or use it as a main source of income along with other activities?
just wondering if its a livable way of life. or do most developers use it as a phase or hobby, on the way to another profession?
By earn a living, i mean 60-100k+![]()
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or use it as a main source of income along with other activities?
just wondering if its a livable way of life. or do most developers use it as a phase or hobby, on the way to another profession?
By earn a living, i mean 60-100k+![]()



I run a small team of PHP developers building professional, managed web applications for use by the company I work for and by our clients... does that count as just 1 (myself), or as 7 (my whole team)?




here's a graphic i found for average incomes of developers for various languages
![]()





Not sure why you'd stipulate $60k - $100k. The cost of living is dirt cheap where I live. My salary is equivalent to or better than what $60k - $100k would be in, say, San Francisco or NYC.





"Coding Alone" - Probably no.
Running a web development company - Yes.
PHP solely, possibly if you work for a large company.
I will only hire someone if they have knowledge or at least the drive to learn other languages.
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just an opinion,
I think it could be great if php coders could develop apps like facebook and etc...








I'm not sure if this discussion is even allowed under the rules of Sitepoint.
Anyways,
I make within that range coding PHP mainly, but I'm fluent in other languages if it makes a difference to you though.
My cost of living isnt too bad, but its not low. Chances are you wont make that much without working for a larger company or being skilled in more than PHP.
It also boils down to how much experience you have as well. Unless you happen to get lucky, dont count on 60k+ just starting out.
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It is fine for all I know. If you're worried about the price discussion ban that used to be, it's been lifted several months ago.
I wouldn't reject the possibility to earn a good living as a sole freelance programmer. If not for the possibility to get good clients, then for the cost of living as WWW mentioned.
But in general I would agree you need to run a webdev company rather than do it all yourself. I tried, it's not pretty.
Another possibility is to do well with your work results rather than the process. But that requires a whole lot of other skills and it's not just programming anymore.
Saul



I wouldn't take on anybody with PHP alone.
When we do recruit, I need people for UI development with js/ajax, css and html - no PHP necessary for those roles, but extremely useful because then they can do the "full cycle" of front-end/back-end work. And on the back-end side which is predominantly PHP, being able to formulate a decent, efficient database (Oracle) query is essential, as is understanding the concept of database transactions rather than simply discrete queries/updates.... it's amazing how many people don't understand rolling back a db transaction on error.
Plus, understanding of basic security a must
So PHP alone isn't enough, no matter how quickly or efficiently somebody can crank out code





It's not especially fun to run a one-man shop either, for that matter. I much prefer working for a stable company with other IT and media professionals. As a former freelancer, the design-by-committee approach takes some getting used to, but it is nice to not have to pull off large projects alone.
I should mention that, although most of my work is PHP/MySQL, I was hired because of my broader skillset, not just for PHP programming.
cool thanx for all the replies. haha.
i live in australia. 60-100k is somewhat basics + some nice luxuries. ill be looking for around 40-60k start out.
i can use other languages. mysql, js, xml, css. im just stressed getting towards the end of my studies. im doing quite well in class, very enthusiastic, and apply study at home, keen to learn new languages. however new languages isnt going to achieve much when i have basic understanding of languages such as php, but applying many hours a night trying to work out :P also moderate design skills..
i just really want to be able to get a job, and even if i can make one, want to be able to live off working in the industry. ive definately decided to get a job in a large company.
a. because i can learn ALOT more off the people around me, and look at all the areas involved in web development.
b. much more social and interesting than working by yourself. if i worked by myself. it would be secondary work, id do in my own time.
thanx for all the replies.
i would have liked to set up my own company, but that is a seriously big range of skills, not only developing, but entrepreneurial, communicative, graphics, yada, yada.
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