[thelist] Financial Situation

[Sam Alexander]

I would tend to agree with the "charge what you're worth" attitude. But one
mustn't be a fool and continue to ask for a rate that no one's paying. :)

I have a friend who also said it's hard to find work, but he also said that
a lot of the smaller freelance jobs are from real flakes--people email and
respond and then they don't email. Sometimes weeks later they popup again
and say "OK, now we're ready to begin." They can be weird about it.

I just received an email today from someone with a very nice job (job from
my perspective) who says he wants to speak on the phone soon and begin the
work next week. And I gave him my new, higher, rate of $85/hour. I am aware
that there are programmers out there taking a lot more than that, but as of
today, I haven't yet determined how to find the clients that they do. I'm
happy with $85.

Could well be actually that those rates of $120/hr and $150/hr are for
organizations, not freelancers. Some business types are more interested to
pay higher rates if they are working with another business. I do know of one
web shop who takes $150 an hour. Someone who I work with is their client! :)

Good luck Fred. Keep on truckin' ;)

Sam