I know some basic HTML, CSS. JS, and very little React -- I'm learning it currently. One of the things I see mentioned online is freelancing as a way to earn income. Now, I've tried this before in the past on UpWork, and it was nearly impossible to get anything out of it, I rarely received a response and that required submitting a lot of proposals which in turn cost a lot of money.
When I go on UpWork, many of the jobs need WordPress developers or an array of skills I simply do not have and appear to require a lot of time to learn.
Furthermore, I'm in an odd place financially and career wise, where I can't seem to get a job anywhere, not even at places that would've hired me before, and certainly not as a junior developer.
I suppose I'm asking for advice. If freelancing is an option to pursue, how do I go about it in the cheapest and most cost effect way possible? If freelancing is not the right option, then what can I do with what I do know? Lastly, is the job market in a weird state for every sector?
It is! It's not just you. Running a business is a full time job on its own. When I finally accepted a corporate job, I was shocked to see that there were 15-20 person teams to do what I was doing all by myself.
The best option is to team up with someone else whose skills and passions are in marketing and client acquisition. Create a bidding template for them, like a rate card, and then unleash them. Split the cost of the projects with them. Don't forget to charge enough to make splitting worth it. Ideally this is an actual company, but another freelancer could work in this role too, if they're actually serious about building a business.
OP, making these contacts and setting this stuff up takes a lot of time. You can either make that your primary goal before starting, or you can just start trying to get jobs off job boards and hope you meet someone along the way. Eventually you'll get a marketing client and if you're good, they'll want to team up.
It's rough out there without a brand. There are a billion overseas "programmers" who will gladly work for $25 a day. They're going to be bidding on all the same jobs that you are. You really have to stress the value you bring in ease of communication. That is worth a ton. Companies and people value time and money. They will waste a lot of both working with a cheapo programmer.
You'll probably have to take some crappy, low paying jobs to start your portfolio. Don't rush those. Build them perfectly, and then proudly display them and the client testimonials in your portfolio. You'll eventually be able to charge more.
The guy above me already stated it, but it can't be overstated. A. Job. Will. Take. Longer. Than. You. Think. My strategy when I was freelancing was to break the project down into pieces, estimate everything using a chart I had for how long those steps took under ideal circumstances, add an hour for the time spent estimating, add 30% fluff, and then double it. That was usually pretty close to the actual time spent. You need to remember that all the time spent chasing the client down for images and answers, talking about what you've built, doing demos, and all that sort of stuff is time you need to be paid for. If you don't account for that then you'll hit the end of a year and realize that you just worked 52 weeks, 7 days a week, 15 hours a day, and made $17,500.
Best of luck! There are easier ways to make money with these skills, much easier, but few are as rewarding.