Yup!

You bill freelance clients by the hour?

Sorry, the answer the your question is yes, you bill contract work the same way you bill freelance work. I'm just wondering if you've considered charging by the project, as this is what most do.

Hmmm....
Contract work depends on the contract.
I'm assuming you mean working as a temporary employee for another company.
Sometimes, if benes are involved, the rate may be far lower than your 'hourly'.
Depends on the situation.

That's interesting, I am just getting back into freelancing and was charging hourly, but I think I like the charge by project idea better.
I mean I would quote my hourly rate as well as an estimated completion time.

Do recieving clients in freelancing prefer one over the other?

If I were a client, I would prefer a price per project. Which is why I charge the same. Sometimes though, there are unforseen things that take longer to do though, so you will lose out if you charge per project.

I have found that the flat fee is more palletable. For some reason, it seems to freak some people out when you say you're going to charge them x dollars per hour. Charging a flat fee also allows you to charge what the market will bare. If a product is exrememly high visibility, and will have a huge profit margin, you should get your share of that and charge accordingly. When you charge by the hour, you can lock yourself out of getting paid that way.

OK PandaBear, I just thought of something I should probably add to that. If this is a situation where you're wroking in house and doing several projects, be sure to price each job individualy. This will avoid sticker shock, and the more detailed you make your quotes, the better chance you will have to think of unexpected things that might pop up in the project, and include those in your quote - or raise concerns about the issues to your client. They will really appriate your insight. :^)

You should use your standard contract involving delivery times, number of changes, and reproofs. Not all hurdles can be foreseen at the start of a contract project. Include expected client material delivery dates as well as your projected delivery date. State where rush charges start and what the absolute drop-dead print date is (padded of course, LOL!). Changes to the first should require re-negotiation of your whole contract.

Most of the contract workers I know are paid hourly. Whatever they create is 'work-for-hire'. Rates depend on length of contract, whether they are hired as a regular employee with benefits, require union involvement, etc. and is negotiated around what they want to charge per hour. With a target goal specified.

Sometimes it is worked backwards. If a goal is quoted by an artist as a lump sum, the fee may be divided hourly or in installments of 1/3. One third to start, one third on mid-review, one third on completion. It really depends on who YOU are and who you are WORKING for. The contract has to appeal to both of you.

Yea, he asked for my hourly rate and its a person who sub-contracts designers outside of his business. With all my other freelance clients I've been quoting and charging on a per project basis dependent on the complexity of it. I guess I should have stuck with that so that he'll contact me for some work instead of garbaging my email and forgetting all about me because of my hourly rate. Eek.