How to Set Up Your Writing Portfolio Like a Pro
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Everything you need to know to get your best work out there and start landing clients!
When you’re just starting out as a freelance writer, you’ll need a writing portfolio. When you’re a seasoned writer with some awesome experience under your belt, you’ll need a writing portfolio. Catch my drift?
In this post, I’ll dive into how to create a writing portfolio that is simple and professional. Your portfolio will be the key to landing great work and justifying higher rates.
Don’t have any writing samples yet? No worries! I’ll make sure you’re on the road to success too.
Read this: How to Get Clients with Zero Experience
What Is a Writing Portfolio?
A writing portfolio is a collection of your best work. It’s a place where potential clients can go to learn more about you, see writing samples and get in contact with you.
It’s important to emphasize that your portfolio is not a place to put all of your work. Only the absolute best pieces. Many new writers make the mistake of adding everything they’ve done because they think their portfolio isn’t impressive enough. However, this creates an issue of quantity versus quality.
I’ve seen it happen a lot with writers, especially those who want to get into copywriting. They have no previous copywriting experience, so they add content pieces, school papers and other non-copy projects to their portfolio.
To dive deeper into beefing up your copywriting portfolio, check out Filthy Rich Writer here. You can even find some examples of what a writing portfolio looks like.
How to Set Up a Writing Portfolio from Scratch
Creating an online writing portfolio is essential if you want to land high-quality work. Let’s get into how to create a writing portfolio quickly and effectively!
What to Include in a Writing Portfolio
Your writing portfolio should be so much more than just a collection of your best work. You want your portfolio to introduce your personal brand, compel clients to hire you and serve as a simple way to get in touch.
Think of your portfolio as your very own corner of cyberspace. Plus, if you do it correctly, it will work 24/7 to attract great clients looking for work.
Read this: 11 Steps to Find Freelance Copywriting Jobs
Key Things to Put in Your Writing Portfolio
There are a few things that must be included in your writing portfolio. Beginners, don’t be overwhelmed by this! You’re making a great decision to invest time and effort into your online portfolio. This is how you get work!
Homepage: The face page of your website. Spend lots of time here to make sure the copy is both compelling and concise. It also should help people easily navigate to other pages on your site.
About page: As a freelance writer, you do need to show your face and share a little about yourself. After all, your clients need to feel comfortable and have an idea about who you are.
Portfolio page: Here is where you can post your best pieces (not all your pieces). Give viewers some context about the project, and if you have any results from your writing, be sure to include it.
Contact page: Don’t make it hard for a potential client to contact you. Make sure you have an easy (and functional) contact form that links up with your email.
Awesome Extras to Add to Your Portfolio
Incorporate these things into your portfolio once you have some experience. They’ll make your beginner portfolio look like a seasoned website!
Conversions page: When you get great results on your copy or a bump in SEO blog rankings, make sure to highlight these stats! Create a separate webpage with your most impressive results, and you can easily share the direct link with potential clients.
Blog: Set up a blog on your website so Google can begin to recognize what kind of services you provide. Try to rank for strategic keywords and match with the right readers. If you do well with your blogs, these readers may become your next enthusiastic clients!
Testimonials page: From now on, every time you work with a new client, ask for a testimonial upon completion of the project. Then, create a webpage that lists all of your testimonials. If you want to add some of the best ones to your homepage, go for it!
Packages: If you find yourself bundling services time and time again, consider posting a handful of all-inclusive packages on your website. This might encourage clients to accept extra services if they see it’s all bundled together.
See? Even a great writing portfolio doesn’t have to be hard to create. Remember to keep everything clean and easy to navigate.
Where to Host Your Writing Portfolio
Make sure that you have your own designated space to showcase your work. That means your own website where your clients won’t be tempted to click into ads or other writer profiles as they’re reviewing your samples. As in, no Upwork, no Fiverr, no Medium.
There are plenty of simple and clean sites to host your work. I use Squarespace, and I love how easy it is to add samples and copy within flexible website templates.
Choose a hosting site with lots of options to create a website that you’re proud of. And again: Make sure your site is free of ads and links to other writer profiles.
Writing Portfolio FAQs
Let’s dive into a few more questions about sharing your writing samples.
Does a Writing Portfolio Have to Be a Website?
If you talk to other writers, you may hear that they send a PDF of their work to potential clients. Or, they tell clients to look at their Upwork profile for samples. Sure, it’s a free writing portfolio, but it’s pretty amateur.
Here’s the thing: You need to show clients that you are serious about your career. I know you may hesitate to pay for a website when you haven’t landed many clients yet. However, clients expect to see a stand-alone website. Not to mention, most of your real competitors will have a professional website.
Don’t miss out on work just because you didn’t want to pay $12-18 monthly for a website.
In my experience, I relied on an Upwork portfolio for about 3 years. And in that time, I was only landing Upwork clients and competing for low rates. (It sucked).
It wasn’t until Filthy Rich Writer inspired me to take action and propel my career to the next level. Then, after 3 years of mediocre writing jobs, I created my own copywriting website - and a 6-figure business emerged!
So, I highly highly highly recommend that you make your portfolio on a website.
How Many Pieces Should a Writing Portfolio Have?
As I mentioned before, new writers think they need to pack their portfolio with lots of samples to show that they have experience. However, if you put low-quality work on your portfolio, clients will expect low-quality work.
When you’re deciding what to include in your writing portfolio, think quality over quantity. Think relevance over quantity. Think client needs over what you’re most proud of. If you only have 3 pieces that are worth sharing, only include those pieces.
Not convinced? Read the next writer’s portfolio FAQ to learn how to beef up your number of samples!
What if I Don’t Have Any Samples for a Portfolio?
If you’re stuck in a place where you have zero experience, and therefore zero clients, don’t worry! You can beef up your writing portfolio, even before you get your first client.
I go much deeper in this blog post, so check it out: How to Gain Clients with Zero Experience
Heads Up, Writers!
(Read Below)
Heads Up, Writers! (Read Below)
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