4 Easy Solutions to Starting a Writing Portfolio

Apparently, July 12th is Portfolio Day. There are so many different events happening every-single-day that it’s hard to keep up. This is one of the few that did catch my eye though as creating a portfolio should be a top priority on any writer’s to-do list.

Recently, I have been trying to prepare a writing portfolio that is fast and accessible for clients. I want a solution that makes it easy to browse through my most recent content but also lets me pic and choose articles that might be relevant to a potential client.

Here are a few suggestions for setting up your own portfolio.

WordPress.org

Using WordPress.org is going to be the most complex approach to designing your own online portfolio. It requires you to find your own hosting solution that you will have to pay for yearly to maintain the website. Where WordPress.org excels is in its ability as a backend solution for your website. It has a great deal of flexibility to create and produce an online portfolio that will match the exact style you are looking for.

Also, WordPress.org shouldn’t be confused with WordPress.com. Sure, WordPress.com is another solution for hosting your online content but unless you want to pay for additional features you are limited to a rather mundane blog-style approach.

It’s best to stick with WordPress.org if you want something that is presentable to clients. The learning curve may be steeper, but it’s not too difficult and the benefits far outweigh the initial costs.

PressFolios

I have been using PressFolios for a few weeks now and I appreciate its simple approach to importing content from any source. The process of adding my articles to my portfolio has been easy. The only caveat is that it doesn’t allow me to highlight or feature my best articles on my main page. It only allows me to sort by date added or date originally published.

PressFolios also has an issue picking up any images from Medium that are not your own. All those Unsplash images won’t import so you will need to add a custom image to keep your PressFolios page looking clean.

Cost: It costs $14.99 a month to subscribe to PressFolios. This includes a 14-day free trial, the ability to create backups of your articles should the original link ever go down, and the ability to add unlimited articles as well as PDFs.

Clippings.me

This is another option that shares a lot in common with PressFolio, but I found the interface less user friendly. It requires you to be a lot more hands on with the import process. However, there are a few more options that I appreciate. You can group your articles in categories, upload PDF files and import other media that is pertinent to your portfolio. There is also greater flexibility in how you can organize your articles on the page.

Sure, it might be a little more hands-on than PressFolio, but its customizable nature is its greatest strength.

Cost: The premium plan costs $9.99 a month and offers the features listed below.

Journo Portfolio

I have to say that I was absolutely floored by the onboarding process when I signed up for Journo Portfolio. The graphical UI used to get your portfolio page setup is by far the best out of all the options I have looked at so far. I imported a few articles on my page as a test and it was as simple as PressFolios but also had no issues scraping Unsplash images from Medium.

It features a robust set of customization tools to tune your portfolio just how you like it. You have the option to break the page down into sections so you can focus on the content you want your clients to see first.

Cost: It’s $9 USD a month if you sign up for a year of their Pro subscription up front, charged annually. They also give you the option of signing up for a Plus subscription for $5 USD that doesn’t have as many features. The price difference is small enough that I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at signing up for one year.

Final Thoughts

When I started this article, I was dead set on sticking with my PressFolios subscription but as I delved into the Journo Portfolio tool set, I convinced myself that I need to switch. It is by far the most feature complete out of the three “pre-baked” journalism portfolio options.

Using WordPress.org to build a portfolio will probably be my long-term solution since I can design it just the way I want it.