how to make a creative writing portfolio

How to Create a Writing Portfolio (With Examples)

Want to create a writing portfolio that'll stand out to readers and potential clients? Here's how to do it and some examples to make it easy for you.

As a freelance writer, it's beneficial to have a portfolio of your work, so potential clients can review your work and learn about your area of expertise. Before starting to work on your portfolio, you should consider the writing you want to do.

Whether you're a copywriter, a ghostwriter, writing literature, or a journalist, that should be clear when people view your portfolio. One of the first things to consider when creating your portfolio is your niche, and determining your niche can help you select your articles and the layout.

6 Steps to Creating Your Writing Portfolio

Here are the six steps to creating a writing portfolio that will help you get noticed by readers and potential clients:

1. Choose a Portfolio Host

In today's virtual world, having an online portfolio is a must for most creatives. You get to decide whether you want to host your portfolio on your website or prefer to have another company host it.

You can create your portfolio using a platform like Wix, Weebly, or WordPress. If you'd rather have your portfolio hosted by a site specializing in online portfolios, you can choose from sites such as Clippings, WriterFolio, or JournoPortfolio. You might be interested in these free platforms to showcase your freelance writing portfolio .

2. Determine Your Niche

If you're struggling with selecting the type of writing you want to focus on, it may be a good idea to review your previous work and see which ones had the most impact, response, and reach. If you want to focus on ghostwriting, you may want to clarify what type of content you can write. This can range from real estate to gardening, holistic medicine, or another industry in which you have writing experience.

As a copywriter, do you enjoy creating sales pages and other marketing copy, like landing pages, newsletters, and email sequences? What kind of literature do you write if you're a literary writer? You can focus on romance, fantasy, horror, or any other genre. What type of news do you write about if you're a journalist? Do you write about current events, celebrity gossip, or financial or political news? The possibilities are endless.

3. Create Your Author Bio

Your author bio aims to introduce yourself to potential clients who enjoy your work and want to learn more about you. The content you include in your bio should match the formatting and design of the website. The elements you should consider including are:

• Where you're from originally.
• Where you call home currently.
• Your academic writing credentials, if applicable.
• Your notable publications.
• Any accolades and awards you've won.
• The subjects or themes you cover.

You can include your social media links if you're comfortable, and they highlight more of your written work. If you're creating your site for the portfolio, you can choose to include the bio on an about page or have it as your homepage.

You may consider adding a photograph of you since it can increase the chances of people reaching out to you. You may be interested in learning tips on how to write an about me page in your online portfolio .

4. Select Your Best Work

Once you've decided on the niche you want to focus on, you can review your completed work and choose the best content that fits that specialization. You can include work past clients have succeeded with and their feedback.

Your potential clients want confirmation that you can produce well-written content about the content you're stating is your specialization. It may be helpful to verify the terms of the work you've written to determine whether you can post the entire content as a part of your portfolio or if you'll have to provide links.

If you provide links, specify the publication and when it was published. You might be interested in learning how Google Docs can help organize your writing portfolio for the next step.

5. Organize Your Work Into Segments

You can divide the work you want to include in your portfolio by niche, or the type of article, using clear descriptions. Categorizing your work makes it easier for potential clients to find samples of the work they're looking to hire you for when you separate them by niche or type. Examples of categories include landing page copy, white papers, and blog posts, to name a few.

Your descriptions for your categories should be brief. If the content you want to share was done as a ghostwriter and didn't include your byline, you should include the term ghostwriter in the work description to clarify it.

6. Ensure Your Contact Information Is Easy to Find

Your online portfolio must make it easy for potential customers to connect with you. Whether they want to express appreciation for an article you wrote or wish to discuss a business opportunity with you, finding your number or an email address shouldn't be challenging.

Engaging with as many people as possible is an excellent way to expand your online profile. You can use a contact form on your website, or you can provide your email address.

The key is to ensure that the information is visible and easy to access, whether they're using their phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. If you decide to share an email address, you may want to create a new account, since having an email published publicly can leave you vulnerable to excessive amounts of spam.

Writing Portfolio Examples

Before you begin creating your portfolio, reviewing what some writers have created for themselves may be helpful. You may also want to check out the blogs every freelance writer should read to get some inspiration, regardless of how long you've been writing. Here are some examples of writer portfolios with some commentary on their design:

1. Elna Cain

Elna's portfolio tells you that she's the writer you're looking for to meet your business needs. She lists publications where readers can find her work and shares testimonials from past clients.

She has numerous ways to connect with her, whether you want to discuss business opportunities or follow her online. She also has a link to her blog, so you can stay current on her work.

2. Tyler Koenig

Tyler uses his website to add value with an email list, courses, webinars, and tips on his blog. He has paid and free resources, highlighting his expertise to potential clients. The site is well-designed and easy to navigate.

3. Jennifer Fernandez

Jennifer uses a grid-based theme to display links to her writing samples, using a title and a thumbnail photo for each. She organized her writing samples in sections based on her lifestyle, design, and travel content niche. Jennifer showcases the type of writing she has experience in and makes browsing easy.

Get Started With Your Creative Writing Portfolio

Before you make your portfolio live, you may want to review it and have friends or colleagues look at it. Sometimes we can be so close to our project that we miss little things. The last thing you want is to publish a writer's portfolio with spelling or grammar mistakes.

If you're looking for work, you want to get as many eyes as possible on it to increase your chances of getting hired. You might be interested in learning how to source clients as a freelance writer now that you have a portfolio to share.

Table of contents

• Made with Copyfolio
• Portfolio Tips

29 Writing Portfolio Examples & Practical Tips to Create Yours

You can read thousands of guides on creating a writing portfolio –and you might still end up staring at your screen, not knowing where to start. Because sometimes what we need even more is to see real-life examples and get some inspiration. And that’s exactly what we’re going to show you today.

We collected 29 writing portfolio examples: real websites of real writers, to give you some idea about what usually goes into them and what they tend to look like. But keep on reading, because we’ve also added some brief and practical tips for creating your writing portfolio .

29 real-life writing portfolio examples

• Shanice Perriatt

Shanice's writing portfolio was created with Copyfolio, using the Letterpress template

2. Christian Boutwell

Christian made his portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Journal template

3. Rebecca Georgia

Rebecca built her portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Typewriter template

4. Emma Buckley

Emma's portfolio uses the Letterpress template of Copyfolio

5. Lara Ramirez

Lara created her writing portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Journal template

6. Halle Snavely

Halle used Copyfolio with the Letterpress template and Ink color palette to create her writing portfolio.

7. Felicia Ang

Felicia created her portfolio using Copyfolio, and the "Journal" template

8. Carly Zumar

Carly created her writing portfolio with Copyfolio, using the "Letterpress" template

9. Erica Sykora

Erica's copywriting portfolio was created with Copyfolio, using the Typewriter template

10. James Tweddle

James created his portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Billboard template

11. Kat Boogard

Kat's writing portfolio features thumbnails with a coral, navy, and white color palette.

12. The Literary Co.

The portfolio of The Literary Co. features thumbnails with laptop mockups.

13. Fika Bahroeny

Fika's writing portfolio website was created with Copyfolio

14. Robin Catalano

Robin organized their projects into categories on a separate portfolio page.

15. Eve L. Ewing

Eve L. Ewing's writing portfolio features vibrant thumbnails in a 3-column grid.

16. Ann Friedman

You can find the top pieces of her work on Ann's "Writing" page

17. Alejandro Castro

Alejandro's site is a great example for a writing portfolio with a dark background.

18. Brent Barnhart

Brent's B2B content writing portfolio starts out with a logo wall featuring top clients.

19. Malek Murison

Malek uses text styling to draw attention to the most important details in their portfolio.

20. Kristi Hines

Kristi features testimonials in her writing portfolio, to add to her credibility.

21. Jesca Austin

Jesca added brief summaries for project categories in her portfolio.

22. Tyler Womack

On his portfolio page, Tyler features his writing projects in a simple four-column grid.

23. Libby Hakim

Libby Hakim's content writing portfolio feels almost like a blog, with a sidebar to the right.

24. Tomi Adeyemi

A great example of featuring books in an author portfolio website, by bestselling author Tomi Adeyemi.

25. Micky Treutlein

Associate creative director and copywriter Micky Treutlein features projects in a 3-column grid.

26. Daniel Forte

With a crisp white background, the colorful thumbnails really pop in Daniel's portfolio.

27. Jim Vallet

Jim added his project thumbnails as a masonry grid with no white space in-between.

28. Simon Steinhardt

The simple but aesthetic writing portfolio of Simon Steinhardt

29. Leah Chamberg

Copywriter Leah Chamberg added her projects under a prominent logo for personal branding.

If you’d like to see more specific examples, check out our collection of copywriting portfolio examples –or our article about creative writing portfolios .

Here’s what you can learn from these writing portfolio examples

What is a writing portfolio and why do you need one.

Let’s start with the basics. A writing portfolio is essentially a website that houses your best pieces of writing. Those writing samples live on your site along with the most important information about you and your work that a potential client or employer needs to know. Based on that, they should be able to decide if they want to hire you as a writer or not.

How to get writing samples for your portfolio?

Having a website to host all of your work is one part of having a portfolio. But collecting the writing samples themselves is just as important. If you have years of writing experience, where you get them from is given. But what if you’re just starting out and need some credible pieces to add in there? Let’s see a few options you have:

• Spec ads or made-up projects. The term ‘spec ads’ will be most commonly known among copywriters –they refer to advertisements that a designer and a copywriter create just for practice. The same goes for other writers too: just make up a project and follow through with it. Even though it’s not real client work, these projects work wonderfully in portfolios, as they still clearly show your skills and writing style. You’ll find lots of these when browsing writing portfolio examples.
• Work for friends or family. The next step between making up projects and getting real client work is offering your writing services to those around you. If there’s anyone with a business that you could write for, ask them! Just make sure to tell them that you’d like to include it in your portfolio and do your best while completing the assignment.
• Guest posting. Another popular way, mostly for content writers, is guest posting. That means writing an article and applying to post it on someone else’s blog. There are different ways to approach it, but the end result is the same: a blog post with your name on it, on an (ideally) credible site, linking back to you. If you can get your name on a few well-known sites, it will look amazing in your portfolio, that’s for sure.
• Publishing on Medium. Guest posting takes a lot of pitching and sending lots of outreach emails. If you don’t want to do that, you can go ahead and start publishing your content on Medium instead. Without having to create your own blog, you can add your pieces and link to them from your portfolio website.
• Posting on your own accounts. Creating content and writing copy for social media is a popular area for writers –and what better way to show off your skills in it than using your own accounts? Nobody will restrict you or tell you what to do and you can also rest assured that it will stay online, just as you originally posted it.

7 tips for creating a website based on these writing portfolio examples

We’ve now gone through what a writing portfolio is , why you need one, and how to get writing samples to fill it up. We even checked a bunch of writing portfolio examples to get a little boost of inspiration. What’s next?

Getting to work and actually creating your writing portfolio website . Keep on reading for our best tips to make that process a hundred times easier and more productive for you.

Create an organized website for easier browsing

Clients and hiring managers don’t have all the time in the world: expect them to spend a maximum of 10 minutes going through your portfolio. And that’s why it’s incredibly important to have an organized website that they can navigate easily.

With the very first look, they should already know who you are and what you do. And they should also be able to navigate to your projects in under a minute. Once they’re done with checking your work, they have to be able to find your contact information easily.

Having a good experience on your website will also help you make a good (digital) first impression with them.

Limit the number of your projects to save time for the viewer

Following the same line of thought, limiting the number of projects you showcase will also help your viewers to actually finish reading through everything. We recommend adding around 4-6 projects, as you could see that in the writing portfolio examples above too.

With that many featured projects, you can showcase a good variety of samples, without overwhelming your visitors. Just remember, your motto for your writing projects in your portfolio should be quality over quantity.

Use eye-catching thumbnails for better conversion rates

Getting someone on your site and guiding them to your case studies is the first step. Making them actually click through is the next. How can you do that? With eye-catching thumbnails.

