The freelance writing biz has certainly changed a lot over the years — I started back in the 1980's. Used to be you could get really good contract gigs with large organizations, but most of those are now outsourced to Asia at price levels I can't compete with. These days the better bet is local businesses face-to-face that aren't necessarily tech/Internet savvy enough to to have extensive online connections.

It helps if you're also a graphic designer so you can do things like event posters and such.