Like I wrote earlier, it’s frustrating to learn a new language when you don’t get to use it straight away. So I’ve come up with 10 creative ways that will get you started today with making big money (or fame) with your newly acquired Ruby skills.

1. Convince the company where you’re currently doing a Java project (you are, aren’t you?) that they should hire you to convert their corporate website or intranet to Ruby on Rails. Use terms like ‘enterprise ready’, ‘cluster aware’, ‘web 2.0’, ‘TCO’, ‘ROI’, and you’re in business! Now you’ll only have to tell the 5 Java coders who are currently maintaining these sites fulltime, why they’re losing their jobs thanks to you…

2. Take a weekend off to write the successor to del.icio.us in Ruby — now that Yahoo bought it, there will be plenty of people looking for an ad-free alternative (so you should wait a bit before selling it to Google).

3. Start your own line of merchandising around the world-famous foxes. Sure, there’s the t-shirts already, but I’m talking about a much bigger picture here: cute pluche foxes, fox mugs, fox mousepads, fox gloves, fox pens, fox caps, fox laptop bags… And all this royalty-free, thanks to the generosity of Why!

4. You could always go earn your money in a decent way: write the next big Ruby book (we’re still missing The Ruby Bible, The Complete Ruby, Ruby in Action, Data Structures in Ruby and Algorithms in Ruby, to name a few). Actually, books won’t make you rich, so you’ll have to complement your income by doing training sessions and presentations on Ruby.

5. File a patent (in the USA of course) describing a method to “combine a really simple but powerful computer language(TM) with a framework that utilises conventions and best practices to speed up development, in order to create dynamic, hypertextually linked pages with information to be displayed electronically.” While you’re at it, trademark the names Ruby, Rails, Rake, Gem etcetera. And don’t forget to trademark the foxes!

6. Start a language war with the ‘non-converts’ (the Java people) over some aspect of the language where you know Ruby will win hands down. For example, compare Ruby’s ‘throw-it-all-in’ kind of apis with Java’s ‘if-you-can-code-around-it-we-shall-not-include-it’ ones. All this will hopefully establish your name as a Ruby guru.

7. Become a supermodel slash Ruby programmer and start blogging about yourself. Ask Anina for tips. Maybe it won’t make you rich (unless you’re really a super supermodel), but you’ll certainly acquire fame and glory as you’ll get invited to every Ruby related event and get drooled over by the entire Ruby community. That is, assuming you’re female. If not, move on to #8.

8. Set up your country’s Ruby user group. I suspect that this will not work in Japan or the USA, but the Netherlands, for example, lack any form of organized Ruby user networking. (I hereby claim the name Dutch Ruby User Group, although I’m not too sure abou the acronym.) Will it make you rich? Well, with the user group comes the magazine, the yearly conference (RubyPolis?), the member fees, the sponsoring from consultancy firms who are desperately trying to find Ruby coders… There’s got to be money in there somewhere.

9. There’s a whole lot of Java-related websites around that will be needing a Ruby equivalent in the time to come. There’s your rguru.com, rubyalmanac.com, therubyside.com… they’re all for grabs! You won’t have to think hard what to put on them, and building them won’t cost a lot of time either — provided you’ll use Rails of course.

10. In your Ruby blog (which I assume you already have), include lots of 10 item lists. “The 10 Best Practices For Ruby Coding”, “10 Reasons For Choosing Ruby Over Java”, “10 More Ways To Extend the Array Class”, “The 7 Deadly Sins of Ruby Programming” (7 is okay too). These lists have proven to be a guaranteed crowd puller for blogs. Don’t forget to plaster your blog with ads though, or you’ll never reach six figures!