Humans are naturally drawn to images (and especially faces), so choosing ones that stand out can help to drastically improve the click-through rates on your site. Just make sure that the image you choose:

• visually fits in nicely with the site and the other images around it,
• will be visible even on smaller devices like tablets and smartphones,
• and that it actually has something to do with the project it represents.

Write case studies to show exactly what people want to know

Okay, let’s see the list so far: they are on your website. ✓ They know who you are and what you do. ✓ They found your projects and clicked on them to see more. ✓

Now is the time to convince them of your professionalism by taking them through your best projects. Here’s what you’ll have to include about each of them.

• A brief summary. Write a sentence or two to summarize the project. If someone only has time to read that, they should still find out the type, topic, and scale of the project.
• The project background. Write a little bit about the client you worked with and the task you were given. It will help the readers better understand and assess the final piece.
• The creative process. Sometimes seeing how you think and solve problems is even more important than the actual results. So talk a little bit about your creative process while working on the project before showing what you came up with in the end.
• The final results. This goes without saying, but in a portfolio, the actual writing pieces should also be featured in one way or another. We caution against just simply linking to it, as it can change or go unpublished. Including at least a screenshot (if not more), as you could see in our writing portfolio examples, about the project is always a good idea.

Add social proof to build trust with your audience

Anybody can say anything on the internet these days, so it’s no surprise that people are cautious about believing everything they read. One way to make your readers feel at ease about trusting you with their projects is by including social proof on your website, or in your case studies.

Whenever you finish working with a client, always ask them for testimonials. You can then feature them on your page, showing visitors that the people who have tried your services were more than happy with your work.

If you can, include a photo of them and a link to their business or profile, to add even more credibility to their testimonials.

Include your contact info to make it easy to get in touch

Once your visitor is convinced that you’re the one they want to work with, there’s one last thing left for them to do. They need to get in touch with you.

So do make sure they don’t drop off at this point, you need to make it super easy for them. The best way to do that is to have a “contact” item in your menu or navigation bar. That way your contact information is just one click away, no matter where they are on your website.

On the contact page, you can include your email address, phone number, and if you have a physical location they can visit, your address too.

As a bonus, you can write a few lines about what they can expect when they write to you. How much time does it usually take for you to reply? How is your process for getting started with new clients? Anything else they should know before reaching out? Write it all down to make them feel even more comfortable and confident about getting in touch.

Use a website builder for writers to create your portfolio quickly and easily

Our last and probably most useful tip is for actually getting started and creating your writing portfolio website.

In most cases, building a website either requires design and coding skills –or lots of time, waiting for the popular visual builders to finally load. Not to mention the time it takes to master using them, as they can be much more complex than they seem at first.

Instead of wasting time or getting frustrated, choose a website builder that was designed for writers, just like you. One that loads super fast and makes the website building process quick and easy for you. One that eliminates minor design decisions to make sure whatever you upload, your website is going to be stunning.

Try Copyfolio and create your own writing portfolio website today. You just have to follow a few simple steps:

• Sign in –it only takes two minutes. You can sign in with Google or Facebook, or ask for a link via email that will sign you right in. No password needed.
• Tell us your name and profession. This will be the title of your site at the beginning, and that’s all the info we’re asking for. No more filling out pages upon pages of unnecessary personal information.
• Choose a template. This will essentially decide the style of your website, as it comes with a color palette and font presets. But don’t worry, you can change it later anytime, without losing anything you’ve added already.
• Add copy to your pages. You’ll start out with the 3 most important pages: home, about, and contact. Go through them and type in all the information you need to display.
• Add your projects and write the case studies. As we discussed above, you should describe your projects as mini case studies. Follow our tips and write about your top projects, adding images to illustrate as you go.

And there you have it! You’ve just created a complete, professional website in the span of just a few hours. Send us a link when you are done, your site could be the newest addition to our writing portfolio examples!

Dorka Kardos-Latif

Digital marketer & portfolio expert, the face behind all content on Copyfolio 👋

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Home » Planning & Creating » How to create a writing portfolio

How to create a writing portfolio: 7 fundamental steps

The point of a portfolio is to give viewers a sense of what you can do for them. And portfolios can look very different while still getting that job done. Some of our Blurb writers have gotten hired by emailing screenshots of Facebook posts—while others have opened up professionally bound layflat photo books during interviews. Keeping in mind your end goal (selling yourself) will help ground you in this process.

Here are seven steps to help you create the perfect writing portfolio:

1. Introduce yourself

If your portfolio is your full sales pitch, think of your introduction as your elevator pitch. This sets the tone and context for your work. State your name, the type of writing you do, and any relevant background information that describes who you are.

Remember, this is a writing sample, too.  Make it unique, valuable, and memorable—and from your natural voice. This is your chance to tell your story from your point of view. Make it count.

2. Organize your writing samples

Gather up all relevant writing samples you have. These can be everything from Super Bowl ads you’ve scripted to op-eds you’ve written for your high school newspaper. And if you don’t have enough, you can create hypothetical projects for brands that exist or that you make up to showcase your skills—just make it clear they’re examples and not paid work.

Once you have all your writing samples gathered, it’s time to organize them. Keep in mind who you’re showing your work to and include the type of samples they’re most interested in. If you’re angling to carve a niche, consider grouping your work into topic or format clusters. If you’re showing off versatility, group them by medium.

Here are the top ways to organize your writing portfolio:

• Chronologically: If you have a wide range of writing samples or a linear progression in your career, consider arranging your work chronologically and share how your skills have evolved.
• Topic: If you specialize in particular types of writing, you could group your samples by topic. For example, you could organize your work by industry for your technical writing or trade book writing—or by sections dedicated to industries, verticals, or genres.
• Medium: If you write for various mediums and channels, be it journalism stories, ad creative, UX writing, storytelling, or blogging, organize your work by these key pillars to help readers understand your versatility as a writer.

No matter how you organize your work, start and end with your strongest samples. Recruiters spend less than three minutes per portfolio , whereas most hiring managers spend five to 10 minutes. Either way, that’s not a lot of time. Make sure your portfolio makes a splash to start and is easily scannable.

3. Cull your writing samples

Once you’ve compiled all relevant writing samples for your portfolio, now comes the difficult task of narrowing them down. If you’re in the early stages of your career, you may not have a lot of work to distill. But for experienced writers, it’s important to whittle down your samples to showcase only your best work. 

When making the final selection of samples to include in your writing portfolio, consider the following:

• Diversity: Depending on the structure you envision for your portfolio, consider choosing samples that capture your range and versatility as a writer. For example, creative writers might want to include a mix of short stories , screenplays, essays, or novels .
• Relevance: Your writing samples should reflect the type of writing you want to do in the future. If you’re interested in writing for a particular publication, highlight samples that overlap with that publication’s style and tone.
• Quality: As a rule, only include your best work when creating a writing portfolio. It can be helpful to recruit a mentor, friend, or colleague to get different perspectives on what others view as your highest-quality samples.

4. Craft your navigation

As you organize and narrow down what work samples you’d like to include, you can start identifying patterns for structuring your writing portfolio. In doing so, think about how you’d like viewers to navigate your book.

A table of contents, menu, or sections can provide guideposts for viewers to better travel through your writing portfolio and understand what it includes. In addition to thematic structure and the general flow of your portfolio, consider design elements like thumbnail images for each piece or major section. This adds a visual appeal and a touch of creativity that goes a long way in grabbing your prospective readers. Other fundamentals include:

• Sections: If you have ample writing samples to include, divide your portfolio into sections or chapters. This will make it easier for readers to find the pieces they’re most interested in.
• Navigation: Make sure your table of contents or website menu is simple to understand. In a digital context, you can include links to each section or piece of writing for easy navigation.
• Design: Your portfolio should be clean, clear, concise, and easy to read. Set the mood appropriately and use a consistent font, color scheme, and design elements for your sections, headlines, and menus to make them cohesive with the rest of the portfolio.

5. Design a layout

Once you have all of your writing samples selected and organized, you’ll need to think about how to best present your work in a way that’s visually appealing and on-brand with your particular style and tone. This is where the design of your portfolio comes in. When designing your portfolio, consider the following:

• Choose a format that’s creative yet easy to navigate. Whether creating a hardcopy portfolio or a website portfolio, you want to choose a format that aligns with your writing style and the context of your samples but also one that’s easy to navigate. Be creative but don’t let the design distract readers from your portfolio’s content. 
• Use a clear and readable font. Make sure that the font you choose is easy to read, both in print and digitally on the screen. It’s best to stick with very simple, legible fonts that won’t distract from your writing.
• Incorporate images or graphics. Consider adding visuals to your writing portfolio that capture the context of your work. Whether they’re symbolic photos or images that truly correspond with your samples, consider imagery that relates to your writing and engages your readers. Just be sure that they don’t detract from your copy.
• Keep it consistent. While you want your writing portfolio to be visually engaging, you also want to ensure that it’s professional and on point with your personal brand. Often, less is more. So, avoid using too many colors or fonts , and put together a design layout that’s consistent and aligned.

6. Summarize your work

Depending on the length of your writing portfolio, it can help to provide some context for your samples—especially if you can prove your worth with impressive stats. Similar to a novel’s blurb shown on the back cover of a book, these could be short summaries that introduce individual samples, case studies that outline your business results, or thematic sections of your portfolio that add color to your writer’s journey.

Writing short summaries or blurbs of your work gives readers a sense of what they can expect from each piece of writing. While not a requirement for writing portfolios, these blurbs can help guide the overarching story behind your experience. When writing these short summaries, consider the following elements:

• Overviews that summarize your work. You can include the genre , topic, purpose, brand, or writing style.
• Your intentions or goals. Break down the problem you solved with your writing pieces, like whether your objective was entertaining, educating, or persuading your readers, and who the project was for.
• The scope of the project and your role as a writer. Make sure you highlight whether your work was part of a larger publication or your own personal blog. Talk about timelines, titles, and how you contributed to any large-scale projects or group work.
• Any key performance indicators (KPIs). Hiring managers on marketing teams will be very interested in the results of your work, like how much traffic a piece earned, how much engagement it received, or how your work led to a particular business outcome.

7. Include your resume and contact info

When using your portfolio to land your dream job, including your resume (or a version of it) is a good supplement to showcase all your experience. You could include it at the beginning or end of your portfolio. In any case, it should be easy to find and relevant to your target audience.

You’ll also want to include a way for viewers to contact you, like your professional email address or social media account. Depending on the context of your portfolio, you may even consider adding a link to your LinkedIn or Instagram profile so employers can see more information about you and easily get in touch. If you print your portfolio, add links or QR codes to your professional website or digital portfolio, too.

Tips for creating a writing portfolio that wows

Now that you’re familiar with creating a writing portfolio, several additional points are worth calling out. These are general best practices and things to consider when bringing your portfolio to life.

Quality over quantity

Less is often more, as it’s generally better to showcase a small collection of high-quality writing samples rather than inundating your readers with numerous less-than-stellar pieces. Be selective with the work you choose, and aim for a diverse range that emphasizes your strengths and genres of focus.

Know your target audience

Identify your target audience for your writing portfolio, as this can help determine the specific writing samples you include and how you organize them. Keep in mind that you should tailor your portfolio to suit the needs of your potential clients or employers. Print on demand allows you to swap in and out samples that best align with each client or employer—or you can tailor your digital portfolio with specific landing pages for each application or industry.

Keep it clean, simple, and error-free

Your writing portfolio should be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and error-free. Use a simple design and make sure your writing samples are well-organized and clearly presented. Your portfolio’s overall design layout and format will help readers digest its contents. 

And since you’re a writer, typos are usually unforgivable. Get a friend or mentor (or both!) to proof your work before you send it out.

Create digital and print writing portfolios

There are many pros and cons for digital and hardcopy portfolio books . While having a digital writing portfolio might be needed for digital applications and remote positions, a print version will definitely have you standing out while attending in-person meetings and interviews. Ultimately, the decision should depend on your personal preference, the needs of your target audience, and your intended usage of the portfolio.

However, we’d suggest both. You’ll need digital samples to get through the initial stage of most applications, but few things are more impressive than a perfectly bound physical portfolio in face-to-face interactions.

