Five Tips to Build a Writing Portfolio
If you want to be a successful freelance writer, you need proof of your abilities. A writing portfolio is a professional way to present your work in one place.
As a freelance writer, I have published various pieces of content over the years and appeared on multiple sites. I’ve even published a few books. However, as Hank Williams Jr. says, “I’m a dinosaur.” Some sites I’ve helped Google love are no longer around. I was making sites before Google was a thing. Who remembers Ask Jeeves?
A writing portfolio isn’t just a scrapbook of your work for you to admire. It’s proof of your work history, your expertise, and your skills.
Building a professional portfolio of writing samples can be challenging if you’re a copy or content writer for websites and blogs. Statistically, the average lifespan for a website is anywhere from 2 to 7 years.
Three seems to be the average number of years a site registers its domain and tries to make money from its publications. There are various ways for a site to make money, which I’ll cover in a future post.
Today, I want to discuss how freelance writers can create a portfolio of writing samples using these tips.
Tip 1: Create Your Own Website
Creating a website is one of the best ways to ensure you have written content that potential clients can explore.
Having your own site has several benefits. You have full editorial control, so you can decide everything from branding and looks to niche and content.
A website can also become a source of passive income, allowing you to make money from your website with minimal work.
Paid members of my Stack get access to content about niches, passive income sources, and website creation. Need help filling your website with content? Message me about my freelance writing services or ask about my website content planner, which can help you map out your publishing content.
Tip 2: Publish Content on Other Websites
While having a website you regularly work on looks good to potential clients, it can be hard to score a job with only yourself as a reference.
As long as you know where to look, dozens of publishing opportunities are available for writers of all experience levels.
I keep a Google Sheets form that I constantly update with new opportunities and track who I’ve published with and submitted to. I also use this worksheet to keep track of content ideas to write.
Freelance writing is all about staying organized. If you don’t have a system yet to help you find and track writing opportunities, now is the perfect time to score my list while it’s on sale.
Once you purchase the document, you’ll have access to a growing list of publishers that I add to daily. I expect this form to eventually have hundreds of entries and be worth a pretty penny since it eliminates the need for a writer to do legwork or research.
Get access to these publishing recommendations for writers of all niches for the bargain price of $5, valid only until February 1st. This offer only exists for paid Stack subscribers. For non-subscribers, the price goes up to $8.
Tip 3: Save Your Links
Nothing is more frustrating when trying to find new clients than wasting time trying to find links to your published work.
I mentioned using Google Sheets to keep all the links in one place, easily accessible and organized by niche, dates of contribution, and if I was a regular contributor with a byline or a guest poster.
However, Google Sheets doesn’t exactly scream professionalism, so having a portfolio is also a good idea. You can save everything you write to your bookmark tab or online cloud or download the data onto your computer or external storage device.
But that can be messy, disorganized, and unprofessional. Not to mention how much time and storage that would take up.
Upgrade to a paid subscription to get the rest of the tips for how to build a writing portfolio to help you get better jobs and niche expertise status.
Many online portfolio sites allow you to input links to your content that neatly display your work. I use ClearVoice and MuckRack to save my content, and I have a link to share the entire portfolio with my clients.
Best of all, both ClearVoice and MuckRack are free to use despite having over a hundred links to browse. Check out this screenshot of my portfolio, or click this link to see it in action.
Screenshot of my portfolio on Clear Voice
Tip 4: Establish a Social Presence
Whether we like it or not (I’m in the NOT pile), social media is here to stay. And it’s a great way to reach new audiences, especially if you’re seeking to make an impact with younger audiences.
It seems like there’s a new trend popping up every month, and it’s hard to keep track, let alone be on all of them. Content repurposing is crucial if you want to appear on all of them. Unless you plan to devote all your time to your social media presence.
Not ideal for people who want to make a living as a writer.
Some sites are more image-forward, others are video-based, and others are great for showcasing your writing skills.
A social media calendar is a massive time saver for keeping up with regular postings. Instead of trying to show up on every site every day, space it out so that you’re alternating between platforms, slightly changing the focus of your theme for that week (or month).
The best social media strategy combines what you write with what you promote on your platforms. Upgrade to a Paid subscription to get my personalized schedule for cross-promoting your content.
The best social media platforms for writers to promote, collaborate, and find clients include:
Facebook - writing focused
X/Bluesky - short writer-focused platforms separated by political views
Instagram - visual-based
Pinterest - visual-based
LinkedIn - professional based
Tip 5: Use Your Portfolio to Grow Your Resume
While your portfolio is an important compilation of your writing, your resume is a compacted summary of your experience.
Clients will view your resume before reviewing your writing samples. If your resume doesn’t make the right impression, your portfolio will not be viewed, and you will be passed over for the next candidate.
You can use a resume template or write your work experience from scratch. Your resume needs the name of your former experiences, a checklist of achievements and skills for each job, and a summary of your role.
If you can include letters of recommendation or referrals, your resume looks much stronger. LOR and referrals are also helpful for writers because of the unreliability of website lifespans.
If a site goes under, all of the content you wrote for that site disappears. It’s hard to say you wrote these articles on this site in this niche for this length of time if you can’t prove it.
Kind of like saying you were the manager of Circuit City or Toys-R-Us. No one can prove that you weren’t. But then again, they can’t prove you were, either.
Freelance Writers Need Proof of Experience
When you’re a freelance writer, it can be hard to make money at first. It’s more challenging when you're starting from scratch as a writer and don’t have any samples or proof of your expertise. Developing a portfolio can help your career be more successful, allowing you to make a living out of writing.
Who doesn’t want to get paid to do what they love? That’s what Frugal Freelancer is all about. So be sure you’re subscribed to my Stack