Ask HN: Can I work on solo projects as a freelance dev?

[amateur_dev]

Hello everyone, I am a writer and I am looking for an occupation to support my creative endeavours. I know some coding basics and I enjoy it so I thought I could test if this gig works for me (coding projects for people). My requirement is that I would like to work totally solo on the projects, and start from scratch. Is that easily possible? if yes: What can of projects would these be? Can I do these projects with self taught knowledge? Where can I find such projects?

Thank you very much, and any other tips or advice is welcome :)

[latexr]

Yes, there are plenty of independent developers.

Pinboard¹ is by a single person, as is Marginalia² or Overcast³. For the last one check the Under the Radar podcast⁴ where two solo developers discuss matters related to indie development. Or search HN⁵.

¹ https://pinboard.in/

² https://search.marginalia.nu/

³ https://overcast.fm/

⁴ https://www.relay.fm/radar

⁵ https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

[amateur_dev]

Hi latexr, thank you for your answer, these projects are great :)

I think I mis-expressed myself in the original post, the work i was thinking about is more like coding projects commanded by clients, so that I can make immediate revenue from it. The examples you suggested seem more like personal projects.

Do you think it is possible to make reliable revenue from personal projects? If so I would definitely prefer working on these, but I had the idea that it would be a riskier way.

[gregjor]

You can, if you know what you’re doing and can deliver. You’ll have to compete with freelancers who have more experience and a track record. I have freelanced for over ten years. My customers expect me to show results right away. The projects get dictated by the customer. You can either add business value or you can’t. You don’t get to decide whether you work solo or start from scratch because someone is paying you for results.