Why Your Customers Would Be Happier If You Charged More

1) Communicate a lot, before even thinking about bidding. Many project descriptions are extremely vague, but by asking questions, you can often get the detail you need to put in a sensible bid that will actually meet the client's needs. This has two side effects:

- it weeds out toxic clients. Those who have unrealistic expectations, or simply don't know what they want, will make that obvious during this phase.

- it sets you apart from other bidders. Many of them will simply read the (vague) project description and then put in a bid, without sending so much as a "hello". Whereas, by asking questions and seeking feedback, you've convinced the client that you're capable and focused on getting them the product they want.

2) When you're just starting out and therefore have no ratings/history, it's hard to win a big project. Consider offering to do a small sub-project with quick turnaround, as a proof of ability. My wife's first client had a fairly large project; she offered to do a small bugfix with a quick turnaround for $50, which allowed her to win the larger contract with minimal risk to either her or the client. Once she had one large contract under her belt, other contracts came much more easily, including lots of repeat business.

3) Look for other things you can do to minimize perceived risk. If the site has built in certification tests, take them. If you have your own profile pieces, post them. This both sets you apart from the $7/hour firms, and puts you at least not too far behind the slick looking portfolio guys.

4) Pick up skills to fill in your biggest weaknesses (for example, learn rudimentary design if you haven't yet), and pick up skills to compete with others' big weaknesses (how many freelancers know how to write an in-app billing module on Android? My wife gets a ton of work because she knows how to do that, and seemingly nobody else does.)

...

There are definitely people out there with money to spend, who are willing to spend it on you if you can convince them you're the best option. This is the approach that worked for us, though I realize it's unpopular among part of the HN crowd.

A word of caution: this strategy has paid the bills, but we live a fairly low-key lifestyle. We're still one rate hike behind the previous BigCo salary.

The hardest part of this "charge more" philosophy is finding the clients. For example, I went to see a client yesterday, who knew my daily rate. We had a very positive meeting and I was told "they were glad they'd found the right man for the job". Yet today they stated they could get two developers for the price I was charging and would have to think about hiring me unless I was prepared to negotiate.

I do wonder if maybe the world of freelance developing does have a payment cap, and that to reach the next level we need to sell ourselves as something other than just developers.

Or does making the charge more philosophy work to its full extent in the development game, mean joining big company x, or selling my soul to big company y.

The question I'm asking myself right now is. Would Patio11 be able to charge the same rate as a freelance developer as he does as a "I will help you sell more software" freelance consultant?

"I think you're trying to do both business and charity at the same time, and that doesn't really work I think."

You need to charge a certain set of clients more to afford to do the rest for free. Business and charity can exist side-by-side but they can't really be combined. Charge more for 75% of who you help, then be really picky about the remaining 25%. You'll have the same warm heart and be a lot more sane. Happy workers work better and that helps everyone.

I charge the same rate for software development as I do for making graphite etchings on paper in aesthetically pleasing patterns. Consulting clients buy both of these things from me, in isolation or combination, on a regular basis. So if that's the way you're asking the question, "Yes, I could."

If the question is "If you brought nothing to the table other than the ability to write Ruby code, would you be able to charge $YOUR_RATE for writing Ruby code?", I think I'll go with "I can guarantee you that someone gets that much for writing Ruby, and probably more besides, but it probably wouldn't be me" and "Wait wait wait, you seem to want to sell yourself as a commodity coder, don't sell yourself as a commodity coder, down that path lines madness."