Thanks, sounds like a reasonable advice! Does portfolio have to be quite large to attract people with application ideas? Is it yours: http://www.plastaq.com ?
Well I'm too new at this to be able to give you a good answer. It probably depends on exactly which programming market you're trying to get into.
And yes, that's my site.
There are also many website design concepts floating around both as simple images or HTML templates. You could use these (with the permission of the author/artist) to sidestep the design section.
For example: http://browse.deviantart.com/designs/web/
If you're not a designer yourself maybe you could partner with a designer in a similar position that's interested in collaborating on a few portfolio-building projects?