Being mainly an artiste, and not a professional, I can't comment on general trends, particularly as far as wages go.

That being said, when people find out that you know things about perl, cgi programming, and/or the web they will tend to ask you to do work for them.

I usually don't want to do it, so I used to try to quote some ludicrous amount of money. Unfortunately, it sometimes got accepted. I've done a couple of hours work for $500. So now, I generally just advise them to go hire a professional.

So, I guess in my limited experience, when it comes to freelancing the sky is really the limit. The more knowledgeable the client, the tougher it is to get high rates, I am sure.

To expand on the comments obve, knowing anything about perl isn't really as important as sounding knowledgeable, looking good (including dressing well -- see suit-ism, youth-ism), and quoting really high rates.

Again, this is within my limited experience, not just with perl but with the world.

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