![\"portfolio\"](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/portfolio_700.jpg\")
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If you\u2019re currently working as a freelancer or thinking of diving into self-employment, you already know that your portfolio is one of the biggest assets for growing your business.<\/p>\n
The goal is, your portfolio will help you market yourself, find new clients, and differentiate yourself from the competition.<\/p>\n
Word of mouth is great, but if you\u2019re a writer, designer, or web developer, showing always beats telling, hands down.<\/strong><\/p>\n But, if you\u2019ve ever looked at other peoples\u2019 professional portfolios, it can be a real zap for your confidence.\u00a0 <\/span>Or maybe you\u2019re just not sure where to start.<\/p>\n In this post, we\u2019ll go over some of the ways that you can create a digital portfolio built to impress.<\/p>\n Complete guide to advancing your career<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n If you went to school for art, design, or web development, you\u2019re already familiar with the idea of a portfolio. But a school portfolio tends to include a little bit of everything you\u2019ve learned during your academic career. A freelance portfolio should focus exclusively on the work you want to be known for.<\/strong><\/p>\n Which areas are you an expert in? Do you write about food and beverage? If that\u2019s your space, then your portfolio should not be loaded with content about your thoughts on the latest iPhone or training dogs.<\/p>\n Instead, it should have a clear focus on recipes, nutrition, ingredients, and so forth. There may be a broader theme \u2014 think wellness and health, along with some restaurant reviews, but everything should tie together.<\/p>\n There are two main ways to build up your body of work when you\u2019re just starting out. The first is by showing off your personal projects.<\/strong><\/p>\n Personal projects are a great way to drum up attention \u2014 especially if you\u2019re already creating a lot of material on your own time. A consistent personal project\u2014like a web comic, a blog, or a series of photos \u2014 can help you showcase your talents.<\/p>\n This won\u2019t work if the personal project doesn\u2019t match up with how you plan on earning money. However, posting illustrations to Instagram can help you show off your design skills to a captive audience.<\/p>\n Personal works depend a lot on consistency<\/strong>. If your goal is to build a following on Instagram that you can then leverage into paying clients, you need to consistently push out content.<\/p>\n How to use social media to find your next job<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n The second way you can build a portfolio is to do some work for free.<\/strong> We don\u2019t recommend advertising your services for free. This can lead to low-paying gigs \u2014 a cycle that unfortunately, can be hard to break.<\/p>\n You can do pro bono work for a friend or family member with a small business or a company that you admire that falls within your niche. Provided you do good work, potential clients won\u2019t know that you worked for free in the past \u2014 consider it a marketing expense.<\/strong><\/p>\n Additionally, if you do good work for a pro bono client, they may be more inclined to refer you to others in their network.<\/p>\n Other things you can do to bulk up your portfolio:<\/p>\n Call these snippets, excerpts, shorts. Whatever you decide, consider making a selection of shorter samples that give prospects a taste of what they can expect from working with you.<\/p>\n Write the introduction to an article, compile a selection of mock-ups for an app, or design templates, and write a short description that offers some context.<\/p>\n The point is to show prospects that you have the skills to help them achieve their goals.<\/p>\n 7 healthy habits for remote workers<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n Fake projects are another way to show that you have what it takes to help brands level up.<\/p>\n This is especially effective for designers, as it\u2019s easy to present visuals as if they were part of a real portfolio.<\/p>\n You might create a social media campaign for a fictitious brand \u2014 with stock photos, logos, and custom typography.<\/p>\n While you can\u2019t use logos from real brands on your site, this is a great way to present your creativity in a way that looks and feels professional.<\/p>\n Creating a free download isn\u2019t the right move for everyone, but if you can create a resource that people would genuinely like, this is a great way to collect leads.<\/p>\n Here, you might create an eBook that shows users how to get started as a blogger or a set of custom templates readers can use for email newsletters or a set of icons. In any case, the resource should be helpful, and prove your expertise.<\/p>\n When it comes time to pull the trigger and get your stuff up there, you\u2019ll want to collect all of your assets.<\/p>\n Make a checklist that includes all of the items that you\u2019ll be using on the site.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t have to be fancy, in fact, you\u2019ll be just fine with one of the many website builders on the market.<\/p>\n Popular (and easy) options include:<\/p>\n Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are all incredibly easy to set up, even if you don\u2019t have much experience setting up websites.<\/p>\n That said, Squarespace is definitely the best-designed option in the lineup. WordPress is slightly more complex, but it offers more custom features and tons of themes.