It’s now been a year since I launched the first version of CareerMob. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to start your own business as a web developer. Top15 Business ideas For Web Developers (Monthly Earn 8000$)
Most importantly, I’ve learned how much you need to know in order to build a successful website. The scope is huge and is way beyond coding. It also requires a solid business plan, marketing skills, and the ability to meet challenges on your own.
I’ll be coming out with an ebook soon that will cover all of these topics in detail. But for now, I’d like to share some of the most successful business ideas for web developers since I had a lot of requests from readers who were asking for help. Top15 Business ideas For Web Developers
Top15 Business ideas For Web Developers
1) Website development services (freelancing)
If you’re just getting started with website development, this is where you should focus your energy. It’s the best way to start making money as a web developer and also helps you gain experience in client management. You can get clients by reaching out on freelance websites like Elance or directly on social media if your network thinks what you do is useful.
I’m currently only focusing on freelance work and it’s not hard to get clients as long as you can prove your work with examples, take less than you ask for and find the right people to talk with. The more websites you develop from scratch, the more likely it is that existing customers will recommend you to their friends or colleagues
2) Frameworks and libraries (WordPress, jQuery, etc)
If you’re a developer, there’s a good chance that you’ve built some kind of framework or library and shared it on GitHub. These projects can be sold as premium plugins and themes to generate passive income for years after the initial launch. There are other ways to monetize open source projects like sponsored features, support contracts, etc but they don’t scale as well as premium products.
If you’re not comfortable with sharing your work on GitHub, there are other ways to sell it like applying for an exclusive license (one customer) or reselling the framework/library under your company name. It’s up to you how much you want to share but many developers have made a lot of money by selling their products on CodeCanyon, Themeforest, etc.
3) e-commerce websites (Magento, Zen Cart, etc.)
If you’re a seasoned web developer, chances are that you’ve already built an e-commerce website. These websites also need to be updated regularly which makes them a good source of ongoing income in the future. Your customers will come back when you launch new features and they may not even know who originally developed the product. Still, if your client is willing to pay, you can continue to work with them on future updates.
4) Open-source CMS platforms (Drupal, Joomla!)
The world of open-source content management systems is even bigger than the e-commerce industry. If you’re willing to do some marketing, you can easily sell either your own modules or commercial themes for CMS platforms like Drupal and Joomla. This is how companies like Daypixels started out their business and continue to make money selling extensions for open source platforms like Drupal.
Top15 Business ideas For Web Developers
5) WordPress Plugins (WooCommerce, WP Retweet, etc.)
This is another good way to make money as a web developer if you’re comfortable working with PHP and JavaScript. As long as you can prove your plugin/theme is useful for users, it’s easy to sell it on the official WordPress repository or on your own website. I’ve built several plugins and themes in the past (I’ll publish a list soon) and all of them were relatively easy to sell because they solved real problems for users.
6) SaaS web apps (Basecamp, Teamwork, etc.)
So you want to make a product that will generate a recurring income for years to come? The SaaS model may be a good fit but it’s not an easy business to start unless you have enough money (or time) to bootstrap the initial development. We started building Teamwork in 2009 and since our first paying customers, we’ve grown both revenue and team size year after year without investment. Building a product like Teamwork is hard so you need to find the right market, build something that’s truly remarkable and find ways to reach your potential customers.
7) Web apps (Twitter, Tumblr, etc.)
Building web applications is probably the most difficult way to make money as a developer because it requires multiple aspects of knowledge. You need to understand UX, design, business, and of course programming languages like HTML5, CSS3, etc.
This is not an easy combination but with the right amount of hard work and time, you can build a web app worth selling. Twitter and Tumblr are great examples of this model because they took years (and the founders) before they could be acquired for hundreds of millions.
IMHO web apps are the most interesting way to make money as this market is huge and doesn’t require an upfront investment. If you build something that people really want and use, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find a buyer who’ll want to take it off your hands in a few years’ time.
Keep in mind that you shouldn’t build a web app just for the money but rather because you have an idea that will improve people’s lives or solve real problems.
8) e-commerce stores (Etsy, Big Cartel, etc.)
Selling physical goods is not easy but it’s possible to make good money if your product sells well. The obvious advantage of this model is that you don’t need to build a product from scratch which can take years.
In our case, we were able to launch CodeCanyon within three months because most of the work was done by Zazzle’s API, hosting, and existing themes. Still, you’ll always be dependent on a third party for fulfillment but in most cases, they’ll do a good job as long as you manage to generate sales.
One of the downsides of this model is that it’s hard to scale if your store becomes popular and fulfillment takes too much time. We had this issue with some of our web apps (which we later sold) because we were dealing with hundreds of orders per day. If you’re using a hosted e-commerce solution or your own servers, chances are that you’ll have to spend money to handle the traffic.
