My skills sound similar to yours (full-stack w- devops) and I do freelance development on the side. Before the economy crashed, I had 2 clients. One paying $120

My skills sound similar to yours (full-stack w- devops) and I do freelance development on the side. Before the economy crashed, I had 2 clients. One paying $120/hr USD, the other $60/hr USD. After the crash, I couldn't find anyone who would pay over $40/hr. Now things are slowly getting better; I have 2 clients paying $40/hr and one paying $60/hr. I've never done any advertisement, basically these are people saying, "please help me". They have reached out through a friend of a friend looking for someone they could trust. Since this isn't a make-or-break situation for me financially, we tend to agree on a price that they are comfortable with. These days my starting figure is $60/hr and I go down from there. To be able to do marketing, advertising, and to be able to build it into a business, I'd probably want to be back in the $100-$120/hr range. With that level, I'd feel comfortable because I'd have the perks of my day job: travel to conferences, hire employees, save for retirement, good health insurance, limitless sugary snacks, etc.