During a pandemic, a lot of activities are brought to a halt. The government of every affected country can shut down the operation of transport companies, factories, sports activities, markets, and even worship places. This makes so many people jobless and they begin to look for an alternative means of survival. During such a period, working from home becomes the best option for everyone, and the best way to reach thousands of people or even millions with your services is by offering such services online.
With this article, we want to share ten powerful ways a developer can earn money remotely during a pandemic. We are going to explain in detail these ten proven ways that can guarantee you some money as a developer.
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Table of Contents
1. Bounty Programs
Bug bounty hunting or simply put hunting for a bug is a kind of job offered to programmers to detect loopholes or vulnerabilities in newly developed software, web applications, and websites. In 2019 alone, software failure affected assets worth $1.7 trillion. According to the survey, this failure came from 314 companies and affected up to half of the world’s population.
Developers consistently make mistakes during software programming faces. This is because companies make use of the collective intelligence of several programmers through crowdsourcing. And the more the number of programmers who work on a project, the higher the chances of finding loopholes in the program. The cost of hiring a full-time dedicated security team or investing in dedicated resources for this job is high, most companies cannot afford it. For this reason, some of these companies outsource these jobs to public programmers. That’s why there is always a job for bug bounty hunters.
Through bounty programs, a lot of programmers have made thousands of dollars online by offering this service to different companies. Here are some of the sites you can visit to start working as a bug bounty hunter.
Fire bounty, Bugcrowd, HackerOne, Vulnerability Lab, and many more.
2. Teach Programming Courses Online
With the rising demand for software programmers, many people want to learn programming and the easiest and fastest place they turn to is the internet. You can locate this set of people and teach them online. There are so many learning management systems online where you can create courses and teach them. Some of these platforms where you can sell your courses are Coursera and Udemy.
You may start with free tutorials to build a customer base. By so doing, you will gain their trust and your proficiency in the field will also be made known to them. After that, you can start selling your courses to them. Several Universities are looking for online computer science instructors you could also apply.
3. Create a YouTube Channel
YouTube is one of the most popular online platforms for sharing information. As a computer programmer, you can create coding tutorial videos and upload them to your YouTube channel. You will begin to build your list of subscribers by consistently populating your channel with informative tutorials.
The more subscribers you have, the more your videos gain viewership, and the more views your tutorials get, the more money you make. You can also make money by finding a YouTube partner program. They will run ads alongside your videos and allow you to earn part of the money generated.
4. Develop a WordPress Theme or a Plugin
Over 14.7% of leading websites on the internet are designed using WordPress. It’s an open-source Content Management System (CMS). So as a programmer, you can develop a theme or a plugin for this popular CMS and monetize it. Even though developing a plugin for WordPress is a long-term game, you will not regret it because it will keep paying you for a long time, so it’s worth it. In the content management system market, WordPress controls over 60.8% of the market share. And its plugin directory features over 55,000 plugins.
The plugin market can’t be over-saturated because a lot of businesses are still coming up and are striving to gain an online presence. You can market your plugin on platforms like; Codester, ThemeSnap, Mojo Marketplace, CodeCanyon, TemplateMonster Marketplace, WordPress.org, Themeforest, Creative Market, and many more.
You can either accept donations through Patreon, charge per user, or use ad-driven monetization or you can even decide to make your theme or plugin premium.
5. Application Development
As a developer, you can take advantage of your coding skills by developing computer and phone applications and monetizing them. With a good background in Swift or Objective-C, you can develop an essential iOS application without much stress.
You can make money from it by launching it on the app store for everyone to access and buy it. You can also sell your app on other platforms like Flippa through an auction process or a classified listing.
It’s also a good idea to develop game applications. The Android and iOS game industry is a multi-billion dollar industry so if you can create an interesting game, be sure to make a good amount of money from it. After developing one, you can sell your game on platforms like Fupa which are good for marketing games online.
6. Blockchain Grant Money
After the cryptocurrency crash in 2018 caused by a massive sell-off, the market fell by 80% after reaching its peak in January. Now cryptocurrency and blockchain are working towards adoption and it’s a good idea to consider developing on top of the blockchain technologies. After the crash, weak startups were eliminated from the market and those that remain, provide real value to the market.
You may consider building on top of these blockchains that survived the market crash. Blockchains run on incentives and that is why they need developers to build on top of them. Through the incentive structure, the application can gain adoption and in turn, whatever amount of money the blockchain company awards, it can be recouped. Here is a list of blockchain startups that award grants.
- Waves; The funding amount is between 800 and 3000 Waves tokens.
- Consensys; The funding amount is between $10,000 and $25,000 via GitCoin
- Zilliqa; The funding amount is between $20,000 and $50,000
- Aion Network; funding amount is $5,000+
7. Freelancing
Freelancing is another lucrative source of income for many developers. Some people take it as a full-time job, while others do it as a part-time job to earn additional cash. One good thing about freelancing is that there are so many niches you can pick from and perfect your skills to deliver quality services to your clients. But it needs dedication and hard work to succeed.
One secret to success as a freelancer is to come up with a unique niche that will set you apart from the crowd. Some platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and many more offer a great opportunity for anyone to start freelancing, but I must warn you of the cut-throat competition that goes on there. On these platforms, you can offer to develop websites or other applications for people who require such services and get paid.
8. Write and Sell an Ebook
Writing an ebook is one thing that can continue paying you for a very long time. As a developer, you can write a very informative ebook that can detail a particular aspect of software development. Or you can choose to explain a particular programming language in a way that can make your readers understand the language in a better way.
Writing books is also a great way of promoting your brand and displaying your level of competence in the field. After writing an ebook, you can market it on social media platforms, and websites, or publish it on Amazon Kindle. It may not be easy at the beginning, but as you continue to work on it, things will become better.
9. Programming Contest
So many programmers are not aware they can make money by engaging in coding contests. But on this one, I must tell you that it’s for those who know their way around codes pretty well. Because this is where you meet tough challenges.
Aside from the fact that a programming contest can reward you with a cash prize, it also allows you to display your dexterity in coding. And it could land you a job in Silicon Valley. If this one goes for you, then you need to pay attention to the following list of platforms I’ll be sharing;
HackerRank, CodingBat, Topcoder, HackerEarth, Coderbyte, CodeChef, Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ), InterviewBit, Codility, Google Code Jam, Codeforces, Project Euler.
But a programming contest is not a reliable source of income as there is no guarantee that you will always win. It’s a very difficult game to play, but it can be fun too.
10. Blogging
As a programmer, it’s easy for you to start a blog and make money from it. All you need to do is identify a niche that you will be comfortable to blog about. What I mean by that is, look for a niche where creating its blog content will not give you a headache. Since you’re a programmer, it will be easier for you to create a blog that has something to do with your field. Like teaching people how to code online.
Make sure that your content is keyword-optimized so that your site can rank easily on search engines. You can earn through affiliate links or charging for premium content. The secret to maintaining your customers is by creating high-quality content that is worth their time. And always update your blog with new posts.
See also; Top 10 Challenges for Young People to Win Up to $100,000
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Now, you can simply create a full-time income from any of the above-mentioned ways as a programmer while working from home. The only challenge is that just like any other profitable venture out there, it requires self-discipline, consistency, and hard work. The amount of work required to succeed could equate to your 9 AM- 6 PM job. However, it is likely to pay you better over time and you have the pleasure of spending more time with your family. You can work at your pace with no boss breathing down your neck.
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