My knowleadge of php programming is and always was 100% useless

Yeah, my vast knowledge of php programming, gave me a grand total of 20$ over 15 years
PHP programming made everything I'm today: poor as hell.

 

Congratulations..
Seriously though, perhaps you should try doing something else, if you haven't cracked it after 15 years you probably never will.

 

Like if there was anything to crack at all

 

That's the fate of many freelancers. Join a good paying company to get out of that routine. Good programmers are always in demand.

Or maybe it's time to try a different career path. I know a couple people on DP that are excellent programmers but they seem to be doing something else career-wise.

 

Joining a company is very pretty, but you need a university degree for that (just for the show, university degrees don't mean you know anything, they just state you have a title before your name). Anything else will get rejected right away.
Freelancing is also very pretty, but the changes you get noticed are thinner than the atom.
Selling your scripts is also very pretty, but since everything already exists for free or is already being sold by rich/popular companies, the chances you sell anything are thiner than the electron.
....and so on, whatever you try, the story is always the same...

Oh, and I did try a different career paths, bu the same issues vomited above also applied to it.

 

can you tell us more background? I feel like you started the story and walked off mid-sentence.
- are you being rejected from companies, or are you being passed over for freelance style work?
- What sort of projects have you done that you can talk about? (anything potential employers can see?)
- in addition to php, what other skills do you bring to the table?
- in the 'last 15' years, how have you been looking for php related jobs?
- what is your 'other' experience (or job that you do in real life)
- have you tried making something that you can sell (i know you said you were against it, but this is something that you can show to potential employers.)

To be honest, from what you have said, I am a little in shock. Skilled coders should be in high demand.

 

Buddy, I'm so sorry to hear that. But let me ask you: Have you provided a good portfolio to show that you are skilled in PHP programming? You know, you can really make money from that...

 

I do have a portfolio, but like my scripts, it gets lost in the middle of the crowd
No matter from which angle you look at it, the result is always the same

 

Try come here, if you get a job to clean toilets, you can consider yourself lucky..

 

I need to know where you have been looking for work.

I saw this:
https://forums.digitalpoint.com/thr...er-looking-for-small-medium-projects.2550700/
Thats 5 years old.

TODAY, RIGHT NOW create another thread. But this time. Include more information.

For example:
- talk about how experienced you are.
- Link to where people can see, (perhaps use a demo), or purchase one of your existing scripts
- talk about the range of scripts that you can develop, scrapers, comic strips, shopping carts.
- talk about other web technologies that you have experience with. If you only say PHP programmer, most sites have html, css, php, and other web technologies working together, and people may overlook you to hire someone with your experience, but with a better sales pitch.

A good sales pitch should include payment options. Writing something such as "$xx per hour", and "enquire now for a fixed price quote for your project".

Before you sleep tonight, create another thread on this forum promoting your services.
Once a month, you edit and bump that thread to the top. Each time you complete a quality job for someone, ask them if they can kindly do a review in your thread, or on your profile page.

If you have a script that can be sold, that is 100% complete, good setup instructions, then list it on this forum tonight before you sleep. This forum charges a fee though, (one member mentioned it was about $35, but make sure you look up fees. Fees are charged automatically after a sale is done), so put the price up to cover fees -> but list your scripts tonight.

What are you doing tomorrow?
Tomorrow you are going to go though places like freelancer, and bid on jobs. Do not bid too low. Bid a fair amount, that will let you build a quality product. You may need to bid low for some initial ones, simply to help build reputation. Forums like webhostingtalk also have places where people can offer to do custom coding. There are many other forums where you can promote your work, I just do not know all of them.

what are you doing next week?
next week, look through places like codecanyon. See what other people have, see what solutions you have, and what code you can provide and start selling it. IF you can find a solution to a problem that noone else has, then you can make sales. You might make some money, but also, it is another chance to be able to make something that others can see your work, see what you can do and hire you.

I refuse to believe that a good php coder cannot find work.