[idoxer]

I've started at 2018, mainly used a similar site to upwork but local to my country so less competition and most of the time when you find a client from there, they refer you or use you again

Of course adding there to your profile skills, portfolio etc, sending your CV and website can really help

Once you have a website like this or a few, always keep hunting for work. You can fail to get one for 2 weeks but then find one that will last you few months of work

Normally as a "freelancer" you get make much more money with the same time of work, if you work fast try to always get a fixed price project and finish it ASAP. If not you can use a client or a few hourly and over the time to look for those fixed price

If you new to this, you gonna make a lot of mistakes estimating costs on those fixed price projects, we all do. We learn over time :)