IM and programmers: Making bank?

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uplinked

uplinked

Code-whisperer
Mar 10, 1988
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San Diego, CA
Hi, first post here :) I'm new to wickedfire, and affiliate marketing in general, but I used to lurk at syndk8 if that's worth any brownie points.

My Background
Four months ago, I got a job as a software developer at a network that's pretty popular around here [but oh, how I hate to drop names], and since I have no IM background, I've been racing full-speed to catch up with all the lingo and business practices.

I've been a programmer for about 8 years now, since I was 13 years old. I'm not very good at very many things, but programming is my bag. I love to write code, and I love to solve problems. Straight out of high school, I had two consecutive summer internships at Microsoft, where I decided that I wanted to make serious* bank, but not in a corporation.

[* To clarify, I don't want many things, but I do want paper, and lots of it. My official goal, as written down, is to become "stupid rich", which I define as having enough money to crash hundred thousand dollar cars for fun eight days a week, or to buy, bankrupt and raze every movie studio that ever even considers hiring Mel Gibson, for any paying position, at all. I want *that* kind of money. Stupid rich.]

My Job
So I'm sitting in an office surrounded by a bunch of twenty-somethings pulling five figures a [month/week/day]. And it's really obvious to me that there's a whole lot of cash to be made, but I'm very adamant about one thing- I'm not an affiliate. I'm a programmer. I understand "how" to market, but I don't want to learn about copywriting, LP design, negotiating with advertisers, etc.
I'd rather write code that makes other people really rich, and then charge them out the nuts for it.

I'm super happy with my job. It's fun, challenging, and I'm making way more than someone with my credentials (read: no credentials at all) should be. My boss hired me on my word, and one of his affiliates' recommendation. We're a small company, but we're kicking ass. In the last two weeks, we just launched a new service that's already served 50m files in 15m unique hits. We're on target to serve over 1 billion files during June. To me, this is incredible; I'm excited just to have a part in it, much less to be the one-man-many-hats IT guy behind all the shit that goes down here.
So this job is awesome for the 9-5, with lots of room to grow and learn.

My question
I know how much super affiliates can make in a day. I understand that super affiliates are atypical of the market, and that they're great at what they do. But I'm atypical, too; I hate to rub my own rocks, but I'm great at what I do. And I don't want to buy or sell ads, or think about demographics, or target shit to anyone. I want to write code and read server logs.
Can a super programmer make that kind of money around here? Can I write tools at night, given the right circumstances, that will earn me thousands a day? Or should I just keep [strike]selling drugs[/strike] until the next craze hits and run a media buy or two (which is what my coworkers largely advise)?

I want honest opinions, but I'll settle for lolcats.
Cheers!
 


Uplinked, I am in a -very- simular situation as you. I will say, my path is not so A -> B as you have proposed.. But I seriously think there is a place in this industry for us.

Lets be honest, good developers are rare in the development world.. much less the seo one.
 
Uplinked,

Unfortunately I'd generally argue that 'soft skills' are a better skillset to cultivate to make money, both in & out of affiliate marketing. By soft skills I mean things like social skills, presentation skills, business writing, entrepreneurship, ability to learn and understand quickly, etc, etc. Any 'hard skill' such as programming you can always find someone to do for you, you just have to offer enough money. The idea is you surround yourself with people who are specialists and know a lot more about their field than what you do.

I've known awesome awesome coders who can do anything with a computer who are content to make $100k/yr and then you have guys like richard branson, who I would struggle to even list a 'hard skill' of his (perhaps ballooning) making massive amounts of cash.

(This is from a guy who went to university with every intention of being a coder, I even worked as a coder for a year after I finished).

Anyway, having said that, it is possible to make monies with coding. I'd look at small tools you could do quickly and sell for $9.99 or if you don't want to bother with marketing so much, write a few iphone apps.

I'd also be checking your contract with your employer as most IT-type contracts nowdays will have a clause that says anything you write is considered to be owned by your employer - even if you do it on you own time. You can try to get a waiver (in writing!) before you start your project. This is very important because if something takes off you could be exposed. Large amounts of money tend to fuck with people's morals and if your boss can sue you for a few million, he will.
 
I suggest you start browsing Syndk8 more often :) I'm good enough at programming for it to benefit me in AM greatly but I have so many ideas that I can't take up because my skills are limited. Programming will help you a alot, especially in blackhat projects.
 
