The cost of purchasing a course related to IT proffession is quite on a high side in our world today, still lots of competition out there, a lot of people searching for clients using different advertising methods making it harder to find clients.
What type of web designer you want. There are different skill wise web designer you will find according to their experience. some are top class experience web designer and you have to pay big. if you need a client for sample work then don't look for high professional but intermediate level designer will also be suitable for your work and you have not to pay big.
The Best platform i suggest will be Fiver which is most used for finding client. You have to see the gigs and review of each client. Nowadays These clients buying fake reviews and increasing gigs with fake method. You have to be careful with this. i generally use Facebook freelance group for finding client and still work for me. You can also check this and this is I think fastest way to get more clients in less time. There are other platform suggested by other members but i have not used these platform. you can check these , may be other platform better than i suggested.