About four years ago I used elance and found it very hard to get awarded a job. Then they started charging what I think are exhorbitant fees. In working with a client, who had used elance for a web site and had major problems like paying a lot up front $35,000 for a web site and never getting any thing from it, I found out that most of the awarded projects in fact go to elance people (And they are mostly in India). In other words they use it as a front.

I use guru.com and have found the site to be more honest. You still can't prevent people posting bull ####, like asking for help with major projects and thinking they can get the work done for free, but it is a more honest site. It does cost money, at least that is voluntary in that you don't have to pay the fees to get better placement in getting jobs. It is a crowded site full of real professional free lancers, so if you not that, you may not find it of much use, or any site like it for that matter.

Hope this helps.
Kent Capener
Capener Consulting, LLC
http://www.capenerconsulting.com