Elance, FreelanceGuru really suck for newcomers. It's almost impossible to get a project if you don't have a good credit score. I would recommend trying places like constant-content or FreelanceSwitch.

A friend wrote this post on WF, hope this would be of help.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussi...

You can scroll to the "Like Writing" section.