Reading the comments, it seems pay appears top of the list as far as criteria goes. This is sad as you guys in the US and UK will never be able to compete with the up and coming markets in China and India.

I've used freelance coders from India and Russia, who are technically as good, or better, than people here in my native UK. Why *should* I pay more for the same piece of code? For the same price, I can pay someone in the developing world top dollar, or I can listen to someone in the developed world bitch at me that I'm not paying enough.