i found that rentacoder was the best in getting early responses

That may be an extreme solution, but part of what oDesk does is give people access to developers world wide. Unfortunately, that puts a lot of us at a disadvantage. I stopped getting work from sites like that, and started sourcing work TO these sites, so that’s really where my perspective comes from. You’d be one of the “qualified” offers, but even then there might be less expensive qualified people. Either way, they part that frustrates me are the unqualified ones. The ones that can’t complete the project no matter what they charge.

I’ve gotten two jobs from oDesk, and they worked out really well for me, so I can’t complain. But for every job I get, I’ve certainly bid on ten others. For domestic freelancers charging anything close to market price, it’s hard to get noticed. Such is the life of looking at freelance websites, I suppose. Still, oDesk does what they sought out to do – offer a really easy way for people to post jobs and get freelancers. I just wish there were more people posting – much like the comment above mine, thankfully – that were looking for qualified bidders rather than the lowest price.

oDesk seems to be pretty heavy with people that just want it done fast and cheap. I can respect that from a business model standpoint – but I just wish the competition was a little more balanced.