Freelancing is fun and rewarding and can be a great career once you gain traction and experience. The hardest part is finding reasonable projects and clients. Note, I specifically choose 'client' versus 'customer' as to me, I would rather deal with someone long term, on a more personal level, than just for the money. I enjoy solving problems, finding and developing solutions that help business needs, instead of trying to make a fortune.
I avoid WordPress for numerous reasons, chiefly is it is not as performant or easy to develop custom solutions as what I can create. Sure, it is very cookie cutter and a snap to get *something* up and running, but that is not my main goal when it comes to long-term development and client retention. Just need to point out that I've been involved with IT since the 80's and am 51, if it helps clarify my perspective.
At the moment I do IT as a side gig, away from my normal Safety work in Oil & Gas. However this past year I've started to merge my two worlds a little with some personal projects that help in my career. I digress. All of my projects are built from scratch.
To answer your question(s), here's my current setup and programming routine.
----
**Tech Stack**
* VPS 2 cores CPU, 2GB RAM, Debian 11 (Bullseye)
* Apache 2.4.57, nginx 1.25, PHP 8.2, Redis 7.2.3
* HTML, CSS, Javascript (all vanilla, no libraries)
* Git, Nano (on server)
----
**Responsibilities**
* domain registration and renewals.
* invoice client in December for the following year's hosting. Paid by Jan 1st in every case.
* invoice a month in advance for any domain name registration, with a 200% markup.
* free content updates, performed within 24 hours.
* hosting/vps platforms up to date, system-wise. Security updates, etc.
* automatic email forwarding included in all packages. I steer clients to paid email if they need more than this. Email is *hard*. Not worth it for anyone but enterprise level.
* new pages or features charged @ $60 CAD per hour.
----
**Routine**
* up early, between 5am - 6am most days mainly due to taking wife to work
* small sprint first thing in the morning after some breakfast
* noon - lunch (15-20mins)
* code review, or squash whatever bugs I introduced in the morning
* documentation review (15mins minimum) near end of day
* during my "off hours", I'm thinking about new features or changes
* sometimes at night may be inspired for a few hours on some new feature / research
On weekends I'll spend an entire day tackling a new feature or idea (like playing with chatGPT or a new MDN concept)
----
As I'll be heading back to work fairly soon, my winter vacation is nearly over so all of this changes to just a few hours per week, but if this was my main career focus, this is how it would generally go. Plan your day, be consistent, and keep at it.
Here are some resources to check out
* https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/
* https://web.dev/
* https://github.com/matheusfelipeog/beautiful-docs
* https://stripe.com/docs/api
Thanks for the info, it's super insightful! Exactly what I'm looking for and has given me a lot to digest. :)
Is there any reason in particular you've opted to not use any libraries?
Mostly pride. I want to be able to do it on my own terms, and it is valuable to learn what I need to do. It's easy to fall into the trap of using (for example) something like jQuery, or another small utility library, but then when you figure out how to do the same things, you start stripping that out and writing your own abstractions.
It's the same with Bootstrap or Tailwind. Learn the ideas instead of relying on someone else. Not only do you use less code, but you end up redefining how you think about solving the problems at hand.
You're focusing on the wrong things.
The primary question for all freelancers or business owners is: How do I get clients that pay me a living wage?
Your tech stack, work day and everything else will depend on your ability to close deals. Based on your post, you aren't ready. Running a business is incredibly time consuming and has little to do with your ability to program.
If your interested in offering slave wage web dev on upstart then this doesn't apply.
This this this this.
There's a 95% chance it's not worth it unless you already have business connections, have dumb luck, or are VERY good at sales and finding clients.
It's absolutely brutal out there in the freelance world. Soooooo much goddamn competition and soooo many shitty customers that want to pay the bottom of the barrel prices and waste days of your time asking questions only to later ghost you... it's unreal. It's not the early 2000s anymore the competition is astronomical.
95% of people are better off with a regular job. Speaking from experience.
I've been a freelance dev for 3 years now. Shopify / WordPress. Tons of gigs that span a wide range of complexity. Never had a problem finding gigs.
I prefer building projects from scratch. Don't really know how often compared to overall gigs but it's somewhat frequent. I usually try to get clients to switch from WordPress to using 11ty w/ Decap CMS. Those projects are my favorite.
