Congrats on learning what an if statement is! I know you feel like conquering the world with your limitless power but before you fail at doing that, sit back and make some cash!
Get a Job
The biggest secret to making money is getting a job. Well…maybe not, but what people don’t know is that there are multiple types of jobs you can get, and you can even have multiple at the same time. Most common and the one people always think of first is getting a job with a company that hires you as an employee. This is the more reliable and predictable method of making money, but maybe not the best, or can be paired with other stuff.
Other Types of Jobs?
Yes! You can work as a free lancer or become your very own boss. I know that word triggers a negative thought and makes you think of all those $5 offers that freelancers do but coding is something too many people are lazy to learn so you can charge more, A LOT MORE. No matter what skill you have, someone needs something made, and you could be paid for it.
The downside to this of course is that it is unpredictable and could leave you starving for a little bit. However, this could make you richer than you could ever be with a normal job, or even better, combine the two.
Make your own stuff
Another thing to pair with other types of jobs, is making your own products. Whether that’s a brilliant idea, a better version of something that exists, a video game, or even a simple tool that hasn’t yet been made, there is always room for more products and even more ways to make money.
You could become a game developer, or make useful digital products that people want to buy, no matter what it is, this path has a very slow start but can really take off and even lead to you starting up multiple successful businesses.
Indirect Gold
One word: Ads. We all hate seeing them but it is a legitimate way to make your wallet bigger. Like a business this could have a really slow start and gradually grow to something very profitable but it also has a MUCH greater chance of blowing up overnight due to the fact that no one has to invest any money of their own, only the time of their limited life span.
Blogs, Streams, YouTube videos, Podcasts or even just a plain Website! Everything people interact with that they use for FREE is being fueled by ads and you can take a cut of it. Yes it can look like there’s nothing to be made when you see 1 cent per 100 view or even worse, but all it takes is one breakthrough and you’ll be rolling in cash. Make instructional content, funny code content, helping people with their code issues, or even just sit there and code random stuff while random people watch you. It all has some value and its mostly free for the people that seek the content.
Become the Master
No you’re not studying martial arts, but since you have no life and spent so much time and money learning code from people, it’s time other people pay you to teach them. A lot of the previous section’s stuff go hand and hand with this but there are also many other options if you want to teach. You can become a teacher at a school or coding camp, or you can record your lectures and sell it as an online course. Another option is a tutor, in which you help people directly in a less structured way or work as someone who will solve problems other programmers cannot.
A really important thing when learning to code is experience and solving problems you can’t predict. It is quite literally the only practical way to learn code (until we get knowledge brain implants). Because of this fact, teaching is always a option and can be a really fun, but stressful job.
Coding Challenges and Competitions
This one is for the MEGA NERDS. If you’re way to good at what you do and believe you have wasted potential or your skills aren’t being used to their full extent, then test yourself in a competition, where the prizes can be surprisingly big and the pizza is free.
Dozens of sites exist that allow you to practice your skills and let you challenge people. This could greatly help with preparing for such competitions and bring home the bread, though the effort spent may not be as profitable as putting in that effort somewhere else, but it will be hundreds of times more fun. You can meet like minded people there and potential business partners or even land yourself a new, better job, through sweet sweet connections and exposure.
Bots
Your mind went to either the bots that stole your PlayStation 5 or the bots in a video game, and while both can make you money in certain ways there are better ways. DISCLAIMER bots are not always used legally and you should really really look into what you’re doing as all the responsibility is on you. A Legal way to make money with a bot, is a trading bot! People will make these to help them trade effectively and has the potential to make anyone rich. If it’s successful, people will literally give you their money to trade and you get a cut, which may not sound like much but would you take 2% on a million dollars? (that’s 20k, you’re gonna take it).
Conclusion
Becoming a programmer in many ways is a very unique career as it opens up a lot of opportunities and ways to make money. From making YouTube videos, to trading stocks, you can be useful in any corner of the earth and that’s why so many programmers can make more money than the average person. The greatest thing of all is that almost any of these can be down with other ones making the risky ones, not so risky since your Twitch channel failing doesn’t mean you'll starve since you also have 10 clients waiting for you to make a website for them at $500 each. Even better this may also allow you to become that musician you always wanted to be because the java course you made a year ago is still being bought every single day. Have fun, make money, and DO NOT do anything illegal, I am not responsible for anything anyone does.
