SeanNieuwoudt

Like you, I was once in the same position. Extremely poor, I literally hand drew business cards and cut them out of cardboard and walked around the city to hand-deliver them. This helped as someone eventually gave me a chance, but I'm sure it's because he felt sorry for me. I had no experience and learnt how to code from making free photo copies of the pages in the visual basic 6 book at the local public library.

Where I'm from (South Africa), internet was expensive and not accessible to all at the time.

Some advice for your situation:

- You are at the bottom, your only way from there is up - this is something to be excited about.

- Fake it until you make it. When meeting potential clients, talk the talk and do the walk later.

- You'd be surprised at how many SME's need IT services and don't know it yet :) You can simply walk in the door and have a chat to them.

- Put your ego away and always be aware that in order to eat, you need to sell. Selling is actually pretty simple if have a bit of confidence.

- Look after your laptop with your life, it's your key to getting out of your situation.

- If you can write code, it most likely means that you can solve problems logically - this doesn't only apply to coding, figure out where you can use that and make a bit of money.

- Don't be afraid of charging for your time. Poverty is also a mindset, as soon as you realize that, you are one step closer to getting past it.

- Just ask for help. You are not alone and most people will be sympathetic when they are asked.

- You don't need to prove yourself to anyone in order to survive, simply do what you do best and the rest will follow.

Goodluck! S

It costs $11.99.

I'd have to say Ruby, GIT, Heroku and Postmark.

In a previous experience, I found that companies hired me without even glancing at my CV or portfolio after I started my development company.

There was some level of pre-created trust purely because I had a business operating in the field.

It's not hard to put a nice looking website together, choose a business name and start operating on the side.

It might make it easier for you too.

Goodluck!

I would say a great developer should have the followed waxed:

1. Accurate time estimation & communication skills

2. Not suffer perfectionism

3. Know where to find the right answers

4. A good understanding of general programming concepts and when to apply

5. Ability to write code in a way that it's easy for future dev to understand

6. A good understanding of tasks other than programming and how they all fit together in a business environment

7. A good dose of enthusiasm - things can get tough, how are they going to deal with it?

I'll end my comment by saying that you won't know the extend of the damage caused by a bad developer until it's too late.

thanks for the great feedback!

Thanks! I've fixed that line on the site.

We've spoken to quite a few people that sell digital products online through various channels - most of them were looking for something similar. We also have the need for it ourselves.

But I guess time will tell.

Oops, thanks! Fixed

Definitely a valid point, we are currently working on a feature that allows you to sell outside of Twitter, like on your blog and website etc. Thanks for the comment, really appreciated!