I have freelanced a little, and now my best offers come from previous clients, or people who have found me by reputation. For example, on eLance, I was recently

I have freelanced a little, and now my best offers come from previous clients, or people who have found me by reputation. For example, on eLance, I was recently invited to a job which took me four hours but paid $1000. It was invite-only (they did not list it publically), and such a bid would never fly by usual eLance (i.e., Indian outsourcing) standards. Fortunately, I have a regular income (and besides that am still young enough to mooch off my parents), so I can afford to only take nuggets like that. :) EDIT: Come to think of it...I never look for a freelancing offer anymore, last I did was months ago. Now I simply accept the 5% or so of offers actually worth doing. Of course, doing those creates satisfaction in my new clients, which provide me more offers!