How much time and effort did it take you to reach $25/h from $8/h? From what I see, it is very competetive and there will be always some guy who is willing to work at less than price you mention (and sometimes, if not most of times, he would have more experience/ratings than you) how do you handle that? I mean how would you make someone chose you over a experienced guy?
You said you started to take development projects, then what kind of projects you were working on earlier?