[pbowyer]

> These clients are professionals. They know the industry. They're not really clients, they're middle men. They're agencies, marketing guys, whatever. They have a constant stream of work. They know it. And they know the best way to maximize their profit is to pay you by the hour. They will only pay you by the hour. They will laugh if you suggest anything else.

My experience of working for agencies is they want to pay a fixed price and will laugh you out of the agency at the idea of paying hourly. They don't want risk; they want you to take the risk for their project specification ('cause they've already quoted the client, so you'd better cost less than they quoted...)

What kind of middle men are these who pay per hour?

Or are you talking about contracting, not freelancing?

[radio4fan]

> My experience of working for agencies is they want to pay a fixed price and will laugh you out of the agency at the idea of paying hourly

Mine too, and I've been at this game for 16 years.

In fact, my usual experience is agencies coming to me with no design or functional specs (even back-of-an-envelope stuff) and wanting a price.

The only time I ever charge by the hour is for maintenance programming.

[maratd]

> Or are you talking about contracting, not freelancing?

Those things mean different things to different people and there's a lot of gray in between the two. I can add another word to make things even murkier. Consultant.

But in the end, yes, I am.

As a freelancer, if you're charging by the hour, you're either making a horrible mistake or you're really contracting and don't have a choice in the matter.

That was kind of my point and also that it's not necessarily a bad thing.