[Wilya]

I was in the same situation. I can do back-end web programming, and some lower level things in C or mobile apps.

Right now, though, d3.js gives me 80% of my income. It's something I like, and I noticed a lot of demand, so I sort of happened naturally. Focusing in a single area has the advantage that you can become really efficient at it, much more than if you hop between completely different projects every two months.

I still have a bunch of side projects in every language under the sun, because that's what I like, and because the market won't stay the same forever, but focusing professionally on only one area (that you reasonably enjoy) for a time simplifies marketing a lot.

[skwosh]

> Right now, though, d3.js gives me 80% of my income. It's something I like, and I noticed a lot of demand

Very interesting.

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of work are you typically doing with d3? Visualising what kind of data and for what purpose?

[Wilya]

I mostly design small, self-contained visualizations for small businesses. The data I get and the level of "visualization design" I have to do depend a lot on the client.

I have worked among others with data on local traffic (congestion and travel times), interaction between players on a field during a game, computing performance, some internal manufacturing metrics. I think there's quite a few areas where people want dashboards that are both fancy looking and informative, either for their clients or for themselves.

Some people just have a vague notion of some data they somehow want to display, others have quite precise demands (typically: "I've seen this d3 example and I want the same with this and that specific interaction/effect added.")

[asands]

Wilya, how do you find work for d3.js? What's the best way for a freelancer to market their experience in a relatively small open source library?