I've gotten gigs from a Christmas email response, from a reference from an old co-worker. Was fed gigs from a company, special projects for customers, that lasted a couple of years. Recently, eating lunch at my local diner in a college town, a lady comes in, she's been up all night at the maker lab across the street. Chatted, she describes the breath analysis device they're prototyping for grants, just need some software. And what do you do? I make software for small embedded devices. That's been going two years.

So the answer is, all the ways, that's how you get gigs. Try all the ways.