I am usually operating at a senior programmer level, not making CTO type decisions but often making architectural ones (for clients that don't have a full-time

I am usually operating at a senior programmer level, not making CTO type decisions but often making architectural ones (for clients that don't have a full-time IT staff). So my experience may or may not be comparable to yours. But, for what it's worth, here's my count of where I found clients: job posting forum: 10 (2 of them HN "Who's Hiring" posts, 1 meetup.com, 1 Google jobs, the others I don't recall but some were monster.com or indeed.com) previous coworker: 3 previous client: 2 friend of a friend of a friend: 1 I haven't actually taken a gig found via LinkedIn, but I get inquiries from there.