Web developers: how much do you make freelancing?

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I don’t freelance. I’ll consult on the side for the right client, but freelancing isn’t really worth the time. My last consulting client was my former employer, who wanted to retain services during a migration. They paid me $2k a month as a retaining fee. Once every couple of months they would call and I’d have to field a question, or maybe Linode would do some maintenance and I’d have to get things working again.

Basically felt like free money. That contract’s over, but their new department head had me deal with Amazon for them over an issue. I charge them $200 an hour, I’ll probably invoice them for an hour and a half, that’s $300. It’s really not enough, I need to kick it up to $250–300 per hour. Taxes take a huge bite out of my fees, it’s the number one reason I don’t try to chase down new clients. They think they’re paying a fortune and you’re just like, “how does this move the needle again?”

I never held back any taxes for all that consulting income so I can look forward to a $3–4k tax bill this year. Fun. Maybe I do need to do some freelancing… Hit me up if you’ve got that kind of scratch lying around and you want an app.