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What Your Freelance Blogging Portfolio Says About You: How Clients Decide Who to Hire

What Your Freelance Blogging Portfolio Says About You: How Clients Decide Who to Hire

Does the thought of a potential client checking out your freelance blogging portfolio make you so nervous, you get the hiccups?

When you’re freelancing, your portfolio is one of your biggest assets. It can get you hired on the spot, or dumped on the pile of instantly forgotten applicants who failed to impress.

So let’s ask the obvious question: what does your portfolio say about you?

It’s a tough question to answer for yourself, and there isn’t always someone around who’s qualified to give a second opinion. (Your parents and friends will always tell you that your freelance blogging portfolio looks great – that’s their job!)

Only your potential clients and blog editors really know what goes through their minds when they look at your portfolio.

And the biggest problem with that is, you don’t often get feedback from the people who chose not to hire you. So you’ll never know why they made that decision, or how you could have used your portfolio to win the dream gig that got away.

Let’s figure out what you can do to make your portfolio more impressive.

Here’s how you look to your potential clients right now:

The blogger without a past

Blank pages
If you don’t have a portfolio at all, you’ll look inexperienced and unprofessional.

Don’t expect to win a high-paying gig without some kind of proof that you can deliver what your client wants!

Here’s your best bet to boost your chances of winning good blogging gigs:

  1. Find yourself some blogging work for clients in your target markets or niches, at any pay rate (or even as free experience-building work)
  2. Set up a portfolio page on your freelance website, or use a service like LinkedIn or Contently to hold your portfolio if you don’t have a website of your own yet.
  3. Every time one of your posts goes live, add it to your online portfolio.
  4. Next time you query an editor or answer a blogging job ad, invite them to check out your portfolio and give them the URL.

The blogger of broken English

Beware of Slippy
Whatever language you plan to blog in, it helps if you make sense to your readers!

In the global economy, it’s kind of a downer to realise that although your skills are crazy awesome compared to the people who live on your block, you’re just one more blogger in a world of millions.

Clients have their business head on when they shortlist freelance blogging candidates.

It doesn’t matter to them if you’re a great listener with a friendly personality and a cute puppy. They don’t care that you came top of your class in English at school. When they look at your portfolio, if they see too many grammatical errors, typos, sentence fragments, and mangled metaphors, they’ll run for the hills.

If you’re blogging in English and that isn’t your first language, try to find a fluent English reader who can check over your writing before you submit it! You need to fill your portfolio with your best work, and demonstrate the same high standard of English as your blogging competitors.

Even bloggers born and raised in an English-speaking environment don’t always use the language as well as they could. If you suspect that your English language skills might be letting you down, get a piece of your writing reviewed by a professional and consider taking a writing class to help boost your blogging skills.

The hobby blogger

I'm not a player, I just blog a lot
Are you using your own blog as a portfolio?

Your posts on your own blog can make great writing samples, but there’s something missing: you need to prove that you can work with editors and clients.

As a freelance blogger, you may be expected to pitch ideas for approval before you start writing, or your client may set a topic and title for you to work with.

You’ll work to somebody else’s specifications and deadline, instead of choosing your own path at your own pace. And your client has to be pleased with the results, or you lose the chance of winning repeat work.

When your potential clients see that your own blog’s the only place you’ve been published, it leads them to doubt your professional status. They don’t want to be the first to hire you, because newbie freelancers are prone to making mistakes on their first few jobs.

So what do you do if you’re just starting out as a freelance blogger and you don’t have any posts published elsewhere yet? Well, you get some published!

If you haven’t got any paying clients yet, get yourself some clips by guest posting on other blogs that are relevant to your target markets. Guest blogging is much easier than you think, and it gives you more credibility as a freelance blogging candidate.

The pro freelance blogger

What Your Freelance Blogging Portfolio Says About You: How Clients Decide Who to Hire
Yay!

Do you already have an online portfolio? Is it good-looking, easy to navigate, and populated with awesome blog posts that clients have paid you to write?

