You know what's interesting about the comments on this story? You're posting a lot of comments telling people to charge more money because the work they're doing is valuable and the market is tight, and almost all of them are telling you why you're wrong!
You're basically handing people free money and they're too busy adjusting their plastic sheriffs badges to accept it. As if it were somehow dishonorable to charge your value in the marketplace. Craziness.
I'll inflate my ego here, and state for the record that I'm a pretty darned good consultant, with many satisfied clients over the years and lots of projects under my belt.
Regardless, people in Israel totally freak out when I tell them that I want to charge $100/hour. For Web technologies, that's considered an unheard-of high price. If I were to ask people for $150/hour, they wouldn't even negotiate; they would say "no." And I speak from experience.
(In case you think that I've only worked with small startups that are hard-up on cash, I've negotiated consulting deals with large Israeli and multinational firms in Israel. The response was similar.)
Charging more for a valuable skill set is totally OK. But you can't assume that every consultant on HN can simply increase their rates and get what they're asking for.
I should add that one solution I've had to this issue is to get some work outside of Israel, working remotely for people in the US, who tend to be more flexible on consulting rates.
Absolutely. There's no reason to limit yourself to any geographic particularity in this kind of work (especially going up against the "I'm not a sucker" voice in many Israelis' heads).
Rather than viewing your pool of clients based on geography, it's more sensible and realistic to view it based on potential clients' need for your particular skillset or language or system, wherever they are.
US is still likely the main source of work, and some want US-based people only, but I'd say that's a minority. And it sounds like your English is native, which probably helps.
You're basically handing people free money and they're too busy adjusting their plastic sheriffs badges to accept it. As if it were somehow dishonorable to charge your value in the marketplace. Craziness.