You don't give details as to how much experience you have nor where you are located. Both these would assist HN readers to give you more pertinent advice. In

You don't give details as to how much experience you have nor where you are located. Both these would assist HN readers to give you more pertinent advice. In many contexts "consultant" is somebody who has specialist knowledge in some area and is able to advise / guide the client to accomplish a desired outcome. A contractor, on the other hand, is somebody with a specific skill-set who undertakes to produce and deliver some deliverable to the client's specification / requirements. Unless you are already known for in demand skills, you need to prospect for work. Yes, it is selling and many of the other comments here have great suggestions on how to do the marketing. In my experience, you need to work in a job to build up your skills, experience and contacts. Without that background you are probably only going to get small jobs and take a long time to build up your profile to be demand for the better paying gigs.