My dad always tells me to write apps to make money.

I did try that before but conclusion I came to was I can only create apps for myself, not for others. (Unless of course it's a job which gaurantees pay and usually I'm still a user).

Thoughts? How do you guys code/freelance just for the money?

If you find something useful and can't find something that already does it there's a good chance other people want it too.

Basically I make stuff for me and share it with others, nothing very interesting or widely used but I'm not really trying to do it for money. Good luck with that!

@alwaysmpe that's my view too, just wondering what the other side thinks

If I'm doing anything for the money, I either do it based on daily pay (I only really do it for individuals) or I make it, show them, then they pay me and I put it live.

@DucksCanCode #2 what if they don't pay you. You still did the work tho.

Kinda like me, I build a few sites before, no one came, no money.... Or even users...

@billgates then they don't get the product, I still do it for something to do and also for the hell of it, I mean, the worst that happens is they don't pay, and I've just finished another project which comes with experience, pride, and knowledge. Money is just a bonus.

@DucksCanCode no bills to pay? I mean for me if something build create is not used, most of the time I spent feels wasted. Also why I don't like front-end/web dev, too much time spent just making things pretty.

@billgates and that's one of the reasons I love front end, but I also love back end. And I guess I still feel I've got more to learn, so whenever that happens (honestly, only happened about 3 times), I feel I've still learnt something, but maybe you're at the point where you don't have that... meh, I dunno

@DucksCanCode well I guess analogy for me is I'm full stack but I like JS; not CSS, HTML

@billgates if possible, you could take on freelance projects that involve elements you want to learn as well as ones you're good at. This way you're learning and getting paid (even if a little less). I found this to be more motivating.

@faisal I'm actually not a free lancer, and don't think I would be fit for it, for all the reasons mentioned above. Just curious how they do it

Need bizniz skills alongside coding. I always hear Fred Brooks's comment from The Mythical Man Month in my head whenever people talk about writing apps. "It takes 3x effort to make a library, 3x that to make a product, and 3x that to make a system."

My advice is to get used to working with clients and write your own small apps on the side. Pick one of your apps and turn it into a product. Use the money from freelancing to hire graphic designers or coding interns to help on the side project.

Client work is difficult because its more than just coding.

I just enjoy coding, don't care what the project is about. As long as I get to write the code I'm happy. It's when they expect me to read their minds and know exactly what they want when I start to get annoyed.

I just do freelancing making websites since the money motivates you, all programs i make are open source :)

@Dacexi if money motivated me... i would've quit my current job for a new one or be very very depressed right now....

@billgates of course, if you have a job and you're happy there then of course do what you want. I'm just a little kid so I can't have a job. So I do freelance :)

@Dacexi oh right... I forgot... Now I'm depressed...a little kid can prolly best me at coding... jkjk 😁

@billgates 😂 been coding since I was 6 :p

That was when I wrote my first "hello world" in Python :)

@Dacexi hey that's when I wrote my first Hello World in QBASIC!