I've honestly had pretty good luck passively with linkedin, I just update my profile like it's a resume and respond when recruiters get in touch.
Couple tips - be sure to list the names of all the major tools you know - programming languages, frontend frameworks, cloud stuff, databases, etc, etc. Recruiters often don't know much about what you do but do have a checklist of relevant technologies for jobs they're trying to fill.
In my experience there are a couple basic categories of recruiters - the good one is people who send you a polite message on linkedin and mention at least one thing they saw on your profile. It's worth taking the time to have a call with a couple of these people - even if the current job they're trying to fill isn't a good fit, good recruiters will keep you in mind if you're able to articulate what you're good at and what sort of job you're looking for - things to think about are team size, what type of work interests you, big or small company, etc etc.
The other type emails you with an URGENT listing for a contract java job in texas, you can safely ignore these since they're playing a numbers game and won't really offer you anything in exchange for your time.
If anyone asks you to send them money or buy anything, it's a fake job - this is a thing fairly recently.
When it comes to cold applying, be persistent! You might not hear back from most applications but try not to get discouraged - despite the grim news environment lots of places are hiring programmers, just maybe not so much Big Tech Companies.