Had experience in sysops perl scripting for web apps under my belt (wanted unified dashboard + designer for monitoring metrics visualization https://github.com/andrdeas-marschke/nagplot) in the process reverse enginieered NRPE from source / wiretracing and created one of the most if no the most linked articles on the protocol in the process. Released the code as seperate package (Nagios::NRPE).

Then decided to learn JS and node and started writing a web real user monitoring system based on http://github.com/bluesmoon/boomerang. While at it submitted PRs to upstream and engaged in the community mostly with complaints about sftandard stuff missing and modules not being in a good state.

Now I work in the same company as the guy who created boomerang and lpve every minute of it.

Also, I contributed to Drupal for a while starting in high school. That itself doesn't bring in cash, but it established a reputation in that community, and now I work at NBC doing Drupal development. Open source contribution is a means to an end sometimes.

I built simple websites for local businesses, and then moved into building an overly complicated CMS and hosting service for them. I put in like 18 hour days for almost a year (skipped a lot of classes in high school), and ended up with a pretty cool product. Unfortunately, I lost pretty much all of the code, so I don't have a lot to show for it. :(

I started by building services but never really expected a payment, I just wanted to build something and figure out my way around servers. I think that's the best way to get started because it affords you the opportunity to start over if you find a new framework/database/server/etc. and there's no penalty for failing.

I built a social website for artists. It exposed me to the whole stack and I learned an immense amount. I got my first paying gig by using the website I built as a foot in the door. Nothing beats learning by doing.