how to format a creative writing portfolio

WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

12 best writing portfolio examples and how to create your own

• Brandi Hunter

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When it comes to starting a business  around your writing, visibility is everything. The more well-curated and attention-grabbing your writing is, the higher the chance that potential clients and publications will notice your talent. Making a website  that presents your writing portfolio can help introduce the industry to your talent and invite new work.

You may be thinking, “I’m a writer, not a website designer”—that’s where Wix can help. Its templates and beginner-friendly website builder make getting started as straightforward as it can get. To get the creative juices flowing, here are 12 writing portfolio examples from Wix users. Later on, we’ll provide a more straightforward step-by-step guide to building your own.

Start building your online portfolio  with Wix today.

12 writing portfolio examples

Jed Donahue

Sam Carlson Creative

Lauryn Higgins

Jessica Van Devanter

Madison Gray

Jane-Ellen Robinet

Christina Sterbenz

Bryn Dippold

Charlotte Kho

Emma Newell

Maddie Pfeiffer

Rachel A.G. Gilman

01. Jed Donahue

Jed Donahue’s website is a great example of how speaking to your client’s pain points can compel them to reach out. The homepage header copy, “When you need great content, I’m here to help,” focuses on the customer’s needs. Testimonials from previous clients provide proof that Jed can deliver results. Meanwhile, the “What I can do for you” section gives a practical breakdown of the workflow and services that clients can expect.

02. Sam Carlson

Sam Carlson takes his writing portfolio a step further by putting his client work front and center. He highlights his creative flair and prowess as a copywriter by including engaging introductions for each case study. Every project page boasts a concise and clever summary, followed by the client's logo and key project assets. Additionally, his "Fun" page, which presents his personal projects, offers a glimpse of his hobbies and talents outside of writing.

03. Lauryn Higgins

If you, like Lauryn Higgins , have an extensive writing portfolio that includes several bylines with well-known media companies, you can strategically add publication logos to your website and link them to your author pages to show off your credibility. On her “Awards and Publications” page, she features snapshots of some of her best clips, along with several awards.

04. Jessica Van Devanter 

If you don’t have any visual content to display and don’t want to go through the process of finding a set of free-to-use visuals that match your branding and content, take a look at Jessica Van Devanter’s writing portfolio. By making the site’s design the focal point, she bypasses the need for external graphics or images that may not align with her branding. 

Her logo, a shrewd-looking fox, serves as the background for the large header, which captures the viewer's attention upon arrival. Below it, a mountain graphic underlays the main content area, providing a sense of continuity without overpowering the text. 

The structure of each page is reminiscent of a timeline, with her written works positioned as milestones, guiding visitors through her professional journey. The bright green and white font colors provide a deliberate contrast against the muted blue background, ensuring readability and drawing the eye to her written work.

Use Wix’s logo maker  to start building out your personal brand.

05. Madison Gray

As a writer and an artist, Madison Gray masterfully demonstrates both skill sets throughout her portfolio. Pairing her highlighted works with original images draws visitors in and creates a visually engaging narrative of her talents. Each project page indicates which skills she utilized to complete the project, offering a comprehensive understanding of her multifaceted abilities.

06. Jane-Ellen Robinet  

Jane-Ellen Robinet limits her writing portfolio to a page to help website visitors get the information they need quickly. The above-the-fold section summarizes her unique value proposition (“INSIGHT + PERSPECTIVE + EXPERIENCE”) and provides specific job titles for the services she provides (“Editor | Writer”). The header features anchor links to each section of the page to ensure easy navigation. 

07. Christina Sterbenz

Rather than categorizing work by publications, Christina Sterbenz structures her portfolio page around writing topics and pairs each section with a compelling image from one of the relevant clips. This strategy adds visual appeal and gives each topic a personal touch, making the stories more approachable and intriguing to visitors. The images, paired with informative captions, humanize the subjects, enticing readers to delve deeper into her work.

In terms of website design, the portfolio benefits from a clean layout and a modern, minimalist font, which together enhance the site's readability and aesthetic appeal. Visitors can effortlessly scan the pages, finding what they are looking for without feeling overwhelmed. Additionally, the consistent use of design motifs—such as circles and lines throughout the site—contributes to a cohesive and memorable brand identity.

Like this format? Use this creative CV website template  to get started.

08. Bryn Dippold  

Bryn Dippold uses Wix’s blog maker  to showcase her work samples. This approach of republishing content directly on her portfolio, rather than merely linking out to external publications, serves as a strategic method for keeping visitors on her site for longer and providing a comprehensive view of her work.

Many Wix website templates already come with an integrated blog. Alternatively, you can choose to add the blog feature to any template, tailoring it to fit your unique style. Wix allows you to customize the blog settings, enabling you to curate and present your best work in a manner that aligns with your professional image and goals. 

09. Charlotte Kho 

Charlotte Kho uses neutral colors, layered design elements and striking imagery to introduce herself as a digital and creative storyteller. The “Resume” page provides a lot of information, but its clean layout is easy on the eyes, and you have the option to download her CV. On the “Work” page, Charlotte offers a small selection of her best work, plus links to view more of her published pieces.

Like this layout? Make it your own as Charlotte did by customizing this business CV website template .

10. Emma Newell 

Emma Newell's website demonstrates a balance of simplicity and engaging elements, creating a visually appealing and user-friendly experience. The site employs subtle animations that add a dynamic touch without overwhelming the visitor. Notably, when you click on any link in the menu bar, the content below appears to swipe out of view as new content takes its place. This seamless effect maintains the homepage's structure and provides an uninterrupted browsing experience.

11. Maddie Pfeifer

Maddie Pfeifer effectively leads with her experience by featuring her resume on the homepage. It details her past work, highlights her skillset and lists the awards she has received in the course of her career. We appreciate that she prominently placed her contact information above the fold for easy accessibility.

