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So what's the sweet spot for projects as a single freelancer? Simple Wordpress sites are easy but unfulfilling. But most interesting projects are beyond the sco

So what's the sweet spot for projects as a single freelancer? Simple Wordpress sites are easy but unfulfilling. But most interesting projects are beyond the scope of a single developer.

trafficlight 14y ago
I think you've got to be part of a larger group. The past few months I've found a couple of other guys with complimentary skill sets. We've been able to do some higher end work that we never could have managed individually. Up to now, we've just subcontracted to each other, but we are talking about forming a co-op of sorts.
jaggederest 14y ago
> But most interesting projects are beyond the scope of a single developer. Why? I don't find this to be the case.
- karolisd 14y ago
  That's what I've seen from my experience. But I might have a limited perspective. Could you provide some examples of interesting freelance projects for a single developer?
  - Alan01252 14y ago
    This really comes down to confidence in your ability. I wrote http://myanimcalcam.com http://myanimcalcam.com by myself. This site is definitely more complex than a standard Wordpress install, but didn't require a team. I also find adding features to existing sites a good source of "interesting" income. "I've got a website that does this but I need it to do this too" is a common problem I solve for my clients. Also I'm not afraid of straying away from the "I built websites role" by producing in house systems for companies. A lot of these applications can be done by a single developer.
  - rahoulb 14y ago
    I have a long term client where initially I took over maintenance of a Rails-written brochure site as their existing freelancer was moving on. From there the relationship developed and I now have built a suite of inter-related apps (and manage their own private network) for them (on a retainer so I have guaranteed income). The work isn't cutting edge but its much more interesting than churning out sites according to someone else's design.
    - rahoulb 14y ago
      To Jesse who emailed me; we had an outage with the EmberAds support system, so I lost your details - please mail me at ycombinator at madeofstone.net please.
  - Hawkee 14y ago
    I took over development of a fairly large Drupal site with Ubercart and multiple external API tie-ins. It took the original team nearly 2 years to develop it for a rather large client. Now I'm the only developer working on it making some interesting and sometimes complicated changes. I find this to be an ideal client.
cschmidt 14y ago
Many Django or Rails sites are well within single developer range. They would sure beat Wordpress in the fulfilling department.
- companyhen 14y ago
  Any advice where to get started with that? I was hired as a WordPress dev a year ago out of college. I didn't go to school for it, HTML/CSS was just a hobby. Taught myself to develop fully responsive sites from scratch in WP. I'm just starting Udacity CS101 and learning Python. Django seems really neat, I started the DjangoBook.. not sure where to go from here. Appreciate any input!
  - charliepark 14y ago
    You might enjoy checking out Sinatra. It's a Ruby framework for building simple websites, and I've found that front-end developers can migrate to it without too much hassle. If you like it, you can then play around with Ruby on Rails (which is a far trickier beast). But if you're enjoying Python or Django, then don't feel like you need to switch. Work on projects that are fun for you and that help you learn new skills.
    - companyhen 14y ago
      Thanks for the advice. I am really interested in RoR, but I have heard it is tricky as you say. I may just stick with Python until I feel comfortable with it.
  - cschmidt 14y ago
    Learning Python first is a good step. There are lots of good books for Python. I liked the book "Python Essential Reference", but there are many tutorial style books that might be better for you. Once you have the basics of Python in hand, then you can move on to Django. Unfortunately, all of the books on Django are hopelessly out of date. I think the most recent is Django 1.1 in 2010 or so. That means that the examples in the books don't run without some minor changes. I got things to work by Googling problems, but it is frustrating. They are starting to update the DjangoBook to 1.4, but they are not there yet (I don't think). The online Django documentation is good and up to date. There is a nice Tutorial in the docs that is up to date: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/intro/tutorial01/ https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/intro/tutorial01/ You should do that, although it is kind of basic. Here is a web page with some other Django resources: http://elweb.co/programacion/want-to-learn-django-start-here/ http://elweb.co/programacion/want-to-learn-django-start-here... There was a Kickstarter that was funded this September on Getting Started with Django, which looks great. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/657368266/getting-started-with-django http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/657368266/getting-starte... http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/ http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/ Unfortunately, the videos don't seem to exist yet, but keep an eye on it. I'd imagine they are coming soon. There are tutorials before the start of DjangoCon, that are a good way to learn. http://www.djangocon.us/ http://www.djangocon.us/ http://2013.djangocon.eu/ http://2013.djangocon.eu/ DjangoCon is small enough that you can meet all of the people in the community.
aidos 14y ago
I'm lucky enough to be a solo developer working on an interesting freelance project at the moment. Just a 4 week project but I'm working on data collation of various gambling APIs. The work is out there, we just need to work out how to find it. Then again some people might not find that work interesting - you might prefer working on bigger projects. I think that successfully implementing large scale software projects is an interesting challenge in itself. It certainly presents problems I don't know how to solve :)