Keep your writing portfolio up-to-date

Your writing should always be fresh and relevant, so don’t forget to regularly update the contents of your portfolio with new pieces or achievements. Also, it’s a great idea to tailor your portfolio for each interview. Doing this will help demonstrate your interest and commitment to the company or client.

What makes a strong writing portfolio?

Certain characteristics make for standout writing portfolios. Consider these five cornerstones of strong portfolios:

• Showcase the depth and diversity of your writing ability, including various genres and styles, to help demonstrate your versatility and range as a writer.
• Maintain consistency in your tone and presentation throughout your portfolio, even if you showcase work with different styles for different brands.
• Feature work most relevant to your primary target audience and the type of writing jobs you want to land in the future.
• Choose the most engaging writing samples that reflect your style and focus, highlighting your marketable attributes and unique skillset.
• Assemble your portfolio in a clear, cohesive, and organized manner, making it easy for readers to navigate and absorb your content.

Above all, remember that your writing portfolio reflects you and your abilities as a writer. Take the time to create something unique and memorable. We believe in you!

If you’re interested in creating a print version of your writing portfolio, Blurb offers the tools to make a professional, bookstore-quality portfolio book that will impress. 

Get started using a beautifully designed portfolio template, or create your own custom layout. Not only can you print as many books as you need on demand, but you can choose from a variety of formats, from large layflat portfolio books to smaller and more affordable options that make great leave-behinds.

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• Case Studies

How to create a killer writing portfolio for freelancers

by Emily E. Steck

Posted on June 23, 2015 in Community by Emily E. Steck.

How To Be A Writer is a series that is titled exactly as it sounds. In the digital age, writers are facing new issues on top of the old. As publishing continues to shift and change, not only are writers forced to change as well, they’re establishing themselves entirely differently, making breaking into the scene even more challenging. In this series, we offer up tips, tricks, and general commentary on the journey (or slog) that is being a writer.

Let’s cut to the chase: you’ve been told over and over and over again that you need a writing portfolio (you do). Now you need to examine what you want from it. Writers create portfolios for three reasons:

• To get more work. Because money.
• To sell work. Freelancers for hire sometimes like to sell a story on spec, and then work with the editor/brand/publisher/agent to modify and tweak the article.
• To build an online presence (to get more work). This is where your personal brand comes into play.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to create a specific portfolio, here’s an in-depth guide to creating a killer writing portfolio.

Choosing your writing portfolio pieces

Here comes the agonizing part: what do I include in my writing portfolio? How many pieces do I include? A portfolio is how you become a writer and agonizing over it earns you your writer’s stripes.

Your portfolio needs to represent what you want and your personal brand. For example, if you’re marketing yourself as a finance writer who can explain complicated ideas in a fun, engaging way looking to do more of the same, you’ll want to include your best pieces; ones that reflect your unique voice and ones that are straightforward.

The number-one myth of creating a portfolio is that you have to include everything you’ve ever written. The reality: not in the slightest. The truth is, you should only include the very best of your recent work (no older than two years) in your portfolio. The best portfolios are lean, focused, and represent your specialty/field as a writer .

This is where newbies fall into a trap, as they want to show some evidence that they can write (and write well) and/or have been published. But that article you published for the college newspaper that took you 15 minutes to write? Don’t bother unless it’s good.

I too have fallen into this trap where I put everything in my portfolio, racking up a few hundred pieces no sane person would ever take the time to read. Because the top pieces in your portfolio are what people read most. Shake off the urge to dump everything in your portfolio.

Pro tip:  compile a simple spreadsheet of your published works, whether they be articles, listicles, e-books, documents, etc. Make sure to include links to the articles, titles, publication dates, and other relevant information for your own personal records.

All that said, you still need to choose what to include of your published works, which can be quite challenging for newbies or generalists (that is, writers who are willing to write about anything). In this case, go for quality and range of writing pieces, including (but definitely not limited to):

• A blog post on a topic you are passionate about
• A piece of writing for a community group, club, or campus publication
• A press release, newswire, and/or other promotional material
• An essay dissecting a controversial topic
• A profile on an interesting person or place
• A short-form piece of breaking news
• A long-form reporting piece
• A research paper
• An editorial and/or op-ed
• A personal essay
• Multimedia storytelling (including Quietly content!)
• Collaborative writing of some kind

The types of pieces you include should also reflect the work you are going for (obviously). An academic would want to concern herself with including research papers, academic essays, and analysis while a journalist would focus on reporting, breaking news, and editorial pieces. Same with bloggers, content marketers, etc.

Typically, the number of pieces to include varies. Some prefer to keep it lean (eight to 10 pieces) while others prefer to have plenty of options (upwards of 30 and beyond). This should be no problem as you’re sure to add even better pieces to your portfolio the longer you stay in this crazy profession.

Pro tip (for generalists or newbies):  categorize your content and make different portfolios for each vertical you write in, such as a portfolio for science writing and a portfolio for entertainment writing. (This is where multiple portfolios can come in handy, but more on that later).

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies (i.e. we just don’t know how to write about ourselves). But here’s a friendly reminder: the purpose of the biography portion of your portfolio/site is to sell yourself without selling your soul to the devil . Okay, that’s dramatic, but your biography should sell why they need to hire you all the while keeping your integrity. Besides, a good biography here is practice for when you cold pitch editors.

The musts to include:

• Professional pen name.
• Job title. Are you selling yourself as a “freelance writer,” “journalist,” or “content marketing specialist?” Decide on a BS-less title.
• A short description that summarizes what you do and how you do it. Don’t be afraid to use either first or third person for this part ( I am a writer vs. Emily E. Steck) and make sure this part really flaunts your writer’s voice. But not if that voice is boring—be creative! Sell your soul a little bit! But don’t use exclamation points!
• Social media links. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn—whatever is incorporated within your personal brand and that you’re comfortable sharing with potential employers.
• Experience. Some biographies are longer than others, just as some careers are longer than others. If you’ve been doing this for 10+ years, take the time to rewrite your accomplishments and drop some humble brags.

The must-nots:

• A pampering of buzzwords. Speak English, not résumé-speak.
• Age. No one cares how old you are. Literally—no one. You can add, however, how many years you’ve been writing.
• Bad grammar/spelling errors. ‘Cause that won’t impress them!
• A lack of confidence. Remember: they’re trying to hire you. You want them to hire you, and people don’t want to hire someone they feel isn’t up for the task. Steer clear of self-deprecation, even if it’s a core part of your personality.
• TMI.  Professional > personal.
• Cliché. “I was just born to be a writer!” No, you weren’t. Stay far from cliches about writing and your origin story as one.

Design and hosting sites

The fun part! Some writers will dive in head first to creating and designing their own websites; others will stick to portfolio-based sites. And some people (like myself) will do both. To each their own.

If you’re going the self-made route, register a domain name that works with your personal brand. There are plenty of options to choose from to manage and host your site; WordPress.org and Blue Host work fine for me, but do some research to know what fits with your budget (as it costs money). Keep things as simple as possible when it comes to the design. Use crisp, clear, and professional fonts, eye-friendly colors, clean copy, and a responsive design so you can satisfy the overlords at Google .

For writers choosing to use a portfolio site, you are in luck. Most of them are free and design-ready; you can even purchase a domain name for some. Here are seven great free and freemium ones you can use.

7 Great Free Portfolio Sites for Writers

By Emily E. Steck

Quietly offers a portfolio features for writers, where you can easily upload PDFs or scrape links to compile your content. You can add a biography section, social media links and interests as a writer. 

Contently tracks how many stories, words, shares and followers you have based on your portfolio. It's easy to upload new stories, but difficult to rearrange the order once you've added more than 30 or so. 

Clippings.Me

Create a beautiful portfolio to showcase your work as a journalist, blogger or writer. You can customize the look and feel and add multimedia works to your portfolio. You can also track how often your work is shared and who's visited. 

An often overlooked choice, Pinterest is a great way to gather your content in one place and to organize your verticals into different boards. Plus, there's a greater chance for content discovery.

Journo Portfolio

Journalists dig this very simple site to display recent articles, biography and social links all in one place. Choosing from multiple themes, you can upload 12 articles for free. Plus, it's easy to upload CVs and other pages.

LinkedIn allows for a section where you can add professional content to your profile page as well as publications you've written for. It's a great way for you to fill out your professional page with professional work, though it probably isn't the best for a standalone portfolio. 

Pressfolios

With Pressfolios, you can easily build and manage an online portfolio of clips; you can add up to 12 stories a month for the free version or upgrade for unlimited plus your own URL. It's designed with journalists in mind, but other writers are welcome to give it a shot. It's great to use if you'd like to organize by section.

Final pro tip: create portfolios with more than one site, especially if you have more than one niche. The chance of finding you and your work is higher, although you’ll have a bit more work to do…

I’m almost finished with this post, but you’re never finished with your portfolio

The end’s not here—it’s never near. As a writer, one of your main responsibilities is to update your portfolio/website frequently. After starting from scratch you may have to start from scratch again and again until you find the site that works for you at that specific moment in time. You’ll need to update your portfolio often because your goals and objectives will change.

Sharing is caring and if you really care about your livelihood, you’ll advertise yourself ad nauseam. Mention your portfolio on social media, post to appropriate job boards, have it on your business card. Show off your hard work! Tinker with any of these tips and resources I’ve outlined and get to work.

For more writing tips, in-depth posts, product updates, and industry insights, follow us on  Facebook and  Twitter .

Image: Aleks Dorohovich/Unsplash

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Copyblogger

How to Create a Writing Portfolio That Clients Love

Most freelance job posts receive hundreds of applications. 

As someone who has hired freelance writers and sifted through hundreds of applications, I can tell you that I quickly weed out those who don’t provide a simple method for me to quickly assess their writing abilities.

While I don’t expect freelance writers to have a fancy website, I thoroughly appreciate a writer who makes it easy to quickly view relevant writing samples and understand the value they offer.

After viewing thousands of writer portfolios, I’ll share what I look for in a writing portfolio when I’m hiring freelancers and provide a step-by-step process to help you create a writing portfolio that will win clients. I’ll also show some writing portfolio examples to give you further inspiration.

What Hiring Managers Want In a Freelance Writing Portfolio

Hiring managers are strapped for time and want to hire a writer quickly. 

They don’t care about portfolio design, your profile image, or other presentation details. 

They really just want to see if you’re the right fit for their job . 

So instead of stressing about details like design colors, optimize your writing portfolio to clearly answer the following questions: 

• Does this person offer the services I’m looking for?
• Does this person have the writing skills I’m looking for?
• Has this person done similar jobs in the past in similar industries/niches?
• Is this person reliable (e.g., adheres to deadlines, consistently delivers results, etc.)
• Bonus: Does this person understand the larger business goal we’re trying to accomplish? 

In addition, make sure it’s super easy for potential clients to navigate the portfolio site and quickly find the answers to those questions. If they can’t immediately find the answers they’re looking for, they’ll likely just eliminate you from the list of candidates.

Below, I’ll show you how to create a freelance writer website that clearly answers these questions and helps you win new clients.

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How to Create a Writing Portfolio: Step by Step

You don’t have to have a website to become a freelance writer , but it does help generate inbound leads and can leave an excellent first-impression on potential clients. So here’s a step-by-step guide to tactically set up your portfolio website and the critical elements to include so that you stand out to prospective clients.

1. Select an Easy-To-Use Website and Hosting Platform

You don’t need a fancy website or hosting solution to get started, so I recommend selecting the simplest solution possible. 

You can use Siteground or Namecheap for web hosting, as they’re both cheap and reliable. As for a website builder, you can use a platform like Squarespace or Wix , as both offer simple visual editors and pre-made website templates.

WordPress is also a great option that offers more scalability. It might be a better option if you think you’ll grow your freelance writing business into an agency.

Alternatively, if you want the simplest solution possible, you can use Canva’s portfolio builder .

I recommend keeping everything simple, as many freelance writers never create a portfolio because they’re too intimidated by the tech. 

If you still feel overwhelmed at the thought of creating your own portfolio, you can always hire someone on Upwork to create a professional writing portfolio website for you. Most of them only charge a few hundred dollars, and you can send them all the information in a document to post for you. 

The key is to start working on this today . The longer it takes to complete your freelance writer portfolio, the longer it will take to close new clients. 

