A friend of mine needs a small project done (videocompression and storage with a webbased frontend) and has asked me where to get it done. I referred him to rentacoder and elance, but I'd much rather refer him to someone from HN. If you're interested (or if anyone else is for that matter) you can send me a mail and I'll get you in touch with the guy. My mail is max (at) maximise.dk

You're right that gigs asking for your kind of skills are not as common as ones asking for php development or web design, but those don't pay very well either. Its a supply and demand thing.

The only strategy that I used was to show that i know what I'm talking about in my replies. So don't just say "Yeah, I can do that" or something similar. Ask questions, tell them why what they're asking for is easy or hard or how it will work. Even if they were non-technical folk, just make sure you can get the message across.

Again, just how you would behave in real life.

(If you're just starting out, take one or two jobs at a reasonably low rate to get the ratings before you ask for your desired rate. Its a compromise, but it will get you there.)