writing portfolio – Writer's Edit

One of the best tools you can have as a freelance writer is a portfolio of your writing. And no, we're not talking about an old-school scrapbook filled with clippings of your articles! We're talking about a sleek, professional online portfolio that helps you showcase your skills and experience. Think of it as a practical sort of CV – an up-to-date history of your best work. Freelance writer portfolios are handy for a number of reasons. They allow you to collate all your different pieces of writing in one place, and you can use them as an easy way to present writing samples to potential clients. Whichever types of freelance writing jobs you're looking for, a writing portfolio is an essential tool to help you land them. Thanks to the boom in creative freelancing over recent years, you're able to choose from an abundance of specialised sites to host your writing portfolio. So in no particular order, here are some of the most popular and widely used portfolio sites for freelance writers. 1. Clippings.me Clippings.me is a specifically writing-focused site, unlike some other portfolio sites that may also be used by other creative freelancers like designers. Clippings.me has been around since 2011 and bills itself as 'the world's largest journalism portfolio site'. You can set up your profile with a biography and some background imagery, then upload and arrange your articles (or 'clippings') under different headings as you see fit. Basic features Supports online articles and PDF uploads Customisable design Adaptation to mobile format Multimedia-compatible – video and audio files also supported clippings.me/yourname domain Pricing options You can use Clippings.me for free, but there's a catch: you're limited to 10 pieces in your portfolio. This is fine when you're getting started, but as your portfolio grows, it makes it hard to showcase all your best work. Paid plans give you more freedom. Both the Premium plan (US$5.99/month) and the Unbranded plan (US$11.99/month) allow you to upload unlimited articles. Both paid plans also feature the ability to use a custom domain, add a contact form, and integrate with Google Analytics. The latter is a particularly useful feature, allowing you to track visits to your profile and see how often (and where) your work is shared online. The Unbranded plan removes all Clippings.me branding, making your portfolio look more professional. 2. Contently Founded in 2010, Contently is a content marketing and technology company, which also offers a portfolio component for freelance writers. (Make sure you're checking out Contently.net, not .com – the .net site is their hub for creative freelancers.) Contently is a little different in that it's focused on freelancers who are actively seeking work. The site works in partnership with clients who are seeking freelancers, matching their requests with writers who have appropriate portfolios and skillsets. Check out this infographic for step-by-step details on how the whole process works. However, you don't have to use Contently for this purpose. You can still choose to use it as a regular portfolio simply to showcase your work in one place. In fact, it might be better to use it that way and not rely on it for freelance opportunities – the site itself says: 'We'd love to provide assignments for everyone who signs up for a Contently portfolio; unfortunately, we are not an open marketplace and cannot supply work for the roughly 80,000 users now using a portfolio.' Basic features Unlimited articles Supports URLs and document uploads Automatic collation tool that trawls websites you've contributed to and pulls together your articles Biography listing areas of expertise Customisable portfolio with built-in themes Tracking/measuring for shares and likes your articles have received Multimedia-compatible yourname.contently.com domain Pricing options Contently's portfolio platform is free to use. All of the above features are available to anyone who signs up. However, do be aware that any work you attain through Contently will be subject to a 15% 'agent's fee', taken out of your earnings from each job. 3. Journo Portfolio Journo Portfolio focuses on 'helping journalists, writers and bloggers create a fully personalised website to showcase their writing'. Featuring multiple themes and built-in images to use, Journo Portfolio also offers flexible editing options so you can customise your portfolio and help it stand out online. Basic features Supports online articles and PDF/image uploads Customisation, with 6 themes to choose from Automatic input of title, publication, date, content and image when entering an article URL Built-in analytics and Google Analytics integration Ability to upload CV yourname.journoportfolio.com domain Pricing options Similarly to Clippings.me, Journo Portfolio offers three pricing options: free, Plus (US$4.99/month), and Pro (US$7.99/month). Both paid plans offer free trial periods, and you can get an annual discount for paying upfront. The free plan limits you to 10 articles and one 'home page'. The Plus plan gives you unlimited articles and the ability to create unlimited additional pages. The Pro plan is unlimited, too, also offering a custom domain, article backups and password protection. (This plan also includes the option of an 8GB custom email account for an additional $3/month). 