Her website is a model of organization, making excellent use of Wix’s advanced menu features . The dropdown functionality in her navigation bar allows for an expanded array of options, enhancing the user experience. Visitors, when exploring the “Portfolio” page link, are greeted with the option to select content categories like “Event coverage” or “Crime & courts,” tailoring their browsing to their interests.

12. Rachel A.G. Gilman 

Rachel A.G. Gilman elevates her homepage's simplicity with a playful, animated headshot, contrasting colors and a classic font choice, creating a dynamic first impression. Under the “Writing” tab, her comprehensive archive is meticulously sorted into distinct categories, making it easy to sift through her published work and accomplishments.

How to make a writing portfolio of your own

After exploring some of the best portfolio website examples , you’re probably eager to get started on learning how to make a portfolio  of your own. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just getting started, these tips will help you present your work in a way that captivates and communicates your unique voice and skills. 

01. Identify your target audience

To properly tailor your site design to your audience, you need to identify who you’re looking to impress. For instance, if you’re using this type of website  to pitch to editors, you might consider spotlighting your best features or most impressive bylines. On the other hand, if you’re cultivating a professional portfolio  for freelance clients, you might want to put testimonials or a list of services front and center.

02. Establish your goals 

Setting clear goals is crucial to track your progress and success. If your objective is to boost engagement with freelance clients, you might measure this by the number of inquiries or project offers you receive through your portfolio site. On the other hand, if increasing your visibility as a writer online is your goal, you could focus on monitoring website traffic, page views, or how long visitors stay on your site. Regularly assessing these aspects will help you understand what's effective and what needs improvement in your portfolio.

03. Choose the right platform

When looking for a platform for your online presence, choose a portfolio website builder  that aligns with your technical ability and the amount of time you can dedicate to maintenance. Although creating a bespoke website might be impressive and a simple clippings curator (such as Muck Rack) would be convenient, it’s a better idea to go for a builder that combines the best of both worlds, offering both customizability and convenience. 

With Wix, you’ll have hundreds of customizable templates to choose from and AI tools that make designing and filling it with images a breeze. Furthermore, Wix enriches your website with features like built-in forms, custom email addresses, and newsletter capabilities, ensuring you can easily connect with your audience and maintain those connections effortlessly.

Check out this selection of Wix website templates for writers .

04. Decide how you want to structure your showcase

When building the “Works” or “Clips” section of your online writing portfolio, your focus should be on showcasing your writing as well as highlighting the outlets you've collaborated with. Select pieces that represent your best work and reflect the type of work you aspire to continue doing. Remember, it's always about quality over quantity. A handful of outstanding pieces will have a greater impact than a multitude of average ones.

If you're at the beginning of your career and lack professional bylines, don't hesitate to include your best work from college or independent projects. Additionally, consider starting a blog that reflects the kind of work you aim to do professionally. 

05. Build an archive

Imagine losing your most valued work if a website goes down or a publisher removes your article. To prevent this, create an archive on your portfolio site. By uploading and publishing posts using the Wix content management system, you not only safeguard your work but also boost your site’s SEO and engage visitors more effectively. However, remember to check your contracts, as some publishers may restrict this. If time is limited, consider downloading your articles as PDFs and linking to them on a dedicated page. It's best to maintain this archive separately from your featured works, ensuring they continue to be the main attraction.

06. Flesh out the rest of your site

Your writing portfolio is more than just your work; it's a complete presentation of your professional persona. Each page on your site plays a critical role in telling your story. Here's how to make them count:

Home: The homepage is your portfolio's front door, welcoming and guiding visitors. It's crucial that this page clearly communicates what you offer as a writer. Make sure visitors can instantly understand your area of expertise and writing style.

About: On your “About” page, detail your professional journey, educational background and skill set. This page is an excellent place to infuse personality into your resume. Consider including a PDF version of your resume so hiring managers can add it to their databases.

Contact:  The “Contact” page is your open invitation for communication. Offer multiple methods to reach you, such as a contact form and an email address. Consider using scheduling software  to make it easy for potential clients to set up consultation calls. 

When writing the copy for these pages, make sure your tone is consistent, engaging and speaks to your desired audience. If incorporating imagery, make sure they’re high-quality, complement the text and reinforce your professional image. Each element should seamlessly blend to form a cohesive and inviting online presence.

07. Test and publish

Broken links, grammatical errors or faulty contact forms may lead visitors to doubt the quality of your work or discourage them from reaching out. Make sure to do a thorough assessment of your site, and consider sharing your writing portfolio with others to get their feedback.

08. Update your website

Regularly update your portfolio with your latest work. This keeps your site fresh and shows potential clients your active involvement and range of skills. A current portfolio can also inspire new project ideas among visitors.

Top tips for your writing portfolio

When it comes to planning, creating and maintaining your writing portfolio, there are a number of tips to help you create a great one.

Tailor your portfolio to the specific writing niche or genre you're pursuing. Include samples that demonstrate your expertise and writing style in that area. Your writing portfolio is a showcase of how well you with with words and content, make sure it reflects that to the best of your ability and experience.

Prioritize showcasing your strongest writing samplespieces, even if it means having fewer samples. Choose work that highlights your skills, versatility, and ability to meet client expectations.

Each piece in your portfolio should tell a story. Briefly explain the project's context, your approach, the challenges faced and the outcomes achieved.

Include testimonials from satisfied clients for the purpose of adding social proof and to demonstrate the quality of your work.

Make your portfolio easy to navigate. Use a clear menu, categorize your work and implement smooth transitions between pages.

Let your personality and writing style shine through. Use visuals, tone of voice, and layout to create a cohesive and memorable brand identity that reflects you and your work.