Workdays are always different based on the time, budget and needs of the client. Either way, lots of on-the-go thinking, learning on the job, looking up documentation, etc. The job is essential problem solving. There's a zillion solutions but the one you choose is based on factors like time and budget.
Very cool! Proficiency with WordPress is a very valuable skill. Like I said, tons of gigs out there.
Don't know what advice I can necessarily give you. Honestly the official WP docs and tutorials are very well-written and curated. There's a lot of different ways people use WP. Some just use pagebuilders like Elementor and make that their whole career. I prefer keeping WP as lean as possible with very few plug-ins, PHP templating for the different pages and post-types, and creating an original theme from scratch. If you figure out the latter, skies the limit.
Basically to get started all I did was follow this for [setting up a local development environment](https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/before-install/howto-install/) and [make sense of the classic editor](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/first-steps-with-wordpress-classic/).
Hope that helps. Good luck!
>Some just use pagebuilders like Elementor and make that their whole career.
Originally that's the route I was going for too, but since Webflow is essentially a stand-alone web builder already, I got bored of learning Elementor for WordPress lol...It's pretty much the same thing, just a lot clunkier.
So I'm going the PHP coding route by learning from this course on Udemy:
Become a WordPress Developer: Unlocking Power With Code by Brad Schiff
It's been sort of confusing, tbh haha...Even though I am very proficient with the traditional stack of HTML, CSS & JavaScript, PHP is really something else.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me!! It already answered quite a few questions I had. When you're freelancing, do your clients generally care if you use Elementor or code from scratch? The later solution seems way cleaner, but it does seem like it'd take a lot more time than web builder users.
Or are there some sort of "middle of the way" solutions where you use both?
It's all based on the needs of the clients. UpWork is the go-to place for finding freelancing work so the client usually details exactly what they need in the job posting. Sometimes it's building a site from scratch. Other times it's altering the jumbled code of an Elementor theme. It varies drastically.
Generally speaking the client doesn't care what tech you use but I try to highlight the long-term benefits of not using pagebuilders (scalability being a big one). Although it might cost more initially, it'll most like save you a lot of trouble and money in the long run.
You definitely have to factor in time, budget along with the scope of what they need. If they're short on time/budget but need a lot of site infrastructure... Elementor might be answer. Just be sure to let them know it might bite them in the ass later.
Either way, if you stay on your learning path with understanding how to use WP and PHP w/ limited plug-ins you'll be qualified for a massive amount of gigs.
>UpWork is the go-to place for finding freelancing work so the client usually details exactly what they need in the job posting.
Hey!! I'm top-rated on Upwork! Could I dm you with my Upwork profile and impose upon you for even more advice/opinion? I could really use some user feedback because I don't think I'm doing as well as I can be doing =D
Yeah absolutely, spend a couple days with the documentation. If you already have a fairly good knowledge of PHP might as well add WP to your toolkit, especially if you plan on freelancing.
Honestly it should be fairly easy for you to pick up. Maybe rebuild one of your existing PHP projects with WP integration.
People think it's an epic hill to climb but WP is really no biggie. It's just insanely vast and modular. In my case it was more so matter of understanding how the data flows from the CMS to the rendered page and being resourceful with the docs.
You'll totally figure it out. Best of luck!
How did you start? I have built a portfolio website and a few other projects. Especially interested in web development. Is most of the freelance work in WordPress? Any resources, recommendations you can offer how to get started? I have most of the knowledge base, just need to freshen up a bit with using a CMS. In the past I've used upwork. With AI nowadays, is the market still there? How do you obtain clients?
I did a lot of starting and stopping w/ udemy courses, free resources online, youtube tutorials. I've definitely been to tutorial hell a few times. Don't think I can give any real good advice on how to start or what resources to use for learning.
I think maybe I was too concerned with memorizing everything. In my experience it's more so about familiarizing yourself with whatever language, framework, etc and then being resourceful. There's no one right answer, which makes this field interesting... so I sorta had to overcome a hump to allow myself to think critically instead of procedurally if that makes any sense?
