Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 105 posts

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#91

Post by richardknop »

csomar wrote: post #84
richardknop wrote: post #44

Does contracting count as freelancing? Serious question. Or do you mean freelances as only in gigster/upwork sense? As a contractor I am technically working via my one man company but mostly work in a company office alongside other employees, so not sure if you count that as freelancing.

Are you in the US? I think you should be an employee instead.

I'm in UK. You should be an employee if you work in a single company for 2+ years. Contractors often only work in 6-12 month contracts so you are not definitely an employee if you only come to work on a project for 6 months and then go work somewhere else.

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#93

Post by ponyous »

Garvey wrote: post #48
ponyous wrote: post #35

Not making 6 figures, but I could if I took fewer holidays. London based, doing full stack javascript - mostly focus on the front end.

What sort of level would you say you were at with regards to your js knowledge, and how long have you been working with it? I'm still pretty green and living up north, but looking to the future, I could see me having to move to get a decent salary, just wondering how feasible it may be.

I was hired as a senior contractor. I work with JS for about 5 years, 3 years as primary language. All of it professionally.

I think it's totally feasible. I moved here when I was 19 with the salary between 30-40k. 3 years later, I am doing something I always wanted for a great amount of money. I think without these two rules I wouldn't make it: - Invest in knowledge - Don't put your age on CV

But London is all about trying imo.

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#94

Post by troels »

zulln wrote: post #47
troels wrote: post #29

Six figures is a pretty useless distinction these days. It's like how every homeowner is technically a millionaire. The term sticks though. In any case, freelancer is a vague term. Working on smaller, ad-hoc tasks it is probably harder to make a big payday, but working longer contracts (also called a contractor) can pay very well.

Every homeowner is far from a millionaire in the US.

Yeah, a bit hyperbole. The point though, is that being a millionaire isn't as impressive as it used to be 50 years ago, but we still use the term to signify someone incredibly wealthy.

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#96

Post by Kaladin »

bruno2223 wrote: post #16

Back-End Dev here (Node). I do integration between Brazillian mobile carriers and international Apps (content providers in general) who wants to get into Brazilian market, usually to bill users on their mobile plan instead of paypal or inApp Purchase. The funnil gap is much lower when you Bill users in mobile plan. Brazilian carrier has a tough and slow integration process and, without a local IT support is almost im…

What are some best resource for learning node?

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#97

Post by varunvkrishnan »

jaredcwhite wrote: post #79
jv22222 wrote: post #31

@thr2178008 Hey there. I'll give you a proven roadmap to six figure freelancing right now. 1) Pick a new up and coming language or framework. Something like elixir or pheonix or something else that is really hot and just starting out. 2) Learn it. As you learn, write a series of really awesome tutorials and articles on your blog about that stack. 3) Help people out on SO and other forums that talk about that tech. Po…

To a certain extent I agree, only in some respects I'm the opposite regarding point 1. I still work exclusively on Ruby on Rails projects (on the backend, frontend is trending towards Vue.js usage now), and that's actually proven quite successful lately. Clients that aren't super tech-savvy don't really care what I'm using as long as it works and I can get it done in a speedy fashion (which I can because I know Rails…

Agreed and this is probably true for most "legacy" languages - for example there is still very much a market for COBOL, REXX, etc and it does pay well. However the flip side is that the size of the niche market gets smaller over time.

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#98

Post by bwaxxlo »

Kaladin wrote: post #96
bruno2223 wrote: post #16

Back-End Dev here (Node). I do integration between Brazillian mobile carriers and international Apps (content providers in general) who wants to get into Brazilian market, usually to bill users on their mobile plan instead of paypal or inApp Purchase. The funnil gap is much lower when you Bill users in mobile plan. Brazilian carrier has a tough and slow integration process and, without a local IT support is almost im…

What are some best resource for learning node?

https://leanpub.com/hands-on-nodejs

This is hands down the best book I read about node. As long as you're already comfortable with JS, this should be more than enough to have you write your own Node apps. Best thing about it: it doesn't limit your to writing node servers like most other intro books. You start seeing node as JS removed away from the browser to a standalone language and not just a way to write javascript web servers.

When I went through it, it was all in es5. So, like I said, if you're comfortable with JS - this shouldn't be a turn-off

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#99

Post by kowdermeister »

richardknop wrote: post #44

Does contracting count as freelancing? Serious question. Or do you mean freelances as only in gigster/upwork sense? As a contractor I am technically working via my one man company but mostly work in a company office alongside other employees, so not sure if you count that as freelancing.

Contracting is a synonym of freelancing. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Ask HN: 6-figure freelancers of HN, what do you do?

#100

Post by Thoguth »

1. Get a degree in computer science.

2. Work in corporate development for large, medium, and small companies, startups, etc. for 20 years.

3. Keep skills sharp, keep investing in new opportunities.

4. Learn project management.

5. Dress up (in a suit, etc.)

6. Find people who want work done.

7. Figure out what they want to be done, how long it will take to do it, and how much is reasonable to charge for that.

8. Ship it.

8. Send invoices.

9. Cash very large checks.

Technology lets people who are very good with tools, make amazing things all by ourselves in the same time or less than a team of people who are average with tools in a cube farm.

I guess a simpler version of this would be:

1. Get very good at tools.

2. Get people who believe you can deliver.

3. Deliver.

4. Invoice.

If you do it right, you'll be time- and price-competitive with much larger, slower, and more-expensive entities, and nobody will care because you're still delivering. It's a time of great opportunity.

Post reply on HN