::Rent a Fool:: [/tech/java] (13:23)

If you are looking for a fully functional e-commerce site for under $200, then take a look at Rent a Coder. No matter how large and complex the project is, you can find an eager coder willing to design everything from J2ME games to J2EE websites, usually for under $100.

I'm guessing that most of the jobs available are actually homework assignments for lazy students. Most of them read like that, but there's a difference between developing a real email server and client (oh, you need to be able to support multimedia content on the client) for $100 and doing a class project of the same nature.

I know that's not much money. If you need a little more, how about creating a multiplayer 3d combat game. (max bid is $240) Don't forget the level editor.

I honestly don't know whether I should be more worried that people are posting jobs like this with ridiculously low maximum bids, or that there might actually be programmers out there responding to these offers. Either way, I'd recommend steering clear of this site for now. It's clear that few of the buyers or sellers sellers there have any software development experience.

::So, you want to be an author:: [/tech/books] (09:36)

A lot of Java developers have the desire to go into writing. I think that is great. Writing books and articles is a great way to contribute to the Java community. But, is it a great way to make money?

My experience matched just about everything that Scott said. I will point out that the pay scale for magazines varies a lot. I got paid more for a single article in Doctor Dobb's Journal than I did for all of my articles in Java Developers Journal combined. Articles online can pay even better. Rates vary, but a well placed online article can pay 3 or 4 times what an article in a print magazine brings. I've gotten as much as $2500 and as little as $75 for articles, so if compensation is a primary motivator, it pays to look around.

According to Scott's analysis, books pay less per page. That's probably true. Although I don't recommend going into book writing for the money, I also don't think the picture is quite that bad. For a $40 book that sells 5,000-10,000 copies, an author is looking at getting $10,000 to $20,000 dollars.

That's not an insignificant amount of money, but you have to work pretty hard for that money. XDoclet in Action took about 6 months to write with two authors. Michael took about 9 months to finish Enterprise J2ME, and he had much more time each week to put into his book.

Lets take Scott's $14k example and suppose that you had to work a whole year on the book. What would be the equivalent in articles? Let's suppose you get a good deal and can get $1000 per article. (I've never been paid that much for a print article, but several online sites will pay that much)

You would have to write 14 separate articles over that 12 month period. That probably involved putting out 20 proposals on 20 different topics. Of the 14 you need accepted, you need to invest the time to research each one and work up examples for each one. Even though you are writing fewer pages than you would for a book, jumping around like that can be quite taxing. My general feeling is that with all the extra work involved, writing a 8-10 page article is not significantly less work than writing a chapter in a book.

To me, the big difference is that a book is a commitment to those 14 articles. The publisher is commiting to publish, which means you don't have to work those 20 proposals. Once your book is started, you can just focus on writing. On the other hand, it's a huge commitment. Writing articles, if you get sick or want to take a vacation, you can just work a little less. Maybe you only do 12 articles and take a bit less pay. The flexibility might be worth it.

So, should you write? It's not a question of money to me. I maintain that every Java developer has at least one idea worth sharing. While writing articles or books might not be the best way for you to share your ideas, I do hope everyone finds ways to put a little bit back into the community. Write articles, do a weblog, write free software, give a talk at a users group meeting, get involve with standards development. There are many ways to contribute.