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Home » Planning & Creating » How to create a writing portfolio

How to create a writing portfolio: 7 fundamental steps

The point of a portfolio is to give viewers a sense of what you can do for them. And portfolios can look very different while still getting that job done. Some of our Blurb writers have gotten hired by emailing screenshots of Facebook posts—while others have opened up professionally bound layflat photo books during interviews. Keeping in mind your end goal (selling yourself) will help ground you in this process.

Here are seven steps to help you create the perfect writing portfolio:

1. Introduce yourself

If your portfolio is your full sales pitch, think of your introduction as your elevator pitch. This sets the tone and context for your work. State your name, the type of writing you do, and any relevant background information that describes who you are.

Remember, this is a writing sample, too.  Make it unique, valuable, and memorable—and from your natural voice. This is your chance to tell your story from your point of view. Make it count.

2. Organize your writing samples

Gather up all relevant writing samples you have. These can be everything from Super Bowl ads you’ve scripted to op-eds you’ve written for your high school newspaper. And if you don’t have enough, you can create hypothetical projects for brands that exist or that you make up to showcase your skills—just make it clear they’re examples and not paid work.

Once you have all your writing samples gathered, it’s time to organize them. Keep in mind who you’re showing your work to and include the type of samples they’re most interested in. If you’re angling to carve a niche, consider grouping your work into topic or format clusters. If you’re showing off versatility, group them by medium.

Here are the top ways to organize your writing portfolio:

• Chronologically: If you have a wide range of writing samples or a linear progression in your career, consider arranging your work chronologically and share how your skills have evolved.
• Topic: If you specialize in particular types of writing, you could group your samples by topic. For example, you could organize your work by industry for your technical writing or trade book writing—or by sections dedicated to industries, verticals, or genres.
• Medium: If you write for various mediums and channels, be it journalism stories, ad creative, UX writing, storytelling, or blogging, organize your work by these key pillars to help readers understand your versatility as a writer.

No matter how you organize your work, start and end with your strongest samples. Recruiters spend less than three minutes per portfolio , whereas most hiring managers spend five to 10 minutes. Either way, that’s not a lot of time. Make sure your portfolio makes a splash to start and is easily scannable.

3. Cull your writing samples

Once you’ve compiled all relevant writing samples for your portfolio, now comes the difficult task of narrowing them down. If you’re in the early stages of your career, you may not have a lot of work to distill. But for experienced writers, it’s important to whittle down your samples to showcase only your best work. 

When making the final selection of samples to include in your writing portfolio, consider the following:

• Diversity: Depending on the structure you envision for your portfolio, consider choosing samples that capture your range and versatility as a writer. For example, creative writers might want to include a mix of short stories , screenplays, essays, or novels .
• Relevance: Your writing samples should reflect the type of writing you want to do in the future. If you’re interested in writing for a particular publication, highlight samples that overlap with that publication’s style and tone.
• Quality: As a rule, only include your best work when creating a writing portfolio. It can be helpful to recruit a mentor, friend, or colleague to get different perspectives on what others view as your highest-quality samples.

4. Craft your navigation

As you organize and narrow down what work samples you’d like to include, you can start identifying patterns for structuring your writing portfolio. In doing so, think about how you’d like viewers to navigate your book.

A table of contents, menu, or sections can provide guideposts for viewers to better travel through your writing portfolio and understand what it includes. In addition to thematic structure and the general flow of your portfolio, consider design elements like thumbnail images for each piece or major section. This adds a visual appeal and a touch of creativity that goes a long way in grabbing your prospective readers. Other fundamentals include:

• Sections: If you have ample writing samples to include, divide your portfolio into sections or chapters. This will make it easier for readers to find the pieces they’re most interested in.
• Navigation: Make sure your table of contents or website menu is simple to understand. In a digital context, you can include links to each section or piece of writing for easy navigation.
• Design: Your portfolio should be clean, clear, concise, and easy to read. Set the mood appropriately and use a consistent font, color scheme, and design elements for your sections, headlines, and menus to make them cohesive with the rest of the portfolio.

5. Design a layout

Once you have all of your writing samples selected and organized, you’ll need to think about how to best present your work in a way that’s visually appealing and on-brand with your particular style and tone. This is where the design of your portfolio comes in. When designing your portfolio, consider the following:

• Choose a format that’s creative yet easy to navigate. Whether creating a hardcopy portfolio or a website portfolio, you want to choose a format that aligns with your writing style and the context of your samples but also one that’s easy to navigate. Be creative but don’t let the design distract readers from your portfolio’s content. 
• Use a clear and readable font. Make sure that the font you choose is easy to read, both in print and digitally on the screen. It’s best to stick with very simple, legible fonts that won’t distract from your writing.
• Incorporate images or graphics. Consider adding visuals to your writing portfolio that capture the context of your work. Whether they’re symbolic photos or images that truly correspond with your samples, consider imagery that relates to your writing and engages your readers. Just be sure that they don’t detract from your copy.
• Keep it consistent. While you want your writing portfolio to be visually engaging, you also want to ensure that it’s professional and on point with your personal brand. Often, less is more. So, avoid using too many colors or fonts , and put together a design layout that’s consistent and aligned.

6. Summarize your work

Depending on the length of your writing portfolio, it can help to provide some context for your samples—especially if you can prove your worth with impressive stats. Similar to a novel’s blurb shown on the back cover of a book, these could be short summaries that introduce individual samples, case studies that outline your business results, or thematic sections of your portfolio that add color to your writer’s journey.

