Do you have any tips on how to get started? I have been wanting to try some freelance gigs on the side but there seems to be a lot of friction to get started.

you've gotta build a rep as a hacker on elance. keep your bio short and to the point, talk about typical holes like cross-site scripting, sql-injection, db hardening, full stack exp etc. if you know how to crack node.js sites we might even hire you too depending on your js experience.

agreed. i've hired pro hackers on elance before too, the ratings on there are invaluable. matter of fact, i'll need more help in a couple of weeks once our next #ePlug web gui is ready for qa/qc/hacking. i'll probably post that job on coinality too.