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I am considering learning the skills needed to become a freelance web programmer or web designer. I have confidence in back-end development but am learning more about front end. I live in India and you dont need many dollars converted to rupees to make a good living. Since I live in India, I will not be able to meet clients locally. All interaction will have to be through the net. So I am not sure what skills I need. I have:
- Solid understanding of HTML/CSS
- Intermediate understanding of C# but am currently learning JS and jQuery
- Basic understanding of SQL
- Good understanding of 3D modeling
- Understanding of image editing but no real digital art skills

I can only communicate with clients online and will have no online rep when I eventually start so I will need to build some first before I can hope to find work. I think this means doing work for free initially --- possibly on Github. I can think of no other way to build online rep so would appreciate suggestions. I think my biggest weakness is that as an Indian freelancer, I would only have an online presence, not a local one. So it requires building an online presence first which is currently zero.

I am in no rush to make money and have time to devote to learn the needed skills. I suspect I will also need to learn PHP, Python and maybe Node.js and Ruby on Rails. So please help me understand :

Based on on what I have shown I know, am learning, and plan to learn, what kind of activity will be needed to start building an online rep for a completely online freelancing beginner web programmer or web designer? Is there any difference? Both seem to involve coding...one just seems front end, the other back end but as long as I'm not making art I'd rather go down the path that offers more chance of money. Not necessarily more money....just more CHANCE.

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  • I see you're fairly new to StackExchange sites. You should realize that Stack sites are not "discussion forums". They adhere to a direct Question <> Answer format. Based purely on the number of question marks in your post.... you are asking users to essentially create a small novella to answer everything. You may want to think about editing your question so that it can be answered with direct, definitive answers. As this stands it is merely way too broad to be effectively answered.
    – Scott
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 7:25
  • You may also find taking a look at the Tour and Help will also be beneficial, specifically What types of questions you should avoid asking
    – Scott
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 7:26
  • okay i have reduced the question to essentially one or two and asked it at the end.
    – Vasu Devan
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 8:08
  • Front end requires a design eye.... and Bootstrap is really not a great "crutch" to depend upon.
    – Scott
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 9:04
  • I think your biggest weakness is that as an Indian freelancer you are competing with tens of thousands of other Indian freelancers. Especially this aspect "completely online freelancing beginner web programmer " is not going to make it easier. Try getting some experience first, offline might be the way to go.
    – user3244085
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 20:19

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I would create your own portfolio of work, create some sites detailing your skills and be able to demonstrate that those sites and skills were in fact developed by yourself meaning put your name on them and be willing to make edits for a prospective client to see that you have built them, not someone else. That said, you are competing against many others in your country and I first started dealing with Indian freelancers years ago and because there are hundreds of thousands of "programmers" there, the thousands that are any good are difficult to find. You have an uphill battle but if you have attention to detail and skills you can make it.

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