Hey! I did freelancing for a long time. It takes a while to build up work, but ultimately the only sustainable model is word of mouth. But you have to get your first few clients...

There's lots of ways to build up work, but the way I did it was by creating a few fun projects and blog posts that ended up on HN. Each one had a "I'm doing freelancing work!" ad on them. (You're kinda doing this right now!)

It might not work for everyone, but I had by far the best success by creating something that would intrigue the people I wanted to hire me.