Me being one of the full time freelancers from EU and working for mostly US clients since 2003. I can only say my story and what clients told me about how they went with other freelancers.

From the clients:
India and similar - somehow even though they are were English colony, communication is a real issue. They either don't understand what you want from them - or they do, but you end up with literal and no-thinking translation of specs into code - they just don't bother to really understand what's going on. Time difference is also an issue. Cheap and not so great quality most of the time - though you might get lucky. You can recognise them as they are always using Sir in communication - Good Day Sir, Hello Sir, Dear Sir ...

As of me:
I usually work on smaller (couple of hundred bucks) projects to test out a client - it's how it usually works on freelance (matchmaking) websites anyway. After that bigger and bigger projects come along, as trust grows and you start working directly (not using freelance sites).

I mostly work in the afternoon occasionally communicating early in the morning (evening in USA) if needed - as I started freelancing during 1st year of my studies, after noon was when I had time, and it's fits USA time zone more or less - at least in part, depending on the clients location. So I got used to it (... it's 5:45 AM and I still haven't even went to bed).

Started with ~ $10/h and head-first learn-Perl-as-you-go (from Perl: The Complete Reference - not the happiest choice for a beginner, but was only book on Perl I found in bookstore at that time). Now at about $25 to $50 per hour depending on what it is and how long engagement it is. In November I registered as a business/entrepreneur and planning to gather a small team for both providing outsourcing and in-house development.

If I sound interesting - drop me a message. You can find more about me on:

Though I'm pretty much booked for at least following 2 months - working full time on extending server for SMS provider/gateway.
Have you tried freelancing? Check out Scriptlance - I work there. For more info about Scriptlance and freelancing in general check out my home node.

In reply to Re: typical contractor rates / outsourcing by techcode
in thread typical contractor rates / outsourcing by blahblahblah

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