Freelancing isn't quite my baliwick but since when is lack of knowledge a barrier to commentary on the Internet.
1) You need to focus on marketing/selling yourself to better clients. I don't know what your current strategy is, but hypothetically say you're primarily getting your work from Craigslist. You're generally going to get mostly cheapskates that way. If clients were coming to you because you were identifiably the best in the field and they felt We Are Willing To Pay For The Best, then they'd be offering rather substantially more.
2) Its fine to describe yourself as a PHP/MySQL programmer when you're with friends like us. Never talk like that in front of a client. You aren't a PHP/MySQL programmer -- that is just the tool you use to solve the problems that keep them from making stupid amounts of money. Code monkeys are cheap, people with strategic vision/soft skills/industry expertise/etc who also have the ability to knock together a DB when required are expensive.
3) In service of #1 and #2: get a blog if you don't have one already. Start solving the problems that people who have money have. They'll soon start coming to you with their problems and offering you money.
4) Some folks have already mentioned OSS contributions here, which is great if you want to brand yourself as The Man to do X. That could either be customizing your OSS for their needs, adding a few feature for it, or doing something related.
5) Find folks to mentor you. I learned more about freelance rate setting from five minutes talking with Thomas than I had in the previous five years of working at two companies which do consulting as their business model.
1) You need to focus on marketing/selling yourself to better clients. I don't know what your current strategy is, but hypothetically say you're primarily getting your work from Craigslist. You're generally going to get mostly cheapskates that way. If clients were coming to you because you were identifiably the best in the field and they felt We Are Willing To Pay For The Best, then they'd be offering rather substantially more.
2) Its fine to describe yourself as a PHP/MySQL programmer when you're with friends like us. Never talk like that in front of a client. You aren't a PHP/MySQL programmer -- that is just the tool you use to solve the problems that keep them from making stupid amounts of money. Code monkeys are cheap, people with strategic vision/soft skills/industry expertise/etc who also have the ability to knock together a DB when required are expensive.
3) In service of #1 and #2: get a blog if you don't have one already. Start solving the problems that people who have money have. They'll soon start coming to you with their problems and offering you money.
4) Some folks have already mentioned OSS contributions here, which is great if you want to brand yourself as The Man to do X. That could either be customizing your OSS for their needs, adding a few feature for it, or doing something related.
5) Find folks to mentor you. I learned more about freelance rate setting from five minutes talking with Thomas than I had in the previous five years of working at two companies which do consulting as their business model.