Ask HN: How do you begin to find contracts as a freelancer?

Start a forum specialising in some software (or write your own) then as your forum grows so will the people hiring you to perform customisations etc worked for me.

You have a network — everyone has some start of a network!

All of my work has come through my personal network, or as a direct referral from it. I do more independent contracting than freelance work, so if that's something you're open to, I encourage you to reach out to founders and CTOs you know to explore opportunities. That's what worked for me in a "tier 3" startup city.

I would consider any of the marketplaces a last resort from the perspective of a good developer. (People are willing to work for way too little. Think about the advantages you have that those on the platforms don't.)

Forget Upwork, competing on price is a losing game.

Things I've known to work:

1. Go to meetups (got a job offer once from project night at Boston Python Meetup). 2. Go to job listings for early stage startups looking for DevOps people, email them saying "hey maybe you want a consultant instead?" They might be happy for short term cost saving. Probably work with bigger companies.

Lots of resources on https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/.

Network. If you want to build up a portfolio a good way is to volunteer to build or fix things for local non-profits, in exchange for them to give you a testimonial and let you use their name for promotion (if you do a good job, of course).

Don't compete on price. Pick your price and stick to it.

If you specialize in a particular piece of technology, spend time online helping people fixing things, writing bug reports and patches for it, creating a site with useful tools or tutorials and things like that. Then just include a small mention on your site or your signature about your freelance work.

Don't go overboard with self-promoting, but don't neglect it either.

Keep a resume (or several targeted ones if you have different skillsets) up to date and ready to send people.

offer your service for free at first. People will pay you anyway (without asking) if you do a great job. Then you get one client, then another one, then another. Increase your price along the way while building your portfolio.

How do you get your first lead even for free? Craigslist or find ways of going to events where people aren't technical at all. It'll come.

There's no magic trick you can't make big money without a network in life.

Start a private limited company. Start working for companies you used to work for as a permanent employee before. Market yourself as a consultant with specific skillset who works on a per project basis. You come in and help the in-house engineering team deliver the project, implement new technology etc. Look for shorter term contracts, 6-9 months per contract. You can build up a rolodex of clients and referrals like this which will make future contracts come to you without you having to look for work.

I started out ten years ago by shouting out to my friends, and posting on Craigslist. I basically emailed everyone in my LinkedIn network and told them I was available for freelance sysadmin work. Good luck!

Since this question seems to come up about once a month or so, I'd say step #1 is "search HN for previous posts".

One of my previous comments on this subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12744624

Networking is key! Go to relevant events and talk to a lot of people.

Avoid freelancing sites like Upwork.

Do your own marketing (decent website etc.). If possible find a niche. DevOps is a pretty wide range of skills and problems to solve. Can you narrow it down to something very specific (that's in demand) you're particularly good at?