So, what are the best places to showcase your portfolio? You may have heard of paid sites like Clippings.me and Journo Portfolio, but you don’t necessarily have to pay just to display your work. In this article, let’s look at the free platforms where you can showcase your freelance writing portfolio and the potential benefits of utilizing these websites for your work.
1. Your Own Website
Creating and using your own website to showcase your writing portfolio offers the greatest flexibility in terms of display. You can customize your site’s theme and font, as well as create unique categories to display your published work.
You can also start blogging on your website. This way, your blog posts can serve as writing samples as well. As you gain more traffic in the future, your website also has the potential to serve as another source of income via ad revenue and affiliate marketing.
Although you do need to pay to get a .com domain, if you’re just starting out, it’s best to focus on adding new work to your portfolio and familiarizing yourself with website builders. You can start with a free plan right away on platforms like WordPress.com.
2. Social Media
Social media such as Twitter and Instagram is a great way to expose your work to people. You can extract quotes and publish interesting snippets from your articles, with a link to the full one in a story or post. By utilizing hashtags, the public can then discover, follow, and reshare your work easily.
There’s also the possibility of your content becoming popular or viral. These are good ways for potential clients to see that you have what it takes to produce engaging content people want.
As a reminder, be mindful of maintaining professionalism in your freelance writing social media profile. It’s best to keep it separate from your personal account, so you don’t accidentally post overly casual information and pictures that will negatively impact your work image.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest professional networking sites. There are a couple of ways to showcase your freelance writing portfolio here. Your LinkedIn profile is essentially your online resume. Therefore, you can add the links to your published pieces under each work experience. This automatically displays the featured image, title, and excerpt of your written content for a past client or employer. Another way is to add the links to your LinkedIn profile’s Featured section to spotlight your work.
It’s important to optimize your LinkedIn profile. Having a visually engaging and complete one can open more freelance writing job opportunities for you. For example, when business owners are scouting for freelance talent to join their team, the work you showcase may be just what they’re looking for. Recruiters who scour LinkedIn can also easily see your profile and can contact you if you’re a good fit for their clients.
4. Upwork
Upwork is a global marketplace that connects freelance workers with clients. Although you might have heard of its reputation as a content mill, it’s good for beginners to find freelance writing jobs. It helps you to overcome imposter syndrome and practice pitching.
For experienced freelancers, even if you have been disappointed by the lower-paying jobs, displaying your freelance writing portfolio on Upwork is still worth a try. Upwork is a lot of people’s first stop when they’re looking for freelancers, and there are still many willing to pay well for writing talent.
Instead of filtering through the daily avalanche of Upwork jobs yourself, simply let your past work speak for itself. If it fits what someone is looking for, they’ll drop you a message, and you’ll be notified by email. You may easily gain another well-paying freelance client this way!
5. Contently
Contently is a content marketing platform that serves clients from a variety of industries. As a writer, you can showcase your freelance writing portfolio on Contently by creating an account and adding your published articles as Projects under your profile.
Contently looks through portfolios uploaded to their site to match freelancers with their clients. Check that you have your account’s Available to work setting toggled on so that you don’t miss out on this. If the match is successful, Contently provides training for you to use their platform and accept assignments from clients.
6. Medium
Medium is an online publishing platform where you can write about a wide range of topics. On Medium, you can write articles and include internal links to direct readers to your website, or even repurpose and repost content you already created.
However, do make sure that you have the right to republish content. If it’s a blog post you wrote on your own website, it’s no problem. But you shouldn’t republish content you wrote for a client, even if you have a byline. In the future, if you meet the criteria for Medium’s Partner Program, you can even earn from publishing content on the platform.
7. Pinterest
Pinterest is well-known for its visual search results. Popular Pinterest content revolves around topics such as fashion, food, and DIY. Therefore, it’s particularly suitable for writers who specialize in writing such content because the platform’s users are already looking for it.
On Pinterest, you can display your freelance writing portfolio by creating pins of your content and organizing them in a way that makes your Pinterest boards stand out.
You might have a notable blogger or web publisher stumble upon your work—again, these are potential opportunities for networking and guest blogging. It’s a great way to drive traffic to content you have already written and get your name out in the niche you’re in.
Showcase Your Best Freelance Writing Work and Get More Clients
From pitching, writing, to invoicing, you need to wear multiple hats when you’re a freelance writer. While it’s tempting to utilize all platforms available to achieve maximum visibility at one go, it’s better to strategically pick a select few so that you don’t spread yourself too thin in your freelance writing business.
