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Comment by zalew | Hacker News Reader

It lacks the most important advice: charge more.

> I will give a lower price to a customer who I believe to have good character, and I would hike up the price if he is a demanding or difficult to deal with type

Please don't. Your beliefs don't matter. Even the coolest guy can come out as a PITA or a scammer. Or even if he's cool, he can have partners who will make your life a living hell. In the end, it's all about the money. Just charge what you're worth, so you don't regret it.

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Don't be afraid of losing jobs because you charge too much. When I first started on oDesk I charged $10 an hour, because I didn't want to put people off. Then I realized that kids in my neighbourhood make more walking dogs. Since then I've put my rates up considerably, and even though I still get nervous when talking money, I've never had a client say it's too much.

Charging more lets people know you're serious. Low paying customers typically ask for way more "can you just" tasks, like changing the font colour a dozen times or moving something "just a little to to right". You don't call your lawyer to change the typeface on your legal letters.

+1. In fact in sites like odesk, you put people off by charging too little (putting you in the same league with guys no one wants to hire at any price whatever low).

I've never had a client say it's too much.

Interesting. I keep getting complaints and lowball offers all the time.

You are right about the "he can have partners who will make your life a living hell" part. My judgement might be incorrect, and I can't predict what will happen next as well (e.g. the project got taken over by someone).

There is no point in charging less just because someone is easy to work with. If he's really easy to work with, he will profit more from the productive cooperation than from your discount - you will be more focused on quality for the same money and he will get a better product, win win.

Sometimes I truly wanted to tell the customer, "give me the money and trust me". But I guess trust is not easy to come by, especially with new customers.

But I do agree, should not under-charge.

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