1: Only bid on projects that ask for "good English skills". That's the code that means they're not interested in bids from traditional off-shoring destinations.
2: Once you win a few contracts on the freelancing websites, your customers should start coming to you directly and recommending you to others. You can then you can start raising your rates to something reasonable.
3: Send an email to the leaders of all the open source projects you have contributed to. It's quite possible they have more contracting work than they can handle and are willing to send work your way since they already know and trust you.
Comments
1: Only bid on projects that ask for "good English skills". That's the code that means they're not interested in bids from traditional off-shoring destinations.
2: Once you win a few contracts on the freelancing websites, your customers should start coming to you directly and recommending you to others. You can then you can start raising your rates to something reasonable.
3: Send an email to the leaders of all the open source projects you have contributed to. It's quite possible they have more contracting work than they can handle and are willing to send work your way since they already know and trust you.