4. Pressfolios Pressfolios is an online portfolio platform that offers article backup services as a point of difference. It's mainly targeted at freelance journalists, but also works perfectly for content writers, bloggers and media/PR professionals. Founded in 2011, it's also different from other portfolio sites in that it doesn't offer any free plans. However, its features and support services are solid enough to account for this. Basic features Supports online articles and PDF/image uploads Full-text backups of every article sent to cloud storage Customisation and layout options Google Chrome extension for adding stories directly from browser Pricing options As we mentioned, there are no free account options with Pressfolios, but they do offer a two-week free trial period. There are two plan options: Lite, at US$9.99/month, and Pro, at US$14.99/month. The Lite plan allows you to add up to 250 articles, with backups for every piece; it includes a yourname.pressfolios.com domain. The Pro plan offers unlimited articles, expanded backup, a custom domain name and stats for your portfolio. 5. Muck Rack Somewhat similarly to Contently, Muck Rack is focused on connecting freelance writers with sources and PR/marketing professionals. Launched in 2008, Muck Rack offers a dual platform: one side is for PR professionals to find and pitch journalists; the other is for journalists/writers to showcase their portfolio and potentially find work. Basically, people and companies signed up to the PR side will receive an alert whenever a writer posts a relevant story to their portfolio. This means that writers, along with having a platform for their portfolio, get the added bonus of potential freelance work from new clients. Basic features Supports online articles and PDF uploads Comprehensive linked social media/contact panel Tracking/measuring for shares and likes your articles have received Profile customisation Pricing options Muck Rack profiles are free for journalists (the PR/communications side of the platform involves signing up for a paid plan). 6. WordPress While not a dedicated portfolio platform, WordPress is still a great option for creating a DIY-style portfolio, or simply integrating one into your website. If you don't mind doing a little extra legwork yourself, WordPress can be a great option for a more customisable portfolio. WordPress even has a dedicated Portfolio feature, which you can read more about here. Basic features Plugins including SEO, spam protection, social sharing, site stats etc. Hundreds of free site themes/templates Basic design customisation including preset colour schemes, background designs and font styles Minimum 3GB storage space Support through user community forums Pricing options Creating a basic WordPress site is free and includes all the features listed above and a WordPress.com subdomain (sitename.wordpress.com). There are also three paid plans available, all of which include a custom domain name and email/live chat support: Personal (US$2.99/month), with 6GB of storage and the ability to remove WordPress.com ads. Premium (US$8.25/month), with unlimited premium themes, advanced design customisation, 13GB of storage, and the ability to remove WordPress ads and monetise your site. Business (US$24.92/month), with unlimited premium themes, advanced design customisation, unlimited storage, Google Analytics integration, and the ability to monetise your site and remove WordPress ads and branding. 7. Squarespace Another non-portfolio-specific platform for freelance writers is Squarespace. It's similar to WordPress in that you're able to customise your portfolio to your liking (and even build a whole writer's website around it, which we recommend doing). The simple drag-and-drop nature of Squarespace is its biggest drawcard – it's surprisingly simple and straightforward to use, given the sleek, professional-looking outcome you get. It also has plenty of specialised portfolio templates to choose from. There aren't any free options available with Squarespace, so if you go with this option, we recommend utilising it to build an entire freelance writer website as well as your portfolio. Basic features Customisable layouts, styles, fonts, colours and page configurations Versatile designer templates Mobile optimisation Built-in integrations with Adobe Creative Suite, Google Drive, Getty Images etc. Pricing options As we mentioned before, there are no free plans on Squarespace, but its advanced design features make this understandable. The two plans available include: Personal (US$12/month billed annually or $16 billed month-to-month): 20 pages/galleries/blogs; unlimited storage; two contributors; website analytics; free custom domain; SSL security and 24/7 customer support. Business (US$18/month billed annually or $26 billed month-to-month): same features as above but with unlimited pages/galleries/blogs and contributors; a professional email from Google; and a $100 Google AdWords credit. *** Which site do you use for your freelance writing portfolio? Do you have any tips or tricks for standing out from the crowd? Let us know in the comments! If you're looking for more tools to help you out in your freelance writing, be sure to check out our round-up of invoicing tools for freelance writers and our discussion about coworking spaces.