I looked for individuals as opposed to groups or agencies, I avoided 5 out 5 star (100%) ratings and headed for better than 2 and not better than 4, I chose people who had experience in the technologies I needed, almost invariably they overestimated their ability, but I do that too, that's just human.
I chose people who had been with Odesk at least 6 months and not more than a year or so.
I checked that they were able to speak enough English to understand job requirements, don't expect impeccable grammar, this is after all the twenty first century!
I made very clear the commitment required and we discussed at length the time they would have available and what factors would affect that, every one I worked with had a 'day job', so my arrangement was that they would be required for a maximum of 10 hours in any week and we would agree in advance realistic schedules.
With those caveats in mind go for it, it is an enlightening experience to work with people from around the world, all so far have been honest and hard working, I pay everyone the same wage which is 10% or so above the minimum wage for my country, a rate that I have had to work for numerous times in my life. Invariably their living expenses are lower than mine and all have appreciated the income, I have a freelancer who has emigrated to avoid persecution and another that had 11ft of water through their home but was back online within 5hrs as they had taken the computers to the attic space, instead of a gift of charity I made an advance so they could rebuild their home and the advance was paid of with labour at a slow rate so they could maintain their current commitments.
We live in a global community, and it is truly awesome :)
5 stars might reflect a desire to only try safe things that can be accomplished with excellent results. On the internet development is fast, there are no experts in a technology that was only available yesterday so I was interested in people willing to try something new, risk to fail.
Regarding the rates, a job is a job, as I stated, this is a wage that I have worked for in the past, and probably will in the future, for me work is not entirely about the money, I seek satisfaction, for me that has a high value. I pay around $12 per hour, or about £8.20 which is a fair bit more than minimum wage is here in the UK (£5.80 per hour for workers aged 22 years and older a development rate of £4.83 per hour for workers aged 18-21 inclusive).
(I also suspect that, if you offered more money, your freelance contacts would discover an almost magical ability to find free cycles for you.)
I could probably commit some time. zak.wilson@gmail.com
oDesk has a reasonable number of qualified people
Guru/Rentacoder seem saturated with low bidding "fail 3 times before you get a success" types.
Additionally, the Basecamp people have a site with samples (but the name escapes me).
I'm pretty cheap when it comes to hiring (since I'm bootstrapped), but I found a pretty good selection of designers even in the lowest price bracket.
Solvate connects you with the contractors, then handles contracting, NDAs, billing, etc. so that it's a really easy process. For this, they take a cut of what the freelancer gets paid.
I've worked with Solvate "talent", as they call their freelancers, on several projects now and I have yet to be disappointed. I don't work for them or anything, just a happy customer.
Another curated experience! I think this is a key idea. Raw web experiences either suck or will degenerate to that point over time. A lot of websites that succeed do so by utilizing knowledgeable crowd sourced curation.
A key reason why the iTunes App Store sucks, is because their curation is clueless!
lets get in touch, hajrice@gmail.com