If you’re willing to deal with these issues, selling physical products can be really profitable in the short term. If done right (and if you don’t run out of cash), this model can build a huge startup that’ll be sold for hundreds of millions.
9) Consulting / Freelancing
This is a popular business model for software developers as you can essentially sell your time to clients who need help with something. For example, if you’re an expert in NodeJS and Redis, there will always be companies willing to pay for your services because they don’t know how to do something.
You can charge your clients per hour (or day) and you can charge fairly high rates that’ll help you succeed in this market. The obvious downside is that you’re not the only one who knows how to do what you do – there are many developers out there willing to do the same thing for less money.
Many successful businesses are built on this model because it doesn’t require investment or creating something new, you can simply consult people who need your services. If you’re good at what you do and provide more value than the rest of the competition, you’ll make a business out of it.
10) Selling Other People’s Products
If you don’t have the skills or time to make something of your own, you can always become a marketer for someone else. This is probably the easiest way to make money as it doesn’t require much knowledge (although marketing is not easy either). You can partner up with someone who makes money by selling products, find something that’s worth selling and then promote it online.
This is how the famous marketer Neil Patel makes money. He partners up with companies that have products that can be sold online, he does all the marketing for them and takes a small cut of everything he sells on his blog. That’s basically it – you don’t need to create anything from scratch.
In the long term, this is not a sustainable business model because you can’t do it forever. At some point, you’ll have to go out and build your own products if you want to grow faster. Still, if your current business does well and you don’t see any need to change direction, selling other people’s products is a great way to generate an income.
11) Affiliate Marketing
Similar to selling other people’s products, you can create content and then get paid every time someone reads it or buys something because of your activity. The idea behind affiliate marketing is that you can promote someone else’s product (for example, Amazon’s products) and if someone ends up buying anything from Amazon as a result, you get paid.
Affiliate marketing is particularly popular these days because of how easy it is to set up and manage. You can easily build your website/blog and then submit your content to affiliate networks where companies will pay you for sending traffic their way. As an affiliate, you can earn anything from a few cents to hundreds of dollars per customer (it varies).
If your website/blog gets popular and brings significant traffic, this business model is very profitable. You don’t need any tech skills to build an affiliate site. Just research which products are the best ones to promote, create great content around those products and you’ll start making money.
12) Blogging
This is a business that’s similar to writing articles for other people, except that writing blogs can be done as a full-time job. The idea behind blogging is that you write about something interesting (or something your target audience likes to read about), publish your content on your own website, and get paid every time someone reads it.
Blogging is different than writing articles for other people, where you’re getting paid per hour (or day). This model is all about building an audience that will come back to read your stuff over and over again. If you manage to do that, the money follows.
It takes a lot of time and effort to make blogging work, but it’s not complicated. You simply need to create great content on a regular basis and promote your site so you can get more traffic. It’s the same as building any business – if you do things right, everything else will follow automatically.
13) Selling a Product of Your Own
If you’re building your own website or blog, you might as well start selling something. The idea behind this business model is that you sell something of value to other people (for example, an eBook) and then get paid for it. It’s especially popular with bloggers who usually offer their visitors extra premium content that can’t be found anywhere else.
This business model works especially well for bloggers and online content creators. You don’t need to spend any money on marketing or anything like that – all you have to do is create a product, promote it and your audience will come back to buy what you’re selling. It’s not easy and it takes some time, but it’s one of the best ways to make money online in 2018.
14) Coaching/Consulting
Do you have any experience in a specific topic? You can start helping people with what you know by consulting them either one-on-one or through video calls (or both). This is a business that can be especially profitable if you’re good at what you do. If people are happy with your consulting, they’ll most likely come back for more.
You don’t have to be an expert in everything – just focus on something you know really well and start offering help. This is one of the best ways to make money online these days because it’s something you can do without any investment. You don’t even need a website to get started – you could offer your services over Skype or through some other messaging platform.
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15) Developing iPhone Apps
With iOS being the most popular mobile operating system in the world, there are tons of people looking for apps that can help them solve their problems or just make their lives better. You can join the party by learning how to code and then developing your own iPhone app.
Yes, it takes some time to learn this skill. But if you put in the work, you’ll be able to start making money with your iPhone apps pretty quickly. You can either sell them through the App Store and get a percentage of every sale, or you could offer your services and develop apps for other people. It’s a great business that will still be around in 10-20 years from now – it’s not going anywhere.
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conclusion :
If you’re looking to make money online in 2021, this is a great place to start. As long as you have a good plan and a good strategy, all of these options will get you started on your way to financial freedom. They’ll also help you build valuable skills that can be used for other purposes later on.
Do you have any questions regarding how to make money online? Leave a comment below and I’ll try to help you as much as I can.
Top15 Business ideas For Web Developers
