[creature]

I think the thing about freelancing is: you're never going to have one source of leads. There'll never be one thing that makes someone think "Yes, I should get in contact with this person," but it all helps create a good impression. Good portfolio demos, useful & well-written blog articles, an active Twitter following/Github account/Stackoverflow profile, talks & engagement with the community, etc will all help. But there's no magic bullet.

In general, you'll probably find that most work comes from you reaching out to people pro-actively. At that point, they're definitely going to check out your website. If you can link them to your best work and give them some well-written blog articles to read, you'll definitely see the benefit in later conversations.