If you can't find clients without a freelance site, that's the skill you need to develop first. And if you have no contacts, you haven't been working in the industry long enough, IMO.
You might want to look for sites / agencies hiring especially for contractors that travel to the client onsite.
At those positions you are able to charge much more than the basic bid for project website. Plus you don't have too deal with the masses of offshore devs that underbid you. The downside is that you need to travel to your client which means sleeping in a hotel 3-4 nights a week