You could start with some 'safe' low-bar jobs to get a feel for it, like eLance or similar (back in the day I did some eye-opening work for clients through rent

You could start with some 'safe' low-bar jobs to get a feel for it, like eLance or similar (back in the day I did some eye-opening work for clients through rentacoder and a British freelancing site). The experience may be worth more to you than the abysmal pay. You could also try structuring your work and charging methods so you have a week or two of lower-paid 'research' at the start of the job to really figure out if you can execute or if it's something you should leave well alone. Once you have a client waiting and are in the swing of things, though, the ability to execute is somehow higher :)