I recommend setting a deadline of three to four days to complete your portfolio website so that you start closing clients quickly. 

2. Identify Your Target Audience and Niche

Before adding any content to your new website, define your ideal client. 

A common mistake most freelancers make is trying to target too many potential clients. 

Unfortunately, hiring managers are looking for specialists, and you’ll dilute your credibility as an expert if you advertise that you service multiple niches. In addition, your messaging will be very generic and ineffective if you try to target multiple customer personas.  

In this step, clearly define:

• The type of writing you offer (blog writing, sales writing, social media writing, etc.)
• The industry you want to serve (ecommerce, B2B, local businesses, bloggers, etc.)
• The company size you intend to serve (startups, enterprise corporations, etc.)

Once you’ve defined your ideal customer, do some research to understand their pain points and what they’re hoping to achieve by hiring a writer.

The best way to do customer research is talking to your ideal audience and asking them what they’re looking for in writers. 

I did this when I was looking to scale from a freelancer to a marketing agency owner, and you can see that I received some very helpful feedback:

You can see that these responses are incredibly valuable as they tell me both how I should position myself and specific pain points these hiring managers experience.

You can also ask in Slack groups and other private groups for feedback. For example, I asked this group if anyone had hired a content agency for $30,000 plus and what they were looking for in that agency. 

I ended up getting on a call with one of the people, and they showed me the entire pitch deck from the agency they hired and explained why they hired that agency. These insights helped better position my services to charge more and close more clients.

We’ll discuss positioning in more detail below, but for now, take note of:

• Your ideal customers’ pain points.
• The outcomes they’re trying to achieve by hiring a freelance writer.
• What they look for when reviewing different freelance writers.
• Key elements that make freelance writing portfolios memorable.

3. Select Your Best Writing Samples 

A mistake that many freelance writers make is publishing too many writing samples from multiple industries.

There are a few reasons why posting a lot of sample writing pieces isn’t a great idea:

• Potential clients won’t see your best samples : If there are 20+ writing samples, clients probably won’t see your best 3-4 writing pieces. 
• Posting from multiple industries dilutes your expertise : We discussed earlier that clients want to see you’re an expert in their field, so only include writing samples for your ideal customer’s industry/niche. 
• Too many pieces overwhelms potential clients : Your potential clients are in a hurry to quickly find the best writer for the job, and offering too many sample pieces can overwhelm them. 

So select only your best work to include in your portfolio. Usually, three or four writing samples are sufficient.

When you post the writing sample, include any business results it helped accomplish. You can go back to your customer research notes to remember what your customers are looking to achieve by hiring a content writer.

For example, if the goal is to increase traffic and conversions, include how your sample writing piece helped accomplish those goals. Here’s a great example from freelance writer Elise Dopson’s portfolio . 

Instead of just posting the link to the blog post, she states the business goals (increase traffic and keyword rankings) it helped the company achieve: 

She also includes screenshots, which is a great way to add proof.

4. Add Social Proof and Testimonials

Adding testimonials to your online writing portfolio can boost your credibility, but not all testimonials are equally compelling.

Who you get testimonials from and what those testimonials say can instantly help you pass on to the hiring manager’s next round of evaluation.

First, get testimonials from reputable brands/people your ideal clients probably already know and respect. If you don’t have any influential clients, you can reach out to a well-established industry influencer or brand and offer a free sample piece in exchange for a testimonial.

When you ask for the testimonial, ask them to highlight how you eliminate key pain points that your ideal clients typically experience with freelance writers. For example, common problems with freelance writers include missing deadlines and delivering shallow, poorly researched articles. So ask them to mention how you always hit deadlines and thoroughly research your work.

Elise Dopson again does a great job of creating compelling testimonials from well respected brands in her target industry. They show how she eliminates key pain points with most freelance writers (she hits deadlines and thoroughly researches her work). 

5. Structuring Your Homepage

Once you’ve gathered your writing samples and testimonials, you have most of the materials for your portfolio page. Now, you need to structure your homepage and the messaging to clearly communicate that you’re the best person to help the prospect achieve their goals.

First, create a compelling headline that clearly states the value you provide and how you accomplish it.

You can use this framework:

“(your writing niche) for (your ideal customer) that need (pain point you’re solving.)”

For example, it could be “Freelance content writer for B2B SaaS companies that need more organic leads.”

I also highly recommend including a process section detailing how you work with clients. Most potential clients will take you more seriously if you show them you have a repeatable, proven process. 

For example, if you do customer research, outlines, or anything else, create a 3-5 step process and include that on your homepage. You can always customize your services to your clients’ needs, but having a process will definitely make you stand out from other freelance writers as it shows that you’re experienced and have a method to consistently produce the same quality results.

You can also include an FAQ section with information on your rates, the deliverables, turnaround times, who your ideal customer is, and other questions prospects commonly ask. 

Here’s a sample framework you can use to structure your homepage:

Below, I’ll walk you through several examples of great homepages.

6. Create Your About Page

Most freelance writers discuss their dog or places they’ve traveled to in their author bios. The reality is that clients don’t really care about this information.

Instead, a more compelling author bio that can help you win clients is explaining the pain points you struggled with that led you to become a freelance copywriter and how it has shaped your philosophy as a writer.

For example, let’s say you previously worked in enterprise sales and noticed that prospects who closed fastest usually read blog posts before coming onto the demo. As a result, you became a writer because you felt it was a higher-leverage activity that drove more quality prospects.

That’s an interesting story that shows your ideal prospects you really understand the pain points they’re trying to solve. They also get a better insight into how you approach writing and get to know a little bit about the personal side of you.

Boutique Japan, a luxury travel company, has a well-written and effective about page that does an excellent job of helping you get to know the founder and their unique story.

​​This story helps potential clients get to know you on a deeper level than just talking about your dog.

As a result, you’ll build more trust with potential clients and stand out as a company.

I’ll also add that it’s worthwhile to include a picture of yourself. Clients want to know who they’re dealing with, and adding a face to the words will help build trust.

7. Create Your Contact Page

Finally, add a contact page to your portfolio that includes your email address and links to your Twitter and LinkedIn profile (if you use them). 

Keep your contact page as simple as possible and if you decide to offer a form fill, be sure that the form fill works and reliably sends emails to your inbox, as many contact forms send messages directly to your spam mail.

Here’s a great example of a simple contact page:

Great Writing Portfolio Examples

Here are a few examples from highly successful freelance writers to give you some inspiration as you create your own freelance writing portfolio.

Elise Dopson

I already mentioned her portfolio several times earlier in this post, but I highly recommend that you browse through it for inspiration on both structuring your portfolio and crafting effective messaging. 

Here are a few things that I particularly like about Elise’s portfolio:

• Who she serves and what she offers is very clear from the headline – she creates journalistic B2B content for retail, ecommerce, and martech companies.
• She has plenty of logos from big brand names, and her testimonials highlight how she solves key problems clients often encounter with freelance writers (she never misses deadlines).
• She highlights the business results she’s helped companies achieve (e.g., increased website traffic, keyword rankings, etc.).
• She only includes her best work and separates it by industry so the right client can easily find the right samples.
• All of the messaging across the entire website is very clear.

Some things I might adjust if I were editing this profile:

• She targets multiple personas (retail, ecommerce, and martech). She has already established herself in the writing industry, but I’d choose just one industry if you’re starting your career

Brent Barnhart

Brent’s website is slightly more personal than Elise’s website. Still, he does an excellent job of clearly articulating his value and then proves it with case studies and customer testimonials.

What I love about his portfolio website:

• You can clearly tell what he does and the value he provides to clients (high ranking B2B SaaS content). He also states specific services he offers, including ghostwriting and long-form content.
• He has one clearly defined target audience – B2B SaaS.
• He offers big name brand logos up top.
• You can clearly hear his voice shine through.
• The rest of the page details case studies to prove he can do the work, details on why he’s different, and a specific process to prove that he can deliver the same results for you.

Some things I might add/change:

• I would probably add a few more customer testimonials, though I like that he includes screenshots of client messages throughout the page, as seen in the screenshot above.

Marijana Kay

Marijana Kay has a great writing portfolio that is clean, neat, and clear. You can understand what she offers just by glancing at the headline, and she also offers a lead magnet, which can be helpful for building an email list and retargeting potential clients.

Here are a few things I love about this writing portfolio:

• She clearly states in the headline what she offers (freelance writing services) and who she services (SaaS and marketing brands).
• The tagline hits on the key customer pain point (hitting content marketing goals consistently).
• The brand logos she has worked with are clearly labeled at the top.
• She ties business KPIs to her case studies (increasing conversion rates, traffic, rankings, etc.)
• The customer testimonials are also compelling and state why she’s the ideal freelancer to work with (she always researches the topics thoroughly even if they are tough subjects).

Some things I might improve:

• I’d love for her to add a section about her step by step process to add credibility and confidence that she can produce the same results consistently. 

Joshua Poh’s writing portfolio is also neat and easy to navigate. You can quickly see what value he has to offer and how he helps companies grow.

Here are a few things I like about his portfolio:

• The overall website is clear, easy to navigate, and simple.
• His picture at the top adds personality and trust.
• He adds credibility by including big brand name logos at the top.
• He has testimonials that highlight why he’s a good freelance writer.
• He clearly defines how he helps businesses grow.
• He includes a clear call to action to reach out.

• His portfolio includes many blog posts, which may be overwhelming to a potential client. I’d probably cut it down to just the top 3-4 posts he’s most proud of.
• He specializes in multiple industries, which causes his messaging to be slightly vanilla. For example, this sentence dilutes his credibility as an expert: “No matter if you’re a small marketing team with a lot of ambition and no resources or a busy entrepreneur looking to get back to creating quality content, I can help.”
• I’d add a testimonial or two higher up on the homepage. 
• I’d add a proven process and tie business results to case studies.

Ashley Cummings

Ashely Cummings is a well respected B2B writer who has grown her Twitter audience substantially over the past several years.

She also has a compelling writing portfolio that you can use to inspire your own freelance writing portfolio. Her design is very simple, though it hits all of the key components a hiring manager would look for in a writer. In fact, she also has plenty of additional pages you don’t necessarily need, like a newsletter (which is excellent for customer acquisition if you have the time to create one), products, and more.

Here are a few specific things I like about this writing portfolio:

• She clearly states what she’s good at – articulating ideas you don’t know how to put into words.
• All of her samples are organized by the types of writing she specializes in (e.g., samples for ebooks, ad copy, newsletters, etc.), making it easy for clients to quickly find relevant writing samples.
• She includes highlights of business results she’s driven for clients (e.g., a blog campaign that produces over 500,000+ website views/year, etc.)
• She highlights her differentiators (research skills, marketing expertise, etc.).
• She has great testimonials from name brand clients.
• She has clearly visible social media links. As she has a thriving Twitter audience, this is smart because people browsing her Twitter profile will quickly see that she’s quite credible. 

Here are a few things she could probably improve on:

• I would move the customer testimonials up higher on the page and include notable brand logos (Deloitte, Salesforce, etc.).
• I’d like to see a proven process that supports the key differentiators she mentions, like “skilled researcher” and “marketing expertise.” 
• For each sample post mentioned, I’d add a blurb about what that post accomplished from a business results standpoint.  

Need More Help With Your Writing Portfolio?

Once you’ve completed your writing portfolio, it’s time to send it to your ideal customers and land your first client! 

I realize that acquiring clients is the real challenge, so if you want more support, or even just another peer to look over your portfolio, consider joining the Copyblogger Academy . It’s a community of other creators building their own businesses and side hustles through writing. Members have direct access to me, exclusive interview content with some of the most successful independent creators of the day, and most importantly, a peer group of like-minded individuals.

You can join today risk-free to see for yourself if the Academy will help you achieve your goals as a writer.

Tim Stoddart

Tim Stoddart is CEO of Copyblogger. In 2011, Tim founded Stodzy Internet Marketing . He currently lives in Nashville with his wife, his son, and their pitbull named Alice. Follow Tim on Twitter.

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WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

How to make a portfolio in 10 steps

• Eden Spivak
• 12 min read

Get started by: Creating a portfolio → | Getting a domain →

Having a sharp online portfolio is a must for every designer or creative. That's why we've put together this complete guide to creating a portfolio.

