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What are the good platforms?

Emailing the CEO of small, local software companies with your experience and your rate.

Also, posting your info on the monthly HN Who's Hiring Freelancers post.

Neither of those really work well, unless you have rapport with that CEO.

Same with that HN who wants to work thread, you are just racing to the bottom and making it easier for others to emulate your own posting in terms of skills.

I don't really have a good answer, I really think its down to mostly luck or you have a skill market fit

I shared what has worked for me. :)

I've repeatedly found small clients (think a few days a month) on the monthly HN Freelancer thread at my normal, US-centric, senior+ rates. Sometimes it's clients by proxy, where a thread reader will connect me with someone else they know that isn't the original HN respondent.

My response rate improved considerably when I shifted from highlighting my tech stack to my actual effectiveness. I haven't had sufficient availability to pursue HN-based leads in about a year, though.

What rates are people charging these days?

See this thread on the topic from a week or two ago. 350 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32701641

Reply on news.ycombinator.com