Ask HN: In my situation, how good would it to work on oDesk?

I'm a pretty good frontend developer with almost 8 years of experience although most of it was as a freelance.

Right now I'm working at a web agency making US$10000/year (a bit below the market locally but it'd be hard to find another job in the area from what I've seen due to my lack of a CS degree).

The late hours and unrealistic deadlines are starting to wear on me, specially considering most of what I make disappears after a couple of months because it's basically advertising. I wouldn't mind working late if my work had even a bit of meaning.

I'd love to work remotely but I haven't had much luck sending resumes (maybe because I don't live in the US or my portfolio is lacking due to the vanishing nature of my work). My major weakness is that I haven't used Backbone and Angular which are very prominent in most frontend job postings around here and other sites. I really want to learn how to use them but I don't have time due to the aforementioned agency job.

I have read a bit about oDesk and while most people have bad experiences I feel that maybe it would be the best way to escape the agency grind. But maybe I would be sacrificing my job security (I need to pay rent after all) for nothing.

I feel lost and a bit disheartened and I'd really appreciate any advice you may have.