This a good question, why not let the cat out from the bag maybe when you tell us yours, we will be able to you ours

In todayz global economy, diversification and residual income are the name of the game. As the cliche goes, don't put all ur eggs in one basket. If you are in the stock market and don't put all your money in one stock, why do same with how you put food on the table?

smartsoft:

This a good question, why not let the cat out from the bag maybe when you tell us yours, we will be able to you ours

LMAO Intelligent response

my2cents:

In todayz global economy, diversification and residual income are the name of the game. As the cliche goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you are in the stock market and don't put all your money in one stock, why do same with how you put food on the table?

Well said.

hi all,
FOCUS = the watch word of champions.
If web development is your thing, focus on it.
Web dev is lucrative business if you kno how.
You can earn as much as 400k per month (how many bank managers get up to that?) if you are skilled enough.

you must understand that the internet is next to reality these days. people ( Nigerians inclusive) are now lookin to the internet for everything. from shopping, to information, pay biills, services , u name it, and its on the internet.

so my thot is, if you are skilled enough to build applications and solutions for the interenet, you will earn good money.

but hey, if webdev is a hobby to you, you will earn hobby cash from it (she they say output=input?, what you give is what you get!!!).

i think thats one of the reasons someone will charge as low as 15k for a website and someone else will charge 200k for the same site. to one, its a hobby, to another its a profession hence the difference.


thnks.
nduaj

Diversification is key to success in life. From Microsoft to google to Dangote it is the same story.

www.justwebservices.com & www.justalternativepower.com for now, in the near future we shall be going into smart card development.

@nduaj,

The difference between N15k website and N200k website is not just about professionalism or hobby, after all how much do you get to pay for a website from yahoo or google?

Spoke to someone on phone 2 days ago and based on the requirements I charge N60k. The person came down to make payment but introduced other time consuming functionalities for the project and the dynamics changed, I took time to explain why N250k won't do the project.

The good thing is that based on questions, clarifications and suggestions the person still wants the project to carried out and expects a proposal today so as to effect payment accordingly.

Educate, advice and guide your clients properly, once they trust you the rest is easy. Honesty is also key. The person wanted a feature that I cannot handle based on the time frame and I made it clear. However, the person asked me how long will it take for me to handle that particular task myself and I asked for 100% increase in the time frame and the person agreed as long as no part of the project goes out of my control.

Bottom line is that more and more Nigerians are becoming aware of the internet and if you are good in what you do you will make a lot of money.

That said, diversification is necessary if you really need to make a lot of money but tapping into other viable markets.

nduaj,

trust me, the idea of focus died back when the creed was, "from the cradle to the grave", with respect to work. Nowadays, diversity is it. If you are following the US economy, you will notice that many are losing all their money because they "focused" on their houses. In the late 90s, those who "focused" on the internet lost all their money as well. In Nigeria, IT is where it was in the US in the 90s. So is the stock market. They are booming now but trust me, all good things come to an end, so take advantage, save up and look to do other things. Google stock won't be $600, or whatever it is, forever.

I don't like spilling the beans with respect to my life experiences but will do so when the occasion calls for it. so here goes one:
I started working in IT in 1999. B/w then and 2001, I was retrenched twice because the economy had slowed down and business was no longer coming through the door. I was young then. In my mind, I could only see myself coding for the next 20 or so years. How dare I do something else? I graduated as a computer scientist and doing anything else was beneath me.

So what changed my mind? The last time I got retrenched, it was 6 months to my traditional marriage. I had barely started saving for it and whereas I was in the US, my wife-to-be was in Nigeria. In other words, I had to be sending money in advance for it. Of course, I had to stop sending money as I had bills to pay. In that same time frame, I attended at least 20 interviews. I still had hope. After 3 months, I was down to my last $400. Remember: traditional marriage in 3 months. Necessity is the mother of invention. I had to humble myself and do blue collar jobs to make up for lost time. Consequently, I was out of a job (not because I stopped interviewing but because the jobs just weren't there) for the next 2 years. It was during this time that, as we say, my eyes opened. You will see someone wearing tattered jeans and a worn-out shirt and has a degree in physics and is a university lecturer, yet you learn he is making $250,000 a year selling hot dogs on the side. That is when it hit me - you have to diversify. That was in 2003. In case you had forgotten, I just got married and b/w 2002 and the time my wife could cross over, I had bills to pay and had to send her money regularly.

