With a sense of impending doom, I got onto oDesk to do some consulting myself. What a humbling experience that has been! I must have gotten outbid on the first 10 jobs I went for, and finally had to take one at ~ $10/hour. With that experience it became easier to get a 2nd. I find myself a lot more impressed with the OP's first month than I would have before my own experience looking for freelance work.