with no portfolio or website for sample designs
THIS IS NOT EXCUSE¡! Because...
1) You can open a website for free on many platforms like Wix or Weebly and create your own website portafolio there.
Check these youtube tutorials (
Tutorial 1 and
Tutorial 2)on how to create a portafolio website using wix. If you need more info on how to actually build a website on wix but there are plenty of tutorials out there just search for them if you´re a complete begginer on this.
2) You can also create a social media presence by creating profiles for FREE and start networking yourself there like a Facebook Fan Page, Instagram Business profile, a Pinterest profile, etc. And you can start promoting your design samples there targeting people that are actually looking for them.
3) You should also regulary run (like once a week or something like that) different type of free promotions to make sure to boost your social media presence like
contests,
giveaways, etc.
3) There are many portafolio type platforms too where you can also uploads your designs for free like Behance, Dribble, Coroflop and others. Check out
this article on the topic.
Hope this helps.
You're best bet is to contact people and tell them that you're going to design for them for free in order to build you're portfolio.
If you contact the right people and do a good job you might get a network of paying clients, afterwards you can also create services on platforms like fiverr and buy reviews.
I stand and support this 100%. You won´t be able to just open a thread here or anywhere and offer your service. You would still need to give something away like free samples to the first 10 posts/request with the commitment they will make a public review of your service and work quality. This is how you start making a name for yourself.