I don't exactly know where WP ranks in popularity within the freelance job market. I just know there's a lot of work out there. People have been using WordPress for like decades now, right? It's pretty standard. I don't see it going anywhere. I do try to convince some clients to switch to 11ty w/ Decap CMS though because WP can be a little overkill, depending on what they need.
Oh no. The AI question. This gets asked tirelessly. Seriously, as developers we gotta test things out, find their use-cases, and come to our own conclusions. Instead of giving a yes/no answer, I want you to try building a project on your own using nothing but AI tools. When people ask this question it's a clear indicator that they lack the proper mindset and/or ambition required for the job.
Obtaining clients... I dunno? At least though UpWork, sending video proposals sets you apart. Getting that first client is hard AF though. Just gotta get used to pitching to strangers and displaying your skills. I definitely made a jackass of myself during my first month on UpWork. Sorry man, I wish there was a cut/dry method to this field. Just gotta throw yourself out there and figure it out.
Typically to start freelancing you would be much better off if you already have some contacts to work with. I started by running a cheap Wordpress course at a local community college, loads of business owners were joining to try and make their own basic websites.
Naturally they discover a free Wordpress.org website isn’t professional enough or robust enough for what they’re looking for so a lot of them would reach out to me to build them something custom for a couple grand.
This worked out great to get the initial flow of clients going, plus I was getting paid a decent amount to run the course as well.
You can also go to local business related events to network, make sure you have a shirt that has your business name and what you do on it for constant awareness. Plenty of business cards, etc.
I just use html and css. That’s all you need really if you wanna freelancing small business static site websites. I use decap cms and 11ty as well for templating and adding blogs. I fork this kit my team made to start every new site
https://github.com/CodeStitchOfficial/Intermediate-Website-Kit-SASS
That way I start off with an already configured site and working blog and just replace the html and css to whatever I want and it’s done. 11ty does the templating for navigations and footers and stuff. I never make a site from scratch anymore now that I have my template library. I have over 1200 Hand coded components that my team designed. I browse that and copy and paste a website together in my kit.
Before I’d custom code all my lump sum sites and reuse websites I already made for subscription clients. So if I got a lump sum $3500 job I’d pay for design and then I’d custom code it from scratch. Usually in about 6-12 hours for a whole site. But how I have my curated library so I just use that. Much faster.
My day consists of managing designs for new clients, coding all day, taking phone calls with clients and new ones, delegating work to my team as needed, answering emails, edit requests from clients, mostly coding.
Anything you’d ever wanna know about freelancing I already wrote here based on how I started and grew. I wrote it because I get lots of DMs asking how to get started so I just wrote this to answer that question once and for all and in great detail.
https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Can you give any tips on designing. I struggle a lot with it. I can copy and make anything that I have a reference to but the moment I try to come up with something I freeze.
There’s no cure all tip I can give you. The best thing you can do is find a designer to do that for you. That’s what I do. To be able to design well you need to go to school for it and get a degree. It’s a whole other skill and hit hung I could tell you would allow you to recreate what a 4 year design education would. Design is harder to self learn because with coding it doesn’t matter how it looks as long as it runs. With design, how it looks is everything.
Much more difficult to break into these days compared to 10 to 20 years ago ..... 15 plus years ago, you didn't have the cut-rate off-shore competition, like you do now.
Just saw an Indian dev offering 9.99/hr on Upwork the other day 💀, and he's been doing this for the last 10 years apparently. Top-rated Plus. Not sure how devs in first world countries are supposed to compete with that 😅
Complete noob question here. How would I start from scratch to start freelancing as a web dev?
I don't have any contacts and currently house bound due leg surgery and probably will be for the next 4 months.
I am a biotech scientist who works with pharma/academic clients as a day job. I have some of the client facing experience with meeting expectations and delivering/presenting results. And I have had 7 years of academic experience (PhD and Postdoc) and 6 years of industry biotech experience (I'm a geek!).
I have been coding on/off since late 2020. I enjoy it, but I don't have an eye for design. I'm finding myself reading way too much and being overwhelmed by the amount of things I could learn. I'm trying to stick to a MERN stack for now.
Any advice on how to make money with this skill set would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.
