Is web development and web hosting a viable freelance career in south africa?

[tsavvy]

Ive been doing web development courses on udemy and is almost ready to start delivering my experience to customers. Is freelancing and reseller hosting a good way to earn some extra money?

Will I be able to work for a company when im done with university studies. And make extra cash when freelancing?

 

[Thor]

It's a VERY flooded competitive market, but if you're good, you're good.

 

[Hackson]

It is a great space to be in but ya it is a bit saturated but the experienced, fast and good guys (good at getting a job done) get by really well. As a freelancer you'll need a comprehensive portfolio to make it far.

 

[halfmoonforever]

Web Development & Design does not have to be confined to the borders of SA to be successful. A friend of mine has 3 clients in Dubai, 2 in London and 7 in the USA giving him and his designer partner enough business to keep busy and paid. When the rand crapped itself they smiled all the way to the bank.

They do have some South African clients, but those guys usually want to pay nothing for something and think they can get away with "it will just take you like an hour" type reasoning. So they tend to shy away from those people who usually wastes their time and money

 

[Thor]

Web Development & Design does not have to be confined to the borders of SA to be successful. A friend of mine has 3 clients in Dubai, 2 in London and 7 in the USA giving him and his designer partner enough business to keep busy and paid. When the rand crapped itself they smiled all the way to the bank.

They do have some South African clients, but those guys usually want to pay nothing for something and think they can get away with "it will just take you like an hour" type reasoning. So they tend to shy away from those people who usually wastes their time and money

+1 totally forgot to mention, yea Web is not geo specific.

Skype + email + .com domain amd your good to go.


I don't think .co.za domains show up in other countries?

 

[Batista]

Not really.Its saturated and you can go long periods without work.You can be successful but it takes time and money.

 

[tsavvy]

Any recommendations after my online courses?

Currently enrolled in
Become A Web Developer From Scratch v2016 - Victor Bastos
Develop a killer website with HTML5 and CSS3 -
Jonas Shmedtman

BWDFS covers
HTML CSS JavaScript PHP jQuery Bootstrap JSON and MySql
KWHC covers
Advanced HTML5 and avanced CSS3

Also going to do AngularJS afterwards.

What else do I need to be a good hire or get work from a company as a intern or junior dev?

 

[eternaloptimist]

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x
https://www.freecodecamp.com
https://www.codecademy.com


It all depends on what you want to do.
But the path is generally - HTML, CSS, Javascript(Basic)
From there you can decide if you want to continue with JS and get deeper(isomorphic with Node).
Or you can pick up a new language Python, Ruby, Go, Elixir, Php etc
THEN you can look into their frameworks - Django, Flask, Sinatra, Rails, Revel, Phoenix, Laravel
You will also need to know about databases and how to talk to them.(RDBMS, NoSQL)

 

[NullHypothesis]

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x
https://www.freecodecamp.com
https://www.codecademy.com


It all depends on what you want to do.
But the path is generally - HTML, CSS, Javascript(Basic)
From there you can decide if you want to continue with JS and get deeper(isomorphic with Node).
Or you can pick up a new language Python, Ruby, Go, Elixir, Php etc
THEN you can look into their frameworks - Django, Flask, Sinatra, Rails, Revel, Phoenix, Laravel
You will also need to know about databases and how to talk to them.(RDBMS, NoSQL)

I just want to add something to this re: codecademy. You get official "tracks" and then "courses". To leap from the HTML & CSS track to the JavaScript track is challenging for beginners. After the HTML & CSS track rather take a HTML + Javascript + CSS course and a Functions in JavaScript course first before moving onto the JavaScript track or at least use it as supplementary. Then you can move on to jQuery if you want and then to whatever your endgame is (PHP, Ruby, Python etc.). Here is a list of some of their useful unlisted courses, some like "Teach Yourself JavaScript" have been made into official tracks.

 

[GooMaty]

freelance is good but indeed flooded, employment is based on perfomance and competition.

 

[Thor]

I just want to add something to this re: codecademy. You get official "tracks" and then "courses". To leap from the HTML & CSS track to the JavaScript track is challenging for beginners. After the HTML & CSS track rather take a HTML + Javascript + CSS course and a Functions in JavaScript course first before moving onto the JavaScript track or at least use it as supplementary. Then you can move on to jQuery if you want and then to whatever your endgame is (PHP, Ruby, Python etc.). Here is a list of some of their useful unlisted courses, some like "Teach Yourself JavaScript" have been made into official tracks.

Holy hell.

Can I buy you a beer?

You just changed my life. I never knew there were so much hidden courses!!!!!!

 

[IndigoIdentity]

Ive been doing web development courses on udemy and is almost ready to start delivering my experience to customers. Is freelancing and reseller hosting a good way to earn some extra money?

Will I be able to work for a company when im done with university studies. And make extra cash when freelancing?

The hardest part i'd think is gaining the experience in order to get to the point where you have a half decent portfolio and can attract additional work quite easily. Without that, it can be quite hard to compete as there are professionals out there that have been doing this for years and years and do it well, that being said... Not all of them do so in this aspect there will always be a gap for new comers into the market.

In terms of freelance work, I'd like to add to this and say that it really boils down to you and your ability to treat this as your profession.

If you're willing to take things seriously and you go the extra mile to learn and get yourself up to a standard where you can complete various tasks then there is no reason why you cannot earn money from these skills that you have picked up.

That being said, learning about development is one thing but progressing to the point where you're able to accommodate for a businesses common requirements as a freelance developer is not all that easy. In most cases, they do not have simple or in the box requirements and and expect you to be somewhat a jack of all trades in terms of being a designer, a developer, a copywriter and marketer amongst other things too. It can be a lot of work to reach the end results and you really have to be a person that can collaborate well with others in order to get ahead, most especially when you're just starting out...

Good luck!