I have many years of programming experience in the U.S. under my belt but when it comes to finding freelance work I'm completely in the dark. One of my fears is that unlike being an in-house developer, a freelancer is at risk whenever s/he attempts to find a new gig, of being treated as a low-cost commodity service without any attention paid to years of experience, diversity of knowledge, etc. Sites like odesk put an American programmer in the same ring with his/her lower cost counterparts in other areas of the world, many of whom are more than capable of competing in terms of skills and intelligence. What's a good way to look for freelance work (in NYC) without competing purely on cost?. Are there particular freelance websites that are more oriented towards dometic US projects and talent? I'm wondering whether anyone has used sites like http://www.rentacoder.com or http://www.elance.com/ or http://freelanceswitch.com/
They all seem to expose an American programmer to the problem I'm talking about. Are there any others I haven't heard of that might be more favorable?
From a purely selfish standpoint, beyond the issue of the public good, can this bring extra traffic, give you additional credibility, make you any money?