Great! Then you don’t need me to tell you that you rock.

A good selection of posts published by paying clients and well-known blogs goes a long way. It gives your potential clients confidence in your ability and professionalism, as well as showing them the topics you cover and the types of project you work on.

The only thing that you might have neglected is to tailor your portfolio to attract the clients and projects you want.

If you’re bored of blogging about haircare and you want to find work for gadget blogs instead, make sure that your portfolio highlights your best technology blogging and hide all the haircare stuff. Sounds obvious, but a lot of writers simply throw every piece they’ve ever created into their portfolio and leave it up to potential clients to dig through the heap!

If you’re ready to take this concept a step further, break your portfolio down into a selection of sub-portfolios, each targeting a particular type of project or client. Once that’s done, you can refer your leads to the portfolio page that’s most likely to appeal to them.

Even for pro freelance bloggers, there’s one more thing to bear in mind when you think you’ve got your portfolio all set:

Your other portfolio is the internet

Google embarrassing stuff about you
Yikes. Too late to delete it now!

Remember that your work samples aren’t limited to the collection you carefully curated on your own website.

Your potential clients can choose to get a rough-and-ready portfolio of your work simply by searching the internet for your name and other keywords.

Go ahead, Google yourself right now. I’ll wait. How does the first page of the search results look?

If you don’t see yourself anywhere on the first couple of pages, even when you search for something like “Your Name freelance blogger”, then you need to increase your web presence.

If you do see your own work in the first page or two, which posts have the top rankings? These are the ones your potential clients are most likely to end up visiting if they look you up through a search engine. While you’re there, check out the image results – sometimes the most surprising photos can pop up in image searches!

There’s another kind of online portfolio you might not have considered, too: your social media portfolio.

Freelance blogging clients may want to see more than writing samples if they’re looking for a blogger with a ready-made digital audience.

Some of your potential clients will want to know how many social media fans and followers you have, and how much you promote your freelance blog posts on your own social profiles. A large and active following can help you to win better blogging gigs at higher rates of pay!

Whether your portfolio presents you as a pro or an amateur is your call.

It’s your portfolio. Take control and make it work for you.

Images: dantaylr, Augapfel, jmoneyyyyyyy, bigyahu, Sophie Lizard

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Comments

  1. Thank you for this really helpful post, Sophie. I just got my online portfolio up and running in November, but it’s not exactly where I want it yet. I hadn’t thought about adding the social media element to it, so thank you for that idea! Best, Audrey

  2. Great tips, what I’ve done on LinkedIn was create a profile for all my various pen names. This way, I can use just one link when showing my past work to a potential client. I can also blog about a variety of topics without having to worry too much about hiding past articles. A lot of novelists do this as well, they create social media profiles and even websites for their various pen names.

    • Hi Rachel, I know quite a few writers who’ve got multiple portfolios, multiple profiles, and so on… seems to work well for some, but I couldn’t take it!

      I had two of everything until quite recently, because I still had a website & social media channels for my old modelling persona, but it became kind of a headache to keep up with so I’ve spent the last couple of months consolidating and closing down old accounts.

      So, now’s my chance to ask someone who’s successfully managing a plethora of sites and profiles: how the heck do you stay on top of it all and still find time to write, eat, sleep etc.?

  3. Really sharp tips, Sophie! Gives me a few more things to think about..

    Out of curiosity, what’s typically the best way to promote/display a blogger’s “clippings” – a screenshot gallery, direct links, snippets from each piece, etc.? Thanks!

    –Craig

    • My personal preference is to show a screenshot, headline and summary text for each post, with the direct link to the original. It makes my portfolio look a bit like a blog’s index page, which I like to think gives clients the right idea.

      To be honest, there isn’t one “best way” to lay out your portfolio – it depends on what types of client and project you want to attract. If you’re targeting a very visual market then a single image *from* the post might make a better thumbnail than the post screenshot, for example.

  4. Hi, Sophie,

    Another excellent piece.

