It’s always smart not to rely on just one source of income.
Bringing in side income might seem tough at first, but for developers, it’s surprisingly easier than you think.
This post briefly outlines 21 practical ways to build some side revenue as a developer.
This guide will help you build a sustainable income.
1. Solve open source bounties.
This is one of the most underrated ways and is often neglected.
If you're a decent coder, you can earn from $200 to $10k with a single pull request.
That's the power of open source bounties.
You can find those bounties on
Even the subscriptions that Opire launched recently are very profitable. Developers receive 100% of the rewards regardless. No tricks in that!
If you're confused about where to get started, I recommend reading the to show support!
where you will find content agencies, publications and community writer programs. You can filter based on your tech stack.
- $900 per article.
- $400 per article.
- $300 per article.
- $500 - $1500 per article.
- $500 per article.
A great list of 84 such websites was put together by - The best place to find remote and in-person events.
- Mini hackathons on this platform that allow you to build in public.
- another great place to find hackathons. They also offer a program to connect talented developers with startups.
When I was in college, I participated in around 100+ competitions combined on Unstop and Devfolio.
4. Make digital products.
Creating and marketing digital products like guides, website templates, plugins or courses can help you build decent passive income.
The best part? It needs very little maintenance and these products can be sold at any point in the future.
The only thing that is required is to create value that meets market demands. Plus, you should be able to market these otherwise it makes no sense to create it.
Popular platforms for selling digital products:
- For design assets and themes
- For selling WordPress themes and website templates. You will become an Envato Market Author in the process.
This one might be tricky because it's tough to find a proper market fit but the more value you create, the better is the chance that people would be interested in your product.
5. Build a SAAS - Indie Hacking.
This is my favorite among the list and for obvious reasons.
Building a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup can be very useful, both financially and professionally as a developer.
🎯 What is Indie Hacking?
It is the process of building and selling a product independently, without the support of a large organization or team.
Indie hacking can be challenging and you will have to do everything. But as some say good will goes a long way.
There are many popular Indie Hackers like Tibo and Marc who have made more than $1M. In the process, they have built a huge audience.
Trust me, it's the best way to grow but you need to play the long game.
Two popular reads that I recommend checking out:
by Rameerez.
$29 paid guide by levelsio that you can check out: - Earn up to $10 per website or app test
- Earn between $5 and $50 depending on the difficulty and length of the testing session.
- Option for in-person or video call tests. Less regular, but longer testing sessions. Lower paying than alternatives, when you take into account the delay between sessions.
- You can also check this if you are interested in research work.
To be honest, it's repeated work so it is more useful for devs who love testing new apps.
7. Freelancing.
This is one of the most popular ways of sustainable income for developers.
But it's very saturated in my experience and income can be very unstable because finding clients is tough. You will need to build a reputation and manage your finances accordingly.
It can heavily vary based on your niche, platform and your experience.
Some of the popular platforms for developer gigs you can check out:
- You will be an Independent expert that helps companies because a lot of them like Framer hire from here. Plus, it's 100% commission free so you won't pay any charges. Please note that I've included my referral but it won't give me any revenue, so feel free to join using this.
- This platform is good for developers in the European market. It emphasizes local business connections and offers a good balance between short-term and long-term projects.
- This is another platform for experienced developers with higher-paying offers.
I don't prefer platforms that require investment. For instance, we need to buy connects on Upwork (once the limited ones are used) and it offers no such guarantee of any return.
My suggestion would be to directly reach out to potential customers and work for them. It will make you feel better and stand out from the noise on the platforms.
8. Newsletters.
Email newsletters and subscription-based RSS feeds have grown huge these recent years.
All you need is a little bit of experience in your niche and the ability to write properly.
Developers need to be updated so they always love reading about new stuff especially if it includes your experience.
In the process, you will build up a large (and very valuable) subscriber base and will be able to offer advertisements during your newsletters. A lot of creators do the same especially since it creates more value.
Or you can charge a smaller number of users to receive your updates.
They send 2-3 of the most interesting dev tools every week
Popular platforms that you should check out:
It's important to take things one at a time, so research and choose one platform that might fit your needs. Substack and Beehiiv might be great choices.
9. Grants and open source internships.
There are grants and corporate sponsorships available across different fields like open source, innovation, DeFi and even AI. These funds are basically to support your living expenses for a short duration while you work on a particular project.
It's similar to open source internships.
Some of the ones you should definitely check out:
- Technical writers contribute to open source projects. Participating projects receive between $5,000 and $15,000 grants which are then distributed to contributors, usually via Open Collective.
- Provides three-month internships for underrepresented groups in technology, with stipends typically around $5,500.
- Offers various grants and fellowships for developers working on Linux Foundation projects.
- Supports small projects in data science and scientific computing. Grant amounts vary ($285k split between all applicants).
This builds a huge credibility and in the meantime, you're paid a decent amount for the effort.
A great list of similar open source programs you can find on - One of the largest platforms for discovering and monetizing APIs, using subscription-based pricing models.
- Google Cloud platform with API monetization and analytics.
by RapidAPI. It covers how to first build an API from scratch before selling it on RapidAPI Hub.
11. Building a paid community.
This is another underrated way to build decent money using your experience as a developer.
Newsletters are another kind of community but it's generally one way of communication.
A community where members can talk and learn from each other is more useful. You can enable monthly or yearly subscriptions to avoid adding people who are not serious.
I know it's easier said than done.
These are just basic important ideas and it can be very hard to find the right clients at first.
But one single opportunity can change your life in a way you cannot even imagine. Take a leap and explore these methods to build a proper side income.
I hope at least one of these can help you.
Have a great day! Until next time :)
| If you loved this, please follow for more :) Thank you for reading, |
|---|
Follow Opire for more content like this.
SOCIAL SHARE CARD GENERATOR