.NET remote/work from home contract resources...that pay well.

Question

I currently work on contract/consulting on site for various local subcontracting firms. I've been making a effort to grow into my own company and one of the things I'd like to start doing is working form my own office at home.

I've located sites like www.odesk.com www.elance.com but dear Lord they don't pay well. A quick perusal of the jobs offered/completed left me with the impression that the average hourly rate was around $15/hr. My average for on site work is $60 to $80/hr.

Are there any resources that have better rates? Are people just doing multiple jobs at once?

UPDATE: I'm already hooked up with local subcontracting firms that offer anything from 3 months to multi year contracts. 99% of those contracts are on site. What I'd like to do is start building a network of contacts for the same kind of work but off site. It's the latter I'm coming up short on. Anybody know of any good subcontracting companies that specialize in offsite?

Answer 1

If you want to work from home and get paid well to do it, you might have to try and seek out clients individually and create a web presence and advertise so people can come to you. I don't think you are going to have much success going to high-traffic sites where everyone and their brother can bid on a project. Offering personal, customizable solutions to companies problems will probably be your best bet.

Answer 2

Pretty much every single one of these sites is absolutely horrible if you want to maintain a western world style of wage. Not to mention, the vast majority of projects that get posted to these services are either trivial ( homework assignments? ) or because people are focused on lowest price possible. You simply cannot compete on a price point basis with Indian/Russian/etc developers.

Your best bet is to establish (reasonably) local contracts and generate as much word of mouth buzz as possible. Other than that, I would say establish a decent portfolio and make it available and people may start to seek you out. Finally, you could offer to do some initial work gratis (charities, non-profits, small-medium sized business) in an investment to get your name out there in hopes of future payoffs. Really, the biggest asset to a contract developer are his contact list and reputation. Nurture both accordingly.

One last suggestion is get in contact with headhunters that offer source short ( 3-6 month style ) contracts and ask if they will source work for you. Some will, although you of course are giving a portion of your fees up to the headhunter, but in return, it can build you a client base and definitely still provide you with contracts paying better than any online services.

Answer 3

I think robbotic has got it right - but I'd also add this:

Building up a reputation on sites like this one would also be a good way of showing your skills and capabilities to prospective clients to help build up that initial contact base. Once you have an established reputation with a number of clients you'll be off and running.