1) Read coding books: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-available-programming-books/392926#392926 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194

1) Read coding books: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-available-programming-books/392926#392926 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-ava... 2) Code simple programs. 3) Publish them somewhere (GitHub or similar.) 4) Help out on already existing projects (Bug reports, patches, etc.) 5) Code better and bigger programs Sounds like you're doing it right already (heh, like I'm an expert!) Good luck! :)