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Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

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Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#61

Post by tasuki »

nowherebeen wrote: post #8
ehnto wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The missing component is luck I feel, you and I both have probably put the same smarts and effort in as those who were succesful but just haven't had opportunity, effort and luck all line up at the right time. I built four SaaS products while working full time as a software dev, I have started companies, tried some side hussles, I am a smart chap but I was never blessed with opportunity and luck at the time I was put…

I am in the same boat as you. I realized I have all the technical chops needed to build my business, but have failed a few times now. I am now looking for a job. Who knows if the opportunity will ever arise, but I need to move on with my life. I can't be sitting waiting for an opportunity that might never come. It's been emotionally difficult for me to acknowledge this, but I take it one day at a time.

> I realized I have all the technical chops needed to build my business

I don't know much about business, but I think you need business chops to build a business.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#62

Post by jsemrau »

Jimmy wrote: post #57
jsemrau wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing that for the last 12 months and tbh, it does not work unless you already had an audience before. Highly likely I am the worst social marketer on the planet. But in terms of RoI your advice doesn't work for 99% of the population.

I think asking some basic troubleshooting questions is helpful. Is your product worth paying for? Is it even worth someone’s time to look at it or download it for free? Is it the type of thing that you yourself have paid for in the past? (E.g. if you’re making infographics about cooking, ask yourself, when’s the last time you gave someone money because of their cooking infographics). Would you pay for your own produc…

Thank you for trying to troubleshoot this. I perform about 15 customer interviews per week and yes, people would pay for the product.

I think the main culprit is that Twitter specifically is an extremely saturated space and that content discovery is really hard for pretty much everyone who is not in the top 1%.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#63

Post by lampshades »

sakopov wrote: post #3

I've been wrecking my brain how to make $10 on anything online for a good part of the past 10 years with a couple of failed startups and even more side projects that went nowhere. I envy anyone who can do this and I think it is truly an immeasurable amount of effort to make any kind of side income let alone something that replaces your salary. But I think articles like this one advertise it like it's something you ca…

Same. I don’t seem to be able to do it which is why I ended up pursuing another option he gave: day trading and investing. Going much better than building products/businesses.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#64

Post by lampshades »

zivkovicp wrote: post #44
sakopov wrote: post #3

I've been wrecking my brain how to make $10 on anything online for a good part of the past 10 years with a couple of failed startups and even more side projects that went nowhere. I envy anyone who can do this and I think it is truly an immeasurable amount of effort to make any kind of side income let alone something that replaces your salary. But I think articles like this one advertise it like it's something you ca…

Don't feel bad, there is a lot of luck involved. I used to be able to (late 1990s/early 2000s) make a living on a mixture of niche websites, affiliate marketing, CPC arbitrage, and similar; but it just started drying up as more people gravitated to social media platforms, and unless you can skill up on social media marketing while getting lucky with their algorithms, you probably won't get far. I decided to just move…

Similar situation here. I built several very successful sites back around 2000/2001 and made money with affiliate marketing. Can’t seem to get traction on anything anymore. Although, the amount of money that makes it worthwhile for me has increased drastically.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#65

Post by elt »

Any advice I can offer are things that seemed to work for me. I got "lucky" and struck gold on my first idea/project (consistently making high six figures over seven years running). I have tried other projects but none were nearly as successful.

1) Find your competitive advantage. I happened to work in a niche industry and learned it inside and out. I became somewhat of a "domain expert". I used that to my advantage and built my product to serve that niche. What can you do better than most people? What do you know inside and out?

2) Serve businesses, not people. People will do anything to not pay. They tend to have more charge backs and most of the "system abuse" I deal with are small time freelancers trying to squeeze my product's free offering. Don't offer too much for free. Don't be a charity. Serve businesses, they pay money.

3) Don't be afraid of competitors. My largest customers are in fact competitors that leverage my service to better their own service.

4) Don't charge too little. When I first started, my offering was incredibly cheap ($9 per-month). It certainly helped bring attention to my offering and I got a lot of customers for it, but they were cheap customers (see point #2 above). Today my lowest offering is $39 per-month and I seem to have weeded out most of the bad apples (though some still get through).

5) Reach out to customers directly. Don't rely on ads, social media posts or other fluff. I haven't done a single ad or social media post (I don't even have social media profiles). What I did do was directly email/message potential customers.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#66

Post by lampshades »

dgivney wrote: post #9
chii wrote: post #2

> 4. Invest your savings and live off of gains. this option is not really like the other 3 listed, since it's a separate category of passive income and is non-exclusionary unlike the rest. One should always be investing any excess income anyway, regardless of what path one chooses to follow. Unfortunately, the risk of having _only_ investment income to sustain you is that you cannot make risky investments, and so mus…

He's not advocating for a passive investment income. > You could use these savings to invest in stock markets, day trade with them, and - hopefully - make a profit. I wouldn't recommend his advice..

Why not? It’s a valid way to make money for some of us.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#67

Post by h00dinberry »

jsemrau wrote: post #17
asicsp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been wrecking my brain how to make $10 on anything online If you are really serious about $10 (and not some other larger number), here are some tips: * Pick a topic you know really well (programming, cooking, sea diving, whatever) * Make an infographic (get started on the topic of your choice, some specific and useful practical tip, etc) - picking a template from free tier Canva will go a long way in producing…

I've been doing that for the last 12 months and tbh, it does not work unless you already had an audience before. Highly likely I am the worst social marketer on the planet. But in terms of RoI your advice doesn't work for 99% of the population.

No post body was provided.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#68

Post by nowherebeen »

tasuki wrote: post #61
nowherebeen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in the same boat as you. I realized I have all the technical chops needed to build my business, but have failed a few times now. I am now looking for a job. Who knows if the opportunity will ever arise, but I need to move on with my life. I can't be sitting waiting for an opportunity that might never come. It's been emotionally difficult for me to acknowledge this, but I take it one day at a time.

> I realized I have all the technical chops needed to build my business I don't know much about business, but I think you need business chops to build a business.

Absolutely, once you find the market, but at the ideation stage it’s more about spotting it in the first place. That’s much harder than it seems.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#69

Post by vladsanchez »

elt wrote: post #65

Any advice I can offer are things that seemed to work for me. I got "lucky" and struck gold on my first idea/project (consistently making high six figures over seven years running). I have tried other projects but none were nearly as successful. 1) Find your competitive advantage. I happened to work in a niche industry and learned it inside and out. I became somewhat of a "domain expert". I used that to my advantage…

Mind sharing your url? I'm interested b/c I'm in your industry: ETL/Data Transformations.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Becoming a Full-Time Creator as a Software Engineer

#70

Post by zach_garwood »

thenerdhead wrote: post #56

I tried this for two years and even wrote a book to help people get into tech. I realized I didn’t want to be another person who gives generic advice and I decided to make content and write books for me instead. I think the main thing the author leaves out in the article is that building the audience is the more important thing when starting. Once you have enough “webs” out there via articles, videos, interviews, fre…

Wow, that's quite a reversal. What did folks say when you refunded them?
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