To follow up on this, I'd also suggest coming up with something that requires treatment (ongoing, recurring income) vs cure (one time work, one time payment). The more often you have to hunt for clients, the more painful and irregular the process.
So currently I do have a long-term contract as a subcontractor, which is indeed ongoing and recurring. The only reason I got this, though, is because the contrator knew I had Rails experience. And that's why I feel like if I blog/seek expertise in a language/framework, that will contribute to finding more long term work like this.