How to Build a Strong Freelance Writing Portfolio

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You may have finally decided to become your own boss, knowing you have exceptional writing skills. Who wouldn’t like working for oneself with a flexible work schedule? Perhaps, no one. However, you will first need to build a strong freelance writing portfolio before starting to sell your writing services. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to build it! In this post, you are going to find out how to create it. But before jumping to that, you need to understand the following:


  • What Is a Writing Portfolio for a Freelancer? 

  • Why Do Freelance Writers Need to Have a Portfolio?



This is an example image of samples a writing portfolio should have

What Is a Writing Portfolio for a Freelancer? 

A writing portfolio for a freelancer is a collection of the best writing samples. And you need to organize those samples as a writer in a way so that users can easily browse through them. That is to say, you should make your portfolio look appealing to your prospects. It can help you possibly convert your prospective customers into actual clients. And the key to doing so is you choose the right format for your portfolio. Irrespective of whether your portfolio is on your website page or hosted on a freelancing platform, like Upwork.     


Why Do Freelance Writers Need to Have a Portfolio?

When you start your freelance writing career, you may get a few clients from referrals. For instance, one of your friends may recommend you to someone for freelance writing. Then, you may start thinking about: Is a portfolio, such as a content writing portfolio important? Having a portfolio is still important for you as a freelance writer. Here is: Why?


Prospective clients may want to see some of your previous work before considering you for the writing job. This is one reason why you need to have a writing portfolio. In fact, you should build a winning writing portfolio for a job application, which increases your chances of securing jobs. Based on the things mentioned already, you can comprehend the importance of having a portfolio as a freelance writer.         


This is an image of how to

How to Create a Strong Freelance Writing Portfolio

You may think as a beginner freelancer how you can build a writing portfolio with no experience. Well, you can create it, as many other beginner freelancers have also done it in the past. There are tips for beginners on how to build a writing portfolio with no experience. Here are those tips in brief:


  • Beginners can take writing classes to improve their writing skills and get samples: writing assignments, for example.

  • Choose a niche or niche(s); a specialized area of writing expertise to create relevant samples and create a portfolio. 

  • Based on writing skills, beginners can create spec (speculative) ads or guest posts, as an example, to create a portfolio. 


Moreover, here are the steps you can follow to build a strong freelance writing portfolio:


  1. Limit Your Writing Samples 

Whether you like it or not, your potential clients do not have the time to spend hours seeing your portfolio. They may probably spend 15 minutes seeing your writing samples. For this reason, you should limit the number of your writing samples to include in your portfolio. 4 to 6 samples minimum and 6 to 9 samples maximum, but make sure each sample you choose relates to a different project.   


  1. Use High-quality, Attention-grabbing Thumbnails

Including your writing samples in your portfolio is one thing. And encouraging your audience (website visitors) to click on them is another thing. So, choose high-quality, attention-grabbing thumbnails for your writing samples to increase the chances of visitors clicking on (seeing) your samples.


Also, make sure the thumbnails you choose are of the same type, featuring the same color palette. It will provide them with a cohesive look overall. Not to mention, it depends on you whether you choose square or rectangular thumbnails.  


Besides, square thumbnails look consistent and simple to design. Contrarily, rectangular thumbnails are versatile and give your portfolio a more professional look. Moreover, here is the ideal size you should consider whether you choose to create square or rectangular thumbnails:


  • Rectangular (Ideal Size) - 600 * 400 (Landscape) or 400 * 600 pixels (Portrait)

  • Square (Ideal Size) - 300*300 or 500 *500 pixels  


  1. Describe Your Projects (Samples) as Mini Case Studies 

It is a good practice to treat describing your writing samples (projects) as mini case studies. The reason for this is that your prospective clients may not have the time to read your whole samples. Linking out to the finished writing pieces will certainly help. Still, you should give some background information about your project. Here is one example to do that:


  • Where Did You Get the Project from (Resource Name)

  • What Was the Task about? (Writing Assignment)   

  • What Were the Results? (Outcomes; Client Satisfaction, for Example)


  1. Establish Credibility, Using Testimonials and Recommendations  

Of course, writing samples are enough proof of your skills and experience as a writer. But please do not forget everyone nowadays can say anything about themselves on the WWW (World Wide Web). And you need to boost your credibility in the eyes of your clients with your writing samples. For this reason, consider adding testimonials and recommendations from your clients that you get in case. With clients’ photos and names if available to you to establish your credibility as a writer.   


  1. Add a Call-to-Action (CTA) 

You need to add a CTA to your portfolio page as a freelance writer. It provides your website visitors with clear instructions on what they need to do on your portfolio page. Further, the following are locations where you can add a CTA with a few examples: 


  • Hero Section (Under Your Logo on a Website and Menu) - Hire Me (a CTA Example)

  • Within Project Descriptions - Contact Me for Similar Projects (a CTA Example)


  1. Ensure Your Portfolio Page Is Responsive

Last but not least, make sure your writing portfolio page is responsive and looks good on all devices. It is important as half of the website traffic nowadays comes from smartphones (mobiles).   



Apart from following the above-mentioned examples, you should go through freelance writing portfolio sample examples online. There is tons of information available on that, which you can exploit to decide how you want your writing portfolio to look.


Also, there are portfolio website builders that beginners should know about to create their writing portfolios. Some of those are mentioned below, having free plans with limitations besides paid plans:



Conclusion

A writing portfolio for freelance writers is a collection of their best samples. And, having a freelance writing portfolio as a freelance writer increases your chances of winning writing jobs. As a beginner, you first need to take a writing course to start creating your samples. Writing assignments and guest posts, for example, once you have developed good writing skills. To finish, here is a recapitulation of the steps you need to follow to build a strong writing portfolio:   


  1. Limit your writing samples. 

  2. Use high-quality, attention-grabbing thumbnails.

  3. Describe your projects (samples) as mini case studies. 

  4. Establish credibility, using testimonials and recommendations.  

  5. Add a Call-to-Action.

  6. Ensure your portfolio page is responsive.

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