[Silhouette]

Just a thought, but have you considered that in your freelancing you might be aiming at the wrong market?

You say that people expect to pay $200-500 for a web site, and I'm sure a lot of places do, but that's the same everywhere. Some places want a cheap site that a college student could do or that they can outsource to someone they'll never meet in a low-paying country. Naturally, the quality of what they receive will usually reflect the price.

On the other hand, you seem like a diligent person and you seem to have some real skills in this area. You might want to consider aiming at the higher end of the spectrum, businesses who see a web site as a serious investment, and will pay accordingly for someone who is going to do the professional job that a typical kid won't. Look for the projects within reach of one person (give or take outsourcing any areas where your expertise is lacking) over a few months, and with the five- or six-figure price tags.

You don't need a lot more hours or a large team to take on these medium-weight jobs, but you do need a professional approach as well as the technical chops, and awareness that web development involves things like usability, accessibility, branding, etc. as well as just hacking on HTML. It sounds like that's exactly the sort of wider awareness and business-like approach that you have, but you'll never make the most of it picking up jobs for peanuts.