A robust portfolio can help you get hired by any company. You should start building your portfolio as soon as possible, because you never know when a client might need something written.
Your portfolio should include samples of everything you write, including fiction, nonfiction, blogs, articles, press releases, white papers, web content, e-books, etc.
You should also include examples of your previous work, such as blog posts, book proposals, magazine articles, etc.
This article will serve as a guideline to building a writing portfolio. You should write about yourself and how you want to grow as an author. Include pictures or drawings if you feel comfortable doing so.
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Your Writing Portfolio: What It Is And What It Should Include
All types of writers should look into creating an online writing portfolio. This includes a brief bio, a list of awards, and some examples of your work. You should also include testimonials from previous clients about your writing skills.
Your writer portfolio should contain only high quality writing work that showcases your unique talents and skills. You shouldn’t include any old pieces that aren’t up to par.
Your writing portfolio should be a collection of samples that show off your skills as a writer. You’ll use these samples to showcase your work and sell yourself to potential clients.
There are three things you must include in your portfolio:
1) Writing samples
2) A brief bio
3) Contact information.
A solid writing portfolio should include these key characteristics.
Characteristics Of A Strong Writing Portfolio
Professional Content And Tone
You should keep your portfolio professional, even if you write for a company that has an off-tune tone. Your portfolio should reflect your ability to write for various types of companies. However, you should still present your content in a polished manner, as this will make it easier for potential employers to see your skills.
Appropriate Samples
Freelance writing jobs are all the same, so whatever platform you use to showcase your work should be able to display your best work in different sections.
For example, if your goal is to serve as a ghostwriter for lifestyle bloggers, a year of formal grant applications you submitted for multiple nonprofit organizations doesn’t showcase your writing skills in their most flattering light.
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Decide On A Domain Name And Where You Want To Host Your Portfolio
Domain names are important when you’re trying to make an impression on prospective employers.
Your domain name should be short and easy to remember. For example, if you want to write about yourself, then you could go with “yournamewrites.com”. This is also helpful if you want to create a blog or website.
You’ll need to create an account on each site. Then, you’ll be able to upload content and edit pages.
To expand your reach to potential customers, you can also consider using platforms like Upwork. These platforms are constantly evolving and developing new ways to showcase your freelance writing skills.
You can also use them to highlight testimonials or reviews from past clients and your rates to make working with a potential customer that much faster.
Choosing Your Writing Portfolio Pieces
Here comes the agonizing part. What do I include in my portfolio? How many pieces should I include? Portfolios are how writers get hired.
You need to show off your best work and your ability to write about topics that interest people. You also need to be able to explain complex ideas in a simple way.
- Portfolios should be lean, focused, and representative of your field. You shouldn’t include anything more than 2 years old. Your portfolio should focus on your writing skills.
- Don’t waste your time writing articles that nobody reads. You should focus on publishing quality content that gets attention.
- Typically, the number of pieces included varies. Some prefer to have eight or ten pieces to choose from while others prefer more than thirty.
- This shouldn’t be a problem since you’re sure to add even better choices to your portfolio over time.
Pro Tip
Make different portfolios for each vertical. This is where multiple portfolios can help. But more on this later.
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Must-nots
- A list of buzzwords.
- No one cares about age.
- Spelling mistakes do matter.
- Don’t use résumé-speak or bad grammar.
- Confidence matters. Remember they’re hiring you. Avoid self-deprecating remarks.
Great Portfolio Websites For Freelance Writers
Digital portfolio sites allow you to easily create attractive and professional- looking portfolios while handling the technology for you. These sites also offer free services to help you get started. Two of them may even help you find freelance writing jobs.
Clippings Me
Creating your online writing portfolio with clippings.me is quick and easy. During the setup process, you can also connect to your twitter account to import your bio.
You can customize the appearance of your portfolio by selecting one of the provided themes or by uploading your own image. Your professional writing portfolio shows your name, title, biography, and displays up to ten clips.
What Content Formats Might You Need?
You can write plain text, link to other pages, or embed images, video, audio, or other content into your page. You can also use rich media like Flash and Shockwave, but these are not supported by all browsers.
Podcasts (mp4, mp3, ogg, etc.), audioboom files, soundcloud files.
Back when clippings.me was created, it only allowed for adding links and pdf files – but now you may add all of these things, and most journalists use that functionality. You should consider this before moving on to the next step. Finally, ensure whatever tool you use can make full use of a custom domain (e.g., www.yourname-jobs.com).
This is strongly recommended when hunting for a job – putting your personalised URL on your business card or CV looks much more professional and makes it easy to remember!
You can get your own personal URL for your writing portfolio by using Clippings.me. It’s completely free and easy to use.
Contently
Contently is more content writers’ network than portfolio tool, however, we’ve seen plenty of journalists create great looking portfolios with this free software, getting started is a breeze and there’s a neat feature to find clips you may have missed.
There’s also a nifty feature to find clippages you may have missed. You can customize your page by adding images, videos, and links to social media.
Overall, Contently is a great portfolio site, but it lacks some customization options of dedicated portfolio providers.
