Please see this previous comment of mine and the resources it refers to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15910781

The gist is: If you want your business to be independent, sustainable and profitable in the long run building a network to draw upon is essential.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket by exclusively relying on recruiters or - worse - sites like Upwork.

Have a professional online presence, i.e. website, that's controlled by you. It probably won't immediately help you with getting projects through organic search traffic but if executed well a professional website can help convince potential clients that you're the right person for the job.