As a new freelancer, are you wondering how to create an online writing portfolio to show potential clients? Keep reading; we have five easy ways for you to create a professional online writing portfolio.
One of the biggest hurdles I faced trying to carve out a full-time freelance writing career was finding a way to demonstrate quality work to potential clients. It’s a catch-22: Most clients or media companies want to see writing samples that showcase your best work, but it’s hard to get those if no one will hire you until they’ve seen your writer’s portfolio.
The good news is that strong writing samples lead to work that, in turn, leads to more published writing samples. To kick things off so you can start getting paid what you’re worth, you may just have to get a little creative and create your own opportunities. To get the ball rolling, I’m sharing five online platforms my writer friends and colleagues have used to build their writer portfolios.
Why You Need an Online Writing Portfolio
Put simply, an online writing portfolio is a dedicated web page where anyone interested in hiring you can see your expertise on full display. Think about your freelance writer portfolio as a beefed-up resume designed to land your ideal client.
While beginning writers often question why they can’t simply submit writing samples via Google Docs or Word documents when applying for freelance jobs, submitting links to published content is the industry standard.
Most clients and media companies want to see a writer’s skills in action, and those skills go far beyond the ability to turn a good phrase. Depending on a writer’s niche, published samples can showcase a writer’s understanding of industry fundamentals like SEO and serve as proof that they wrote their own content, something that’s increasingly more important in today’s world of content mills and AI.
Writer Websites for Building or Hosting Online Writing Portfolios
For writers who know they can do the job but need to create samples, many platforms offer a space to self-publish content. This can be as simple as choosing a topic that aligns with the type of jobs you’re looking for and then browsing websites with similar content to learn what clients are looking for.
Since you can always change content as you grow your skills, the most important thing is choosing a portfolio website and getting started.
Here are a few of the best platforms to build yours:
1. Medium
Medium is one of the easiest places for new freelance writers to share their work or create new content, not to mention a low-pressure venue to hone your craft and polish your finer freelance writer skills. A self-publishing site, Medium offers a straightforward content-uploading interface and a simple template to which writers can add images and other media.
It’s free to publish on Medium, and I’ve had a few writer friends use the platform to create writing samples they used to land gigs at pretty big content sites. Medium also offers a Partner Program that gives writers the chance to read content that would otherwise be behind a paywall and potentially get paid for their content.
2. Substack
Like Medium, Substack is a platform where writers can self-publish their content. However, whereas Medium functions more like a social media site with a focus on writers sharing and exploring other creators’ content, Substack’s platform focuses more on building an audience of subscribers and allowing users to monetize their content with a newsletter membership.
Even if you aren’t particularly interested in creating a following, a Substack account can be a good way to showcase your writing skills and demonstrate that you’re up to speed on the intersection of the content and tech worlds. It’s incredibly easy to add content, and the site even allows users to create podcasts, which can be helpful for those of us looking to break into the scriptwriting world.
3. Wix
If you’d prefer to have your own portfolio website but you’re not yet tech-savvy enough for HTML or building content with WordPress, Wix is a fantastic alternative. Different subscription levels and a high degree of customizability also make Wix an excellent option for writers looking to share different types of content like blog posts, essays, or creative writing.
With loads of templates and example pages, Wix has always offered a pretty simple-to-use site. But the integration of AI, along with the platform’s step-by-step guide, has made creating a portfolio site even easier. Once you’ve designed your homepage, you can easily set up a blog to self-publish content or create pages to link your other published work.
4. LinkedIn
While you’re probably familiar with LinkedIn as a way to share your professional portfolio or upload your resume, not everyone realizes that users can publish content on the platform. Once logged in, users can access the option from the top center of their landing page, where they’re given the option to “Start a post, try writing with AI.” Here, users can upload media, add an event, or write an article.
Like Medium, LinkedIn’s “Write article” feature allows users to upload images and add H2 subheaders, which gives job-seeking freelancers a way to show they understand SEO best practices. Once you’ve published your content, it’s easy to share with your professional network or LinkedIn’s professional groups.
5. Authory
Authory is similar to LinkedIn in that users can create a profile with a custom header and tagline underneath their name. But instead of creating a resume, users add links to their published content that display with a preview image, title, publication date, and publisher name. The paid subscription price is reasonable, and there’s a free version for writers who aren’t ready to invest in paid professional subscriptions.
Authory users can create a custom URL featuring their name or business name to share on their resume or social media. The platform will even automatically add newly published work to subscribed users’ portfolios and give you analytics on linked content that tell you, for example, how many Facebook comments a blog post received.
While you can’t publish writing samples directly on Authory, the platform offers writers a space to pull together content they’ve published on other sites in a clean, attractive layout. This is especially helpful for writers with content that doesn’t have a byline (like business blogs) or share blog content in a more professional-looking space.
Creating a Killer Online Writing Portfolio Page
Even if they’ve racked up a few writing samples, writers can demonstrate their versatility by sharing the different types of writing they’re capable of on their portfolio. An online writing portfolio site may also include things like social media links and testimonials from previous clients.
To create the best possible online writing profile and start filling it with strong writing samples, try drawing inspiration from the sites you hope will hire you or other writing portfolio examples. Most importantly, continue to build out your writing portfolio every time you add a new skill or gain a new publishing credit. Finally, don’t forget to remove older, lower-quality content as you grow professionally.
Here are a few more things to consider:
- Make sure your content reflects industry standards.
- Showcase the type of work you’re hoping to get hired for.
- Proofread your work, read it out loud, and then proofread it again.
Creating an Online Writing Portfolio Wrapup
No matter what type of writer you are, a fiction writer, a web content writer, or someone who produces technical writing such as case studies, having a professional online writing portfolio can lead to better (and more) jobs. If you don’t have one, creating one should be at the top of your to-do list.
Once you’ve really started to build out your portfolio, a paid subscription for a site like Authory or Medium can be a valuable investment in terms of helping you land better opportunities and connect with other clients and industry professionals.
Do you have a favorite platform for sharing your online writing portfolio, or do you know of any good self-publishing sites we’ve overlooked? Let us know in the comments!