Hi Chris,

I've been doing freelance software development for about 10 years now and I remember that starting out was hard as hell. Nowadays all of our work comes from word of mouth referals but back at the begining we picked up work in two ways.

The first was to visit every local company that looked like it owned a computer and throw business cards about like confetti until one landed on the right desk

The second way was through employment agencies - we used to hit up all the local agencies for any programming jobs they had on their books, if they where contract jobs, great, if not, we'd try and get the name of the company then go round with our cards

Nowadays though, I would imagine that the web has made it easier and harder to become a freelance programmer.

Easier because it should be a lot easier to find work - setup a portfolio site then spam it about like we did with business cards. Also, all the freelancer websites that are about seem to have a lot of jobs on them.

Harder because there are so many other freelancers taking advantage of the web to find work. For example, a random google search brought up Custom Web Design and Programming. Freelance Programmers. Outsource Web Development Outsourcing - pick a random project there - GetAFreelancer.com - Company Database Intranet - and take a look at the bids. At the prices they are quoting it'd be impossible to survive full time. I can only imagine that some of those leaving quotes are from countries that have a lower cost of living than I do in the UK

To answer your other question:

Did you enjoy it: Yes, most of the time - it was hard work starting out but worth it in the end.

Good luck with your career in software development mate, stick with it and you'll get there in the end

Alan