Things that worked:
-Blogging
-Referrals through blogging
-Posting comments on HNs
Things that didn't work
-Networking Events
-Participate in marketing or consulting communities
-Partner with agencies or other consultants
-Hound people
-Cold outreach
-Advertising
-Handing out business cards
Things that worked:
+offering low cost but useful workshops/seminars
+public speaking
+referrals from existing clients
+blogging / referrals through blogging
+networking events
+participating in communities of peer consultants
+partnering with other consultants
+handing out business cards (at the end of a serious networking conversation)
+comments on HN and other entrepreneur oriented forums
Things that didn't work
-hound people (defined as contacting more than three times without a response)
-cold outreach
-advertising / sponsorship
So...your mileage may vary.
And the rest was basically, "be lucky".
Really his takeaway is to make a name for yourself and the offers will roll in. Figure out a way to increase your stature or you'll never make it as a consultant. That's what all of the blog posts and hacker news articles were for, getting people who matter to know his name.
Networking events and word of mouth from other clients have been about half of my work, and the rest just sort of email me out of the blue based on either my LinkedIn profile or a book I wrote.
I don't blog, I don't have much of a professional website. The book I wrote is fairly popular, but I find that the people who email generally haven't read the book (although they might have bought it... to see that it's real, I guess) but they find me through that.
Will agree that cold outreach doesn't work at all unless you're doing it on a massive scale (and then you're just a professional salesperson...). I've done it, but it's literally never worked for me.