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The late 90s are behind us, but the Internet is alive and well! We are just moving into the second phase of Internet adoption where businesses are seeking to make their Internet presence into a competitive advantage, seeking to drive traffic into their stores, to their websites, and making for a seamless consumer experience. So your Internet skills continue to be in demand, especially if you can deliver professional solutions!

Many large companies invested a lot of money on large back-office applications such as SAP & PeopleSoft in the 90s. But these companies do not like to maintain a large IT staff. Instead, they seek to hire programmers on a contract basis for short durations for particular jobs. This may involve creating networks between their different pieces of software, or an upgrade to existing software, or the addition of customized solutions to suit their needs while working with their large applications. There are always interesting opportunities in these areas.

And then there is the government - whether it is schools or the judicial system or another branch of the government, there are opportunities that exist to improve the infrastructure or provide added functionality.

This Downloadable e-book provides you with a step by step approach to establishing an additional stream of income for yourself as a contract based software writer.

The Table of Contents is

• Introduction
• Determining your Expertise
• Developing your Portfolio
• Finding that First Gig
• Understanding the JOB
• Developing the Proposal
• Checkpoint Meetings
• Over-Deliver
• Develop Customer as Reference
• Resources

Quoting from "Understanding the JOB" chapter:

Upon meeting with the prospect, let them speak about the project as expansively as they can. You want to understand:

• The Big Picture - what role does this work play in their larger plan
• The specific context around the particular project (what has prompted them to choose this path and what do they hope to accomplish once it is ready)

Then dive into the specifics of the piece of work they want you to do:

• What specific functionality do they want to see your piece do?
• What technology do they use and want to see used for this piece?

At this stage, checkpoint with your expertise list and see if you are familiar with the technology. If there is only one or two pieces that you need to familiarize yourself with, give yourself the green light to move forward with the discussion. But if you need to develop expertise in three or more areas, you need to either negotiate more time for learning, or you have to excuse yourself from the list of candidates for this project.