    Here’s an added bonus. I have a client who needs a lot of content on SEO, site design, etc. He needs it like yesterday, so I sent a link to my blog and the client bought eight articles @ $75 per.

    The pieces were already written, the client didn’t care about duplicate content, and I made some cash from posting for the past five years. In other words, a blog can, at some point, serve as a content store.

    Hey, maybe I should put up a FOR SALE sign on each post. Hmmm…

    Thanks for sharing,
    Paul

    • Nice one, Paul! If a client’s happy to buy an online reprint of your existing personal blog posts, cash in and smile unless you’re wary of content duplication. I’ve repurposed evergreen personal blog posts for my clients before, and it’s always nice to make money from something you’d originally created for fun.

  5. Well, you know I can’t resist an invitation like that, especially since I just finished reworking my portfolio. I’m still having a hard time getting blogging gigs (read: I have no steady ones), despite steady marketing. Not sure why. I don’t *think* it’s my portfolio, which I’m pretty happy with, but maybe there’s something I’m not seeing? It’s here: http://www.lcbaker.com/portfolio/

    • As a word lover, I’d like to see a little more text in your portfolio – your magazine & blog work has self-explanatory titles, but the further down the page I get, the less I know what I’m looking at.

      Who are you marketing to now, corporate clients or glossy blogs?

      • Both – but only getting gigs from the blogs. Feel like I’m not impressing corporate clients. Maybe it’s just that deep down I know I’d rather write more snarky, funny stuff than corporate stuff.

        Should I add more info about who the clients were? Little descriptions of what the pieces are? Both? Thanks for looking, I’ll play around with it some more! I was all excited that I figured out how to get it set up with all those pictures, but I see what you’re saying, it’s hard to tell what stuff is.

        • I think a simple one-sentence summary of each item would help a lot (without cluttering the page too much). We’re writers, so we should use writing to give our portfolios at-a-glance meaning! I’m always kinda surprised when a writer’s portfolio is a big page of links with no supporting text.

  6. Forgot to say: love the idea of creating specialized portfolio pages for different clients. I could go crazy with that. But I am definitely going to great a blogging portfolio page, especially after I get some more guest posts in different niches published.

  7. So glad you mentioned Contently. Love it!! I put mine as my link. You should check it out! You’ll see a familiar face on there. I may actually put some clips on my website again though, because you can’t separate by genre or send individual links. Kinda frustrating.

    • Oh, look, there I am in your portfolio! Yeah, I know what you mean about the lack of organisation on Contently – it lets you sort your clips by number of comments or social shares, which is interesting, but sometimes you really want to send someone straight to a specific part of your portfolio.

  8. Excellent points, especially about hiding the posts you don’t want to use to attract clients in that niche.

    I recently made a change to my portfolio that others might find useful. Since I have done magazine writing in the past (print & digital), and don’t plan to stop doing that, I have those samples on my portfolio, too. But since I predominantly want to work online as a blogger, I moved all my blogging samples to the top of my portfolio and have the articles at the bottom. This implies (to me, at least) that my main focus is blogging.

    • Yep, I do exactly the same thing, Bree! My blogging clips come first, then copywriting lower down the page. I also set my portfolio up with a tag system, so that I can filter by project type and display them on separate pages if I like.

  9. Thanks for this post. I have all of the components for an online portfolio, but I haven’t yet put them together on my website. I need to get my butt in gear! Writer for hire!

    • Set aside just an hour or two, Cindy, and get your portfolio set up with links to a few of your best posts – you can always add more later.

      From a client’s point of view, your paid writing clips should balance or outweigh your personal blogging clips. That’s how they know you’re a freelancer for hire and not just a crazy lady with internet access (OK, yes, you can be both).

  10. Thanks for this article – I do a lot of corporate blogging and ghost writing which I can’t use as part of an online portfolio.

    I’m setting up my own now and really like your ideas here. I have a checkered and wide publishing past and like the idea of sub folders.

