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If you're got a lot of valuable experience, and have a network of former colleagues the can vouch for you, try consulting or contracting. Try to avoid the job shops since they will severely cap your earnings (they basically take half). I have nothing against them, but if you can contract direct, you can literally double your gross income.

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Most consultants/contractors aren't willing to learn how to market themselves. It's not too hard, and if you figure it out, you can make substantially more money. This is the path a lot of people go after 15 years of experience.

Any pointers on how to learn to do this would be much appreciated.

I was just lucky. I never had to market myself. Jobs just fell in my lap.

There's maybe some passive marketing going on. For example, I wouldn't have gotten my first contract if I didn't do that mock API for the contractor working at my office. And I wouldn't have gotten the next 4 contracts if I didn't camp at the client's office for a week to finish a job.

Most of the other jobs that fell into my lap were from my Facebook rants on tech, my involvement in uni alumni activities, and impressing two people who were well connected in the industry.

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