Coders/Designers how's your $$?

[unenergizer]

Okay, so I have decided to jump into this scene and cut my own piece of the pie. I have made about $100 in the past week. I am wondering if you (coders/designers) make a pretty good amount of money for your services? I am not asking how much you make, but out of all the work you do, is it worth it? Are you able to live off your profits? I am wondering these questions because I may change my major in college from computer network administrator to a type of design/webdevelopment major.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks everyone,
Andrew B.

[DivisionByZero]

It can be a decent living. I do this between acting gigs, and i enjoy working with vBulletin very much.

However........

The clientele here is pretty rough. In the service requests section, you'll find that a majority of the people just want something for practically nothing and will completely take advantage of you if you give them the chance. if you're going to get in this business, keep a good attorney on retainer. These guys LOVE to get your good hard work, and as soon as you deliver it, they charge back your fee, leaving you with nothing. I have an attorney who specializes in internet fraud, and he doesn't work cheap

When you do finally win these chargebacks after you prove that you've done the work, they'll just turn around and post libelous statements about you, and even go as far as to PM others (because they have nothing better to do with their days) trying to get them not to work with you.

I hate to sound so negative, but these are things you must consider before getting into this business.

[Shazz]

Um, I really don't think you can do this for a living, just off of service requests or sitepoint, hireacoder etc.
There are MANY people out there that are always watching it, and if the type of project is just isen't for you then you can't do it... It has to be something you could do. Not every request out there can be that

[Andrew]

I was taking up service requests from here for quite a while, but I had a number of troublesome jobs all right in a row. As of right now, the majority of my work is for my past clients that I've established a good relationship with over the last couple of years. I get quote requests and such from my website on a daily basis, but only about 5% of them actually go anywhere (Even when people come to you for work, the majority of them will still have the mentality that everything should be free.)

I think you would definitely have a very hard time making a living off of freelance design alone. In a good month, I can make upwards of $1000 to $2000, but then I could easily have a month right after where I don't make anything. It's a very unreliable source of income for sure. I was lucky enough to get hired on by the CPL as a graphic designer back in November, which is giving me a nice bit of salaried income every month to stabilize things a bit. I'm also in college and just working for fun money and not trying to support myself as well. If you're thinking of a design career that offers you a salaried position, then I think you could do quite well, but as far as freelance goes, it has it's ups and downs and is anything but a dependable source of income.

[unenergizer]

So doing these types of jobs are pretty much just good for extra spending money for the weekend? See I was planning on making a site that somewhat resebles the extremepixels site. I figured if I made some desgins and put them up for sale that maybe I might make some decent money. I keep thinking that I may have found myself a gold mine doing these types of work. Is this not the case?

Thank you for your input guys! I really appericiate it!
Andrew B.

[Staxed]

It's definately not a gold mine. There are so many of us designers around doing this that the customer base is spread around so much and the fact that people think they can get everything for nothing.

I'd have to say it's more on your phrase of just getting extra spending money for the weekend, not enough to really get a gold mine . At least not for me anyway...

[Andrew]

I tried selling premade styles like ExtremePixels and vBSkinWorks do, and I can say firsthand that it's really tough to get a business like that going with them already consuming the majority of the market. You need a definite edge to get into the cookie cutter style market and succeed, and it's going to be a challenge to find one that works.

[Adrian Schneider]

I make a decent living from web development, and I know quite a few others here do as well. The key is to invest your time while you can afford it into something that will generate money while you sleep... why work hourly when you don't have to.

Something to read when you guys get some time (my cousin and I found it quite inspiring...)

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/ - Especially the "10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job" article.

I know it's not for everyone, but if you can pull it off you will LOVE your job. I sure do.

[CAMS]

can be a good living, can be a crap one.

depends on pulling the clients in.

dont be afriad to charge high prices. setthe price on your talent and quality of work. and dont be scared off by compotition.

most ive made in a week is around 1000+ uk pounds. thats working flat out tho. wich i dont tend todo unless i need the cash as it cant burn you out wich is never good. (am a designer only. i dont code)

[PennylessZ28]

I've been pulling in over 2K a month filling requests off of Craigslist. Why limit yourself to just vBulletin.