Why not just build the site and then offer it to him for free. I'm not sure why people think putting together these "dearxxxxx" websites is any better/different

Why not just build the site and then offer it to him for free. I'm not sure why people think putting together these "dearxxxxx" websites is any better/different than a cold-call or email. If you'd built the actual site and offered to hand it over to him for free that would have been a whole other story.