for $1 or whatever the minimum is these days. Those sites are saturated with people. And many folks posting jobs actually have geographical restrictions: if you're not in a Third World country, you can't even bid.
Local business?
Again. Depending are on where you are matters, but here in Metro Atlanta, things are saturated. There have been a large amount of lay-offs and many folks are trying to do what you're doing out of desperation. Every Tom, Dick, Harry, Larry and Mary are in web development, support and PC repair. And contrary to the opinion here, they're not all screw-ups or mediocre - there are quite a few talented people out of work. Many of them had real jobs doing those things and got canned during economic meltdown. I constantly see signs on the side of the road from folks trying to get web design, coding, PC repair, and support work.
Retrain?
Good luck. Without paid experience it is also very hard. Folks want to talk to previous clients and see what other work you have done. And even then ... Out of desperaton, I tried putting up my own websites under different company names to use as "references" but my measely two websites werent' enough or I just sucked - I don't know because I never got feedback from people who mattered. Sure, all my friends said they looked great but apparently they weren't good enough.
I do know someone who did do well - as a graphic artist. She had a following at her old job and when she quit, the folks who liked her recommended her and when they changed jobs, they hired her - that way she didn't get into trouble for poaching people.
tl;dr Starting in this day and age as a freelancer is extremely difficult. All the folks I know who are making a living as freelancers were doing it since the 90's early '00s.
Re:Have you considered webcam work? (Score:1, Interesting)
You are a disgusting piece of shit. I don't think the OP was looking for a patronizing sexist answer.
I'm not the person you responded to, but I think their answer is pretty valid here. The woman has no real skills, wants something she can pick up and be proficient at in a few month's time, and not be underbid by foreign competition. Porn that takes her particular ethnicity into account is about all she has in terms of career prospects - don't make her feel dirty about it by projecting your personal views onto the subject.
Re:Do something local (Score:4, Interesting)
Take a look at learning how to setup and "program" FileMaker Pro for small businesses. I am not claiming you can jump in and become an expert in 2-3 months. You need an organized mind and a desire to figure out effective business solutions. It will require a lot of FMPro training of one type or another and you might work with one of the certified developers in your area. Plenty of books exist on database development, so the core knowledge is out there.
FileMaker is also entering the larger company markets, too, what with their iPad & iPhone apps connecting back to the FMPro on a server.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/01/27/filemaker_highlights_successful_deployment_of_ipads_by_austin_texas.html [appleinsider.com]
http://www.filemaker.com/ [filemaker.com]
Fix computers and network that way for local jobs (Score:4, Interesting)
Additionally, people with computers are often trying to do things with them.. websites, imagery, newsletters, blogs, etc. and many folks don't know how.
Setting them up document templates, blogs, and other workflow in addition to good free software, and advising on purchases is a good way to go for someone with even modest experience.
Computer experience is a "culture" of knowledge that many people aren't connected to. By having face-time with your clients you can know them well enough to do remote desktop or phone support from home on their projects as they do them. They will recommend you to everyone they know if they are happy and that can lead to bigger contracts. In home-based you need both the big and the small contracts.
This can also lead to doing contra with any local businesses you are a customer of. woohoo!
Re:Do something local (Score:4, Interesting)
Nice job bashing both the product and Apple in one paragraph ... but the guy actually had a valid point, which you simply wanted to bulldoze over. SMALL businesses are not likely to invest in a Lotus Notes solution. A copy of Bento (mobile version of FMP for iOS devices) is very inexpensive and has a modern, up-to-date look. (Not some relic from the 90's.)
If, like many businesses, they simply need a basic database of contacts or some other specific info, accessible and editable from multiple, portable devices? It's not a bad solution at all.
Re:Home porn videos? (Score:3, Interesting)
...there are actually no well paying work-from-home jobs that you can get in 2-3 months. If it can be done from home, it can be done from India as well.
- Unless being local is either necessary or preferred. ..
I would start with things I like to do and see if others are interested. Crafts, programming for kids, educational crafts, helping others with assembling technical home improvement projects, building water barrels,
Parents might pay for something that is in between a daycare and technical home-schooling - especially if the class meets Saturday night occasionally.
Re:Do something local (Score:5, Interesting)
You would be surprised how many small businesses and even large businesses rely on FileMaker. I work with a hospital and practically all ad-hoc databasing by the employees is done using FileMaker Server. It beats Excel or Access, can be linked into a proper SQL database very easily and it is centralized and doesn't need a DBA caressing the system so it doesn't fall apart for each MSSQL Server or Oracle instance.
FileMaker has what Access or MSSQL Express lacks: WYSIWYG interface that builds a database and it's front end and website in one fell swoop and recently also gives you access over mobile devices and PHP integration. What's not to like?
Re:Home porn videos? (Score:4, Interesting)
Would you really want to pay anything to get PHP written by somebody that learned it in a few months?
Yes, if they're cheap (because they've just learned PHP) but good (because they've just learned PHP, now that it has namespaces and proper objects) and smart (enough to know what good code looks like rather than cheap mass-cut-and-paste crap from outsourced Indian code monkeys).
After learning PHP for a few months with an appropriate eye toward best practices, the OP could produce code that's functional as a starting point for a new web-based business. Sure, it wouldn't be spectacular or particularly efficient, but it'd be enough to show investors the idea and eventually mold into a working system.
Thanks! (Score:5, Interesting)