What to learn to become freelancer?

I don't understand how working in C++ application development precludes you from learning new skills and languages. Picking up a new language usually takes less than a few days for an experienced programmer as far as syntax is concerend. Why don't you start by trying to build a dynamic website for yourself. Maybe an imitation of wordpress. It's an interesting project from several perspectives. You get to learn things like PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, etc. and at the end you actually will have a usable product that you built which you can later turn into a platform for showing off your work to clients.

Yes! PHP - Yes, learning this language will make you suitable for a large number of freelance projects. May niche (and higher paying) services like WordPress customization, Drupal customization, Joomla customization will all become a possibility to you if you know PHP. Python - This is yet another language that is popular and has a LOT of freelance jobs. It is also fun to work with. I have not taken projects that require python but I have seen many jobs on job boards, odesk.com, guru.com that require you to know python. These projects always involve developing web applications with Python using the Django web application framework. Android - It is the hottest mobile development framework available today. I would tread with caution if I were you in relying solely on this for a steady source of income . A few years ago Symbian was the hottest mobile phone OS to program for. Now you can find not a handful of companies that use the Symbian OS. Nokia ( who owns symbian now ) has moved on to the MeeGo OS. On to how to get expertise on these: There are dozens of books published on these topics by Packt, Apress, Wiley, O'Reilly. Investing in these books will save you much time. Nope, Not really perl - Not a lot of websites today use perl. You will cannot find many projects that require you to work on perl. jQuery - This is just a javascript library. Knowing how to use this by itself will not help you go full-time (assuming of course you plan on going full time). What is more important is that you know how to work with Javascript and the document object model. My suggestion for you is to focus on web development. Learn PHP, HTML, CSS and Javascript. Learn to use jQuery. Also Consider.. Ruby On Rails - Ruby is a programming language and Rails is a web application framework written in ruby. You will find many jobs on this as well as full time positions on the same. Most Importantly It is important that you NOT base your opinion solely on what answers you will get here. Go to many job boards. Here is a directory of the job boards: http://freelanceswitch.com/resources-directory/freelance-jobs/job-boards/ Get an idea of what are the niche skills that are in demand today. You need not necessarily prepare to provide the skills that is most in demand. Determine what you can realistically do well and acquire that skill.

Becoming a freelancer != getting your projects from a freelancing site.

If you are seriously trying to get into freelancing and want to earn serious money, concentrate on the domain, and not programming languages first. For e.g. if you want to get into app development for Android, the real thing is innovating at the application level and user interface level -- coding is the last thing to do here (of course very important though).So you would definitely want to check out statistics of most selling apps, compare and contrast for what works and what does not, generally a fair bit of market research is must. Of course programming languages matter, but say if you know C++ you should not have too much trouble picking up Java or C# on the job, and as you go along you'd get stronger with whatever language is used in the domain. The key here is the domain itself -- each has its own problems and you are well advised to read technical journals, trade publications, IEEE and ACM papers or groups that concentrate on industry specific problems etc.

I work as freelancer for over a year now. And what I found out that although having technical knowledge (languages, design pattern, etcetc) is necessary, you should understand and do also those thing, which did not have to do in companies as a coder that much. You will not have a manager, accountant, salesman, marketer. Although you might get some of those, that's a luck.. you shouldn't refuse such support if get one. So try to know more also about these things, even if you are in a company yet: try to value your days: how could you sell your today work. manage your plan, track your time try to market yourself: find out a product, try to find a market for is, who could use, need your product, publish your codes to show what you can do, sell your technical abilities and also your knowledge in a concrete domain; maybe have a blog, share your results and ideas find ways to deal with customers, learn to communicate well with them: customers have often unrealistic expectations, facing them with reality or kindly saying no is a virtue which is good to know have a strategy: choose and stick (but not too hardheadedly) to a group of technologies which you use for solving problems in a selected domain So far what I see, it is a much safer feeling to be in a company, but more fun as a freelancer.

Subscribe to the hacker news RSS feed. You'll get lots of links such as http://ryanwaggoner.com/2010/10/how-to-become-a-freelance-web-developer/. Graphic Design matters most to clients, "unfair but true".