    P.S. I enjoy your content and easy to read writing style.
    Amy

    • Thanks Amy, and you’ve just reminded me of a point worth mentioning:

      Yes, you *can* use ghostwriting or corporate work in your portfolio, provided that you haven’t signed an NDA with the client. Don’t worry about the lack of byline; just note in the item description that it was a ghost project. Most potential clients understand that ghosting happens, and aren’t at all surprised to see unbylined clips in your portfolio.

      • Hi, Sophie!

        I just found your blog last week and it’s wonderful. I’m finding lots of helpful information.

        I linked to my portfolio page but I also send potential clients other links to content I think would be relevant. And I’m getting ready to put together a different portfolio. After reading your article here I realize I’m not attracting the right crowd.

        Anyway, my big questions is about linking to ghost writing. I’ve written more than 1,000 blog posts for one client alone. In fact, his whole blog was written by me and it’s always bothered me that I couldn’t use it as part of my portfolio. Do you think I should run it by him first or is it just an understood industry standard that it’s OK for the ghostwriter to link to her work? I’ve never signed any kind of agreement with this guy.

        • If you didn’t sign an NDA and it wasn’t a “work for hire” gig (in which the commissioning client holds the copyright and you have no moral right to be named as the author), then there’s usually no reason you can’t mine that project for clips.
          That said, I’ve worked on non-disclosure projects and work-for-hire jobs where the client has still given permission for me to use the work in my portfolio.
          I always check with my ghostwriting clients, regardless – if they were desperate to prevent anyone finding out that the work was ghosted, I wouldn’t force the issue.

          Now, on to your portfolio:

          Um, I really don’t understand why I’m looking at an image of a witch in fetish gear next to your copy about “Professional Web Content”.
          Other than that, it’s a looong page and takes a bit of scrolling before you start showing me links to your work – if people arrive here expecting a portfolio (for example, if you gave them the URL like you did for me), they won’t be sure that’s what they’ve found.
          I’m interested to see what changes you make while you’re revamping your portfolio! Drop me the URL when you’re done so I can take a look. 🙂

  11. Another great post Sophie! I particularly liked the Problogger part even though I am not one. When you’re working in various niches you need to free your client from digging through your posts and search for relevant posts on his own. Like Cindy, I too don’t have my portfolio at the moment. I certainly need to increase my web presence. Thank you for this post!

    • And thank *you* for the comment, Uzma. I hope you have fun putting your portfolio together – let me know when it’s ready for me to check out!

  12. hey Sophie,

    I like how you gave us multiple ideas
    to help enhance our work, and feature customized
    client-focused portfolios…

    before I built my portfolio, I got some clients using this article
    http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com/3-hour-content-marketing-research-formula/
    in the signature of my outgoing emails

    I used this title:

    Why I Spend (At Least!) 3 Hours Before I Write a Short E-mail, Article or Blog Post

    It still works nowadays as a client magnet…

    hope you guys can learn from this example
    and create your own “client generator”

    best!

    P.S. Guest post pitching is not for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure!

    From my experience, it takes time, in depth research, and guts to approach top blogs in the industry you want to write for, and produce premium content for their audience.

    • Aha, the thing with guest posting is that without the guts to pitch, the rest won’t matter! I know some amazing bloggers who are too nervous to give it a try, and many average bloggers who are guest blogging superstars because they just keep on working at it.

      • Hello Sophie,
        The truth about guest posting is that it brightens our chances to get more exposure and has the ability of letting us secure an high paying client. we have nothing to loose if we get rejected from guest posting on a site, it only make us stronger. i think is high time people start seeing it that way.

  13. Hiya Sophie,

    Based on the criteria in your post, I’m almost a pro-freelance blogger. I do have a steady blogging gig (as a mental health blogger) and have been revamping my blog to reflect more mental health topics. I would like to make more money blogging (by getting two or three steady blogging jobs) while also maintaining my own blog. This goal is a challenge because I already work full-time and am a single parent. That being said, I’ve gotten this far and have been hired for pay. I just want to get paid more. Thanks so much for sharing this post and I’m so glad that I “met” you through Carol Tice’s site. 🙂 Cheers!

