Ask HN: How to increase your chances as a freelancer to get paid projects?

Now and then I do freelancing projectS only to find myself competing with ridiculously low bids by certain agencies, 20-30 of them on sites like elance. This decreases the chances for a freelancer in the west to have a significant chance to get the job.

So I built this for me and my friends: www.cnnected.com

But would love to know other ways or sites to not play the lowratewar with indian developers. Any ideas?