I used to own a webdesign agency in Miami and to get clients in, we did several things that at the time worked pretty well for us. Instead of focusing on having a website that showcased our knowledge and portfolio we started blogging about the many different aspects of web design and web dev. We did this under a very disciplined shedule. We used wordpress to write our blog and we often wrote things such as: top 10 flash websites, best black and websites on the web. Eventually our audience started to pick up and we started gaining traction on the "long tail" for many keywords. We went from having just clients in Miami to clients all around the states.
We also complemented this strategy by building as many freelance profiles on several design markeplatces such us: odesk, freelancer.com, fiverr.com, 99designs and many more. As we interacted more and more with each platform revenue became "predictable" and it got to the point that both strategies were fulfilling or business leads.

Happy to discuss more strategies on a call :)