The only success I've had on any of these freelance sites was by treating them as a marketing sales channel. Didn't lower my prices at all and landed a small project at my normal rate. This served as the start of a more permanent relationship. After the small-time project we got into contact outside the freelancer site and collaborated on larger projects.

The main problem with these sites is not that there's developers bidding at the lowest dollar; those devs are always around, and you're competing against them even when not using the freelance sites. The problem is letting these sites own and monetize your business relationships.

I agree with this, there is the secondary problem whereby people advertising work really don't understand how to price that work. The majority of it that I see is probably budgeted around half of what I would charge.

I think for Junior - Mid / Good exchange rate countries it is a great way to get a toe in the door for future work directly, for anything senior I think you are going to struggle.

I have hired from Upwork and Reddit at both low and high prices. Giving a view from the other side, I think one can command high prices as long as they also do the work upfront to show that they can deliver. As someone trying to get my work done with good quality, the quality crowd tends to thin out pretty quickly. I am always surprised that even after looking at 20 promising profiles, only 1-2 stand out.

Biggest way to stand out IMO is to demonstrate polished previous work, with working links. Most developers have screenshots of old de-funct stuff. They do a half assed job of convincing that they have done good work before. IMHO, if you don't have a personal polished website, demonstrating amazing work, you don't deserve to command good prices. Show, don't tell.

If these sites are so bad, I wonder why isn't anyone stepping in to fill the void? There is tons of work, tons of money to be made if someone can make it work. Most of these platforms take hefty commission (20% at upwork and fiverr, for example) and yet do not provide a good service

Can you tell me what how a better platform would function?

I used to freelance on Upwork but I can't think of a better system.

It certainly is a race to the bottom. A marketplace provides more opportunities at the cost of greater competition.

You're also taxed 20% of your income by Upwork. Some find that egregious but I'd say that's the cost of the network.

If the network gets stronger, it makes sense for them to charge a larger amount.

Upwork has different projects with low and high prices. It's a lottery to win a project.

Here is a list with 100 Marketplaces and Job Boards to find a remote or freelance job https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RrCjKx03515Hm523uUvD...

You can check them and find what you need. I'm sure that freelancers with the high rate find projects. BTW, This service https://periodix.net/ aggregates projects related to your budget expectations. That's why you don't waste your time competing with $2hour freelancers.

I started playing with one of those sites recently. I advertise myself at my real rates and in my pitch I mention my relevant career background, include my CV and a link to LinkedIn where they can see all my recommendations and then end explaining how it's actually cheaper to hire me as I require way less time to deliver high quality projects, so they end up paying the same or less for a better job.

So far it worked once and the customer is so happy that has kept the contract opened for now to request more things, but I've been applying for just a couple of days.

It’s a global market, to some degree.

I say to some degree because many buyers from wealthier markets are shying away from hiring in certain developing markets.

If you consider yourself highly skilled and you live in a relatively developed country, then no, it probably isn’t worth your time trying to compete.

Furthermore, it’s a seller’s market so if you genuinely are highly skilled, you shouldn’t be short of work.