I've done freelance technical writing for software engineering blogs on-and-off for the past few years, but when my day job decided to cut the engineering team's hours for the summer, I decided I'd try to make freelance writing into a real business.
I sent a few emails this week and as of today, I engaged my 6th paying client.
It helped that I had a strong writing portfolio already and that I know a lot of people in developer relations from my side project, CFP Land.