An online portfolio with spot-on website design is the modern-day version of a business card, a resume and a project showcase all in one. After all, it’s the go-to place for all potential clients and employers looking to hire you.

Creating a portfolio website is an opportunity to make something that shows off your skills and conveys your unique voice, while looking just as crisp and professional as any of your other work. With the right tools, you can go beyond technological constraints and artistic compromises, and build a powerful online presence. To get you started with learning how to make a website that shows off your charm, here’s a guide on creating an online portfolio you’ll be proud of.

Starting a design business? Use this design name generator to name it.

Ready to create an online portfolio? Start designing yours now .

What is a portfolio?

An online portfolio is a digital collection of your work, experiences, qualifications, skills and/or accolades. It has historically been used to showcase your talents to potential employers but is now also used to build up your personal brand or attract clients for your own business.

Portfolios are used across all fields, but the most common ones include creative arts (graphic designers, photographers, writers, musicians, etc.), technical fields (software and web developers, engineers) and business.

How to create an online portfolio

No matter what industry you’re in, there are several key basic steps you’ll want to take when building your online portfolio. These range from designing your portfolio in an attractive way to making sure it sees the day of light.

Gather inspiration

Choose your online portfolio design

Showcase your best projects

Use high-quality images

Include the right content and features

Improve your portfolio's UX

Work on your site's SEO

Make it mobile-friendly

Ask for honest feedback

Publish and promote

01. Gather inspiration

Creating an online portfolio begins with some visual research. Look at other  online portfolio websites  or digital portfolio examples  to generate some initial ideas. 

When looking through these resources, start thinking of the vibe you want your portfolio to convey and what experience you aim to create. Take notes or make a mood board to accompany you throughout your creative process. Consider essential details like the color palette, typography and site structure that you like, and clue yourself in on current  web design trends .

02. Choose your online portfolio design

How do you want visitors to move from one page to the next? What do you want them to see first? These are questions you’ll ask yourself at the next step when you’re designing your actual site. 

There are two easy ways to get started at this stage:

Choose a template. Nearly all portfolio website builders  will offer pre-built templates that you can choose from. Wix, for example, has dozens of portfolio and CV templates  (not to mention 900+ total website templates) spanning all types of industries.

Design with AI. Use an AI website builder  like Wix that can create a bespoke site for you in minutes. With Wix, simply chat with AI about the type of portfolio you want to achieve—then watch as AI designs a site to match your goals and desired aesthetic.

03. Showcase your best projects

Your actual work is the core of your online portfolio, so make sure to showcase it in the best way possible. It should stand out and be easily reachable through the homepage and/or website menu. You can highlight this work by creating a dedicated “projects” page on your website.

Did you know? Wix’s AI portfolio creator saves you hours of repetitive work by allowing you to upload media and instantly arrange them into projects, complete with suggested titles and descriptions.

Expose clients to your creativity and skill by sharing only your best work. This way, you’ll bring their attention to your strengths and maintain a consistent level of quality throughout your portfolio.

As well as presenting your best work, make sure to update your website every once in a while so that you’re always sharing your most recent creations.

It’s helpful to add a narrative for each project so that visitors can get a sense of how you come up with creative solutions and/or work with your clients. An oft-overlooked  portfolio design tip : make sure to give a concise description of the project and mention your role, as well as any collaborators you worked with.

"An outstanding portfolio is all about storytelling. It’s not just a showcase of work, but a narrative that weaves together a professional’s skills, creativity, and personality. Features like dynamic presets, AI setup and beautiful templates let creators bring their stories to life, ensuring that every portfolio not only stands out for its aesthetic appeal, but also tells a compelling story about the creator behind it." - Hani Safe, product manager at Wix

04. Use high-quality images

It’s not just  photography portfolios  that need high-quality images; all portfolios need them, whether you’re making a fashion portfolio  or a marketing portfolio . 

To ensure that your work looks as impressive online as it does in real life, invest time and effort into photographing your work, your process and your products. In cases where a professional photo shoot is not feasible, follow product photography best practices or use free photo-editing tools to enhance your images. 

When showcasing your images, the  Wix Pro Gallery  can set you up with customizable layouts and effects. You can also use AI tools available in Wix—like an object eraser, background remover and more—to professionalize your images.

05. Include the right content and features

Once you have a good base from which you can set off and a collection of projects ready to display, it’s time to identify which additional content you want to include in your online portfolio and how to present it strategically. 

This includes text, images and other media. Whether you need some  model portfolio examples  or you're creating an  industrial design portfolio ,  graphic design portfolio , a  stunning photography portfolio  or any other  type of website . Here are the most crucial pages and sections to include, plus some professional design features to consider:

The virtual home of your portfolio should grab your visitors’ attention with an eye-catching design. On top of the visual aspect, your homepage is a chance to stir the curiosity of potential clients and employers with a powerful introductory sentence. Keep this sentence short and sweet, clearly expressing who you are and what you do. There’s no need to go into your biographical details here (that’s what your ‘About’ page is for), but your name and main area of expertise are an absolute must.

Since your homepage acts as a starting point for visitors, be sure to also include a menu of items that’s easy to find and directs users to the right places on your site.

The About page is where you present your background and short bio, provide essential information about your activities and summarize your unique identity and values. Include any distinctive elements, such as your achievements and skills. It can also be a good idea to clarify your current employment status and include your CV. We recommend adding a downloadable PDF so those interested in hiring you can add it to their system.

You can show off your personality with puns, smart microcopy, illustrations or anything else that feels true to you. Take a cue from DA Creative which emphasizes its confident and assertive bio with futuristic graphics and bold bits of microcopy.

Contact information

Make sure people who’ve visited your site can easily contact you to inquire more about your services or employment status. Add a contact form, your email address, phone number and links to your social networks.

These elements can be featured in various areas of your site: your main menu, on a dedicated contact page or as a pinned element on the side of the screen. It’s also a good idea to repeat your contact details in your website footer, offering visitors a final invitation to get in touch.

Clients and testimonials

Highlight your professionalism with a list of respected clientele who have chosen to work with you in the past. If any of your projects have been featured elsewhere or have received press coverage, mention that too (especially for a portfolio dedicated to high-ticket industries, like  architecture portfolios ).

You might additionally want to drop in a testimonial or two by satisfied clients. As long as the feedback feels genuine and not over-the-top, testimonials can add a lot of credibility to your online portfolio. Don’t miss out on this chance for some free and authentic PR.

Incorporate professional features

To craft a professional look and an engaging experience, see how you can incorporate design features that catch your visitors’ eye by taking your online portfolio design up a notch. From hover effects and parallax scrolling to animation and lightboxes, these finishing touches can help bring your website to life. They can also serve as functional tools, drawing your visitors’ attention to a specific place or generating interaction.

Tata Rekso demonstrates the sizable impact these elements can have on the user experience. When you hover over one of her featured works, the text changes color and a sneak peek of the work pops up beside it.

With Wix, hover effects like these are easy to add. If the effect you're looking for isn't available, you can use Velo by Wix to make your site more dynamic and tailor it to your specific needs. This web development platform lets you insert code elements into your website with various custom interactions, helping you bring your most intricate visions to life on your portfolio.

06. Improve your portfolio's UX

Now that you have your content, it’s time to make all the pieces come together. There are a number of factors to take into account for creating a strong UX, or user experience, on your website.

Start by listing all the web pages you’ve decided to create. Then, identify which elements will need to be included on each page (although if you used an AI website builder, your site may already be hooked up with all the core elements and content that you need).

For example, a project page might include a featured image, header and description, plus a few extra images or media features. Listing the items on each page will help you decide on their hierarchy before fleshing out the content.

Once you know which pages will make up your online portfolio, you’ll be able to decide on the navigation. How do you want your visitors to transition from one page to another? Will you include a hamburger menu that opens up into a fullscreen list, or a fixed menu at the top of each page? How will you indicate what page people are on?

UX designer Diana Renko's portfolio illustrates that great UX design can be both functional and inventive. Her redesigned hamburger menu stands out for its unique spin while remaining easily recognizable. This creative approach showcases Renko's ability to blend familiar usability with personal style, proving that good UX design need not be dull.

For more ideas, check out this collection of the best UX portfolios .

07. Work on your site's SEO

What good is an online portfolio if no one gets to see it? In order for your clients to find you and book your services easily, work towards optimizing your website to bring it higher up on Google search results.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing task, concerning various elements of your site. Here are some pointers will help you get started:

Create unique, fresh and valuable written content (see writing portfolio examples for inspiration). A good way of doing this is by writing blog posts, as they’ll give you the chance to share ideas that other designers and creatives will enjoy reading. This will also show Google (and site visitors) that you’re actively working.

Do keyword research to find the right keywords for your site. Keywords are the most commonly searched phrases on Google when people are looking for creatives such as yourself. A keyword example could be “independent web designer” or “Toronto architect.” Once you’ve done some keyword research, use these phrases in strategic places throughout your website.

Write alt text for your images. Short for alternative text, alt text is a brief description of your site’s images and photos (for example, “postcards and business cards for a branding project”). Writing SEO-friendly alt text can also help improve your website’s accessibility. You’re likely to have many visual elements on your online portfolio, so use this opportunity to integrate your keywords into your alt text.

Write titles and descriptions (known as metadata) for each of your design portfolio’s pages.

Get found by people in your area using local SEO. If you’re a freelance designer with a permanent location, use local SEO to ensure that your portfolio is found by anyone searching in your particular area. Make sure to claim your business on Google My Business, register your website on relevant directors and add your location on your website’s pages.

Pro tip: If you have a Wix website, try Wix SEO . It’s a free, step-by-step plan designed to help improve your site’s SEO with a tailored checklist and helpful tips. You can additionally use Wix’s AI meta tag creator to write title tags and descriptions at scale.

08. Make it mobile-friendly

It’s easy to forget about the huge amount of users who are likely to be viewing your site from a smartphone. In fact, mobile devices account for  Nearly 60% of web page views worldwide . That’s why the best website designs should look just as good on mobile as they do on desktop.

One of the major challenges designers face when it comes to creating a portfolio online is ensuring that it will be mobile-compatible. Your mobile website is more than just web design made smaller, so there are a few rules to keep in mind when designing for mobile.

For the small screen, you’ll want to declutter the mobile version of your site, keeping only the most crucial elements visible. Furthermore, pay attention to the fonts and colors you use and make sure they’re legible. Reduce the amount of typing required and consider adding a search bar to ease navigation.

Take a look at journalist  Lauryn Higgins'  portfolio to see an example of mobile design done right. Her minimalist design easily translates to mobile—a good argument to choose a minimalist design style if it suits your brand.

If you’re creating your portfolio with Wix, your site will automatically generate a mobile-friendly version, with an adaptive gallery for your images. That cuts down a significant portion of the work, but it's important to check the mobile editor every time you update your site design to check that the generated site correctly captures your vision.

09. Ask for honest feedback

We all know the feeling of getting lost in a project until we lose sight of what it really looks like. That’s why it’s always best to run your website by a second set of eyes for some insight and fresh ideas. Ask your trusted friends what they have to say about your portfolio’s content and visuals. Did they think your portfolio was missing information? What did they like or dislike about your site’s appearance? Was it easy to navigate? Even if it means making adjustments, critical feedback from your peers can help you fine-tune the details of your site.

10. Publish and promote

Once you’ve published your online portfolio, don’t forget to share it on all of your social channels, from Pinterest to Dribbble and more. This straightforward social media marketing strategy will help you reach more potential customers, improve your SEO ranking and hear honest feedback.

Another Instagram tip for designers is to add social buttons to your site, helping visitors reach your social media profiles easily.

After you’ve gotten the word out, remember that your portfolio should grow with you. There’s always another tweak around the corner to make it a little better. Keep updating your site with new content and projects, implementing different features, improving the user experience and staying up-to-date with current design trends.

How to create an online portfolio—with AI

AI has changed the game, providing a near-instant way to create an online portfolio that’s totally unique to you. Getting started is simple.

