Normally I would just downvote you and move on, but in this case your comment is frustrating enough that I have to say something. I found the comment you responded to (by nsrivast) quite fascinating. A well-written but brief analysis of the problem, with sources attached for further reading -- what's not to like? In-depth and thoughtful comments like that are what keep me coming back to this site, and are what make the community great.

I for one am very thankful that nsrivast took the time to write something so technical and detailed. However, I found your response to be in extremely poor taste. It added nothing to the conversation, and IMHO was rude and unnecessary.

Yes. Really. Some people[1] spend their time writing lengthy and technical posts about specific technical issues. The rest of the world benefits from this. And the person writing the post benefits too, because trying to write something like that makes you smarter. Perhaps you should try it sometime.

[1] - I occasionally do this.

Maybe he's off work? Maybe he's "decompressing" from a hard problem at his job? Maybe you should STFU and enjoy the free information you are getting?

You mean to say high quality is something built with lowest common denominator in mind like windows?

Hi,

Thanks for your inputs. I really appreciate you guys taking out time. This is what I am planning to do.

1. Learn JavaScript and then jQuery. I am aiming at becoming comfortable with JS and jQuery in 3 months.

2. After 2 months I will start creating and selling simple templates (like e-mail templates and HTML website templates) on Themeforest.com. In 3 months I will start developing templates based on Twitter BootStrap

3. I will continue to polish my front end web dev skills from month # 4 to month # 6.

4. If my templates start generating a revenue of $600+ from month # 6 onwards I will be a very happy man. 600 bucks will take care of my family's monthly expenses.

5. If this financial goal is met I will learn Python. At this stage I will also start spending more time programming 7-8 hours a day and will gradually come out of my freelance writing (pays a measly $3-$10 and hour) and Internet marketing gigs.

I appreciate what you are saying. I have seen great programmers who can learn and start serious programming in a new language within a month.

Thanks Egor! This is where I stand now. 1. Working knowledge of CSS and HTML 2. Aptitude for programming.

This is what I am going to do

1. Learn JavaScript and then jQuery. I am aiming at becoming comfortable with JS and jQuery in 3 months. 2. After 2 months I will start creating and selling simple templates (like e-mail templates and HTML website templates) on Themeforest.com. In 3 months I will start developing templates based on Twitter BootStrap 3. I will continue to polish my front end web dev skills from month # 4 to month # 6. 4. If my templates start generating a revenue of $600+ from month # 6 onwards I will be a very happy man. 600 bucks will take care of my family's monthly expenses.

5. If this financial goal is met I will learn Python. At this stage I will also start spending more time programming 7-8 hours a day and will gradually come out of my freelance writing (pays a measly $3-$10 and hour) and Internet marketing gigs.

Thanks for sharing your contact.

Wait, when you spoke of $2-3k/month, did you mean active or passive income? Because I was speaking of active one - as in, you directly exchange your time for money.

Can't comment on your plan wrt template selling, but it seems you might start earning money faster if you get right to freelancing; though it's up to you, of course.

Speaking of timeline - in my opinion, it might be more optimal to target real-life tasks and not some deadlines: that is, instead of saying "I'll spend 3 months learning JS and then will start creating templates" you might just do the tutorial, maybe make a couple small projects to get comfortable a bit. Then pick some task - like a template, or just browse freelance sites, pick a job you like and use it as a target - start doing it and then see whether your skills are up to it or not. If not, learn more until you get there.

And speaking of money - from what I saw on elance, $10/hr is about minimum for Python/JS, that'll get you people who can barely speak English. Around $15 is not impossible for a person with a bit of experience, and from then on... well, that's a whole different story here, about marketing, client network, connections, self-promotion etc etc. Though, again, for the first couple of jobs there your main goal should be not getting high rates, but actually winning these jobs and creating some reputation.

So to sum it up - why exclude yourself from development freelancing for 6+ months? And relying on templates sales looks a bit risky to me, direct freelance will get you income faster. Though passive income sure is great, so in the end it's for you to decide.

Oh, and seconding jQuery. It's great.

Thanks for the advice. I do plan to work as a freelancer and with local businesses. I also want to create some cool website templates and sell them on themeforest.net etc.

Do you think making 2000-3000 bucks a month feasible by selling themes? I saved wisely during my financial services days and if I can reach $2000 per month figure then I will focus 100% on programming.

Once again thanks for the advice.

2K on themes - I have no idea but I suspect not - its a competitive marketplace.

I think you can make 2000 USD a month by creating tools for your local businesses.

Here is my suggestion: go buy a list of businesses in your area for about 200 USD. You will get something like 5000 businesses for that in suburban area.

Split them into industry, and find their websites (most likely provided as the email addresses). Visit each site in an industry and work out which ones are just brochures and whoch ones actually take money online (customer signin, has visa paypal on page)

Now you have two groups. The brochure-ware group you can approach with examples from the other group saying "your competitors are doing this online - want me to help?"

The second group you can approach with "Do you know how many customers visited your site - and I can improve this"

(bonus points for actually dividing this group into those who have google analytics and those who dont)

No one pays for cool themes anymore (well 20 bucks is not really paying). People will pay through the nose if you up their sales.

Try looking at www.kalzumeus.com for an intro.

Sounds like a good idea. I will do this for 3 months and measure my performance.

I agree with your point that it is easier to charge money when the problem being solved is business critical.

post your results here in three months :-)

Will do that! If it works I will buy you a beer!

P.S. Yes I feel a burning desire to program.

I have not learnt JavaScript yet. I can spending only 3-4 hours every day learning how to program. Will it be a better idea to learn JavaScript before picking up server side scripting.

Since I can do server side with Node.js do you think it is a good idea to learn only JS for the time being?

Since I have to support my family I cannot spend more than 5 hours a day.

Thanks

Javascript is essential for any web developer no matter what server side technology they use. I would highly recommend learning Javascript first.

Thanks for the input. I have started learning JS. I am going through JS guide on developer.mozilla.org.

Hi, (TL;DR;) Good logical skills, decent IQ, and zero prior (non trivial) programming experience.

Thanks for the advice. I am a electronics engineer (though never worked as one) and an MBA. I worked in financial services Industry for 10+ years.

I am good at Maths. I studied standard engg subjects like Logic and Boolean Algebra, C programming language, 8085 & 8086 microprocessor etc. But that was a very long time back. What I retain from my engineering school days is the ability to think logically and wrap my thoughts around a problem.

Thanks

Raja = King not warlord. Chandragupt Maurya the Emperor of Patliputra (now Patna) had an army much bigger than Porus'

The article agrees with you, "it was fought against a powerful Indian rajah, an Indian equivalent to a king or warlord."

Nathan berry has started to piss me off due to two reasons

One he is always ranting about the book he has written. Two he is giving generic rant on how to sell stuff.

Come on dude show something original.