    • Hey Heiddi, I’m glad you’re here, too! If you’re working full-time already, you simply can’t afford to take low-paying gigs in your “spare” time – how do you plan to find better paying blog projects?

      Looking at your portfolio, my first thought is that you need to replace the default header image with something unique to you, or simply have no header image at all. Keeping a default image that half the blogging world recognises as such doesn’t make you look professional enough, and it’s a neglected opportunity to provide a memorable image for your business.
      Also, some of your clip titles are bold and others aren’t – if you standardise the formatting of your clips, your whole portfolio will look cleaner. Hope that helps!

  14. Hi Sophie,

    I have a lot of information on my LinkedIn page but it’s all related to editing–my main work–and I’d like to add my writing portfolio so it’s separate. The portfolio page doesn’t seem to exist any more on LinkedIn. Do you have any ideas about how to get my writing up in a portfolio on LinkedIn?

    Thanks very much.
    Gillian

    • Hi Gillian, you can add clips direct to your LinkedIn profile in the Summary section, or if you’ve listed the gig in the Experience section then you can add your clips there instead. There’s also now a separate Publications section on your profile, and that works very well as a portfolio too.

  15. Love these tips, Sophie! I love how you frame “the internet” as your other portfolio — it’s easy to forget what’s out there about us, AND that we can take steps to manage it.

    • Ooh! I saw you here and I just wanted to say that I bought The Writer’s Bucket List and I’ve been really enjoying your newsletter. 🙂

      (Apologies if this is an inappropriate interaction. Feel free to delete this comment if it is! I left my *real* comment about the article itself further down…)

  16. Hi Sophie – thanks for another great post! I’m in the midst of re-starting my blogging career. I was sidelined for a few years due to some life events but am excited to be back in the game. My blog is a bit dusty and needs a refresh, which I am working on. I recently wrote some articles for a past client that should go live soon. In the meantime do you think it’s ok to promote my portfolio of older posts?
    I also really appreciated your social media tip – so true!

    Thanks,
    Mary

    • Absolutely, Mary – old posts are better than no posts! Choose the ones that most closely resemble the type of work you want, and market like crazy. 🙂

  17. You nailed it again, Sophie! Excellent post.

    It took me a while until I built a portfolio I’m absolutely proud of, especially since I’m someone with English as a second language. I cover a variety of subjects and have been doing a lot of ghostblogging too.

    I googled my name a while back out of curiosity, and was happy to see my website showing third on the fist page, followed by my twitter page and a couple of other sites where I publish.

    I was surprised to notice that my name is a pretty common Romanian name, so other women from different fields named just like me turned up in the first page search results.

    Then I narrowed the search down to my name + writer + blogger and that first page is nearly all me: my Facebook page, my website, Twitter, Linkedin etc.

    There’s still a lot going on as I prepare my site for a makeover/relaunch as a blog soon. I can’t help but being fascinated with the online blogging world and doing the best I can to stand out from the crowd. Here’s the link to my portfolio: http://www.ancadumitru.com/portfolio/

    • Thanks, Anca! I like your site’s minimalist design, and your portfolio shows a wide range of topics. Is entertainment your main blogging focus?

      • Thanks Sophie and so sorry for my late reaction. For some reason I didn’t receive further email notifications about comments being posted here after mine, so I’ve only come across your response now. Entertainment was the topic I started writing about in the very beginning, two years ago, since it was, and still is, something I am passionate about. In time I approached other subjects as well to what you see on my portfolio page. I also started doing interviews and noticed a dramatic improvement of my interviewing skills, as did some media experts and press people I’ve been connecting with. As of this year, I’ll be concentrating on the content marketing element, so you’ll be seeing more posts and articles about this from me.

        • That sounds like a good fit – content marketing and entertainment are overlapping topics, and with your interviewing skills you’ll be able to create some great fully reported pieces. I’m looking forward to seeing some of them, so don’t forget to tweet me the links when they go live!

  18. Wonderful post! 😀 I’m going to promote it to my Twitter & Facebook followers on Saturday (my max interaction day). You really nailed it. Fabulous!