From that day onwards, I have never been, and will never be, without at least 2 side jobs, one being non-IT. So nduaj, the focus may now be on IT but trust me, all good things come to an end. Whether you make 15K on a 5-page site or 400K on a 1-page site is irrelevant. Eventually, you have to get into other things. That's what happened to me a while back. Eventually, you want to set aside some money for a non-IT job. Take Afam for example, he codes and sells inverters as well. Personally, in the realm of IT, there was a time I did just coding. However, in order to compete with you guys I had to learn graphics and DB design. And guess what, I am still diversifying my skills so as to stay competitive with respect to coding jobs on the side.

D koko: Diversity and not focus is key. I am off my soapbox now

hi again guys

Meeeeennnn, i ve read through you guys comments to me and meeeen they made so much sense!!!!
you guys are right o. thnks for the heads up.
I ll see what to do soon. i ll keep you guys posted. thanks

Simply and short, there should not be too many words here.

Which ever way to deem fit, follow.

My only advice is that, gone are the days when people tell you that you are Jack of all trade. Fine. Accept it. There is no trouble about it. They will only say it but u know too better. When job A starts failing, job B surely will not. Even if it attempts failing, job C stands to give you your daily bread. Diversity is the key. I believe in it and surely, it has never and will not fail me.

Give diversity a trial if you have not and you will live to tell the pros around it.

WOW! - Diversify.

Well to me, there is time for diversification; thats when the present is strong enough to have partner. The good thing is that, if you have other businesses to run which are fully out of your present industry, you have every chance of max. success.

Ok, what I mean here is; Incase Business A begins to fail, Business B will fund it to rise again. I hope you got what I mean, you no longer have to keep close eye watch but just keep them running and implementing new systems.

Thats just my own view, not a law.

my2cents baba, im always amazed at the way u lay down your thoughts, ure a real motivator.

Youve said it all, but to add ill advise that we should not neglect what Nduaj said about FOCUS, focus is important especially when u do not apply it in the traditional way, ill advise we focus on all areas that relate to the field we are in : take for example webdesign, we could also harness income potentials from other similar sources such as:

Graphics design,webdevelopment, flash animations creation,advertising,printing, publishing etc.

On my part , apart from my regular contract jobs,i still get to do my own webdevelopment jobs and ive got a business center where we do digital passports,plastic id cards etc and soon i intend going into book publising.

"One road only does not lead to the market".
Who else should know better about multitasking?_{If not IT chaps.}

whaoo you guy have said alot about diversification well i have always believe in multiple streams of income which is the secret of oceanic wealth an everlasting and unending wealth, the oceans never runs dry because it receives it's source from multiple streams, rivers and pond. i haven't seen any wealthy man on earth that generate is income from one stream, so what are we talking about diversification is the key.

although i agree with what alot of folks here have said about diversification but at the sae time i want to sound a note of warning and that is,

while it is good to diversify make sure you professionalise in an area. there is no way anyone can be at his/her best in every area. make sure you are good at something while yet you know a bit about some other stuff.

you know the proverb that jack of all trades master of none is still valid even in this age

focus, yes, focus on an area in IT maybe programming,
diversify, yes, disversify into other non-IT areas like stock market, real estate, farming, buying and selling, ,

Its good to diversify. bt an advise: focus on one thing, when you are good enuf there then move on to some other things. you will even be glad you do so.

can one ever be good in one area? all areas in life are bottomless pits, you just keep going.

i beleive in diversification, but men you need a lot of godly wisdom to handle many areas at once even if its in two areas.

i migt be different but i found out my best and creativity comes out better when im focussed on an area. the money migt not be coming but with much persistence, ull find out that waiting time is just preparation time.

i ve got so much to learn in this field that diversifying now may cause me a lot. though i cant boast of the millions now, but i beleive persistence alway win.

Number one keys are: diversification, persistence, professionalism, determination, motivation, quick-turnaround, multi-tasking and problem-solving that are the best for me running business as 7-years experienced Visual Creative Designer as well as 15 years (former) Office Support Administration.

I am very much similar profession as @webemerald. When I had only web designing with only one programming HTML and Microsoft FrontPage back in 1999---it was sure failure my business, i had go back school taking accelerated 18-months advanced web development earning my second Bachelor Fine Arts degree replacing certification. _{(my first Bachelor Science was COBOL programming back in 1987)}.

Now I expanded my technical skills in graphic/web/print/multimedia/Flash animation developing/designing service business along with HTML, JavaScript, PHP, XML, MySQL database, CSS, and Flash Actionscript and can incorporate with other programmer's coding in ASP, CGI, and Perl that i can read, understand, and modify a little to be parsed on the website for employing actions/behaviors results.

how much do web developers earn salarywise per month on average?

From Expirence starting from N20,000 why some just start with N40,000 and some starts from N50,000. it alll boils down to type of company you working with. ! some starts with N100,000 but this is rare to find