My experience with oDesk was completely different from the Unemployable Programmer. Yes, there are plenty of "lowest-wage programmers" on those sites. I never

My experience with oDesk was completely different from the Unemployable Programmer. Yes, there are plenty of "lowest-wage programmers" on those sites. I never bothered to compete with them on price. I simply charged what I thought I was worth, and ratcheted my price up and up as I discovered that the market thought differently. Interestingly, as my price went higher and higher, the constant noise of "crappy" job offers quieted down and was replaced by a small number of great offers.