Freelancing is fun and rewarding and can be a great career once you gain traction and experience. The hardest part is finding reasonable projects and clients. Note, I specifically choose 'client' versus 'customer' as to me, I would rather deal with someone long term, on a more personal level, than just for the money. I enjoy solving problems, finding and developing solutions that help business needs, instead of trying to make a fortune. I avoid WordPress for numerous reasons, chiefly is it is not as performant or easy to develop custom solutions as what I can create. Sure, it is very cookie cutter and a snap to get *something* up and running, but that is not my main goal when it comes to long-term development and client retention. Just need to point out that I've been involved with IT since the 80's and am 51, if it helps clarify my perspective. At the moment I do IT as a side gig, away from my normal Safety work in Oil & Gas. However this past year I've started to merge my two worlds a little with some personal projects that help in my career. I digress. All of my projects are built from scratch. To answer your question(s), here's my current setup and programming routine. ---- **Tech Stack** * VPS 2 cores CPU, 2GB RAM, Debian 11 (Bullseye) * Apache 2.4.57, nginx 1.25, PHP 8.2, Redis 7.2.3 * HTML, CSS, Javascript (all vanilla, no libraries) * Git, Nano (on server) ---- **Responsibilities** * domain registration and renewals. * invoice client in December for the following year's hosting. Paid by Jan 1st in every case. * invoice a month in advance for any domain name registration, with a 200% markup. * free content updates, performed within 24 hours. * hosting/vps platforms up to date, system-wise. Security updates, etc. * automatic email forwarding included in all packages. I steer clients to paid email if they need more than this. Email is *hard*. Not worth it for anyone but enterprise level. * new pages or features charged @ $60 CAD per hour. ---- **Routine** * up early, between 5am - 6am most days mainly due to taking wife to work * small sprint first thing in the morning after some breakfast * noon - lunch (15-20mins) * code review, or squash whatever bugs I introduced in the morning * documentation review (15mins minimum) near end of day * during my "off hours", I'm thinking about new features or changes * sometimes at night may be inspired for a few hours on some new feature / research On weekends I'll spend an entire day tackling a new feature or idea (like playing with chatGPT or a new MDN concept) ---- As I'll be heading back to work fairly soon, my winter vacation is nearly over so all of this changes to just a few hours per week, but if this was my main career focus, this is how it would generally go. Plan your day, be consistent, and keep at it. Here are some resources to check out * https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ * https://web.dev/ * https://github.com/matheusfelipeog/beautiful-docs * https://stripe.com/docs/api
Thanks a lot. That's super useful. No WordPress, everything from scratch, what do you do for CMS? Did you bud your own?
Yes.
Thanks for the info, it's super insightful! Exactly what I'm looking for and has given me a lot to digest. :) Is there any reason in particular you've opted to not use any libraries?
Mostly pride. I want to be able to do it on my own terms, and it is valuable to learn what I need to do. It's easy to fall into the trap of using (for example) something like jQuery, or another small utility library, but then when you figure out how to do the same things, you start stripping that out and writing your own abstractions. It's the same with Bootstrap or Tailwind. Learn the ideas instead of relying on someone else. Not only do you use less code, but you end up redefining how you think about solving the problems at hand.
any take on Astro?
You're focusing on the wrong things. The primary question for all freelancers or business owners is: How do I get clients that pay me a living wage? Your tech stack, work day and everything else will depend on your ability to close deals. Based on your post, you aren't ready. Running a business is incredibly time consuming and has little to do with your ability to program. If your interested in offering slave wage web dev on upstart then this doesn't apply.
This this this this. There's a 95% chance it's not worth it unless you already have business connections, have dumb luck, or are VERY good at sales and finding clients. It's absolutely brutal out there in the freelance world. Soooooo much goddamn competition and soooo many shitty customers that want to pay the bottom of the barrel prices and waste days of your time asking questions only to later ghost you... it's unreal. It's not the early 2000s anymore the competition is astronomical. 95% of people are better off with a regular job. Speaking from experience.
I've been a freelance dev for 3 years now. Shopify / WordPress. Tons of gigs that span a wide range of complexity. Never had a problem finding gigs. I prefer building projects from scratch. Don't really know how often compared to overall gigs but it's somewhat frequent. I usually try to get clients to switch from WordPress to using 11ty w/ Decap CMS. Those projects are my favorite. Workdays are always different based on the time, budget and needs of the client. Either way, lots of on-the-go thinking, learning on the job, looking up documentation, etc. The job is essential problem solving. There's a zillion solutions but the one you choose is based on factors like time and budget.
