How can I start a freelancing career in software development?

If you don't have any portofolios of a real clients, I think you can start your freelancer career using this plan : - Join some freelancer marketplaces like odesk, elance, freelancer, etc. You can describe yourself there and find some projects. - Create a linkedin accounts describing yourself and for your portofolio center, why linkedin? Because it's the only social network which give you a professional looked profile page (if you don't have your own website). - Find some little projects from your local residents, I recommend : new startups, people who start their online shop, doctors, public accountant. These 4 types of people must be need some software development services to make their financial report easier, especially if you're in a same city with them. If you finished some projects from freelancer marketplace and your local residents, don't forget to add them as your portofolios in linkedin. Just for note, being a freelancer need a high patience level, and you need a good financial calculating so you can make a good living in some months from 1 or 2 projects, e.g. 1 project value for 3 months primary needs (food, electricity, internet billing), so you can keep your mind relax for 3 months. Especially when you're just starting it, looking for projects is not an easy task, so a project really need to give you a long living. I share this plan because I'm a freelancer too and I don't have another job. I hope this can helps.

Freelancing in software developing can be very financially rewarding. It can be financially rewarding when you find the right customers. It can be financially rewarding when you negotiate a deal that is good for both parties. It can be financially rewarding when you sustain delivery of a quality product and provide excellent customer service. It can be financially rewarding when you build excellent, long-term relationships that will refer other business to you. Only half of your working time will be in software development. The other half is sales, marketing, customer service, relationship building, billing and lots of small, ho-hum activities that are not directly related to software development. Promoting yourself, your services and your commitment to delivering a quality product is a big part of freelancing. I suggest talking with those who have made it a career and get a really good understanding of the stuff other than software development and how they balance it in their real-life worlds.

Starting  out as a freelancer can be an uphill task until you establish yourself,  and start getting referrals and repeat work. Spread the word among your  family, friends, professors, ex-colleagues etc. that you are looking  for freelance work. Look for http://www.bayt.com/en/job-search-results/?composite_search=1&jb_loc_list=&keyword=freelance.  It’s a good idea to approach start-up companies if you are into graphic  design, writing, coding, data entry, mystery shopping, etc. In fact, http://www.bayt.com/en/research-report-17143/. The blog http://blog.bayt.com/2013/06/how-to-make-more-money-as-a-freelancer/ has more tips.

Yes it is. I can say so from my personal experience. To help you better , here's the link for my fb post which sums up my experience and some useful tips (that I wish I knew while I started ). Hopefully it would be helpful. Feel free to ask me any questions there, I would be happy if I can guide you through this journey. Link -https://www.facebook.com/freelancetogo

Yes you can start  freelancing career in software development. It is thus one of the most prestigious career options today. You can opt for freelance for many different reasons. Freelance software engineer usually conceive, test, maintain, and even enable provisions for updates and innovations in Software. It is the best career to earn huge remunerations   check here http://careerlancer.net/freelance-software-engineer/

Software engineers don't talk about freelancing. Freelancing gives a feeling of cheap work. Software engineers who want to work independent call themselves as independent consultant. They charge approximately $150/hour for work.