Have you tried signing up as a host gator affiliate and tried offering free mini-sites to local companies?, but the deal is they sign up with your hosting company.
I agree with fearos, if you need some very awesome reputation hit up ALL the local small-mid business and do stuff for them. These days, the trend of IM is going offline. Mixing online with offline is an extremely great business since not many people are doing it.
Setup some free hosting accounts (with 000webhost and guys of the sort) and put up some fliers stating you'll offer 1 year hosting if they buy your page design. I'm pretty much sure lots of people will buy it. Isn't there a college to distribute fliers nearby? Isn't there any religious cult looking to build a website? With this being said, I wouldn't mind getting a mini site done
