I have mostly used odesk.com (because there are lot of people over there) to hire free lancers. I have seen most of them are crappy. They are just there to take your money and no worries about the deliverables. Applicants will try to negotiate on your total budget and will ask for 30%-40% advance. It's upto your negotiation power and you might be successful in bringing the advance to just $30-$40 and once they take that, they are gone.I have lot of ideas (iphone apps, websites) . I am not looking to hire a dedicated full time team, just free lancers - billed on a fixed budget.
Please let me know what resources you will suggest to look and please share your experiences also.
Much Thanks.