Ding ding ding! Without being facetious, this is the most core-aspect of any success. What is actually required is a training wheels level program or book outlining how and where to get the clients. Yes, some of us may have gotten lucky, or had a break that flew into our lap - this is not the rule. And in fact, anything else other than the rule is noise. Getting paying clients should be a key goal of any business. Selling your personal anecdotal experience does not help unless it is distilled into a repeatable formula.

I would like to point out that I've been at this game for a short while with mixed results. What has worked in my favor, well in favor of getting closer to winning a bid or getting paid: clean business presence, professional copy, actually rephrasing all requirements back to the client and how I'm going to solve his problem, not lowering my prices at all - I keep my bids in the upper 25% of what I perceive the ceiling to be, be attentive to every minutiae that seems core-like to the project, communicate without long delay regardless of level of inquiry - no question is too trivial.

Above is a result of unintentional lack of effective execution and then actually committing to being a better manager rather than an engineer. I didn't understand that while I was confident in my abilities to get the job done, I still didn't get that job because I didn't prove it to the client and sold myself.

Avenues that I used on and off: cheap advertisement on radio, local newspaper, business directory, offered to sponsor two contests, scavenged elance, offered promo work for free just like what the other fellow is doing on HN. Regardless, it is hard and not steady. I can tell that specialization and asking for a monthly retainer to offer pre-allocated hours to specific clients is probably the key to crossing that income stability threshold.

I don't think Patrick or myself ignore the starting point - albeit my book is targeting freelancers WITH clients.

I can't begin to praise the effectiveness of in-person networking. Chamber of Commerce, technology councils, and other business forums are some of the best places to start. My strategy is to find business owners with problems I'm capable of solving. Checkout this blog post detailing my strategy (it's at the bottom): http://planscope.io/blog/my-most-effective-newsletter-to-dat...

I'm the author of the blog. Using the model that I wrote about, you "downshift" from a full-time job that has you on the front line, doing billable work to someplace where you're supporting internal business operations. This frees of you of conflict of interest problems and allows you the bandwidth to build up a side business, helping many of the same people you met previously in your career. The only difference is that it's in smaller chunks and time-shifted to evenings and weekends.

Slowly, and deliberately.

To add to the OP blog...

If you're adventurous, you can start a local user/meetup group focused on the topics you are passionate about, and people will find you. More than likely, recruiters will find you first, but it's a start.

Speak at local events, and have cards to give out. Follow up with anyone you exchanged cards with, even if just to say "thanks for chatting!". Have your site in your email. Have a phone number on the site. Answer the phone when it rings. Always. Reply to emails as fast as you can if/when you get them.

> This post is the missing part that Brennan Dunn and patio11 ignore. How do you bootstrap from zero clients? How do you build a reputation?

A sample size of two isn't authoritative but I know two people who started their freelance career path by doing real good work for a non-profit they had an existing connection to and cared about. Pro-bono work can be a good investment of time. It is not like spec work; more a labor of interest, for an organization you believe in.