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Comment by acconrad | Hacker News Reader

I should have asked what you believe is more. $75-100 is definitely in the "cheap" range, $100-150 I see for senior generalists, and $150-300 I see for the principal/architect/specialist rates. At some point the number isn't sustainable unless you're like a brand-name entity (e.g. John Carmack, Jeff Atwood, John Resig, and I'm just guessing here).

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Good point. For context, I'm outside of Boston, not a web developer and I charge a very reasonable $150-$200 hour. This weeds out the clients that expect something to "take a couple of weeks" but have no idea what is involved and then don't appreciate/value the work once it's done. ("My kid cousin could have done this.")

Many contract shops would be happy to tell you that "no one will pay that", pay you $65 hour and then turn around and charge $130+.

> Many contract shops would be happy to tell you that "no one will pay that", pay you $65 hour and then turn around and charge $130+.

or $55/$150 in my case :(

How do you market yourself? Personal network?

That the weird thing. I don't (market myself). I made website but I don't get leads from it. It's just a portfolio. I am very friendly and I do keep up with people I worked with decades ago but that is the extent of my "networking".

Interesting. I've heard that before, it does seem to be mostly a matter of building up a solid reputation over time and getting referrals. Thanks for the info!

I’m naturally friendly and I keep in touch with people I’ve worked with. I go out to lunch with them every now and then, etc. I keep in touch with them because I really do like them but a happy side effect is that decades after I last worked with them, they’ll contact me with work.

I know some people can go 30 years and not have any friends they used to work with. At the very least, you should make contact on LinkedIn for your (former) colleagues when you leave a job. Drop them a line once in a while. “Ping” them a text at Christmas, etc. You don’t want to wait until you need work to start building your network.

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