    And…gulp!…here’s my own portfolio: http://littlezotz.com/writing-samples/

    I’m never satisfied with it. But I’m also not sure what’s “wrong” with it. (It’s so much easier to judge other’s work than our own, isn’t it??)

    I *think* I need to work on targeting it to my ideal client like you suggested. However, I’m not really sure who/what that is. I love working with both small business owners and large companies. I love writing about forklift technology as much as I love writing about dogs or bi-polar disorder.

    My “ideal client” is more-or-less “Someone who wants quality writing with just a dash of humor.” But the subject matter itself doesn’t matter to me too much (as long as it’s not illegal or racist or something).

    Is that weird? I’m starting to feel self-conscious now. ~_~

    • Hey Lauren, I write about a whole stack of topics including technology, sex, books and psychology. Diversifying into multiple niches is normal, and necessary if you don’t want to risk losing all your income when one market goes belly-up.
      You don’t need to choose between small business and big business – just find ways to target intelligent people with money to spend on quality writing. Have you taken a look at some of your closest competitors’ portfolios to see if there are any ideas you want to adapt for your own?

  19. Hi Sophie,
    So I googled myself and I got my entertainment blog (not the writer’s portfolio one, the former was set 3 years ago), my social media profiles and 2 articles (one on Freelance Switch, one on Make a Living Writing.)
    As I increase my rates, I get rid of the low-paying articles on the portfolio. But if I’m happy with the rate, and it is an area I love writing in, I keep it.
    Now that I know you will check, it kind of feels like an audition 😀 But hey, here it is anyway:
    http://writing.pinartarhan.com/portfolio/

    • Hey Pinar, the one thing that stands out to me about your portfolio is that it’s got a lot of blogspot URLs. As an editor, I’d take that to mean you didn’t have many clips from established blogs, which might put me off.

      The idea of getting rid of topics you don’t really enjoy is a sound one, but don’t drop a good clip just because it was low-paying work! Your potential clients don’t see a price tag on each clip, so they won’t know if your best clip only paid $50.

  20. Another great post Sophie!

    I just got into freelance writing and applied for my first gig as well. I do hope to build my portfolio that way 🙂

    Yannick

  21. Hey Sophie,
    I myself an freelancer and a blogger, and having blogs really helped me in getting clients. I have sold my blogs and there was some gap to work on freelancing because of my fulltime job, presently i dont have any live portfolio to show to my clients and its getting somewhat difficult to get projects, but earlier when i was having blogs and portfolio of other clients, it was very easy to get projects. I am building my portfolio again and hopefully will get freelance projects

    • Hey Chetan, glad to hear you’re rebuilding your portfolio and pushing forward with freelance blogging. Stay in touch and let me now how you’re getting on!

  22. Useful tips Sophie.
    I was really surprised to see some of the images associated with my name.
    Nice point. But regarding the images, how will I control what will appear on searches?
    I’m curious.

  23. You can’t control image search results, Anthony – it’s in the hands of the Google. But you can make sure that whenever *you’re* putting images out there, you make them high quality –and if they’re pictures of you then make them flattering too, of course!

  24. Hmm it looks like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
    I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any tips for novice blog writers? I’d really appreciate
    it.

    • Start with what you know. Try making a list of the jobs you’ve had, your hobbies, your beliefs, your favorite subjects in school, moments that changed your life, your favorite stores, your favorite magazines…

      Then try to find common themes–repeating ideas–in your list. Those are your areas of expertise. 🙂

      You can also check out http://girlsguidetogoingfreelance – a new online course dedicated to helping newbie writers & editors go freelance.

      Good luck!!

  25. Sophie, can you supply some links to a few, excellent portfolio examples to look at…just to get a general idea of what clients prefer to look at, and what appeals to them as far as navigating a portfolio?

    Much appreciated!

  26. For freelancers with little or no experience of working with paid clients, its always better to rely on their on blog posts and guest posts on quality blogs as samples.

