eLance/oDesk?

[Viridis]

So I've looked at a couple freelancing sites, mostly eLance and oDesk. I'm curious if anyone has worked through them before? eLance in particular has a lot of small children's books projects, which I think could be useful for me as that's the area I want to go in, but I am wary of most anything on the internet, especially since eLance handles payments through its own escrow service rather than something like PayPal.

Does anyone have any experience or thoughts about these sites?

[Coremaster]

To be honest don't bother with elance or odesk. here the reason those sites put you at a disadvantaged when it comes to pricing your services. you're better off
getting client yourself.

[Viridis]

Why do they put me at a disadvantage for pricing? Some of the projects have clients willing to budget thousands of dollars for things, which I don't often see on other sites.

The reason I was looking there was because they have a lot of children's illustration projects, which I haven't found on any other site. I just want to know if their escrow service will actually pay me, because I haven't worked with that kind of thing before.

[Elwell]

Why do they put me at a disadvantage for pricing?
Because they're built on a "race to the bottom" model, where there's incentive to underbid.

[Coremaster]

Yep on the money. here some useful link

http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/

http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/the-monster-list-of-freelancing-job-sites/

http://freelanceswitch.com/

http://www.technibble.com/how-to-increase-your-potential-client-base-by-hundreds-in-one-day/

hope that helps hit me up if you have any questions.

[ryansumo]

In one way they're quite efficient and I'm sure many employers like using it. But on the other hand I keep telling myself to try applying at some of these sites and I look at all the bidders hawking their wares and I get depressed for everyone involved. It feels even more impersonal than I thought the internet could ever be.

Of course that shouldn't stop you from trying. After all, you may find success there where others haven't, or you may not be as turned off as we all seem to be by it. Give it a shot and let us know what happens!