I spent the first month putting together a 'web dev' resume. This took a month because most of my experience was non-public, involved large teams, and/or NDAd. As such, I supplemented my resume by writing a few applications that while not overly complex, were clear demonstrations that I can do more than a basic CRUD app. (After all, I've got more than a decade of dev experience, it'd be weird if I couldn't do that.)
I further emphasized that competence by opening a github account, submitting a few minor patches to other projects, and open-sourcing one full application of my own.
Once I finished that, I started scouring everything I could find for jobs and contracts where I might be a good fit, and I applied to approximately two per day. I started with a 'take anything, as long as it's short' approach, and got pickier over time about what I'd do, and the rates I wanted.
After about two months, I wound up working with a client who was incredibly impressed with me, and wound up buying about 50% of my capacity for $100/hr on an ongoing basis. Most weeks I wound up working 20 hours for him, and the rest of my time was spent trying to land small-ish higher-pay contracts, or working on those higher pay contracts.
Altogether, I grossed about $160,000 in a year with almost none of that coming in during the first two months. The vast majority of that cash was used to pay off corporate debt that was personally guaranteed.
The only reason I don't want to repeat this is because while it would help clear the debt, it left me deeply unhappy. I don't enjoy coding anymore, and I don't enjoy working alone.