    Guest posting, in particular, is the most effective way of marketing yourself as a writer and establishing credibility of your services

  27. Hi Sophie, I am enjoying your verve and straighforwarded-ness. I have done the Guest Blogging course with Jon, landed an un-paid column in a fashion blog. I also have a paid freelance gig with CBS Local Miami which at times covers what is my forte, fashion. My blog on fashion and style is my true passion. My SoMe presence is there, growing slowly. So I am just missing that sparkle to take the blog to the next level. For that I am also designing a new website that will incorporate all things together, sort of the ‘supermarket of myself’. There has to be something I am not doing right not to have it already taken its course.
    Would love your insight.
    Francesca

    • Hi Francesca, love your Tumblr! Fashion can be a tough market to break because there are so many would-be fashion bloggers that editors get overwhelmed with queries and tend to delete them or send them to the spam folder unless they’re *really* impressive. Pay close attention to Jon’s advice on pitching and on writing headlines –a good headline in the subject line of your email can make the difference between getting read or deleted– and then aim high. Use the Guest Blogging forums to help you pitch guest posts to the biggest fashion bloggers! Your reputation as an authority fashion blogger is what will get you hired for more freelance work, so your main focus now should be on building that reputation.

      I like your turn of phrase with the “supermarket of myself” –I recently set up a “this is me and all my shit” site at sophielizard.com.

  28. Hi Sophie, I really am learning a lot from your site. Appreciate all this free helpful stuff. I decided to take on freelance writing as well just last October 29 when I stumbled upon your site. It opened up new possibilities for me.

    As a newbie, I started to think of setting up my own writing blog and hunting my first ever guest post or voluntary writing assignment. Yes I’m in the process of building my portfolio right now and it is very challenging.

    What makes it even more challenging is that I am a Filipino and the competition is tough out there but as Carol Tice said, in this industry the only one holding you back is yourself.

  30. I’m so confused on what to do about my portfolio that I’m considering one of Sophie’s online training.

    And thanks for the link on Anthony’s guest post Lauren. 🙂

  31. I feel like I’m on track with 85-90% of these tips. The rest is a matter of continuing to revamp and clean up my personal blog in addition to doing some reputation management.

    • It’s a process that’s constantly on-going. Even if you get your portfolio to a point where it’s “good enough,” you probably won’t be satisfied. Haha. Luckily, that’s completely normal! And it’ll be that dissatisfaction that will push you to be better and better. 🙂

  32. As a potential newbie blogger, I’m researching where to begin. I’ve read the streams above but remain floating about wondering where to begin. Before trying to sell my writing skills to an online magazine or another blog , should I start with the creation of my own website and just write about things that are of relevance to my topic of interest and if so where to begin – eg a Google webpage blog; a homemade website like Wix or WordPress? Are these the platforms to provide LinkedIn links to? How can they generate income? If so would you have pros and cons for these types, for example?

  33. Hey Sophie and Lauren

    I recently went freelance full-time and need to make this work pronto, else I’ll be ‘cubicle’ hunting come the new year. I’d love any tips or feedback you have regarding my portfolio: http://www.angelagayehorn.com/online-content-writer/

    On a separate note, I Googled myself and egads a load of old crap came up! Note to self: don’t just sign up for random stuff, the Internet has a cache memory like an elephant.

    Last, but definitely not least, thank you so much for the wealth of useful information you’ve posted here. I originally set aside an hour to trawl your blog and three hours later I’m still here. Though much the wiser for it, I’m happy to say! 😉

    • Your clips are impressive, Angela – nice work! To give your website visitors a better idea of the clips’ content, you could add a short description below each link. (One or two sentences is plenty.) Aside from that, some images will encourage trust – consider adding client logos, screenshots of your blog posts, or cover images of the publications you’ve been in, for example. Hope that helps!

  34. Hi Sophie,

    Thanks for some expert guidance. This post was worth it for Contently alone, which I’ve gotten in and setup. Loads of valuable information and tips.