Writing short summaries or blurbs of your work gives readers a sense of what they can expect from each piece of writing. While not a requirement for writing portfolios, these blurbs can help guide the overarching story behind your experience. When writing these short summaries, consider the following elements:

• Overviews that summarize your work. You can include the genre , topic, purpose, brand, or writing style.
• Your intentions or goals. Break down the problem you solved with your writing pieces, like whether your objective was entertaining, educating, or persuading your readers, and who the project was for.
• The scope of the project and your role as a writer. Make sure you highlight whether your work was part of a larger publication or your own personal blog. Talk about timelines, titles, and how you contributed to any large-scale projects or group work.
• Any key performance indicators (KPIs). Hiring managers on marketing teams will be very interested in the results of your work, like how much traffic a piece earned, how much engagement it received, or how your work led to a particular business outcome.

7. Include your resume and contact info

When using your portfolio to land your dream job, including your resume (or a version of it) is a good supplement to showcase all your experience. You could include it at the beginning or end of your portfolio. In any case, it should be easy to find and relevant to your target audience.

You’ll also want to include a way for viewers to contact you, like your professional email address or social media account. Depending on the context of your portfolio, you may even consider adding a link to your LinkedIn or Instagram profile so employers can see more information about you and easily get in touch. If you print your portfolio, add links or QR codes to your professional website or digital portfolio, too.

Tips for creating a writing portfolio that wows

Now that you’re familiar with creating a writing portfolio, several additional points are worth calling out. These are general best practices and things to consider when bringing your portfolio to life.

Quality over quantity

Less is often more, as it’s generally better to showcase a small collection of high-quality writing samples rather than inundating your readers with numerous less-than-stellar pieces. Be selective with the work you choose, and aim for a diverse range that emphasizes your strengths and genres of focus.

Know your target audience

Identify your target audience for your writing portfolio, as this can help determine the specific writing samples you include and how you organize them. Keep in mind that you should tailor your portfolio to suit the needs of your potential clients or employers. Print on demand allows you to swap in and out samples that best align with each client or employer—or you can tailor your digital portfolio with specific landing pages for each application or industry.

Keep it clean, simple, and error-free

Your writing portfolio should be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and error-free. Use a simple design and make sure your writing samples are well-organized and clearly presented. Your portfolio’s overall design layout and format will help readers digest its contents. 

And since you’re a writer, typos are usually unforgivable. Get a friend or mentor (or both!) to proof your work before you send it out.

Create digital and print writing portfolios

There are many pros and cons for digital and hardcopy portfolio books . While having a digital writing portfolio might be needed for digital applications and remote positions, a print version will definitely have you standing out while attending in-person meetings and interviews. Ultimately, the decision should depend on your personal preference, the needs of your target audience, and your intended usage of the portfolio.

However, we’d suggest both. You’ll need digital samples to get through the initial stage of most applications, but few things are more impressive than a perfectly bound physical portfolio in face-to-face interactions.

Keep your writing portfolio up-to-date

Your writing should always be fresh and relevant, so don’t forget to regularly update the contents of your portfolio with new pieces or achievements. Also, it’s a great idea to tailor your portfolio for each interview. Doing this will help demonstrate your interest and commitment to the company or client.

What makes a strong writing portfolio?

Certain characteristics make for standout writing portfolios. Consider these five cornerstones of strong portfolios:

• Showcase the depth and diversity of your writing ability, including various genres and styles, to help demonstrate your versatility and range as a writer.
• Maintain consistency in your tone and presentation throughout your portfolio, even if you showcase work with different styles for different brands.
• Feature work most relevant to your primary target audience and the type of writing jobs you want to land in the future.
• Choose the most engaging writing samples that reflect your style and focus, highlighting your marketable attributes and unique skillset.
• Assemble your portfolio in a clear, cohesive, and organized manner, making it easy for readers to navigate and absorb your content.

Above all, remember that your writing portfolio reflects you and your abilities as a writer. Take the time to create something unique and memorable. We believe in you!

If you’re interested in creating a print version of your writing portfolio, Blurb offers the tools to make a professional, bookstore-quality portfolio book that will impress. 

Get started using a beautifully designed portfolio template, or create your own custom layout. Not only can you print as many books as you need on demand, but you can choose from a variety of formats, from large layflat portfolio books to smaller and more affordable options that make great leave-behinds.

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How to Create a Writing Portfolio (With Examples)

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As a freelance writer, it's beneficial to have a portfolio of your work, so potential clients can review your work and learn about your area of expertise. Before starting to work on your portfolio, you should consider the writing you want to do.

Whether you're a copywriter, a ghostwriter, writing literature, or a journalist, that should be clear when people view your portfolio. One of the first things to consider when creating your portfolio is your niche, and determining your niche can help you select your articles and the layout.

6 Steps to Creating Your Writing Portfolio

Here are the six steps to creating a writing portfolio that will help you get noticed by readers and potential clients:

1. Choose a Portfolio Host

In today's virtual world, having an online portfolio is a must for most creatives. You get to decide whether you want to host your portfolio on your website or prefer to have another company host it.

You can create your portfolio using a platform like Wix, Weebly, or WordPress. If you'd rather have your portfolio hosted by a site specializing in online portfolios, you can choose from sites such as Clippings, WriterFolio, or JournoPortfolio. You might be interested in these free platforms to showcase your freelance writing portfolio .

2. Determine Your Niche

If you're struggling with selecting the type of writing you want to focus on, it may be a good idea to review your previous work and see which ones had the most impact, response, and reach. If you want to focus on ghostwriting, you may want to clarify what type of content you can write. This can range from real estate to gardening, holistic medicine, or another industry in which you have writing experience.

As a copywriter, do you enjoy creating sales pages and other marketing copy, like landing pages, newsletters, and email sequences? What kind of literature do you write if you're a literary writer? You can focus on romance, fantasy, horror, or any other genre. What type of news do you write about if you're a journalist? Do you write about current events, celebrity gossip, or financial or political news? The possibilities are endless.

