For years, I have greatly undervalued my own time as a developer. In the beginning, I did not want to set my hourly rate too high because I did not have much consulting/freelancing experience. I wanted the work (chicken and egg problem) but lacked the experience.
As a freelancer, it can be hard to figure out your hourly rate. If you are new to freelancing or not sure what you are worth, you will probably settle on a fairly low rate. You might actually look around and see what other people are charging, which can be a mistake.
When it comes to finding freelance development work, Freelancer.com seems to be the best choice out there. I have had pretty good success with it, despite the fact I keep getting undercut by outsource operations willing to build whole websites for $100.
One thing that really bothers me about Freelancer.com is the fact withdrawals are broken.
The first frustrating thing for new time users is the fact your first withdrawal is held for two weeks. This is presumably a security thing and subsequent withdrawals you do not have to wait to be processed. I can kind of understand this, but wouldn’t it be easier and more secure to ask users to just confirm their identities instead of holding the funds for a made-up period of time?