How to start out making money online as a web developer [For newbies]

I am a web developer, but have never even been able to make money as a freelancer. I've looked into sites like peopleperhour.com and freelancer.com However, on sites like these starters have little to no chance since I have no portfoli to show for. I work as a full-time software engineer, however to be honest, I find the idea of completing a whole project from scratch to finish on my own a daunting and impossible task. Does anybody have experience with this where they started earning money building websites? I'd actually rather have projects where it was a "no website, no fee" basis. So I wouldn't have the pressure of completing their task or if I failed to do so.

Dude I hear you! I am also a dev and really got nowhere on those sites! And I have a decent portfolio! I'm also wanting to hear if anybody on here has a good solution to this! One thing though...as a dev and not a designer what I would do if i landed a gig is outsource the design work from a place like freelancer dot com or peopleperhour. Basically outsource any work that I cant do (not dev)

I have considered making a website and represent myself as an actual company and then doing facebook advertising directing them to my site and hopefully land some clients that way but I have no idea how succesful it would be...