3. Create Your Author Bio

Your author bio aims to introduce yourself to potential clients who enjoy your work and want to learn more about you. The content you include in your bio should match the formatting and design of the website. The elements you should consider including are:

• Where you're from originally.
• Where you call home currently.
• Your academic writing credentials, if applicable.
• Your notable publications.
• Any accolades and awards you've won.
• The subjects or themes you cover.

You can include your social media links if you're comfortable, and they highlight more of your written work. If you're creating your site for the portfolio, you can choose to include the bio on an about page or have it as your homepage.

You may consider adding a photograph of you since it can increase the chances of people reaching out to you. You may be interested in learning tips on how to write an about me page in your online portfolio .

4. Select Your Best Work

Once you've decided on the niche you want to focus on, you can review your completed work and choose the best content that fits that specialization. You can include work past clients have succeeded with and their feedback.

Your potential clients want confirmation that you can produce well-written content about the content you're stating is your specialization. It may be helpful to verify the terms of the work you've written to determine whether you can post the entire content as a part of your portfolio or if you'll have to provide links.

If you provide links, specify the publication and when it was published. You might be interested in learning how Google Docs can help organize your writing portfolio for the next step.

5. Organize Your Work Into Segments

You can divide the work you want to include in your portfolio by niche, or the type of article, using clear descriptions. Categorizing your work makes it easier for potential clients to find samples of the work they're looking to hire you for when you separate them by niche or type. Examples of categories include landing page copy, white papers, and blog posts, to name a few.

Your descriptions for your categories should be brief. If the content you want to share was done as a ghostwriter and didn't include your byline, you should include the term ghostwriter in the work description to clarify it.

6. Ensure Your Contact Information Is Easy to Find

Your online portfolio must make it easy for potential customers to connect with you. Whether they want to express appreciation for an article you wrote or wish to discuss a business opportunity with you, finding your number or an email address shouldn't be challenging.

Engaging with as many people as possible is an excellent way to expand your online profile. You can use a contact form on your website, or you can provide your email address.

The key is to ensure that the information is visible and easy to access, whether they're using their phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. If you decide to share an email address, you may want to create a new account, since having an email published publicly can leave you vulnerable to excessive amounts of spam.

Writing Portfolio Examples

Before you begin creating your portfolio, reviewing what some writers have created for themselves may be helpful. You may also want to check out the blogs every freelance writer should read to get some inspiration, regardless of how long you've been writing. Here are some examples of writer portfolios with some commentary on their design:

1. Elna Cain

Elna's portfolio tells you that she's the writer you're looking for to meet your business needs. She lists publications where readers can find her work and shares testimonials from past clients.

She has numerous ways to connect with her, whether you want to discuss business opportunities or follow her online. She also has a link to her blog, so you can stay current on her work.

2. Tyler Koenig

Tyler uses his website to add value with an email list, courses, webinars, and tips on his blog. He has paid and free resources, highlighting his expertise to potential clients. The site is well-designed and easy to navigate.

3. Jennifer Fernandez

Jennifer uses a grid-based theme to display links to her writing samples, using a title and a thumbnail photo for each. She organized her writing samples in sections based on her lifestyle, design, and travel content niche. Jennifer showcases the type of writing she has experience in and makes browsing easy.

Get Started With Your Creative Writing Portfolio

Before you make your portfolio live, you may want to review it and have friends or colleagues look at it. Sometimes we can be so close to our project that we miss little things. The last thing you want is to publish a writer's portfolio with spelling or grammar mistakes.

If you're looking for work, you want to get as many eyes as possible on it to increase your chances of getting hired. You might be interested in learning how to source clients as a freelance writer now that you have a portfolio to share.

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How to Build a Strong Writing Portfolio That Gets You Noticed

Alana Chase

With over 10 years’ experience in editing and editorial team management, Alana serves as Eleven's Head of Editing, aiding editors in creating top-quality content and overseeing recruitment to ensure only the best of the best join Eleven’s ranks. A seasoned digital journalist and writer, Alana holds an MA in Creative Writing and is accomplished in spearheading content strategy at high-growth media startups.

A portfolio is a collection of samples that showcase your writing skills and style. It allows prospective clients and employers to evaluate your very best work.

No matter what kind of writing you do or where you are in your writing career, a strong portfolio is a must-have. 

At Eleven, we review hundreds of writing portfolios every month, so we know what separates mediocre portfolios from those that really stand out. As writers ourselves, we also know that putting together a portfolio can seem daunting. 

That’s why we’ve created this guide to show you how to make a portfolio that sparkles . ✨

Let’s dive in!

6 Steps to Create a Writing Portfolio

1.  understand what clients and employers want from a portfolio.

An easy way to start building your portfolio is to work backward: Find out what clients and employers want to see in portfolios so you can make sure yours has everything they need.

A top-notch portfolio will show:

• Your experience and expertise in a specific niche, such as personal finance, health and wellness, cybersecurity, etc. This is the first and most important element we at Eleven look for in portfolios. It signals that you know your stuff and can put it into practice in your writing. Plus, it’s important for meeting Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) requirements for better search rankings — something everyone in the content world wants. ‍
• The type of writing you do — e.g., blog articles, software reviews, thought leadership pieces, social media posts, etc. This shows potential clients and employers the range of work you can deliver.  ‍
• The companies you’ve worked with. This gives others a peek into your past collaborations — such as with start-ups, large organizations, non-profits, small agencies, etc. — and highlights your adaptability and professional credibility. ‍
• Additional services you offer , such as content strategy, search engine optimization (SEO), graphic design, etc. 

When your portfolio ticks all these boxes, clients and employers can easily see if you have the writing skills, expertise, and professionalism they need. This makes you more appealing and increases your chances of landing writing gigs.

If you have expertise in multiple niches, create a portfolio for each one. This way, you can focus your samples and make it easier for clients and employers to see your strengths in their particular field.

