This is true
I’ve seen Bubble agency pages shrink from a bit over 300 to around 265 now…the market for bubble developers has contacted considerably…there are some agencies that 2 years ago were hiring their 5th or 6th bubble developer that are now nearly completely switched off bubble and onto vibe coded nearly completely. Most gold tier agencies don’t mention bubble on their home pages now.
This wasn’t something that was not able to be forecasted, especially the lack of work for junior developers. So, it’s definitely true that there is far less work available today than there was 2 years ago and even 12 months ago.
Possibly, but for most developers, that wouldn’t be the primary reason they’re struggling.
The ‘macro’ is very rarely the primary influence on the success of one individual/business
I don’t get this? What’s an OG? What’s a power user?
Is someone who made an account on year 1 but never used Bubble again till 5 years later an OG?
How would you know if someone is an actual power user unless you know them personally.
Everything is cyclical. Users come and go. There are also plenty of “OG power users” that aren’t active in the forums.
I don’t like to participate in these kinds of arguments but I do comms and your comment irks me.
Word of mouth is marketing.
Bring the OP into your context window
You are all so eager to be right that you forget that this entire conversation is supposed to revolve around @ahadchaudhary2004 post.
Word of mouth is achieved mainly through reputation, no one is hiring a less senior bubble dev in 2026 (aka junior) so he doesn’t have the time nor the opportunity to build one.
I’m not referencing myself. It just means the big names that used to standout such as Gregory Johns, JJ, Levon, Zubair, Matt Neary, etc.They no longer support the platform like they used to. It’s for a reason in my opinion. I just recommend to pay attention to trending and make sure you have a plan B. George has built and is building an incredible team and has built a strong authority in the space so study his practices if you want to be successful with Bubble.
Of course. And the invention of the locomotive and introduction of rail roads had no influence on the business of the horse and carriage delivery service.
You do understand the conversation has an underpinning of a Macron event that is world changing. It’s AI.
And, although, yes, AI shifts do not doom everybody, it’s been clear since 2023 it’s going to have an outsized negative impact on the new entrants.
Do you have any advice to the OP for how you’d approach starting as a bubble developer today?
Maybe you should apply this to your marketing
I’m happy with what Bubble has already allowed my startup to achieve and where we’re heading.
Respect to George and all he has done but I don’t need to replicate anything he does to find success in my market.
He and I understand that we view Bubble’s technology very differently.
bubble is cooked period
this is how I did it.
i joined fiverr for 10 an hour. did everything to get 5 star reviews. increased to 30 then 50 an hour.
then tweeted about bubble tips daily on twitter
then tweeted potential clients
or dmed them in bubble forum.
then made a youtube channel solving harder bubble problems.
then wrote on linkedin.
always using screenshots or graphics to show I know what I do.
Clients came as it looked like I was doing things.
Over time I could now charge 80-120 an hour.
I post on linkedin twice, immediately a dm.
Just post daily on linkedin about what new feature you did and how.
Over time people do search for developers.
But dont expect clients tomorrow ever.
Its about qualifying yourself as the person they run to after they run into a problem after a year.
Is this an aphorism or a statement about the current state of Bubble? I’m assuming the former. Anyway, good advice.
This is text book building rapport. Very good example.
I once was working on a landing page I think on figma, and saw NQU landing page on templates, I am 94% sure that @georgecollier put that there.
I am no freelancer but when I help people solve hard problems in the forum I get DM’S, or even when I point to a very hard problem.
I don’t know what you mean, but our landing page designer might’ve put it on figma as portfolio or someting
Indeed, it’s a long game
All of our work comes from:
- people who already know Bubble and have built their apps
- full time internal developers that champion us to expand their team
- people who see our content/tools and benefit from it
Can I directly tie Buildprint users to NQU revenue? No, not really. But anecdote tells me that it’s probably positively contributing to our reputation in such a way that when someone has a problem, the default option for them is to come to us.
My first Bubble work came from someone messaging me on the forum for some help extending a template I’d released for free. That client now has a 7 figure business running on Bubble, and invests $12k/mo with us to continue to grow it!
A lot of other early work came from $1 app audits. Now, I could’ve made it free, but adding a bit of friction means that only people who really want it will get it. We audit an app, find all the issues, and they realise we know what we’re talking about.
NQU Secure was free.
Buildprint was free.
All of these are contributing positively to the community, with no requirement or expectation that we get anything back, but it’s a natural consequence of what we do that we do benefit from it.
How can you get hired? Well, maybe it’s helpful for me to say what I’d need to see from you to hire you for our agency and how I read your post. I give this feedback because I want you to succeed, I’ll be direct! And obviously it’s based on what, two posts on the forum so I don’t have much to go on.
Pisses me off to no end when I post a job application on LinkedIn and dozens of people message me saying they’re interest. Like, the link to apply is right there, as well as all the information you need. If you have a specific question then sure, ask it, but don’t just tell me you’re interested and expect me to single you out over the hundreds of other applications going through the form, because I don’t have time for it. It shows a complete lack of commercial awareness because they don’t understand how business/hiring works which means they won’t understand our client’s problems and excludes them by default. Not saying that’s what you’re doing, but if it feels like you are then now you know!
You do need a real domain. This almost looks like a virus!
- It looks nice
- It is memorable
- It indicates you’re willing to invest a relatively small amount of money in yourself
If the justification is ‘a domain is too expensive’ then actually it reads as you being at the bottom rung of development, because if you’re not doing enough work on Bubble for a $20/yr domain to be out of the question, then it looks like nobody else wants to hire you.
Well, why would a client hire you with this mindset? If you are a Bubble doomist then 1. you won’t be fun to work with (clients like developers to have a bit of personality…) and 2. why are you lying to yourself? If you think the future is elsewhere, do it! You’ll be more engaged with it and it will benefit you.
Add a profile picture. Well, I appreciate I’m not one to talk, but having a person as your profile picture helps people understand there’s a person. It stops you being treated like a commodity and has inherent value. Remove 2004 from your username, it reads like an Xbox gamertag.
A logo works if it’s recognisable; ours is fairly simple and distinct so its useful to have it plastered everywhere, and if people saw my actual face as a profile picture, they’d probably pay me to change it back rather than to build their Bubble apps.
I thought you put it there for brand visibility, mb thats why that 6% is there.
Or the designer we got for it copied it from figma idk 