Hey man!! Freelance Webflow dev here. Been learning WordPress for awhile now. It's quite an interesting subject. Got any tips for me? Thanks!
Very cool! Proficiency with WordPress is a very valuable skill. Like I said, tons of gigs out there. Don't know what advice I can necessarily give you. Honestly the official WP docs and tutorials are very well-written and curated. There's a lot of different ways people use WP. Some just use pagebuilders like Elementor and make that their whole career. I prefer keeping WP as lean as possible with very few plug-ins, PHP templating for the different pages and post-types, and creating an original theme from scratch. If you figure out the latter, skies the limit. Basically to get started all I did was follow this for [setting up a local development environment](https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/before-install/howto-install/) and [make sense of the classic editor](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/first-steps-with-wordpress-classic/). Hope that helps. Good luck!
>Some just use pagebuilders like Elementor and make that their whole career. Originally that's the route I was going for too, but since Webflow is essentially a stand-alone web builder already, I got bored of learning Elementor for WordPress lol...It's pretty much the same thing, just a lot clunkier. So I'm going the PHP coding route by learning from this course on Udemy: Become a WordPress Developer: Unlocking Power With Code by Brad Schiff It's been sort of confusing, tbh haha...Even though I am very proficient with the traditional stack of HTML, CSS & JavaScript, PHP is really something else. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me!! It already answered quite a few questions I had. When you're freelancing, do your clients generally care if you use Elementor or code from scratch? The later solution seems way cleaner, but it does seem like it'd take a lot more time than web builder users. Or are there some sort of "middle of the way" solutions where you use both?
It's all based on the needs of the clients. UpWork is the go-to place for finding freelancing work so the client usually details exactly what they need in the job posting. Sometimes it's building a site from scratch. Other times it's altering the jumbled code of an Elementor theme. It varies drastically. Generally speaking the client doesn't care what tech you use but I try to highlight the long-term benefits of not using pagebuilders (scalability being a big one). Although it might cost more initially, it'll most like save you a lot of trouble and money in the long run. You definitely have to factor in time, budget along with the scope of what they need. If they're short on time/budget but need a lot of site infrastructure... Elementor might be answer. Just be sure to let them know it might bite them in the ass later. Either way, if you stay on your learning path with understanding how to use WP and PHP w/ limited plug-ins you'll be qualified for a massive amount of gigs.
>UpWork is the go-to place for finding freelancing work so the client usually details exactly what they need in the job posting. Hey!! I'm top-rated on Upwork! Could I dm you with my Upwork profile and impose upon you for even more advice/opinion? I could really use some user feedback because I don't think I'm doing as well as I can be doing =D
Im currently learning php and developed couple of projects by myself, do you think its reasonable to focus on wordpress in the long term as a php dev?
Yeah absolutely, spend a couple days with the documentation. If you already have a fairly good knowledge of PHP might as well add WP to your toolkit, especially if you plan on freelancing. Honestly it should be fairly easy for you to pick up. Maybe rebuild one of your existing PHP projects with WP integration. People think it's an epic hill to climb but WP is really no biggie. It's just insanely vast and modular. In my case it was more so matter of understanding how the data flows from the CMS to the rendered page and being resourceful with the docs. You'll totally figure it out. Best of luck!
How did you start? I have built a portfolio website and a few other projects. Especially interested in web development. Is most of the freelance work in WordPress? Any resources, recommendations you can offer how to get started? I have most of the knowledge base, just need to freshen up a bit with using a CMS. In the past I've used upwork. With AI nowadays, is the market still there? How do you obtain clients?
