I am a data science freelancer/consultant (background story and motivation: http://p.migdal.pl/2015/12/14/sci-to-data-sci.html http://p.migdal.pl/2015/12/14/sci

I am a data science freelancer/consultant (background story and motivation: http://p.migdal.pl/2015/12/14/sci-to-data-sci.html http://p.migdal.pl/2015/12/14/sci-to-data-sci.html). But in my case, it's purely recommendations and people contacting me (it takes some time to build it, though). Freelancer websites look like a race to the bottom. Some links I gathered: https://pinboard.in/u:pmigdal/t:freelancing https://pinboard.in/u:pmigdal/t:freelancing. Plus, price negotiation is super important (way more than for regular jobs). I recommend "Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer" https://medium.freecodecamp.org/ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offer-ee17cccbdab6#.rhwj57ckp https://medium.freecodecamp.org/ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-.... Look at https://brainpool.ai/ https://brainpool.ai/ (they offered some good contracts). In general leveraging one's PhD and credentials is a good strategy.