Looking for advice

Hi. I have decided to give freelance work a try. Im pretty well versed in PHP/mySQL/HTML/CSS and just recently, ActionScript and in my humble opinion, I’m pretty good. As of right now I have two projects that showcase my skills. One is a full-featured website with lots of back-end and the other is a resume done in flash/ActionScript advertising my services. I was wondering if anyone who has done this before could give me some advice as to how I should land my first paid project. I’ve checked out the various freelance websites on the net and it seems theres hundreds of people bidding on one project offering rediculously low rates… so if this is not the way to go, should I try to advertise locally or what? Anyone? Thanks. -B

It’s seems everybody is out of work these days.

what exactly are these freelance websites?

sites like elance.com and itmoonlighter.com or contractedwork.com