BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Haven't Learned To Code Yet? This Digital Nomad Wants To Help

Following
This article is more than 6 years old.

Traveling in Southeast Asia after a stint working for a Silicon Valley startup, Cory Althoff, 29, wanted to shake things up in his life.

“I wanted to try creating my own product, do something on my own, instead of working for a company,” recalls Althoff, who earned his B.A. in political science at Clemson University and taught himself programming.

One day during his travels, an idea popped into his mind: He could create a niche for himself teaching others to learn to code.

“A lot of people asked me, ‘How did you learn to program? What did you do?' It seemed like an area so many people were interested in,” says Althoff.

Althoff knew from his own experience working at both companies such as eBay and his most recent startup job at Thuuz Sports that mastering coding was just one part of a becoming a programmer.

“You also have to learn programming tools--version control, a bunch of other tools,” he says. “You need to learn some computer science. There are other things, like how to pass a technical interview. When I was making my journey, I had to piece all of that together through different sources.

Althoff gathered what he learned in a book called The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally, which he self-published in January and sells on Amazon in paperback and a Kindle edition. It has already sold 20,000 copies and was a finalist in the career category in the Indie Book Awards.

Althoff says he spent a year writing the book, taking his time to make sure that people who worked outside of his field could understand it. “It was like solving a puzzle,” he says. “I was trying to create a book you could follow with zero knowledge.”

Cory Althoff

Once Althoff's book came out, many of his readers began reaching out to him.

To connect his audience Althoff has created a Facebook community that now has about 45,000 members and an e-newsletter, The Self-Taught Manifesto.

The educational and professional backgrounds of his readers have been very varied, he says.

“I’ve gotten a bunch of emails from people as young as junior high school students who have read the book, as well as people in their fifties and sixties,” says Althoff.  He also heard from professionals outside of the software field who saw programming as relevant to their work—“marketers, scientists, a lot of architects,” he says. “There are so many different professions that can benefit from programming.”

Althoff has also heard from former inmates who are getting a new start through the book. “They are coming together around the idea of learning to program,” he says.

With word about the book spreading, he has won traditional publishing contracts in five countries: China, Japan, Poland, Russia and South Korea.

Althoff says he spent $15,000 to publish the book through Amazon’s print-on-demand program and market it. To defray his costs, he raised $4,216 on Kickstarter.

Althoff liked the idea of self-publishing because he gets to keep more of the cover price of the book than he would with a traditional publisher and he was free to publish what he wanted. For Kindle books, he says, Amazon authors get to keep 70%--a figure that is a little lower than for paperbacks. “For a paperback, you say how much you want to make on each book—say $8—and Amazon will adjust the price and give you $8,” he says.

Althoff’s investment included advertising on Facebook. “I think my most effective ad was to put a picture of a book cover and a paragraph of text from the book,” he says.

“If you want to self-publish, you have to think of yourself as a marketer,” says Althoff. “You can’t only think of yourself as an author. That applies to people who want to traditionally publish as well.”

As a result of consulting contracts he’s won following the book’s publication, he says he earns a six-figure income while traveling the world. When we spoke, he was in Buenos Aires, participating in Unsettled, a coworking community for international remote workers and entrepreneurs. He is now working on his next book: The Self-Taught Computer Scientist.

Want to learn how to code yourself? Althoff’s advice: “Don’t just quit your job.”

He recommends trying it on a small scale to see if it’s right for you. “Programming is a lot of fun, but some people just don’t like it,” he says. “You can find out pretty quickly.” In addition to his book and others in the space, there are many free or low-cost resources online, such as edX.

While programming boot camps are popular, Althoff notes, many of them cost $15,000 or more. “I don’t think it’s a good idea before you’ve ever picked up a programming book or written a line of code to invest $20,000 in a programming boot camp,” he says.

Focus on building your skills, and the opportunities will follow, he says.

“To succeed in the way the economy is changing, you need specific skills,” he says. “The idea of traveling the world is amazing and so much fun, but if you don’t have the skills necessary to create an income while doing that, it’s not going to be realistic for you.” For some, coding may be the first step, but it’s certainly not the only way to make a living in the location-independent economy he has joined.

“If you don’t have an idea, work on your skills, whether that is becoming a better writer or a programmer,” he says. “Once you have a solid skill, ideas will come from that.”

 

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website