Ask HN: How do you find clients with no network?

Ask HN: How do you find clients with no network?
4 by AnancyDotWS | 3 comments on Hacker News.
I've been programming for ~14 years and throughout this time I've found that I've been most passionate about my Open Source work and Linux community involvement. Over the years I slowly withdrew from the Linux community, then a couple years ago I changed jobs and found that it slowly killed all passion I had for programming. Last year I was laid off (no reflection on me personally) and after taking some time off, I decided to try my own thing. I've been doing that this year by attempting to work on my Open Source project(s) as much as possible and while I haven't achieved what I hoped I would, I'd say it's been great. Problem is... this isn't viable without proper funding, so I've been trying to sell my skills (React, TypeScript, Go, etc.) and I'm finding it very difficult to find clients. The usual places like UpWork and other Freelance websites seem to be a race-to-the-bottom and/or filled with horror stories. I've also tried cold emailing and contacting people through Reddit and Facebook with no luck. Jobs postings here and other places naturally seem to be directed at finding actual employees while I'm more of a web dev agency/consultancy. Other advice I've seen is to build a network, but I'm not exactly sure how to go about it without already having some kind of network behind me. I've been thinking to put the idea on hold and find employment, but I fear I would simply end up in the same situation I've been in the last couple years.