From Wix, you can access the AI website builder from any type of account. All you need to do is tell the AI about your background and goals for your portfolio. In seconds, the builder will craft a website with all the core pages, imagery—and even text that you need. It will also install the Wix portfolio app to your site, i.e., add essential back-office tools for easily managing the contents of your portfolio. 

Altogether, you have an assortment of AI tools to choose from within Wix:  

Website builder: Create a custom portfolio site by simply chatting with AI.

Portfolio creator: Upload all the images you want to include in your portfolio in one fell swoop. The AI will automatically organize these images into collections representing the various projects you’ve worked on, plus suggest appealing titles and descriptions for those collections. In minutes, you’ll get a ready-to-publish professional portfolio.

Image editing: Automatically enhance photos or use AI to remove and replace distracting elements.

Image creation: Create new images and graphics to spruce up your online portfolio. This can be extra helpful if you’re in a role that isn’t design-oriented or work on projects that aren’t visual in nature.

Text creation and editing: Tap AI for help brainstorming website copy, whether you need a zinger for your homepage or a bio for your ‘About’ page. The text creator will take into account your brand voice, audience and goals.

SEO: Receive assistance with your meta tags and/or optimizing any page for a target keyword. 

Branding: Through the AI logo maker , get a custom logo that represents you and your work, while making your portfolio feel more professional.  

Tips for making a portfolio

Now that you know how to make your portfolio, here are some extra tips to make sure you really nail it:

Use consistent branding throughout your portfolio . This means using the same fonts, colors, and overall style throughout your portfolio. This will help to create a cohesive and professional look. On top of that, only include your best work in your portfolio. This will help you to showcase your skills and abilities to potential employers or clients.

Keep your portfolio up-to-date. As you create new work, be sure to add it to your portfolio. This will help to keep your portfolio fresh and relevant. Make sure that your images are clear, sharp, and well-lit and add clear and concise descriptions to each one.

Focus on the type of work you want to do in the future. If you’re looking to branch off into new fields, or focus more on one type of project over the other, make sure to highlight relevant experiences and skill sets. Don’t spend too much time talking about projects that you’d prefer to avoid in the future.

How to make a portfolio FAQ

How should a portfolio start.

A portfolio should start with a strong introduction that tells your story and what you are all about. You can include a brief bio, your contact information and your goals. You may also want to include a statement of purpose that explains why you are creating a portfolio and what you hope to achieve with it.

What makes a good portfolio?

How do i create a student portfolio, how do i improve my portfolio, how to make a portfolio for job hunting, how to make a portfolio for my art, how to build a portfolio for modeling, how do i build up my portfolio, related posts.

Best portfolio websites to fuel your inspiration

17 best portfolio layouts for creative professionals

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How to Create an Online Writing Portfolio with Examples

Journo Portfolio

As a professional writer, you have the passion and drive to craft beautiful work. That work deserves an online writing portfolio that will put your best foot forward.

But, admittedly, not all portfolios are created equal.

How can you create a portfolio that attracts and wins over clients? Which writing samples should you feature on your portfolio? How do you boost traffic to your work? What portfolio websites can you use to create your online portfolio?

All great questions — and all questions that we are going to answer in this article.

We have the tips to make your portfolio the very best it can be — and stay tuned to the end for commonly asked questions about portfolios and exceptional examples of writing portfolios that will hopefully inspire you.

But first, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page by answering two simple questions...

What Is an Online Writing Portfolio & Why Is It Important

An online writing portfolio is a site where you can publish and promote your writing and yourself as a brand. You can showcase work that you’ve published on other sites. You can also use the space to write new pieces or even create a blog that showcases your writing voice and skills.

But most people have a specific goal in mind for their online portfolio: attract paying writing clients . This is where potential clients will come to check out your work and make the decision whether or not to hire you.

But what kind of writing should you feature? You can use it to showcase any kind of writing that you want. This could include...

• Freelance writing
• Copywriting
• Blog writing
• White papers
• Infographics
• Short story writing

There are so many possibilities!

But why is an online portfolio important for a writer?

Quite simply, because your online presence will determine how seriously people take you as a writer.

An online writing portfolio goes deeper than a simple resume or CV ever could. It shows hard evidence of your abilities and the caliber of your writing.

And your portfolio can also house other important pages. These other pages, such as an About Me or Testimonials page, enhance your writer’s image even further. It gives you the opportunity to tell people who you are as a person, not just as a writer.

With your personal account of your abilities and background, as well as reviews and testimonials from past clients, your readers get a more complete picture of you. And this can tip the scales in your favor, leading to a hire.

That is why every professional writer should have an online portfolio.

But how do you create an online portfolio that best showcases both you and your work? Let’s dive into that subject right now.

How to Create an Online Writing Portfolio That Makes You Shine

1. define your brand.

A brand is a message that tells the world who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. It goes way beyond a simple job title.

Building ‘Brand You’

Every freelance writer has a brand, this blog post sets how you should nurture and grow your brand to take your career to the next level.

Spend some time outlining what you want your brand to be. Write down words you would use to describe yourself.

“Writer” is, of course, an obvious one. But what adjectives would you use to describe yourself? Professional? Dependable? Organized? Funny? Honest? Authentic? There are many possibilities, and the ones you choose will both define you and distinguish you from others in your field.

Once you have a clearer image of your brand, you can better incorporate different elements into your portfolio. It’s important that everything — including your design, opening statement, photos, bio, and writing — reflects these values.

2. Choose a Writing Niche

It’s tempting, especially when starting out as a writer, to label yourself as a jack of all trades. But, as I’m sure you’ve heard before, if you’re a jack of all trades, you’ll end up being the master of none. And it’s true.

The fact is that serious writers have a writing niche, or topic, that they specialize in writing. Some popular writing niches include:

• Health / Alternative health
• Entertainment
• Digital marketing
• News / Journalism

And these are just a handful of the potential niches. There are many, many more.

How do you choose a niche? Start by thinking about what interests you and what qualification you might have. If you have a degree or training in finance or the medical field, that might help you write about those topics. If you are passionate about travel or the environment, those might be good options for you.

Once you’ve landed on a niche that fits your experience and interests, you can then create writing samples and model your portfolio around it.

3. Know Your Prospective Client

Your prospective client will be the key to guiding your decisions as you create your portfolio.

For instance, some journalism outlets prioritize writers who are professional and fact-driven. Others in the entertainment industry might favor a more expressive and even irreverent writing voice.

Knowing this can help you to mold your writing style and samples to best fit prospective clients who visit your portfolio.

Do you research first. Choose a few key dream clients. Check out their social media channels and read the content on their site. If they have a webpage that outlines requirements for their writers, go over it with a fine-tooth comb. Take notes on what style guides they prefer or what kind of experience they want. All of these factors will help you to hone your skills and portfolio to match.

4. Showcase Your Best Work

You could include anything in your online writing portfolio - blogs, articles, press releases, essays, multimedia, collaborative work - as long as it is high quality. Choose 10-20 pieces, enough to show your range, but not so much the reader won't be able to finish them. Then display them in a logical order, either by date or by type.

Here are some things to consider when deciding what work to include:

• A piece in a well-known publication shows that you are a professional with experience.
• Self-edited writing, such as blogs, display your true writer's voice.
• If you're a book author, consider displaying an excerpt instead of a whole chapter, since it will be easier for your readers to digest.
• Recent work, which will show that you are active in the field and up to date.

Every piece of work should show a different skill, such as interviewing, unique style, or the ability to tell a story.

Which Articles Should I put in my Portfolio?

Whether you’re about to put together an online writing portfolio for the first time or have had one for years, you’ve probably asked yourself this question a couple of times.

What's your brand again? You want your portfolio to give a consistent message. If you're a generalist, consider making multiple online portfolios or even splitting your portfolio into clearly labelled sections. This shows that you have breadth and depth of experience.

That's a lot to remember! So to keep organised, we suggest you keep a record of your work in a database. Record the date it was published, what skills it shows, and a link or a PDF copy of your article. This makes it easy to update your portfolio depending on what jobs or clients you want.

5. Choose a Place to House Your Online Writing Portfolio

You have two options for your portfolio.

First you can house it on a portfolio site like Journo Portfolio . We pride ourselves in giving you top-of-the-line design features to make your portfolio as unique as you are. You will also have the ability to upload your best writing samples simply by inputting a URL – our platform will upload the content and visuals right to your portfolio.

Other commonly used portfolio sites include:

• Pressfolios
• Clippings.me
• Writerfolio

Your second option is to build your own website to house your portfolio. If you’re not a web designer, no sweat! There are many options that give you design features without the hassle of coding. Depending on your abilities, you could choose from the following…

• Squarespace

Outside of these options, there are several social-media-style platforms where you can publish your writing samples.

One such platform is LinkedIn. Here, you can include in-depth information about yourself and your work experience. You can also write and publish articles right within the LinkedIn ecosystem. From here, every time you publish an article, all of your connections will receive a notification, which amplifies the reach of your work.

Another option is Medium. Just like LinkedIn, Medium has its own dedicated and loyal audience. It also has a built-in publishing platform where you can write about anything that interests you or your target audience.

The beauty is that you do not have to limit yourself to just one option. Go ahead and create a portfolio site, while also sharing your articles on other platforms like LinkedIn or Medium. There’s no such thing as too much publicity, as long as you can give each platform the time it needs to get results.

6. Create a Stand-Out Bio

While your portfolio samples show people your work, a well-written bio, or About Me page, give them a window into who you are. It showcases your true voice — how you write outside of your professional samples — and even your values.

Your Writer's Portfolio: How to Craft the Perfect About Me Page

Learn how to craft an About Me page with 11 tips and tactics that will support your goals and boost the success of your writer’s portfolio.

Share your background with your audience. Tell them why you became a writer. If there’s a funny or moving story behind your career choice, share that as well. Anything that makes you more human.

Should you share details your personal life? This is completely up to you. But small details that are well-placed can do much to engage your audience. For instance, sharing that you are married with three kids could show people that you prioritize family values. Or, highlighting your passion for a particular volunteer work might strike a chord with your audience.

Any detail that you can include in your bio will bring you more to life as a writer and infuse your work with meaning. Instead of being just another, faceless writer, you become an individual with whom people can envision working.

7. Make It Easy for People to Contact You

You’ve hooked people with your awesome writing skills and back story. Don’t make it a chore for them to reach out to you. Create a Contact Me page that makes it simple and easy to get in touch.

A contact page should, of course, have a contact form that people can fill out with their name, email, and message.

Above or next to the form, you should also include your contact information if people want to reach out in a different way. This could include your email address, physical address, phone number, and even your social media channels.

Once you have a contact page, link to it from as many places as possible. In addition to a place on your main menu, create call-to-action (CTA) buttons on your home page. These could simply say “Work with Me” or “Contact Me.” You can even create CTAs for the bottom of blog posts and writing samples to direct people to your contact page.

8. Spend Some Time on Design

Your online writing portfolio should be as individual as you are.

But you also need to be careful with your design choices.

After all, your design can make a big difference in the success of your portfolio. A simple, well-organized portfolio can create a warm and inviting atmosphere. But a chaotic, disorganized portfolio can have the exact opposite effect and even drive people away from your page.

There are several elements that can help you to design a killer online writing portfolio. Here are a few things to think about...

Choose two to three colors to use throughout your portfolio.

Colors can even be a strategic psychological tool to subtly engage your audience.

For instance, black often conveys power and confidence. Blue can mean dependability and trustworthiness. It’s an interesting science that you might choose to incorporate into your design strategy.

The more images you can use throughout your site, the better. Images help to break up blocks of text and make information easier to digest. Use professional photos of yourself to help your visitors visualize you as they read through your work and bio. Make it a clear photo that shows off a friendly demeanor and warm smile.

You can also include images associated with your writing or niche. For instance, if you write for finance, you could use an image of a calculator. Or if you are a travel writer , you could include an image of a map or compass. These small details are a subtle reminder of what you do.

There are literally thousands of fonts out there. While some can be fun, not all of them are portfolio-material. Remember, your font should be easy to read and professional. Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman are classic writing fonts that will not distract your readers.

Use swirly, handwriting fonts sparingly. While they can be a fun element in a heading, using these fonts too often can be difficult on the eyes and distracting.

These are just a few of the design elements to consider as you build your portfolio site. Spending some time on these aspects of your online writing portfolio can give it a polished look that enhances your work.

