Freelance web development side hustle
A solo freelance practice building custom websites for clients, started by a software developer looking to escape the corporate grind.
The idea, in plain language
A solo freelance practice building custom websites for clients, in this case a software engineer's path from two failed starts into a profitable web-development side business. Revenue comes from per-project or retainer fees paid by clients needing custom sites, with the customer being small businesses or individuals who need a web presence. Startup costs are essentially zero for someone who already codes; the episode is a personal story of persistence into freelancing rather than a teardown of pricing.
Where the sources agree
- Started by an engineer pivoting from corporate work into freelancing
- Custom websites for paying clients as the deliverable
- Frame is perseverance: two failed starts before it clicked
What each source says
side-hustle-school#445 - Engineer Reprograms Herself, Finds Confidence to Start Over
An engineer fails twice, then finally turns her web-development passion into a profitable freelance side business.
Listen on Side Hustle Schoolside-hustle-school#2144 - First $1,000: “Clients don’t want Wordpress, they want a website…”
Side Hustle School profiles the 'Wordpress Girl,' who runs a website setup service for female entrepreneurs and earns at least $2,000/month on the side while rebranding. The segment focuses on positioning plain website delivery over platform choices like WordPress.
Listen on Side Hustle Schoolside-hustle-school#1459 - Steady Grind Leads to Sustainable Side Income
An engineer who picked up web design out of curiosity now earns roughly $40,000 a year on the side through a profitable freelance web design practice.
Listen on Side Hustle Schoolside-hustle-school#2085 - Failure Friday: "My boss discovered my side hustle by accident..."
Side Hustle School tells a Failure Friday story about an employee whose website-building side hustle was discovered when he forgot to swap his desktop before leaving for lunch. The segment frames it as a cautionary tale about hiding a side hustle at the office.
Listen on Side Hustle Schoolindie-hackers#029 – How to Win by Refusing to Quit with Tracy Osborn of Hello Web Design
Tracy Osborn of Hello Web Design recounts how repeated perseverance and learning to code turned a borderline startup failure into a profitable web-design business serving small businesses.
Listen on Indie HackersTools people use for this
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