yeah. it's actually a lot easier to get freelance gigs if you act like this is just something you are doing to get your foot in the door (to a full-time job) - If you actually want to freelance (and are willing to give the employer the full benefits of hiring a freelancer... e.g. you don't need to feel bad/be legally afraid when you fire me, I only show up and charge you when you actually need work done, etc...) that is... actually a lot harder to get, from what I've seen, even if you aren't charging a premium (though, the people who do operate as 'real freelancers' do charge a premium.)

The whole system, in the mid range, at least, is setup such that freelancing is a funnel to evaluate full-time folks. If you aren't interested in being full-time (or pretending like you are full time) you are in a different (and, from what I've seen, harder to get into) market.

It's funny; at the very bottom, you have the $15-$50/hr folks who work as 'real freelancers' - often from mid-america or overseas. I hire out of that pool, as do most small businesses.

Then in the mid range, in the $40-$100/hr range, you have the 'body shop' that hires you and rents you to a fortune-1000 company - and, in that case, you generally want to pretend that you are interested in a full-time job, and willing to work as a 'pretend' full time person. (The interesting thing here is that I've worked through that range, and I've been in situations where managers who knew me called me back up, arranged things with me, /then/ had me go through the body shop to be made into a pretend employee who shows up for 8 hours every day, which is a little silly, because I've got a corporation. It's got non-consulting revenue that dwarfs what you are going to pay me.)

In my experience, it's super easy to get both those sorts of jobs.

Getting a job where you act as a 'real freelancer' in the $50-$100 range? in my experience, is actually kinda difficult. I've gotten a few 'real freelancer' gigs at the $200 mark, but those were pure serendipity. (and... much to my shame and regret, I didn't treat that customer accordingly. I mean, I did my job, but I didn't add that bit of "professionalism" with the follow up and such, so we ended up drifting apart.) actually, I've billed as many hours in the $200 range as a 'real freelancer' as I have at the $60 range, I mean, not counting my time working through body shops. (I've billed... probably almost a year of hours at the mid $70s mark, going through a body shop, pretending to be a 'real employee' - and the body shop, of course, took a cut on top of that, so I think I'm worth money... it's just, they want 'fake employee' and not 'freelancer')

Thinking back to those $200/hr gigs, it's possible also that I'm missing a certain skillset. A certain follow up and 'you don't need to worry about it' or something? Possible. My style is very much "here is all the information you could possibly want" - and that's probably not always the best style; many times you hire an expert and want, instead a "here is the best course of action for you" with minimal supporting information.

Hm. I wonder if I would be better at that now that I have a lot more experience running a business, and hiring experts that are outside my field (where I want the "This is what you should do" with minimal supporting information.)