Yes its very possible many people do it. I wrote two articles on promoting your website.
The best possible way to promote your site will be to have a great portfolio along with using stumbleupon.com and sites like craiglist to find gigs
http://www.youthedesigner.com/2007/1...bsite-or-blog/
http://www.youthedesigner.com/2008/0...bsite-traffic/