So what's the sweet spot for projects as a single freelancer? Simple Wordpress sites are easy but unfulfilling. But most interesting projects are beyond the scope of a single developer.

trafficlight 14y ago

I think you've got to be part of a larger group. The past few months I've found a couple of other guys with complimentary skill sets. We've been able to do some higher end work that we never could have managed individually. Up to now, we've just subcontracted to each other, but we are talking about forming a co-op of sorts.

jaggederest 14y ago

> But most interesting projects are beyond the scope of a single developer. Why? I don't find this to be the case.

karolisd 14y ago
That's what I've seen from my experience. But I might have a limited perspective. Could you provide some examples of interesting freelance projects for a single developer?
- Alan01252 14y ago
  This really comes down to confidence in your ability. I wrote http://myanimcalcam.com http://myanimcalcam.com by myself. This site is definitely more complex than a standard Wordpress install, but didn't require a team. I also find adding features to existing sites a good source of "interesting" income. "I've got a website that does this but I need it to do this too" is a common problem I solve for my clients. Also I'm not afraid of straying away from the "I built websites role" by producing in house systems for companies. A lot of these applications can be done by a single developer.
- rahoulb 14y ago
  I have a long term client where initially I took over maintenance of a Rails-written brochure site as their existing freelancer was moving on. From there the relationship developed and I now have built a suite of inter-related apps (and manage their own private network) for them (on a retainer so I have guaranteed income). The work isn't cutting edge but its much more interesting than churning out sites according to someone else's design.
  - rahoulb 14y ago
    To Jesse who emailed me; we had an outage with the EmberAds support system, so I lost your details - please mail me at ycombinator at madeofstone.net please.
- Hawkee 14y ago
  I took over development of a fairly large Drupal site with Ubercart and multiple external API tie-ins. It took the original team nearly 2 years to develop it for a rather large client. Now I'm the only developer working on it making some interesting and sometimes complicated changes. I find this to be an ideal client.

cschmidt 14y ago

Many Django or Rails sites are well within single developer range. They would sure beat Wordpress in the fulfilling department.

companyhen 14y ago
Any advice where to get started with that? I was hired as a WordPress dev a year ago out of college. I didn't go to school for it, HTML/CSS was just a hobby. Taught myself to develop fully responsive sites from scratch in WP. I'm just starting Udacity CS101 and learning Python. Django seems really neat, I started the DjangoBook.. not sure where to go from here. Appreciate any input!
- charliepark 14y ago
  You might enjoy checking out Sinatra. It's a Ruby framework for building simple websites, and I've found that front-end developers can migrate to it without too much hassle. If you like it, you can then play around with Ruby on Rails (which is a far trickier beast). But if you're enjoying Python or Django, then don't feel like you need to switch. Work on projects that are fun for you and that help you learn new skills.
  - companyhen 14y ago
    Thanks for the advice. I am really interested in RoR, but I have heard it is tricky as you say. I may just stick with Python until I feel comfortable with it.
- cschmidt 14y ago
  Learning Python first is a good step. There are lots of good books for Python. I liked the book "Python Essential Reference", but there are many tutorial style books that might be better for you. Once you have the basics of Python in hand, then you can move on to Django. Unfortunately, all of the books on Django are hopelessly out of date. I think the most recent is Django 1.1 in 2010 or so. That means that the examples in the books don't run without some minor changes. I got things to work by Googling problems, but it is frustrating. They are starting to update the DjangoBook to 1.4, but they are not there yet (I don't think). The online Django documentation is good and up to date. There is a nice Tutorial in the docs that is up to date: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/intro/tutorial01/ https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/intro/tutorial01/ You should do that, although it is kind of basic. Here is a web page with some other Django resources: http://elweb.co/programacion/want-to-learn-django-start-here/ http://elweb.co/programacion/want-to-learn-django-start-here... There was a Kickstarter that was funded this September on Getting Started with Django, which looks great. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/657368266/getting-started-with-django http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/657368266/getting-starte... http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/ http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/ Unfortunately, the videos don't seem to exist yet, but keep an eye on it. I'd imagine they are coming soon. There are tutorials before the start of DjangoCon, that are a good way to learn. http://www.djangocon.us/ http://www.djangocon.us/ http://2013.djangocon.eu/ http://2013.djangocon.eu/ DjangoCon is small enough that you can meet all of the people in the community.

aidos 14y ago

I'm lucky enough to be a solo developer working on an interesting freelance project at the moment. Just a 4 week project but I'm working on data collation of various gambling APIs. The work is out there, we just need to work out how to find it. Then again some people might not find that work interesting - you might prefer working on bigger projects. I think that successfully implementing large scale software projects is an interesting challenge in itself. It certainly presents problems I don't know how to solve :)