9. Edit It... And Edit It Again

We can hear that sigh. And we get it. Editing is not fun.

But it is essential to your portfolio’s success. The fact is, everybody makes mistakes. And as writers, we have particular blind spots when it comes to our writing.

When it’s your online writing portfolio, though, the stakes are even higher than normal. Prospective clients are going to size you up based on your portfolio. Any spelling or grammatical errors could potentially stain your reputation and might even prevent people from hiring you.

Take the extra time and go over every piece of content in your portfolio. Use a free editing tool like Grammarly to help you spot and correct mistakes. But since it is a program, don’t forget to do your own thorough read-through and editing.

Also, use this time to click on any and all links and buttons within your content. If any are broken, fix them or remove the link entirely. Do this regularly — once a month — to make sure you don’t have any broken links in your content.

10. Optimize Your Portfolio for Search

Now it’s time to set up your portfolio to work for you, with search engine optimization , or SEO. SEO is a tactic to help search engines like Google find and understand your site. Based on what Google finds, it will rank you for other people to find when they google terms like “freelance writer” or “tech writer.”

Ranking like this on Google can be a game changer for your brand. It can help you to reach a wider audience and get more eyeballs on your writing samples – for free!

So how does SEO work?

A solid SEO strategy starts with choosing the right keywords. A keyword is a word or phrase that people search for in Google. If you’re a freelance writer, choose keywords that match your niche and location, if that’s important to you. For instance, you might choose such keywords as…

• Technology freelance writer
• Tech content writer
• Tech writer in Seattle

Do your research to see what keywords best fit your particular niche and are low-competition. Low competition means that they will be easier to rank for in Google.

Once you’ve chosen your keywords, use them within your pages and blog posts. You want to sprinkle them throughout your content so that it sounds as natural as possible. Google will then go through your content and use those words as part of their algorithm to rank you on search engine result pages.

Here are all the places you need to include your keywords within a page or post…

• Title / H1 heading
• 3-5 times in a 400-word article — within the body of your text, including within your first paragraph
• Meta description
• Alt text of your images

11. Be Confident

You are basically selling yourself. To do this effectively, you need to use language that exudes confidence.

Of course, be honest about your abilities and experience. But don’t let shyness or timidity allow you to undercut yourself and what you can do.

Write your portfolio messaging with confident language. Avoid words like “sometimes” or “probably.” Instead, use words like “will,” “definitely,” and “proven” to build confidence in your abilities.

And you can back up your confidence with facts and figures, whenever possible. Share with your audience how much traffic your latest blog post got or the open rate of your latest email newsletter. These solid numbers can really drive home the point that you are a professional writer.

Of course, this is something that many of us freelance writers struggle to do. We love to write about other subjects and people – but when it comes to ourselves, we sometimes run out of words.

It can help to ask for input from friends, family, and colleagues. Sometimes they can give you insight into your strengths and abilities and even point out things that you missed about yourself.

12. Share It With the World

You’ve built a beautiful, professional portfolio. But what good is it doing sitting in a dark corner of the internet?

You need to share it and get some eyes on it. And there are a few different ways that you can do this. Let’s talk about a few.

On Social Media

Social media is a wonderful tool that can help your portfolio get the love and attention it deserves. First, choose the social networks where you want to engage. Make this decision based on where your target audience spends the most time. The most common social media networks for freelance writers are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Once you’re on that network, connect and engage with your audience. Share content that helps them — whether it’s your own content from your portfolio or content you’ve found elsewhere.

With time, you might even pay to promote yourself on social media. You can use social media’s targeting tools to get your content and name in front of the right eyes.

Link to it from other assets

You have many places where you can link to your portfolio.

First off, include a link in your email signature, so that everybody with whom you communicate will come in contact with your brand.

Next, include a link in your resume or CV. You never know who will download and view your resume, which you can use to refer them to your portfolio.

Also, link to your portfolio in all of your social media bios and profiles. Anyone who checks out your profile will then have direct access to your portfolio.

.Another great way to get your portfolio into the right hands is to guest post on other sites. Guest posting is a key way to collaborate with other writers and get your name and talents in front of a wider audience.

Research guest writing opportunities within your niche. You can google “your niche + guest post opportunities” to find such opportunities. Then follow the directions on each site to see what you need to do.

Many sites that offer guest posting opportunities will allow you to include a short bio and a link back to your portfolio at the end of the post. Write this bio carefully to highlight your niche and experience.

13. Measure Your Results

Your page is up and running — congratulations!

But your work is not over yet.

Now it’s time to monitor the performance of your site. Are you getting the traffic you wanted? Are people visiting your pages? Do they stay there or leave after visiting a page? Answers to these questions will help you to see how everything is working and let you know what you need to change.

With some websites you can use a free tool like Google Analytics to see how your site is performing. With others, like JournoPortfolio, you have analytics built right into your site automatically.

Check in regularly — we recommend once a week — to see what pages people are visiting and how many visitors you have on your site. If it’s not as many as you had hoped, you can investigate additional marketing strategies. If you notice some posts are not getting as much traffic as others, you could investigate to see what you can change to improve it — perhaps the title or introduction needs some work.

This is a natural process that every site goes through. Keep adapting your site based on your analytics and you will eventually find out what works for you and your audience.

Commonly Asked Questions About Creating an Online Writing Portfolio

Who is my audience.

Anyone who wants to know more about your work!

A potential employer might read it before they interview you. If you're applying for an internship or project at university, your supervisor will no doubt want to see what you've done. Other writers might also want to look at your work for inspiration.

And if you are looking to become a freelance writer, working directly with clients, then potential clients will want a place to see exactly what you offer.

The bottom line? Your portfolio is great publicity for your brand as a writer. Wherever you are in your career, you can adapt your portfolio to represent your very best. Some portfolio platforms, like Journo Portfolio, even offer a private, password-protection feature so that the only people who can view it are those whom you wish.

Do I need to stick to one type of writing?

Not at all. If you want to sell yourself as a generalist, then feel free — although we still recommend that you choose a writing niche.

But you can always adapt your portfolio to fit the needs of each phase of your career. For example, if you have an interview with a news reporting outlet, take the time ahead of time to tailor your portfolio to feature that kind of writing style.

You can also organize your portfolio into separate sections for each niche or writing style that you want. Some even create separate pages where they can organize their content and feature the best of each category.

This gives you the freedom and adaptability to go wherever your career takes you.

How do I make my portfolio more professional?

Good question.

Imagine the features that you find on a major company website. These are features that you can imitate in your own portfolio.

First, make it easy to read and navigate. Show your visitors clearly where everything is with a clean menu that features all of your pages. You should have pages for your work samples, bio or About Me page, and contact page, at the very least.

Then, organize all of your content in a way that makes sense. Divide your content into categories so that everyone in your audience can find the content that they want.

And finally, make it easier for them to learn more about you. Clearly feature links to your social media accounts and resume or CV.

What if I want my portfolio to be more fun than professional?

That’s fine, too! Your portfolio should be a reflection of your individual goals and career.

Choose colors, images, and features that bring your portfolio to life.

The beauty of your portfolio is that it is yours. There are no right answers. Whether you want it to be professional, or more fun and lighthearted, it’s completely up to you!

How do I choose what to add to my web portfolio?

Make sure that all your writing samples and blog posts are of the highest quality. You wouldn’t want any piece of content to turn away visitors.

To make sure that all of your content is worthy to be on your portfolio, take the time to read it over and edit it.

You can even get someone you trust to critique your work to help you decide what your best writing is and narrow it down depending on what your brand goals are.

What is the difference between a website for portfolios and a normal website?

Different websites have different functions — that's why what we post on LinkedIn looks very different from what we post on Facebook.

Building a website from scratch can give you the freedom to design exactly what you want — if you know how. And that can be a big if, depending on your skills. Unless you know a lot about building and customizing websites, it can be hard to build a website that does exactly what you want.

Portfolio websites, on the other hand, streamline the design process so that you can focus on writing and making your portfolio shine.

Sites like Journo Portfolio provide templates and design options that deliver a professional portfolio that you can publish that same day, within minutes of signing up. From design to loading your writing samples, we have done all of the work on our end to make the process as easy as possible on yours.

This way, you can focus on your priority — writing stellar content that your audience will love reading.

How do I use Journo Portfolio to create an online writing portfolio?

It is super easy to create a free online writing portfolio with Journo Portfolio . Once you sign up, you will be asked to choose your theme and fonts. Then you can write a brief bio with your professional photo.

Once your basic design is in place, you can set about uploading your published articles by inputting the URL where they’re found — Journo Portfolio will upload each article and image automatically. Then you can organize where you want your articles to appear.

With a paid plan, you will be able to create additional pages for your bio, contact page, and even a blog. You will also be able to use your own URL, instead of the branded Journo Portfolio URL that comes with the free plan.

And Journo Portfolio also gives you access to several design elements to enhance and individualize your portfolio to meet your needs.

Is it worth paying more for a professional site?

It totally depends on what you're looking for.

For example, most sites like Journo Portfolio will allow you to use a subdomain on their site for free — for example, yourname.journoportfolio.com. If that’s all you need, then great!

But there’s something to be said about paying a little extra to have your own domain — www.yourname.com. Having your own, dedicated domain elevates your site and makes it appear way more professional.

Whatever you decide, shop around a little and look for a portfolio website that will meet all your needs. Each site will have different features and abilities. Decide what is important to you and narrow it down based on those things.

How do I make my work stand out?

There will always be cool features to make your portfolio look its best.

But, in my humble opinion, these things are merely on the surface — cosmetic, superficial. It’s not going to matter how beautiful your site is if your content doesn’t back it up.

In that vein, take the time to write top-quality content that stands out on its own merits. Then, give your portfolio a clean, professional look that puts your work on center stage.

What font should I use?

As I’ve mentioned before, there are tons of fonts out there that you can choose.

But steer clear of distracting fonts that are hard to read. Your readers should be able to read your font with ease, no matter whether they’re on desktop, smartphone, or tablet.

Fonts in the sans family are probably the most popular and easiest to read.

Now that we’ve gone over the basics of how to create a online writing portfolio that showcases your best work, let’s now look at a few writing portfolio examples that are truly worthy of imitation.

4 Exceptional Writing Portfolio Examples For Inspiration

1. elna cain.

Elna Cain is a household name in the content writing industry and her website does not disappoint. Right out of the gate, she draws you in with a friendly photo and statement revealing how she helps her audience. She also clearly displays several outlets where her work has been published – a feature that builds confidence in her ability. Throughout her site she uses powerful visuals and a convincing writing style that make this a stand-out portfolio.

2. Kayla Hollatz

There is a lot to love about this copywriting portfolio. We love how many visual elements she has one her site – and her photos really showcase her personality and individual flare. Her content is fresh and upbeat, with a voice that makes readers feels right at ease and instills confidence in her abilities.

3. Jummy Owookade

Right from the moment you enter Jummy’s page, your eyes go right to his bright smile and friendly demeanor. His photos are crisp and professional, while still conveying his personality as a friendly and approachable person. His About Me section tells us not only his writing interests, but also his core values and ideals. And his samples are clearly organized into separate pages – social content, articles, and visuals/audio.

4. Michelle Lidya Leleury

This portfolio is an exceptional example of putting your best foot forward, right from the get-go. It is especially impressive considering that she is still in university, yet can present herself and her work so professionally. Her profile picture is simple, yet friendly. She showcases her work right on her homepage and organizes it well. And her About and Contact pages allow visitors to take the next step, learn more, and even get in touch with her about work opportunities.

Writing is your passion – it’s why you’re here. And you no doubt have stellar examples of your work. And those examples deserve a stunning portfolio in which to display them. We hope these online writing portfolio tips and examples help you to create the best possible portfolio for your writing.

Ready to start building? Create your portfolio with Journo Portfolio for free today:

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9 mins read

How To Create A Writing Portfolio: Portfolio Writing Guide + Writing Portfolio Examples

Create an industry-best writing portfolio in 7 easy steps. Don't forget to check out the examples.

Shreya Bose

Written by Shreya Bose , edited by Protim Bhaumik , reviewed by Eric Hauch .

