You could consider raising it. I did some freelance work several years ago and offered my services for what I thought was a very reasonable price-- $50/hour. I was losing a lot of jobs at that rate.
A friend told me how his father had been in a similar situation. He was offering a superior service that was, in many cases, lower than what the prospects were already paying. After being turned down repeatedly he finally asked why. He was told that he couldn't possibly be able to deliver the quality promised for the price he was asking. The low price created a perception of lower quality-- lower than what people were willing to accept for that price. So, they'd tell him it was too expensive or they just weren't interested.
I doubled my rate and not only got more work but better work. You could try it. The worst that will happen is people will still say no and you can always let them negotiate down a bit. Still, like others have said, it depends on the going rate where you're doing work.
You're right, and I think that's exactly what the submitter tried to do by asking here. Still, it's probably a better question for the people turning down the work.
I would add thought, that when asking remember that the person may not be telling the truth. They may actually want to hide something if they are doing it out of some personal prejudice they don't want to admit or because they have already made up their minds about the winner but are going through a bidding process for show.
Also, they may think they are telling the truth but actually being influenced by something they don't realize. For instnace, if the poster were unusually young they may feel he is immature or lacking experience even in the face of evidence to the contrary.
One way to at least mitigate this is to solicit opinons from many people that originally turned him down.
A friend told me how his father had been in a similar situation. He was offering a superior service that was, in many cases, lower than what the prospects were already paying. After being turned down repeatedly he finally asked why. He was told that he couldn't possibly be able to deliver the quality promised for the price he was asking. The low price created a perception of lower quality-- lower than what people were willing to accept for that price. So, they'd tell him it was too expensive or they just weren't interested.
I doubled my rate and not only got more work but better work. You could try it. The worst that will happen is people will still say no and you can always let them negotiate down a bit. Still, like others have said, it depends on the going rate where you're doing work.