Greetings,
I have been doing freelance development with PHP and MySQL for a number of years now but not as a primary source of income. So far, I have completed six sites for profit - all purely the result of word of mouth. Most of my clients are small non-profit organizations that either did not have a site at all or had a site that was not meeting their needs.
My suggestion is to get out in your local community, find small businesses or organizations that need some help with their website (or perhaps do not yet have one) and offer your services. If you do well, a stream of clients will probably follow.
Just my two cents..
-Benjamin