I was unemployed for months before I could find another job, so I'm a little scared to take the plunge and try and be a full-time lone wolf game developer. I know Dexterity mentioned in his articles that it should be "very easy" to get contract programming work on the side, but i certainly haven't found that to be the case. I live in Seattle, and formerly lived in NYC, and no one was willing to hire a contract programmer who didn't have at least 5 years of corporate experience (I've only got 2, and computer science degrees don't seem to impress anymore), and almost all of them wanted previous experience as a contractor, of which I have none. How do you manage to start out as a contractor? I can't imagine ever being able to say "Oh, better get a contracting job" and be able to find one in any less than two or three months of searching, and even then it seems unlikely. Any advice?

I was referring more to consulting work, doing small technical jobs for clients like small businesses. There are still lots of small businesses who are interested in web sites. It's easy work that can be gotten for $50-100 per hour. These jobs are normally 10-50 hours of work. But if you please one client, it's usually pretty easy to get a referral from them to the next one. Some consultants even make referrals mandatory before they'll agree to do business.

Contract programming, where you work for a single client for a period of weeks or months, is a whole different ballgame.

I've actually turned down the job offers that Steve is talking about. (not enough time) I don't know about $50-$100 an hour (most small business can't afford to pay that...) , but small business is always looking for tech enabled people.

They have no idea who to contact when they need a website, merchant account, presentation software etc. etc.

Best place to look is your local newspapers. Advertise yourself as a technology consultant, and see what happens :)

Some examples of good small business clients would be independent doctors, chiropractors, lawyers, and accountants -- i.e. people who make a good hourly rate but that don't have the time or expertise to do their own technical work. For instance, for a lawyer who bills at $200/hour, paying someone $50/hour isn't too bad.

I use to contract. In my experience it was hard to get the first job but once I got in with a few company's I had more work than I could handle. The trick is to make the right contacts initially and build up a network. If you don't know anyone and you're just putting an ad up on a website or something of that nature it would be quite difficult. You might try contacting some professional placement agencies to start.

The networking aspect is crucial. It can be very difficult to get those first few contracts, but these often lead to others.

The only point I'd disagree with Steve on is the hourly rate: in Austin (where I am) and San Francisco (where I was) these have taken a precipitous drop over the past couple of years (like by 50% or more). There are unfortunately lots of technical people looking for work right now, and supply can sometimes exceed demand.

Having said that, maybe we should start up a Jobs Wanted/Help Wanted section here? I may be in the position to hire a programmer or two for some short- to medium-term work (yes, making games :) ) in the near future. I'd be happy to hire good contractors from the ranks of those who are trying to get going as full-on game developers themselves.