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Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

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Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#61

Post by sc00ter »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #52

My Dad is an engraver, he's good at it, he was complaining to me that he had more work than he could handle. I suggested he raise his price then. He responded with the typical "I couldn't in good conscience charge that for something that takes me only a few hours to do!" And then we had a long discussion about how the market sets the rate, not you, and if you hold your rate under market it will overwhelm you because…

That's the basic thesis of Earn1K - the "I will teach you to be rich" course. I won't link here, as it's commercial, but the blog is worth a look even if you're not a paying customer.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#62

Post by jules »

dkersten wrote: post #21
Loic wrote: post #18

Working in the chemical engineering area. Hard science + all the cool technologies you can read on HN => Fun + money. Usually a contract starts at $15k (2 weeks) and goes up to 2 months of work on average. I always advice people to go the hard science way if they like computer science, because there is a really big big lack of people being good at both. I should write about it.

If you ever get a chance, please do, I'd be interested in hearing about it. I've thought about going into a hard science industry but never did anything about it because 1) I'm not really qualified in the science side, my skills/experience/qualifications are in computer science and 2) I don't really know how to get started.

You could get started by watching MIT physics and mathematics opencourseware courses (including video lectures) to see if it suits you.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#63

Post by phlux »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #52

My Dad is an engraver, he's good at it, he was complaining to me that he had more work than he could handle. I suggested he raise his price then. He responded with the typical "I couldn't in good conscience charge that for something that takes me only a few hours to do!" And then we had a long discussion about how the market sets the rate, not you, and if you hold your rate under market it will overwhelm you because…

Go on...

So, did he set his prices? What happened? What did he charge prior and how much did he change... and most importantly, is he happier?

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#65

Post by phlux »

eekfuh wrote: post #13

I rarely do anything below $5k (at $125 per hour with discounts on bigger projects or past clients that treated me well). Since this all side stuff, after my 9-5 job, I'm very picky on what I take in, since I like to work on products that I have 'real' input in.

What area? Web Dev?

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#66

Post by guymahieu »

Sadly this poll does not say much... what the heck is an 'average' freelance job? How complex is it (can anyone do it)? How much time or how many people does it take to complete? How harsh are the deadlines? ....

Daily rates used in estimations may be more relevant in this case...

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#67

Post by leon_ »

patio11 wrote: post #32
Sargis wrote: post #29

How do you know your skills are good enough to take on a $XXXX project? I've never done freelance work, but I would love to start doing some work after school and earn a few bucks along the way.

One way: have you ever delivered something which someone would pay $X,000 for? If so, then you are good enough to deliver something someone would pay $X,000 for. I think many people get hung up on skill though. Clients pay for many, many things. Skill is only one of those things, and it doesn't dominate, either. Clients can also pay for: criticality of work urgency of work guaranteed availability hard-to-find experti…

I want to learn the arts of warm fuzzy feeling. Please elaborate :)

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#68

Post by leon_ »

zackb wrote: post #12
thetrumanshow wrote: post #4

My last 3 side-projects (while working fulltime at BigCo): $750, $750, $2700 Over time, I have become less and less interested in these kinds of side-projects as I have become more focused on owning the upside of my own products. But, its occasionally nice to get paid for my late-night coding adventures.

How do you go about doing estimation? When you are asked for a bid and have loose requirements what are some good practices for estimating?

Heh, I've also got problems with estimating the end price. Mostly I think: WTF?! I can't charge that much for this simple work. I always forget that the "simple work" is black magic to most of my clients.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#70

Post by jsvaughan »

It does depend what you do, and how you do it, but the results suggest that your scale needs to go a lot higher; typical London contract rates for say Java development are about $700 a day, tend to last 3 / 6 months, e.g. $42-84k. Probably 2/3rds of that if you are a js dev, or 2x that if you know your investment banking and grid computing.
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