It really aches and breaks my heart beyond imagination to see professionals with years of relevant experience behind them, bidding really low on freelance sites like Elance, simply because they do not have any work experience on the site, and no feedback to showcase.
These individuals feel that the only way to appease prospective clients on these sites is by bidding really low.
That way they think they can ultimately bag jobs, NOT on the basis of their merit, but purely due to cost related reasons, since clients could now avail of their professional services at very low rates.
Remember that if you are following this trajectory, in spite of being very well qualified as well as highly competent to deliver on the said tasks with complete finesse, you are only headed towards professional doom on these sites.
After all, raising rates later (as you might be envisioning your strategy for the future) is nowhere as easy as you might be thinking.
After all, when clients see low rates on your freelance profile - say in terms of the hourly rate quoted on your Elance profile, or they see a work history with many low paying jobs, they will hesitate to hand you even a single job that pays realistically, since your credibility would have been undermined already at this point.
That is the reason, your strategy on any of these freelance sites should instead be to charge the same (or at least similar) rates that you have charged in the offline, "real world", from the word go.
It is very tough to raise rates at a later stage, particularly since the low paying jobs you have worked on in the past, have already labeled you as a worker who comes very cheap.
Agreed that such a strategy may keep you away from playing the volume game, but do you really want to do that, when majority of the jobs pay so little? Quite likely you do not, especially if you are an individual freelancer and not a company.
After all, it is very difficult for a single worker to be working continuously, to complete many projects.
In the long run, you will find that a strategy based on realistic rates would pay off very well for you anyway.
That is the reason I would reiterate that you bid realistically on freelance sites like Elance from the beginning, even if you are a complete novice in that realm.