I've done a lot of contracting. At least for us mobile developers, it is generally pretty easy to drop by a meetup and just ask if anyone has any gigs. Often pe

I've done a lot of contracting. At least for us mobile developers, it is generally pretty easy to drop by a meetup and just ask if anyone has any gigs. Often people will announce they are hiring too. You can get anything from days to weeks to months of easy work this way. Many people will even pay you by the hour day by day to just sit with them and pair program and train them how to write apps themselves. Sounds like you are a web developer, I don't really know how that goes. Asking friends if they or any of their contacts need some work done is good too. Then of course there's eLance, oDesk, and the rest. If you don't have good reviews there and clients asking for you then you pretty much have to underprice the already cut rate prices to get work. I've hired there and gotten work for others there, but the wages are too low for me to be willing to do it myself. You shouldn't really count on any one contract coming through, though. Always keep at least two in progress at once and be OK if one client balks at paying no matter how good a job you did, etc.. It shouldn't have been a big deal if one client clearly wasn't going to get back to you.