<\/p>\n We should mention, too, that visual assets come into play, as well. Obviously, this isn\u2019t a problem for designers, but writers may have some trouble picking images that don\u2019t feel cliche.<\/p>\n Search for \u201cfreelance writer websites\u201d and you\u2019ll see a lot of typewriters and close-ups of vintage letterpresses. If you’re looking for free stock photo sites, Jeff Bullas has put together a good, long list<\/a>. We’ve got our own list.<\/a><\/p>\n Alternatively, Clippings<\/span><\/a>, a portfolio site for journalists and online writers presents a way for writers to quickly put together a decent-looking portfolio without all the stress of setting up the visual elements that go with a traditional website. Contently<\/a> is another good option.<\/p>\n 8 best sources for remote work opportunities<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n A portfolio is more than a collection of work.<\/p>\n Rather, it\u2019s a curated collection of samples and information that makes clear how you can help a client reach their specific goals. Take Samar Owais’ home page<\/a>, for example. There’s not much writing, but it’s instantly attractive and gets right down to business.<\/p>\n Or look at\u00a0Matt Olpinski’s site<\/a>. He’s clearly laid out what he can do for prospective clients looking for a UX\/UI designer:<\/p>\n Your \u201cabout\u201d page is more about your education, your background, and who you are. The rest of the site should focus on how you can help clients accomplish their goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a copywriter, it makes sense to highlight specific metrics<\/strong> \u2014 you\u2019ll triple conversions and increase email open rates, for example.<\/p>\n Beyond playing into the emotional side of the business, you need to spell out exactly what services you provide.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a writer, mention your areas of expertise<\/strong>: do you cover fashion, food, Apple products? Spell it out.<\/p>\n Beyond niche, what types of services<\/strong> do you provide? Do you write social media captions, blog posts, eBooks, or web copy? All of the above? Make it clear what you provide and what you don’t. This way, you won\u2019t be fielding a bunch of inquiries asking for video scripts if that\u2019s outside of your wheelhouse.<\/p>\n Other important things to include:<\/p>\n Before you begin a relationship with your new clients, you\u2019ll want to set up a contract. Ideally, you\u2019ll want a contract that explicitly states that you can use their non-confidential work in your portfolio<\/a>.<\/p>\n In some cases, the client might retain rights to your content\/design<\/a>, but it\u2019s smart to build this into the process, as this will provide a steady stream of updated material to use to grow your business.<\/p>\n These are the highest-paying online careers<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you want to be a freelancer, you need to show your skills. Here’s how to make your portfolio pop!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9161,"featured_media":116515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[1530,1855,1586,1529],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-116481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-career","tag-freelancing","tag-jobs","tag-work"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326429,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116481\/revisions\/326429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116481"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=116481"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=116481"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=116481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n ![](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/forward-business-future-work-192.jpg\")
\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n What a good portfolio website should accomplish:<\/h2>\n
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What if I don\u2019t have much to show?<\/h2>\n
![\"worker\"](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/remote_working_worker_career_job_man_700.jpg\")
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\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n Shorter samples<\/h3>\n
![\"thinking\"](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/work_laptop_computer_man_worker_700-1.jpg\")
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\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n Fake projects<\/h3>\n
Create a downloadable resource<\/h3>\n
![\"lead](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-31-at-9.39.52-PM-2-300x157.png\")
<\/p>\nWhere should my portfolio \u201clive?\u201d<\/h3>\n
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![\"Squarespace](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Squarespace-Templates-300x273.png\")
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\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n Beyond the work \u2014 key elements every portfolio site needs<\/h2>\n
![\"copywriting](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-31-at-9.38.09-PM-2-300x182.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"freelance](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-31-at-9.27.57-PM-300x251.png\")
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Don\u2019t forget about portfolio rights<\/h2>\n
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