11. Jan 2024 , updated 12. Jan 2024

An online writing portfolio is more than a writing sample or two or five put together. I've been freelancing as a writer for close to a decade, and creating & updating a freelance writing portfolio involves more nuance than I expected (at least the first time).

Every time I sent my portfolio to a potential client, I was aware of the fact that it directly reflected on me as a content writer and freelance writer. Clients didn't just want to see my best writing; they wanted to see proof of consistent quality and updated publications and browse through a navigable, searchable portfolio site..

I lost quite a few opportunities because I didn't have a comprehensive and adequately professional writer portfolio. To ensure that you don't have to deal with the same ordeal, here is a 101-style guide to creating a professional writing portfolio (whether you are a freelancer or not).

I'll also list out the best writing portfolio examples you can use as benchmarks for creating your own writing portfolio site. Additionally, I'll introduce a tool that will build your portfolio for you — it will automatically find and identify all your bylined articles and pieces from any website you specify. More on that later.

What is a writing portfolio?

A writing portfolio is a collection of work samples meant to convey the depth and range of your skills and experience. The writing portfolio website makes the case for its owner's employability. It should display every type of writing (and ideally, every published piece) you've ever composed.

Along with examples of great writing, your writer's portfolio should also include information about your academic background, achievements, interests, and contact information. While this sounds simple, it's not always easy to put together a portfolio that looks good, is easy to scroll through, and reliably exhibits your writing abilities.

Be it a creative writing portfolio or a regular online portfolio, it should make a point about the value of your writing skills. It’s also an absolute necessity in the modern job market. If you don't have a portfolio, start creating one now.

What do you want to include in your portfolio?

A succinct but comprehensive introduction.

The best portfolio doesn't have to wax eloquent about your skills. Keep the introduction short unless you've won multiple awards or have a long list of very significant accolades. Briefly mention what you do, who you've worked with, and any outstanding achievements (awards, industry milestones, etc).

Use the introduction as a context-setter. It should naturally lead the reader to dive into the chosen samples for your portfolio.

Don't forget to add your contact information, such as email and social media accounts.

ALL your work in ALL formats (text, audio, video)

Whether you're creating a journalism portfolio or a writer website for more domain-based content — sales/marketing/tech, etc — you should consider including all the work you've ever done. This goes against classical wisdom around portfolios — only include work that reveals the best of your writing career — but modern employers want quality and quantity.

Potential clients want to see a website portfolio that communicates the fact that you will produce great content consistently. No one wants to hire a one-hit wonder. Your freelance portfolio should display this, and the best way to do so is to import ALL (or most) of your work in ALL formats — and display them accordingly on your portfolio.

Moreover, if you've produced content across different formats (text, audio, video), include all of it in your own portfolio.

It indicates that you're comfortable working with multiple content avenues and makes you an asset for companies looking to expand their presence on numerous social channels.

Real-world results

When you showcase your writing, don't forget to establish that your work is already valued. As far as possible, mention real-world results to build prospective clients' faith in your abilities.

Reach out to previous clients to get some hard numbers on the impact of your writing. Let's say you wrote 10 articles for a client, and their publication led to a 38% increase in web traffic over one quarter. This is the kind of fact that should be mentioned in your portfolio.

How to create a writing portfolio website in literal minutes

When I was creating my freelance writing portfolio, I used the free trials of quite a few tools — Squarespace, Linktree, Wix, and the like. But I decided to choose and stick with Authory, and the tutorial below will amply showcase why.

Authory is a dedicated portfolio builder that literally does over half the work: finding all bylined content you’ve ever published, importing it automatically, saving it permanently (again, automatically), and letting you organize your content items into different collections (like a folder that can be sent via a URL to other people).

Step 1: Sign up for Authory (for free)

• Create an account on Authory for free using this signup link .

Step 2: Import your bylined content

• Click on "Add Collection" on your dashboard. Then click "Create New."

• Name your Collection. I'm calling it "Long Form Content." The Collection will be automatically added to your portfolio.

• Click "Add Content."

• Click "Import or upload new content."

Choose "Articles."

• Choose the relevant option. I'll go with the first one — importing all bylined articles from a specific website. ( Note : this works for just one writing sample as well — so if you have just one article on the site, that’s fine.)

• Paste the URL of the website with your published pieces. I'm choosing the Authory blog. Click "Continue.”

In about 48 hours (usually less), all your content will automatically appear in the Collection you just created.

5 best writing portfolio examples

Jake leonard.

Jake Leonard is currently the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. He is also a contributing writer to My Sports Vote, Ambush Sports, Midwest Sports Network, and Independent Political Report. He has been a former contributing writer for Overtime Heroics. He has also held several gigs in terrestrial radio and has been a syndication coordinator with a talk radio network for podcasts and internet radio.

Jake has been a freelance journalist since 2009, starting with Bleacher Report.

Lucy Shrimpton

The writings of Lucy Shrimpton appear frequently in The Independent, Waitrose Weekend, and France Magazine. She has also written for Times Travel, Coast Magazine, Maverick, Cornwall Life Magazine, LivingEtc, and more.

Some of her great writing also exists on Hauts-de-France Tourisme and Calvados Tourisme. She also sub-edits and proofreads Juno Magazine, exploring well-being, community, and parenting.

Lucy's interests and specializations include history, the arts, museums, charities, books, and human-centered storytelling

Mary Ann Gwinn

Mary Ann Gwinn is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Seattle Times, Kirkus Reviews, and other publications. She is also a Pulitzer jurist.

Muriel Vega

Muriel Vega writes about tech, art, travel, food & more, and her design reflects this diversity. The playful whimsy and capricious coloring over a white background makes you itch to click on the icons.

She has bylines at Delta Sky Magazine, DWELL, Apartment Therapy, Eater, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, Atlanta Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, Outside Magazine, and others.

Scott Broker

Scott Broker is an LA-based writer. He is a Lambda Literary fellow and Tin House scholar and has been a finalist for the Iowa Review Prize in Fiction and the New England Review's Emerging Writer Award. He has also been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes.

His work has appeared in Ecotone, New England Review, Guernica, Fence, the Idaho Review, the Cincinnati Review, Catapult, Joyland, and the Adroit Journal.

Scott was also awarded the Helen Earnhart Harley Creative Writing Fellowship Award during his MFA at Ohio State University.

Try Authory to create your writer portfolio

When you sign up for an Authory account (for free), you get the following:

A self-updating portfolio (no need to keep adding new work manually)

Authory will AUTOMATICALLY import a copy of every bylined piece from every site into its own database. You don't have to track down links to your published work (especially older pieces). As long as you remember the URL of the site where your work exists, Authory will collate all your content for you in one dashboard.

Authory can import content from behind most soft paywalls (as long as it is a bylined piece) and some hard paywalls. However, it cannot be used to import copies of articles, podcasts, and videos you haven’t created or featured in.

Automated backups (never lose your content, ever)

All the content that Authory imports from different sources is saved permanently. Even if the original website where it's published goes defunct for any reason, you'll always have a copy safely stored on Authory's server. All backups are in the original format — text and/or media. No screenshots.

Continued importing of past and future content (less effort for a 100% updated portfolio)

Once you enter a source, Authory won't just import your existing publications. Anything you publish on the same site (after you've fed its URL into Authory) in the future will also be imported automatically. In other words, Authory will import your past and future content.

Authory also sends email notifications for every new piece it imports, so you'll always know if something you submitted has been published.

Apart from these, you also get a slew of miscellaneous but necessary features:

• Ability to search through both your portfolio and your content database to find articles/audio/videos based on keywords . Prospective employers and hiring managers can use this to look for topics on your portfolio, and you can use it to find specific pieces within your Authory content bank.
• Ability to create a custom domain with a click.
• Get a custom domain and personalize your online writing portfolio even further.
• Multiple, low-effort options for customization to make your portfolio visually appealing and easy to navigate.
• In-built analytics that provide real numbers on content performance (engagement, readership) across the web and popular social media sites every 30 days .

Authory has been chosen by quite a few well-known names in my domain, people who could have picked any tool in the world. There's 6-time Emmy award winner David Pogue , Steven Levy, Editor at Large, WIRED , and Brian Fung, a Technology Reporter at CNN , to name a very few.

Get started with Authory for free and see for yourself what works for you!

Seasoned writer & editor working with B2B & B2C content since 2017. Writes about music on weekends. Trying to overcome caffeine addiction.

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Five Creative Ways to Showcase Your Digital Portfolio

• 4-minute read
• 30th April 2024

Are you a creative freelancer looking to make a lasting impression on potential clients or employers with your digital portfolio? The freelance market is competitive, and a standout digital portfolio is crucial in many industries to showcase your unique talents and capabilities.

Your digital portfolio is more than just a collection of your work – it’s a visual representation of your skills and expertise. By curating a compelling digital version, you can effectively communicate your strengths and make a strong first impression on your target audience .

We’ll explore what a digital portfolio is and provide five creative ways to showcase it so that you can stand out from the competition. From selecting your strongest samples to focusing on user experience, we’ll provide valuable insights on how to make your portfolio shine. Read on to discover expert tips and best practices for creating an attention-catching digital portfolio.

What Is a Digital Portfolio?

A digital portfolio serves as a versatile and dynamic tool for creative freelancers to showcase their work in a visually engaging and accessible manner. It’s an online collection of a freelancer’s best work samples, projects, accomplishments, and skills. It acts as a virtual resume that can be easily shared with potential clients and employers to highlight your expertise and capabilities.

Portfolios play a crucial role in establishing a freelancer’s online presence and credibility. They offer a glimpse into your creative process, style, and past projects, allowing potential clients to assess whether your skills align with the required job. Additionally, a well-crafted digital portfolio can set you apart from competitors by demonstrating your unique talents and achievements in a visually compelling way.

Keep reading to discover five creative ways to enhance your digital portfolio.

Interactive Elements and Multimedia

Integrating interactive elements such as clickable prototypes, captivating video presentations, and engaging audio clips can significantly enhance user engagement with your digital portfolio. By incorporating these multimedia features, you can provide visitors with a memorably interactive experience, showcasing your work in a dynamic and immersive way. This not only captures attention but also enables a deeper connection with your audience, making your portfolio more impactful.

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Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling is a powerful tool to convey your creative journey and showcase your projects effectively. By incorporating visuals, case studies, project narratives, and client testimonials, you can create a compelling and immersive user experience within your digital portfolio. These storytelling elements not only demonstrate your skills and expertise but also add a personal touch that resonates with visitors, leaving a lasting impression and fostering a meaningful connection.

Motion Graphics and Animations

Adding motion graphics, animated transitions, and dynamic elements can bring a modern and dynamic flair to your digital portfolio. By integrating these visually appealing elements, you can create a visually stunning presentation that captures the attention of viewers and sets your portfolio apart. The strategic use of motion graphics can enhance the overall user experience, adding a touch of creativity and sophistication to your showcased work.

Mixed Media and Collage

Embracing mixed media, collage techniques, and artistic compositions can offer a unique and visually striking way to showcase your creativity and versatility. By blending different media formats and art styles, you can create a visually compelling portfolio that highlights your diverse skills and artistic identity. The creative use of mixed media adds depth and richness to your work, making your portfolio visually appealing and memorable to visitors.

Enhanced User Engagement

Increasing user interaction and engagement within your digital portfolio is key to creating a dynamic and immersive experience. By incorporating interactive quizzes, feedback forms, or social media sharing options, you can encourage visitors to actively engage with your content. These interactive elements not only make the browsing experience more engaging but also enable users to connect with your work on a deeper level, fostering engagement and building a lasting relationship.

Crafting a compelling digital portfolio is essential for creative freelancers to demonstrate their talent. By implementing the strategies we shared in this article – selecting your strongest samples, including detailed captions, focusing on user experience, and organizing your portfolio logically – you can make a lasting impact on potential clients. Remember, your portfolio reflects your skills and expertise, so ensure it exemplifies your current abilities effectively. Keep refining and updating your portfolio to stay relevant and attract new opportunities.

But before sending it out to potential clients, ensure your content is thoroughly proofread. Try our proofreading services for free by sending us a sample of your work to have it professionally proofread. Let your creativity shine through your digital showcase!

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