[debacle]

You need to work very hard to acquire your first 10-20 real clients. Clients who are less than 1/20th of your annual income are not clients, they are customers.

Do whatever you need to to get these clients. Craigslist eLance, back alley deals, etc. Once you have them, you will keep getting new clients as long as you do good work, do a bit of basic marketing (the same kind of stupid simple SEO you would sell a client), and communicate well.

Once you have more work than you know what to do with, slowly start raising your rates, maybe $10-15 dollars per hour per year (don't raise rates every other month you'll look like a wingnut).