It's actually not that hard to get good clients on Guru and the sites you mention. You just need to differentiate from that Russian kid on something other than price.
Back in my eLance days, I charged $75/hour for my time and wrote good thoughtful proposals for jobs that sounded interesting. Those two things set me so far apart from the rest of the field that potential clients would essentially have two piles of proposals on their desk:
- Pile A: 100 broken english canned proposals quoting $14/hr and dripping with flakiness
- Pile B: 1 proposal from the expensive guy who sounds like he knows what he's doing
So the thought process then changes to "do I take a risk, or do I spend the money to do the job right". I'd only hear back from 1 in 10 proposals, but the conversation was always the same from there:
"Wow, you really nailed what we're looking for, but, well, you're a bit expensive. Any chance you can give us a break on price?"
"No."
"OK, well we've talked it over and we think we'd like to give it a shot."
I think you missed my point. Charging "$90 per hour," some people will just give you that; that's obviously better for you. There will still be people who hope to get a discount, and now $75 seems like you're doing them a special favor.
Back in my eLance days, I charged $75/hour for my time and wrote good thoughtful proposals for jobs that sounded interesting. Those two things set me so far apart from the rest of the field that potential clients would essentially have two piles of proposals on their desk:
- Pile A: 100 broken english canned proposals quoting $14/hr and dripping with flakiness
- Pile B: 1 proposal from the expensive guy who sounds like he knows what he's doing
So the thought process then changes to "do I take a risk, or do I spend the money to do the job right". I'd only hear back from 1 in 10 proposals, but the conversation was always the same from there:
"Wow, you really nailed what we're looking for, but, well, you're a bit expensive. Any chance you can give us a break on price?"
"No."
"OK, well we've talked it over and we think we'd like to give it a shot."