Why don't you programmers make a living off your own projects?And have to work for someone else?

Chat with relative, a question he asked:

You programmers can write code, make your own software and sell it to make money, isn't it much better than working and being exploited?

This question is really shocking, straight to the soul!

Let's think about some important, essential issues in this industry.

It's entirely possible to make a living from your own projects, but I think at least two conditions are met.

First, be the first mover.

In the early days of the Internet, a simple HomePage for a company could easily make tens of thousands of dollars.

Zhou Yi is known as the first person in China to go abroad to earn US dollars by sharing software. He was an mp3 cd maker that year, and in 2000, his monthly income was 50,000 US dollars.

In the early days of smartphones, there were very few apps in the app market. Whether it was iOS or Andorid, as long as the app quality was reasonable, the downloads were amazing.

The same is true for official accounts. In the early days, just writing can get a lot of attention.

However, in the software and Internet industries, there are no heavy assets in traditional industries, and the threshold is relatively low. When the fruits under the sun are quickly picked up, the blue ocean will soon turn into a red ocean.

The competition here is not fierce, but extremely fierce.

After Zhou Yi shared his experience on the Internet, similar software has sprung up in large numbers, forcing him to find other user needs and create new software.

App's application market has also grown rapidly to the point where there is a huge amount of software competing in every category.

The batches of public accounts have written every technical point to rot...

At this time, if you still want to make a living from your own projects, the conditions suddenly improve:

Second: Find the real need, meet it, and sell the software.

I use the word "digging" here because I think 99.99% of all ideas that come up in my head will die.

I remember that a person in the QQ group where the code farmer turned over said mysteriously, he thought of a very good idea, and it might be able to change the world if he developed it. We asked him what it was,He just doesn't want to share it, and hides it like a baby, for fear that his thoughts will be stolen.

I laughed to myself after reading it, because it is very likely that other people in the world have thought of his idea, or even realized it, but he just doesn't know it.

I have had a painful experience myself. When the mass entrepreneurship and innovation were in full swing, my brain became hot, and I set up a home-school interaction platform with my friends, which is a typical shoot.It was taken out of the head, and the result can be imagined.

The real idea must come from: After staying in an industry or field for a long time, I found real pain points and opportunities.

But many of these pain points depend on programmers working alone. It is difficult to develop a software. It is a systematic project and requires teamwork.

Even if you can do it single-handedly, you'll immediately face a roadblock: marketing.

How to sell it?This is a super headache for programmers.

Zhou Yi's mp3 cd maker mentioned above was unknown at the beginning, and he made a lot of efforts:

Please UI experts to design the software interface very beautifully

Build a professional international website and "pretend" to be a company

Advertise on other people's sites

Go to newsgroups to answer questions and post a link to your own website

Do SEO

......

You have to be not only a good programmer, but also a good marketer.

Even if you get everything right, sometimes it takes timing and luck, the so-called tuyere.

Summary

Making a living off your own projects is pretty much a small business startup.

The vast majority of programmers cannot meet the comprehensive quality requirements of entrepreneurship, and the possibility of failure is extremely high.

So most of us have chosen the safest path: working part-time and enjoying the good news of 996.

I don't mean to give up completely, on the contrary, I encourage everyone to try and yaw from time to time outside the stable main channel.

Because we don't know where the next trend will be, only when time, energy, and money can afford it, try hard and make yourself an insider.

Add a little more change and uncertainty to yourself, maybe you will be able to tap your unique talents, and you will have unexpected gains.

(End)

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