DreamMachine said:
Uplinked,

Unfortunately I'd generally argue that 'soft skills' are a better skillset to cultivate to make money, both in & out of affiliate marketing. By soft skills I mean things like social skills, presentation skills, business writing, entrepreneurship, ability to learn and understand quickly, etc, etc. Any 'hard skill' such as programming you can always find someone to do for you, you just have to offer enough money. The idea is you surround yourself with people who are specialists and know a lot more about their field than what you do.

I've known awesome awesome coders who can do anything with a computer who are content to make $100k/yr and then you have guys like richard branson, who I would struggle to even list a 'hard skill' of his (perhaps ballooning) making massive amounts of cash.

(This is from a guy who went to university with every intention of being a coder, I even worked as a coder for a year after I finished).

Anyway, having said that, it is possible to make monies with coding. I'd look at small tools you could do quickly and sell for $9.99 or if you don't want to bother with marketing so much, write a few iphone apps.

I'd also be checking your contract with your employer as most IT-type contracts nowdays will have a clause that says anything you write is considered to be owned by your employer - even if you do it on you own time. You can try to get a waiver (in writing!) before you start your project. This is very important because if something takes off you could be exposed. Large amounts of money tend to fuck with people's morals and if your boss can sue you for a few million, he will.
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I agree with the spirit of this post. You need to be able to sell, whatever it is you are trying to sell. Rather it be a product, an idea, or even yourself. However, if you are intelligent & can think out of the box AND can develop I think there are large earning potentials in this space.

That being said, I am currently not monetizing any of my projects (3) that I started over 9 months ago. So, joke may be on me.
 
I understand "how" to market, but I don't want to learn about copywriting, LP design, negotiating with advertisers, etc.

I'd rather write code that makes other people really rich, and then charge them out the nuts for it.
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"i don't want to learn" - that's going to do you in right there.

it's going to be pretty tough to just code and bank. dreammachine makes some good points above. you need to figure out the billing model too - if you're just coding projects, how do you scale? individual projects, tool kits, subscriptions, etc.
 
Radio is right - you have to learn, stretch and enter areas of discomfort if you're ever going to succeed in a big way. I have the opposite problem: Poor tech skills, but possess some of the "soft" skills you describe. I'm trying to work up a first landing page, and would rather scrub the toilet than work on the thing. Success is tough, and you have to keep learning.
 
Cool, good answers :)
I appreciate the advice that soft skills are far more important; I agree completely. But while soft skills will make you bank, hard skills put bread on the table, and right now I need more bread :)
This conversation actually indirectly sparked a conversation with my boss in which he told me pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear- he wants to give me more coding opportunities, building awesome new IM-related services, ultimately taking over the world, and making a balls ton of money in the process. I told him I just didn't want to market, and he's fine with that.

Sweeeeeeet.
 
I'm a programmer as well. Quite a few in this community know how good I am. I partnered with a businessman/marketer who is very good at what he does. He's essentially a hacker of marketing. We're very successful together.

I would suggest you partner with someone who knows what they're doing. You need to learn the ropes of affiliate marketing as well. You don't have to necessarily deal with the day-to-day stuff, but you need to build tools and technology to make your partner's job easier and more efficient. Automate, automate, automate. The best way to understand your partner's needs is to fully understand the industry.

Best of luck to you.
 
If you have a creative mind you will find that your programming skills can be used to make you "bank" as you describe - but first, familiarize yourself with the market and what's out there. There's a lotttt of opportunity out there, get your ass going.
 
Considering most people rather pay an Indian or an Asian to write code for $4 / hr [or less] it'd be damn tough to "get rich" off your software. It's the truth. You basically have to come up with tools that many people can use to make money, and throw away the thought of doing one offs, because it typically doesn't pay worth shit. Every once in a while you get a client willing to pay for good work that needs to be done, but those are pretty far and few between.
 
If you're going to attempt to make a service, it better be something that others can't clone in a day. Or a month. Or even a year. It needs something that is constantly evolving and adapting to whatever's in demand. In other words, it needs to be Skynet.
 
Bofu2U said:
If you're going to attempt to make a service, it better be something that others can't clone in a day. Or a month. Or even a year. It needs something that is constantly evolving and adapting to whatever's in demand. In other words, it needs to be Skynet.
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Or be the first to do it and get a lot of hype, because I reckon I could clone Twitter pretty damn quickly.
 
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