Get “Side Hustles for Developers”.
A practical guide to freelancing, building products, creating content, and building income streams outside your day job.
Most developers think about doing something on the side at some point in their career:
- Creating a small product
- Building an app
- Doing some freelancing to earn more
Something that doesn’t depend on the whims of your boss.
I was one of them, but as a developer, I wasn’t really sure how to get started.
I tried writing books first, before eventually switching to freelancing. At the time, it turned out to be a much better fit for me… but I didn’t know that beforehand.
So I thought it might be a good idea to compile everything I’ve learned about starting businesses as developers safely (i.e. without quitting your job), along with the patterns I’ve seen other developers follow.
That eventually turned into an ebook, Side Hustles For Developers.
What’s “Side Hustles For Developers”?
It’s the ebook I wish I had when I first got started… before spending a decade learning things the hard way.
And it’s free.
It’s a practical breakdown of the real ways developers build income outside their job, organized in a way that makes sense depending on where you are right now and what actually fits your style.
Inside you’ll find:
- How developers actually start side hustles without quitting their job
- Which paths work at different stages of your career
- How to avoid the traps that waste months of effort
- How to choose the right starting point based on your time and skills
The Side Hustle Ladder
The core of the ebook is a framework I call the Side Hustle Ladder.
The idea is simple. Not every hustle fits every person at every stage. Some take a weekend to start, while others take months of consistent work. Some need an audience, while others need nothing but a skill and a willingness to show up.
The Ladder helps you choose your next realistic step.
Not the dream scenario, but something you can actually start this week, based on your time, energy, and what you already know.
Here is a quick overview of the options we cover in the book:
Freelancing and Consulting (The Honest Version)
This is where most developers start, and trust me, it works.
But most developers who try freelancing either undercharge (I was one of them), take on the wrong clients, or burn out because they traded one boss for five.
Digital Products
Templates, tools, open-source projects with a paid tier, courses… These are the ones that sound passive, but honestly, nothing is ever truly passive.
And they’re certainly not at the start as they take real work to build and real effort to promote. What changes is the economics: you build once and sell many times, which is a very different model from billing by the hour or by the project.
Content Creation
Creating content such as tutorials, articles, videos, or podcasts can be an amazing way to build authority as a developer, and eventually turn that authority into real revenue.
My main concern with freelancing is that it doesn’t create much long-term leverage. Each project or hour you work generates revenue, and sometimes leads to more clients through recommendations. But it doesn’t really compound over time.
Content does.
Building a SaaS
Building a SaaS or small product means creating something that solves a clear problem for a clear audience, and I’m going to be honest.
While this has one of the lowest barriers to entry for developers, it’s also one of the hardest paths to break into. Most developers start building right away, only to realize later that there isn’t a real need for what they built, or that they have no idea where to find customers.
One Thing I Want to be Clear About
Not every side hustle is right for every person. We’re all different, and we all approach work in different ways, so it’s important to identify the kind of hustle that fits you and your lifestyle.
That’s why the ebook talks about tradeoffs, not just opportunities.
Because the goal is not to hustle harder. The goal is to build something that fits, and potentially can replace your full-time job (if you want it to), like it did for me.
Start Where You Are
The ebook is free. All of it.
If you are a developer who has been sitting on the idea of building something on the side, this is a good place to start. Not because it has all the answers, but because it will help you figure out the right next step for where you actually are right now.
Get “Side Hustles for Developers”.
A practical guide to freelancing, building products, creating content, and building income streams outside your day job.
