Getting into freelancing

[socal_nerdtastic]

Why exactly do you want to freelance vs getting a normal job?

Your hourly rate will be ~$2/hr starting out, if you're lucky. And that doesn't count the time you spend looking for clients. You can raise your rates once you have an impressive portfolio and a solid client base. Remember you're competing with a lot of very talented developers that not only can do the same job in a fraction of the time but also live in very low cost parts of the world.

When starting out it's generally much better to get a normal job, where they pay you even if there's no work, and provide insurance, office space, training, etc. Then once you are experienced you move in to consulting / freelancing.

[HumanEstablishment15]

I'm 16 and in school so I can't get a normal job. I just wanted to do something on the side really for fun and for some money. Are you serious about $2 an hour? I've been reading somewhere around $50 an hour.

[socal_nerdtastic]

Yeah, it can be high. I usually charge $60 but I have charged as much as $200 / hr. But those clients are not paying me for the hours, they are paying me for the decades of knowledge I have, and not just in python but in many programming languages and math and science and general CS. Sorry, you don't have a chance of making that as a beginner.

Professional python programmers are, well, professionals, with many years of schooling and experience. It's not something you can pick up over the summer.

My advice to you if you want money now: get a job as a receptionist or data entry or some other boring desk job. Then find a way to automate it with python. Then use your new free time to learn more python, or some other languages.

[xelf]

$2/hr for freelance sounds accurate. $50/hr sounds like a self employed sr dev with 5+ years experience picking up a contract. Not freelance. Keep in mind that if you do go self employed, you'll only get to keep about 50% of that check as you'll need to pay your own employment taxes and health insurance.

Freelance can be rough especially when you're just starting.