[maratd]

You should be flexible enough to bill in whatever manner that works best for the work at hand, the client, and most importantly, yourself. If the job requires hourly billing, don't pass it up because "I don't bill hourly". With some clients, you simply won't get them past that and it's up to you to make it work anyway, for both of you.

I agree, you should push clients away from hourly billing, but sometimes it's not possible and it's not worth losing an opportunity over.

You can propose to "sell" a fixed number of hours every two weeks or month, then allocate those hours when you estimate, without forcing you to keep a timer open while you work.

Yes, it's a compromise, you're not selling value, but you're not exactly selling time either and you have sufficient incentive to be productive.

Please let's not pretend that there is an infinite amount of opportunities out there and it's just a matter of your grabbing the right one. You need to keep money rolling in every month and you take what's in front of you, making the best of it.