My web site generated a few leads over the years (first post in 2007 I think) but not many, not enough for me to live on. I think a few high-profile people get sufficient leads from their web presence but most of us probably won’t.
Anecdotally I don’t think the people who hire me read a lot of programmer blogs.
I get almost all freelancing work through referrals/word of mouth. About ten years ago I went with an agency that still represents me, and that has proven more reliable than my own efforts at self-promotion.
This is not exactly what you want, but patio11 has(had) a somewhat similar method of using blog posts and email newsletters to get consulting task. https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/
Probably you should start with https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/17/ramit-sethi-and-patrick... HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4533498 (173 points | Sept 2012 | 45 comments)