I really like your approach, obvious but it didn't cross my mind before. Using the freelancing sites to bootstrap yourself but aiming towards long-term relationships and referrals.
Two questions though:
1. Can you share what you do as a freelancer?
2. You are not longer active on oDesk or any other freelance sites then?
1. I started doing custom blog plugins, but have also done e-commerce sites, Facebook apps and custom web applications. I'm a coder, not a designer, but that hasn't caused any problems for me so far.
2. Haven't touched oDesk since my first job there. I might use it again in the future, but to be honest I found searching for work there rather depressing with all the low rates.