2. Pick your best work

Now that you know what others want to see in your portfolio, you can begin choosing the samples to include in it.

The rule of thumb here is to select only your best writing work. How can you tell which of your pieces are your “best”? Look through your work and pick out anything that has:

• Been well-received by clients. Positive feedback from clients is a sign of high-quality work.  ‍
• Ranked well on Google. Pieces that appear on the first page of search results signal that you can write helpful, engaging, SEO-friendly content. ‍
• Generated significant traffic or engagement. Writing that brings in lots of visitors or attracts comments, interactions, and shares online proves your ability to engage an audience.

Many writers add information about the specific outcomes for each piece in their portfolio — e.g., “ranked #2 on Google for the keyword ‘best credit cards 2024’” or “boosted traffic by 150%.” Consider doing the same with your portfolio.

The greatest portfolios also demonstrate a writer’s versatility, so be sure to select pieces that span a few styles, formats, or tones of voice while still showcasing your expertise in your chosen niche.

The number of samples you select to add to your portfolio is, ultimately, up to you — there’s no ideal amount. However, know that potential clients or employers typically don’t have time to review more than five samples when evaluating portfolios.

3. Triple-check your samples

Once you’ve picked your samples, carefully read through them and correct any typos and grammatical errors . You want them to be spotless so they convey your professionalism. 

Tools like Grammarly , Scribbr , QuillBot , and Wordtune are great for this. But you can take your quality check a step further by having a loved one, colleague, or mentor read your samples and note any mistakes you may have missed. 

Self-editing your samples is also a fantastic idea and can help you become a stronger writer over time. Read our in-depth guide to self-editing in three easy steps , featuring examples, ChatGPT prompts, and a handy checklist. You’ll learn to spot areas for improvement in structure, clarity, concision, and more.

4. Organize your pieces

Next, organize your samples neatly and logically. This makes it easier for employers and clients to navigate and evaluate your work.

There are a few ways you can arrange your samples:

• By format. For example, you might group all blog posts together, followed by all articles and then copywriting samples.  ‍
• By date. Arrange your samples from newest to oldest to show your most recent work first. ‍
• By topic. For instance, you can present all tech samples first and then your business writing samples. 
• By personal preference. Simply place your favorite pieces — or the ones you feel are the most attention-grabbing — first.

Don’t be afraid to use a mix of organization methods — e.g., by format and personal preference. For instance, you might present blog posts you’re especially proud of first and then share a case study and a social media post sample.

5. Write a professional biography

To accompany your portfolio, you’ll need a biography that summarizes who you are, your professional background, and how your writing can help others. 

Keep it short and engaging (about 100 words) and ensure it highlights your expertise and unique selling point (USP) — what makes you stand out from other writers? Be sure to mention the type of writing you do, too.

You can also add a sentence about your interests outside of work. Finally, wrap things up with information about how others can contact you.

Here’s an example:

I’m Jane Doe, a vet-turned-writer specialized in creating content on veterinary medicine and pet wellness. With over 15 years of experience in the field, I’ve got a knack for making pet care info both fun and easy to understand. From blog posts to marketing copy, I love helping pet owners and professionals stay informed and engaged. When I’m not at my desk, you’ll find me hiking, gardening, or reading a good book.  Let’s connect! Get in touch at [email protected] or find me on LinkedIn.

Depending on where you host your portfolio (more on this below ), you’ll add your bio to a platform, website, or cover page.

6. Present your portfolio professionally

A professionally presented portfolio will look great and effectively showcase your skills and experience. Here’s how to ensure yours hits both marks:

Get inspired

First, look at portfolios from other writers — especially those who write in your niche or have a strong online presence. 

What makes their portfolio stand out? Is it the way they organize their samples or the sleek design? Is their portfolio easy to navigate? What colors, fonts, and visuals do they use?

This will give you not only inspiration but also a better idea of what works and what doesn’t in writing portfolios.

You can explore platforms such as Fiverr and Medium to find some solid examples. Or, check out Authorly’s list of top writing portfolios , Format’s rundown of writers with eye-catching portfolios , and SiteBuilderReport’s collection of inspiring portfolio examples . 

For even more inspiration, below are snapshots of portfolios of two of our writers here at Eleven.

Pick where to present your portfolio

Once you’ve gathered inspiration and written your bio, you’ll pick the place to display your portfolio. You have several options, outlined below.

Use a freelancer platform

Platforms like Upwork , Fiverr , and Clippings.me are great options to host your portfolio. Simply create an account, upload your samples in the order you chose, and add your biography and links to social media profiles (such as LinkedIn), if applicable.

Clippings.me is designed for journalists, bloggers, and writers and offers a few options to customize the look of your portfolio (though the standard layout is simple and clean).

On Upwork and Fiverr, you can create a detailed profile that features not only your portfolio but also your work experience, specializations, and more. 

Use a publishing platform

You could also set up your portfolio on a publishing platform like Medium or Substack . Both platforms are made for writers and include features that can help you build an audience and even earn money for your writing.

With Medium, you can sign up for a free account or paid account (from $5/month ) to access additional benefits, including monetization options. Substack is always free to start and will only charge you if you begin taking subscriptions from readers for your work.

After you’ve created your account, you can start customizing your profile and adding your samples in your chosen order to build your portfolio. 

Create a website

This option requires a little more effort but offers more freedom for customization. And with website builders such as WordPress and Squarespace , you can create a striking website in minutes — no coding knowledge needed. 

To get started, sign up for an account and choose the plan that works for you. 

Then, select the website theme you’d like to use. Pick one that reflects your personality and writing style while remaining professional and easy on the eye. 

Both WordPress and Squarespace offer website themes (both free and paid) designed for portfolios , so we recommend your search starting there. 

