Legwork. Find sites that you find you could make better. Make a demo, contact the owner. Do this a hundred times a week. Starting is hard, and you should be willing to do the legwork. Also reach out to folks at your old workplace.

As for portfolio, just go with linkedin and whatever you feel you would like to sign up for. These hubs are the first place people check. A personal site is nice for blog posts and such, but I wouldn't put more effort into it than a wordpress site with contact info and links to things you already made. Stuff you write, if you do at all. See weatherfactory biz for an example

Great article on this: http://alistapart.com/article/getting-clients