Just want to chime in here with my own experience. I'm sure what you said holds true for you, but for me I find that the better I get, the less I'm being nipped

Just want to chime in here with my own experience. I'm sure what you said holds true for you, but for me I find that the better I get, the less I'm being nipped away by cheaper competitors. Perhaps this is because of my specific skillset (I'm a web developer, not a designer -- although it's basically the same setup, same kinds of jobs, same kinds of clients), but I find that as I get better at what I do I gravitate more towards clients that appreciate high-end service and the quality I can provide (as they do me). I've also found that focusing on a smaller technical niche has helped tremendously (that is, getting really good at one platform -- in my case the Concrete5 CMS, but same holds true for people specializing in Wordpress, Drupal, etc.). Yes there are always people willing to do the work for cheap, and a majority of potential clients don't know the difference and will go with them. But finding someone who is good at what they do and communicates well and delivers on what they promise is incredibly difficult, and there are a lot of potential clients out there that understand this.