I was a .NET programmer in a sole developer capacity for nearly eight years until i got made redundant due to a downturn in sales at the company. While at the firm i specialised in VB.NET, WinForms, SQL Server and also did a little bit of C#. For the past 5-6 months i have been trying to improve my skill set by moving over to C# as my primary language and learning WPF. My C# knowledge has come on a lot and I am now almost at the same level in that language as i was in VB.NET. I have also created my own programming portfolio website and taught myself CSS as i always had a good grounding in HTML. I also managed (Not created) the CMS for my old employers website and did PHP, MySQL many years ago (However this knowledge is now very rusty).
It has became apparent since leaving that the following skills are now very popular: ASP.NET, MVC, WPF. I am struggling to find a new role as it now seems my skills have become quite niche, 1 job that fits my skills to every 25 webform role jobs. How do I convince a employer to consider me for these roles, I have expressed my willingness to learn and cross train but this doesn't appear to work. I am also open to negotiating my salary but obviously have a minimum i could drop to.
How do i encourage a employer / recruiter to give me a chance based on my previous track record of being successful at my old firm?.
Update:
A few people have suggested learning new skills as a solution to this issue. As i am currently unemployed i need to find work quickly to pay the bills so spending months training at home unpaid is not really a suitable option. I am already learning and practicing: C#, WPF, CSS, SQL Server 2012 so i feel my learning is already at maximum capacity without taking on ASP.NET, MVC. I am trying to find a solution that gets me back into work now and allows me to train into these other tech's while on the job.