Could you give some examples of where you first got your contracts (outside of personal connections)? The contract market seems great (I'm in it right now), but finding decent positions seems pretty difficult without a pre-existing large network.
Also, a lot of the sites that feature contract work ask for way too many details, and are basically a race to the bottom on price, sometimes at the expense of quality, and I don't feel panicked enough yet to join that race.
Yep, same here too. Worked as a freelancer for 15 years with one company and now trying to find a new contract (with only a small network) is pretty hard (can only do remote jobs due to a handicap).
Also after a few years in the game you tend to get targetted by recruiters as you may have specialised into certain areas. i.e. finance.
So for example, I don't normally look for work, it normally finds me.