    Thanks

  35. Nice post. Thanks for the tips for those of us who are aspiring bloggers. Two minor points, however: Your title is grammatically incorrect. It should read “…How Clients Decided Whom to Hire.” To paraphrase the great journalist/editor, Ben Bradlee, when he delivered a commencement speech at some college: “Always remember: It’s not who you know. It’s whom you know.” Know when to use “who” vs. “whom” is a very common error, and no offense intended. I also saw a few missing commas and some that were misplaced (e.g., commas usually are place inside quotations marks). Just something that has stuck with me from the lessons I learned from my splendid English teachers when I was a kid. Thanks again, Sophie!

    • Thanks for raising this point, MC. The conventions of blogging are different to those we learn in school: the aim is to be conversational and evoke emotion, rather than to be precisely grammatical. Words like “whom”, though correct in this context, can trip the reader’s eye and make them disengage with the post. (A typical blog reader is only accustomed to seeing/hearing “whom” in phrases like “To whom it may concern…” and thinks of it as a formal word. That formality can be off-putting.)

      As for punctuation, in blogging it’s used for effective emphasis. The same is true in fiction: adding or removing a comma changes the timing of the piece, which in turn changes how it makes the reader feel.

      Knowing when to break or bend language rules is an important skill to develop as a writer. Remembering the conventional grammar and vocabulary for different audience nationalities matters, too. I was raised on British English — our rules re. serial commas and punctuating quotations are different to those of American English, so when I’m writing for international clients I have to turn on and off different grammar rules in my head!

  36. Hi Sophie,

    This post is quite helpful. It cleared my head pretty much.

    Thanks
    Sabita

  37. Hello:
    I love to write and am working on putting up a specialized website to hawk my writing and try to drum up some interest in my books. This would be in addition to the personal site I have had up for a number of years. I fear my biggest enemy right now is my web presence. I have had a website since the 90’s, and a Google search brings up several thousand results. The problem is that I am opinionated and have a definite slant to my writing. I am concerned that this may hurt me, or put me at odds with some possible clients. Is this a valid concern, or are most clients just seeking writing skills and punctuality? If this is a problem, how do I minimize its effect?

    • OK, two things:

      1) Yep, most clients don’t care if your personal writing is opinionated as long as your work for *them* is written to match their needs and get the results they’re looking for.

      2) Any client who’s put off by your personal writing style or opinions isn’t the right client for you, so it really doesn’t matter.

      Oh, wait, bonus point #3: NEVER do anything to minimise the effects or visibility of your writing — unless you’re genuinely embarrassed or regretful that you wrote it in the first place! 🙂

  38. Do you think it is acceptable to put in my writing portfolio:
    I was part of a team that rewrote a study manual for a landscape association, some 15 years ago, and assisted in editing a chapter in a book in another incidence. My name is credited in each publication.

  40. Great article! I’m still trying to figure out how to get going in the right direction and this was a wonderful help! I definitely need to update my website. I have a personal blog along with a page of some published blogs. Should the published articles precede my personal blog? I think I have it backwards.

  42. Hii Sophie

    This is really nice blog. and very helpful to me for freelance profile and how to do work with client. i will also work on website developing and designing with self employed and my team. if you more know about me and my portfolio the click here:
    http://pph.me/venuwebish

    Thanks

  43. Hello Sophie, thank’s for sharing your view about blogging portfolio. What you think if a freelancer/agency does not display portfolio on their website. Instead, they ask clients to contact them to see the portfolio. Will it impact on conversion rate?

  44. Hi Sophie,

    Thanks for this article, it’s really helpful and insightful. The idea of the internet being your other portfolio is especially helpful because it’s so easy to forget that everything you do online is public! I’m just starting up my own business and am hoping to build up my online presence (I’m not on the first page of results!) but I have to admit, I’m a bit scared of taking those first steps!

    It would really great if you would take a look at my website and share your thoughts?

    Thanks!
    Abigail

  48. Thank you for this, I actually never thought that publishing is that important! So far my writing portfolio is just a few pieces that I wrote, they are samples. I know now though and will try to get something published!