Love the look of a particular website and want to replicate it on your WordPress site? Head to What WordPress Theme Is That? to see which themes (and plugins) the site has used.

Next, select your domain name — what your website will be called. Ensure it’s professional and includes your name, if possible, such as johnsmithwriter.com. 

From there, you can begin customizing your site’s visuals , including its fonts, graphics, and colors. 

Use tools like Coolor’s contrast checker to ensure your color choices are accessible to all viewers, especially those with visual impairments. 

Finally, add your samples , create an “About me” page featuring your bio and contact information, and include links to your LinkedIn page and relevant social media platforms. 

If you have any, consider adding testimonials from colleagues, professors, or other professionals who can vouch for your work. If you don’t have any, contact past collaborators and ask if they’d be willing to write a testimonial for you. ( HubSpot has a great guide on how to do this and what to say in your email.)

Many people create websites on their laptops or desktop computers and forget that others will visit them on their phones and tablets. So, make sure to check what yours looks like on a mobile device. You want to ensure it’s easy to navigate and free of any awkward formatting.  Themeisle has a quick and easy guide that breaks down this process — whether your site is built on WordPress, Squarespace, or somewhere else.

Opt for a PDF portfolio

A PDF portfolio is perfect if you need (or simply prefer) a document you can attach to applications, emails, and forms. Creating one is straightforward:

• Compile and organize your samples in a document using a word processor such as Google Docs or Pages. ‍
• Add a cover page with a short “About me” section and your contact information. This will make it easy for potential clients, employers, and others to reach out to you. ‍
• Export the document as a PDF , then view it in Adobe Acrobat or an online PDF editor to check there are no formatting issues.

What to do if you don’t have any samples yet

Don’t have a ton of (or any) samples? You can create new ones, either to complement your existing work or build a portfolio from scratch.

In any case, write pieces that showcase your expertise and match the type of writing you want to do . 

For example, say you want to work as a freelance tech writer but haven’t written any tech articles. You could write reviews of the tech products you own (e.g., a smartphone and a television) or a how-to guide on using a software platform. 

To demonstrate your versatility, create samples that span a range of formats, tones, and styles . For instance, if you want to establish yourself as an HR topic-expert writer, you might write a casual blog post on employee retention strategies, a research-focused article on remote work trends, and a formal case study on improving hiring practices.

Check out our lists of 30-day writing challenges and exercises to improve your writing to get your creative juices flowing and create new samples. HubSpot also has a great blog article idea generator you can use.

Creating a strong writing portfolio doesn’t have to be stressful. 

Start by understanding what potential clients and employers want from a portfolio. Then, select your best samples that highlight your writing skills and expertise in a specific area. Next, ensure your samples are error-free and organize them by date, format, topic, or personal preference. 

Finally, write a professional biography to accompany your portfolio and select where you’ll present it — on a freelancer platform like Fiverr, a publishing platform like Medium, on a website you create, or in a PDF. Upload your samples, add your bio and contact information, and let the world see your portfolio in all its glory! 

For more insights on advancing as a writer, check out our guides on successfully building your writing career and improving your writing skills .

What is a writing portfolio?

A writing portfolio is a collection of samples that showcase a writer’s skills, expertise, and versatility. All types of writers use portfolios when applying for jobs and educational programs, engaging prospective freelance clients, and pitching to publishers.

How many pages is a writing portfolio?

A writing portfolio can be any number of pages. The length depends on the format of the samples (e.g., social media posts or long-form articles), the topics the samples cover, and other factors. 

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How to Create Your Writing Portfolio from Scratch

How do you build a writing portfolio from scratch as a beginner?

The big question for new freelance writers.

You need a writing portfolio.

This is a sample of your writing in the industry or topic you want to get paid for.

You need to have a writing niche to write samples for your writing portfolio, but it’s not required.

A freelance writing prospect typically won’t hire you unless they have read your writing in the niche they require. You can click the image below to view it better.

A recent prospect let me know that they read my writing samples on my writing portfolio page on my site. My samples told them that they liked my style and wanted to hire me this year.

Having a solid professional-looking writing portfolio filled with your best writing can really make or break you as a writer trying to make this a business.

So, let’s dive into all of this and see what the best way is to build your portfolio.

What is a Writing Portfolio?

A writing portfolio holds your best writing article samples as a freelance writer. It demonstrates your writing skill in your niche topic and shows off the places you have written for.

You can house your one on your blog – the best place – or on a writing portfolio site like Contently or LinkedIn.

But if you have no experience as an online writer, how can you create a professional portfolio?

I’ll go through exactly how but to tell you in one sentence: The best way is to create up to three writing samples that showcases your wonderful online writing in the industry or topic you want to write for.

So, the key to all of this is to have writing samples online .

Learn in this video about different freelance portfolio sites for your writing portfolio

Does your writing portfolio have to house EVERY piece of writing you’ve ever done?

It should only have relevant, up-to-date content that showcases your best writing ability in the writing niche or niches you want to write for.

On mine, I share writing samples for different topics I enjoy writing about – digital marketing, blogging, social media, WordPress and personal development.

But is it okay NOT to have a portfolio of your articles?

No, I don’t think so and neither does freelance writer Kaitlyn Arford thinks so. Not having a writing portfolio is a barrier.

“I think that not having a portfolio hurts creatives looking for work! You have to look professional online, because hiring managers are reviewing your LinkedIn, your portfolio, and your online presence (aka Googling you) to decide if they should work with you.”

A Writing Portfolio Example

There are many ways you can display your freelance writer portfolio as I mentioned.

By far the best way is a page on your writer website.

You can just add links to your this page or stylize it using a page builder or using WordPress’s editor.

To me, this is the most professional way to display your content writing portfolio to potential clients.

