With more companies, brands, and business owners looking to create an online identity or marketplace for their businesses, working as a developer is more rewarding than ever. As a developer, you can create and maintain websites or software for these entities and earn much money.
While you can work as a full-time developer with one entity, you can work with multiple entities and earn much more as a freelance developer. What’s more? You can work at your own pace and improve your work-life balance as a freelance developer.
Who Is a Freelance Developer, and What Do They Do?
A freelance developer works on a contract basis to create responsive websites, software, or apps for anyone looking to create an online storefront. Businesses understand the value of putting their business out there for everyone, and they can’t do it just by advertising or setting up social media pages.
A website is crucial for them to put out their business to the world effectively. To do this, they need the help of developers to create websites for them. Now, we have three main types of developers for the job: front-end developers, back-end developers, and full-stack developers.
All you need to know about these guys is that front-end developers are responsible for creating the website interface you interact with, back-ends handle the APIs and databases to ensure the website runs smoothly, and full-stacks basically do the job of front-ends and back-ends by themselves.
Hiring and providing benefits to any of these guys full-time is quite expensive, and that’s why people looking to create their websites prefer hiring freelance developers to do the job. And as a freelance developer, you can work from your comfort and for as many people as you want, maximizing your earnings and portfolio.
One of thechallenges software developers faceis balancing their work-life balance, and you can easily tackle this as a freelance developer. As a freelance developer, you can set your work hours and pace, leaving you enough flexibility to do anything you want anytime.
How to Become a Freelance Developer
If you have no knowledge of coding or freelancing, you can quickly become a freelance developer by following the proper steps. It may take time and a lot of effort to master the field, but it’s undoubtedly worthwhile. Here’s how to become a freelance developer:
1. Decide on Your Area of Specialization and Enroll for Courses or a Bootcamp
The first step in becoming a freelance developer is to choose your area of interest and find ways to learn it. From web development to Android development, you may take up different areas of development.
You may wonder why you can’t learn them all and be the jack of all trades, but it’s quite unnecessary. It’s much better to pick one area and specialize in it. To do this, you can learn with videos, enroll in courses, or join a boot camp.
It depends on how you want to learn and how much you’re willing to spend. You can always take free courses, but more advanced bootcamps offer live teachings and offline materials and even assist you with finding jobs after learning. If you decide to go with a bootcamp, be sure to look uptips that will help you succeed in a coding bootcamp.
2. Build Your Portfolio
If you are going to strike out on your own as a freelance developer, it’s best that you have a convincing portfolio to prove your expertise. In building your portfolio, you have to showcase what you have done and how you have done it, just like you’d include in your resume.
Even if you’re a self-taught developer and you don’t have any work experience, you can still build your portfolio. Here’s how:
All that matters is doing professional work that can convert into a referral or recommendation for you and, ultimately, garner work experience that you can include in your portfolio.
3. Set Up Your Freelancer Profile
After learning your preferred type of development and building your portfolio, the next step is to set up your freelancer profile. Setting up a freelancer profile goes beyond creating an account on a platform like LinkedIn and looking for jobs. There’s much more to it, depending on the freelance platform.
Let’s take a look at LinkedIn, for example. On LinkedIn, you can optimize your profile to the extent that your first freelancer profile will be the first to pop up when recruiters are looking for developers. All you have to do is tooptimize your LinkedIn profile to get more clients.
For starters, you can fill in your work history on LinkedIn and toggle on the Open To Work filter. This will show a badge on your profile, letting recruiters know you’re available to take up jobs.
What Skills Do You Need to Become a Freelance Developer?
Aside from knowing how to create websites, you need skills that qualify you as a freelance developer. Here are some core skills you will need as a freelancer and developer:
1. Programming and Mockup languages
Mastering foundational programming and mockup languages like HTML and CSS is essential for every developer. As you begin to work on different projects, you may need to widen your coding knowledge and learn moreskills to help you become a developer.
2. Soft Skills
Aside from creating websites, you need soft skills that qualify you as a freelancer. Some of the skills are time management, problem-solving, and client understanding.
As a freelancer, you need to be able to manage your time properly. Working at your own pace may ease the pressure on you, but it’s easy to slip up. That’s why you need to manage your time properly to complete your job duties and still have enough time to do whatever you want.
Problem-solving and client understanding are vital skills for you as a freelance developer. Most times, clients are not sure of what they want, and with a mastery of these skills, you can decipher what they need and create it for them.
3. Copywriting
Copywriting is essential for every freelance developer, especially when you are just starting out. From cold pitching prospective clients and advertising your services down to communicating with clients, you will find that copywriting skills are essential.
Where to Find Freelance Developer Jobs
While you can always cold pitch your services to businesses, brands, and companies that don’t have an online storefront, you can easily find freelance developer jobs on freelancing platforms. What’s more? You can set up your freelancer profile on these platforms and let the jobs come to you.
Upwork is the best place to market your services if you’re just starting your freelance developer career. It’s a platform that allows anyone to apply for a job with its proposal application system. We aren’t talking about a simple CV and resume application.
To apply for jobs on Upwork, you must submit a proposal containing your portfolio, resume, CV, and the amount you’re willing to accept to do the job. This way, you may easily gain clients by undercutting other freelancers. It’s not the best pay, but it’s the easiest way tobuild your portfolio from scratchand make money as a newbie in the market.
2.LinkedIn
With LinkedIn, you can set up your freelancer profile to find companies looking to hire a freelance developer. It’s a free platform with a premium subscription for more features. On the free side, you can set up your freelancer profile, connect with recruiters, showcase your expertise, and apply for jobs.
And with the premium subscription, you can cold pitch any recruiter or company you desire to work with, among other things.
Become a Freelance Developer
The road to becoming a successful freelance developer may be difficult initially, but it’s undoubtedly worthwhile. After learning how to build websites and apps as a developer, all that’s left is to set up your freelancer profile and market your services.
While the freelance developer market may be quite saturated, following the proper steps will make you stand out and get hired. you’re able to be your boss and earn more if you decide to strike out as a freelance developer.
