| I've been trying to freelance off and on for the last 10 years but the only thing that has worked so far was when I tooted my own horn a bit on elance: https://www.elance.com/s/zmorris/ I've had one gig so far for $750 (that was an invite, not sure if from elance or the client) and it went really well. I'm hoping to find two gigs a month in the $500-1500 range each, because then I will be able to sustain myself indefinitely here in Idaho. I think that most of the people on Hacker News are very talented and may not know it, or are sitting on achievements that they don't recognize. So maybe do some soul searching or ask friends if you have done anything they have found useful/impressive and then use that for your portfolio. I have also been fixing computers over the last year to bootstrap but am pretty burned out on it because I did that for 3 years before quitting my job a year ago. I'm wary about being on call in my town because the main reason I'm going freelance is autonomy. I'm very interested in being part of a freelance network that uses strength in numbers to find gigs and help guarantee work without putting undo pressure on individuals, or forcing them to give up their independence. I guess this was an overshare but I've given up on pride and am willing to do whatever it takes to succeed this time. |