My first objective is indeed to find some clients. I'm reading some books on it and I read the same advice you summed in your first two points.
How do you manage 4 clients at a time? Did you agree to work on the projects part time or you are working longer hours to cover them?
I'll try the other options you mentioned. Thanks a lot for the tips.
EDIT: I wonder why the parent comment has been deleted. It was a very valuable one.
You don't tell us who are, what you do, what you have done. Start with those things on your HN profile or blog, and finding clients will become much easier. As a freelancer, building your personal brand is your number one job. I'd love to help, but until I know more about you and what you are capable of, it's extremely difficult.
I have all the information you mention and it comes out if you Google my real name. I'll send you that info by email.
Still, on HN I never managed to generate any lead. I've participated in many posts about freelancers looking for jobs, for example, but never worked. Now I logged out of my account to create this one and I can't even log back into it.
This blog is now attracting some attention, but only because I'm not in an easy position at the moment and not on the merits of my skills. I didn't even expect it, I just thought to throw the link here to get a couple of readers to start with.