Is online freelance work viable by American standards?

Posted by JoelFan on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by JoelFan
Published on 2010-11-10T13:52:10Z Indexed on 2012/09/20 9:51 UTC
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freelancing

I've always been curious about trying out online freelance sites... it would be nice to work from home, feel independent, get to choose what I want to work on, get to work on different technologies, lose the PHB, etc.

However I never really gave them a chance because I'm used to American rates and assumed that I would be competing with people from India, Russia, China, etc. that would severely undercut me, and it wouldn't be viable for me.

Am I correct in this assumption or should I give it a shot? What kind of hourly rate would I be able to expect on short-term programming work?

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