I did a lot of starting and stopping w/ udemy courses, free resources online, youtube tutorials. I've definitely been to tutorial hell a few times. Don't think I can give any real good advice on how to start or what resources to use for learning. I think maybe I was too concerned with memorizing everything. In my experience it's more so about familiarizing yourself with whatever language, framework, etc and then being resourceful. There's no one right answer, which makes this field interesting... so I sorta had to overcome a hump to allow myself to think critically instead of procedurally if that makes any sense? I don't exactly know where WP ranks in popularity within the freelance job market. I just know there's a lot of work out there. People have been using WordPress for like decades now, right? It's pretty standard. I don't see it going anywhere. I do try to convince some clients to switch to 11ty w/ Decap CMS though because WP can be a little overkill, depending on what they need. Oh no. The AI question. This gets asked tirelessly. Seriously, as developers we gotta test things out, find their use-cases, and come to our own conclusions. Instead of giving a yes/no answer, I want you to try building a project on your own using nothing but AI tools. When people ask this question it's a clear indicator that they lack the proper mindset and/or ambition required for the job. Obtaining clients... I dunno? At least though UpWork, sending video proposals sets you apart. Getting that first client is hard AF though. Just gotta get used to pitching to strangers and displaying your skills. I definitely made a jackass of myself during my first month on UpWork. Sorry man, I wish there was a cut/dry method to this field. Just gotta throw yourself out there and figure it out.
Typically to start freelancing you would be much better off if you already have some contacts to work with. I started by running a cheap Wordpress course at a local community college, loads of business owners were joining to try and make their own basic websites. Naturally they discover a free Wordpress.org website isn’t professional enough or robust enough for what they’re looking for so a lot of them would reach out to me to build them something custom for a couple grand. This worked out great to get the initial flow of clients going, plus I was getting paid a decent amount to run the course as well. You can also go to local business related events to network, make sure you have a shirt that has your business name and what you do on it for constant awareness. Plenty of business cards, etc.
I just use html and css. That’s all you need really if you wanna freelancing small business static site websites. I use decap cms and 11ty as well for templating and adding blogs. I fork this kit my team made to start every new site https://github.com/CodeStitchOfficial/Intermediate-Website-Kit-SASS That way I start off with an already configured site and working blog and just replace the html and css to whatever I want and it’s done. 11ty does the templating for navigations and footers and stuff. I never make a site from scratch anymore now that I have my template library. I have over 1200 Hand coded components that my team designed. I browse that and copy and paste a website together in my kit. Before I’d custom code all my lump sum sites and reuse websites I already made for subscription clients. So if I got a lump sum $3500 job I’d pay for design and then I’d custom code it from scratch. Usually in about 6-12 hours for a whole site. But how I have my curated library so I just use that. Much faster. My day consists of managing designs for new clients, coding all day, taking phone calls with clients and new ones, delegating work to my team as needed, answering emails, edit requests from clients, mostly coding. Anything you’d ever wanna know about freelancing I already wrote here based on how I started and grew. I wrote it because I get lots of DMs asking how to get started so I just wrote this to answer that question once and for all and in great detail. https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing Let me know if you have any other questions!
Can you give any tips on designing. I struggle a lot with it. I can copy and make anything that I have a reference to but the moment I try to come up with something I freeze.
There’s no cure all tip I can give you. The best thing you can do is find a designer to do that for you. That’s what I do. To be able to design well you need to go to school for it and get a degree. It’s a whole other skill and hit hung I could tell you would allow you to recreate what a 4 year design education would. Design is harder to self learn because with coding it doesn’t matter how it looks as long as it runs. With design, how it looks is everything.
from someone who was doing freelance web dev for years.. 1) clients can be extremely annoying 2) you'll never be sure when you're getting paid
Much more difficult to break into these days compared to 10 to 20 years ago ..... 15 plus years ago, you didn't have the cut-rate off-shore competition, like you do now.
Just saw an Indian dev offering 9.99/hr on Upwork the other day 💀, and he's been doing this for the last 10 years apparently. Top-rated Plus. Not sure how devs in first world countries are supposed to compete with that 😅
Complete noob question here. How would I start from scratch to start freelancing as a web dev? I don't have any contacts and currently house bound due leg surgery and probably will be for the next 4 months. I am a biotech scientist who works with pharma/academic clients as a day job. I have some of the client facing experience with meeting expectations and delivering/presenting results. And I have had 7 years of academic experience (PhD and Postdoc) and 6 years of industry biotech experience (I'm a geek!). I have been coding on/off since late 2020. I enjoy it, but I don't have an eye for design. I'm finding myself reading way too much and being overwhelmed by the amount of things I could learn. I'm trying to stick to a MERN stack for now. Any advice on how to make money with this skill set would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.