So, a writing portfolio template might look like this:

• Niche focus (ex: Digital marketing)
• Feature Thumbnail Image
• Link to published article

Let’s look at more writing portfolio examples to help you house your samples or clips.

Other freelance writing portfolio examples are based on social media.

Every freelance writer NEEDS a LinkedIn portfolio as well as your writer website.

Here is mine:

Why is LinkedIn a good place to house your freelance writing jobs?

Because many brands and companies are on LinkedIn and as Andy Strote shares , having a LinkedIn portfolio can help you rank in Google!

“A big reason to be on LinkedIn: Google loves it. Build your profile, with your portfolio on LinkedIn. Work your network. It will show up at the top of most searches. Take advantage of that.”

And, as freelancer Maggie Aime pointed out, you get work from your profile.

“I have a LI portfolio and had a handful of inbound leads.”

To add a portfolio item to LinkedIn:

• Under Experience in your resume section of your profile, click on the + up on the right corner
• Pick add a position
• From here, fill out all the necessary information

• At the bottom, click on add media
• Add the link to your published article on your client’s blog or guest blog

• Click apply and there you go

Why do you need more than one if you will most likely link to your website’s portfolio page in your pitches?

Because companies use LinkedIn and they find writers on LinkedIn.

If you optimized your LinkedIn portfolio , you’ll gain writing gigs.

There is also an option to use your LinkedIn profile as a resume by going to your profile, clicking on more and then clicking on creating from profile.

LinkedIn is free to sign up but you can only have one LinkedIn profile.

If you already have one for your current job, you might have to hold off on creating a LinkedIn portfolio and use another portfolio site.

If you search for a writing portfolio website, you’ll see many examples, but I personally like Contently as a site to showcase my writing.

Companies go Contently to find writers and if they find my online writing portfolio , I can pick up a gig right then and there!

Here is my Contently profile:

What’s nice about using Contently is that it’s a free writing portfolio website.

To add an article link to Contently:

• Log into your account
• Go to edit profile
• Go to projects

• Click on the + in the upper right hand corner
• Pick from the list (import from a single URL is probably the one you will choose)
• Add the link and click on get details

• Fill in any information like the format, topics, and skills
• Go to your Contently portfolio and check out your new item

Later on I will talk more about Medium, but for now, know that Medium is one of the writing portfolio sites where you can house writing samples.

Here is mine profile:

Over the years, Medium has become a “must-have” for a freelance writer in terms of housing your writer clips and using it as a portfolio to share with potential clients.

Many businesses are using Medium and I’ve heard of writers who write speciality topics like cryptocurrency, land writing jobs.

You can also connect with other writers too!

Freelance writer Anna Aksenovich says,

“I use Medium as my portfolio. The great thing about it that it also has a big community of writers and audience too so while being a portfolio your pieces can also get additional exposure.”

Go ahead and sign up to Medium !

After that, here’s how to add a writer sample item to Medium:

• For a published article (like an article from your blog that you own), go to Stories > import story

• If you want to create a writing sample on Medium, go to the pencil icon next to your profile picture.
• Add a title, subtile, and start writing (or pasting what you wrote on a Google Doc)

So, what is the best writing portfolio websites from my list?

I strongly feel your writer website portfolio page should show the most up-to-date writing and should be the one page you link out to in your pitches.

Are There Other Ways to Create a Writing Portfolio Online?

While I have never used these sites, many other writers have.

Here are 4 more portfolio websites to check out.

• Journo Portfolio – they have a free tier where you can host 10 portfolio items
• Clippings.me – a free website portfolio builder. Just add a biography, customize your pate, add your writing work and there you go!
• Writerfolio – although it’s free to create (no sign up needed), it does cost $4/month.
• Writer’s Residence – there’s a free 30-day trial for this easy-to-use free portfolio builder

The Articles to Use in Your Freelance Writing Portfolio

So, do you only put blog posts in your writing portfolio?

No. You put the type of articles you want to get paid for . This might mean:

• sample emails for a copywriting portfolio
• mock-ups of white papers
• site content for an About page
• magazine article

I typically write blog posts, so my writing portfolio is made up of blog content.

I also think this is the easiest type of content to create and to market for your business. You can land regular work as a freelance blogger.

So, if you want to have a technical writing portfolio, you would have writing samples about standard operating procedures or specific tech content for a certain industry like health.

If you want a creative writing portfolio, I would share links to any projects you have like a book or poems. You can also share editorial content (an op-ed) with a creative slant for a certain industry.

But, should you just draft up samples in Google doc or is there a better way to create a writing portfolio? Yes!!

How to Make a Writing Portfolio From Scratch

The best way to create a writing sample for your portfolio is to guest post .

This means your post is published on someone else’s blog. It can be  paid contributions , but more often than not, it’s a free opportunity for you to market your business in front of a brand new targeted audience.

Guest posting also gives you the ‘street cred’ as a professional freelance writer.

How to build a writing portfolio with no experience doesn’t mean it’s impossible since you can guest post.

My first three writing samples were not really in my niche, nor were they at all related to each other.

The first was for A Nation of Moms . I wrote about gut health for toddlers. I thought natural health would be a good niche to get into. My second was for Social Media Today .

The Social Media article helped me break into the digital marketing niche – the niche I currently write in.

Finally, the third sample was for Psych Central on how to improve your mood. I was ecstatic for this sample as it was on a very prestigious platform, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to write about mental health.

As you can see, not defining a niche didn’t stop me from writing about things I knew – natural health, mental health and social media (the last one I was learning at the time and wanted to write about it).

But, my suggestion for you for TODAY is to work on creating samples that fall into one main industry. It’s okay to have two writing niches but to make good money, clients want an expert and not a jack of all trades.

So, how do you guest post to fill up your writing portfolio from scratch?

1. Run a Google Search

The easiest is to run a Google search on the niche you want to write for + “write for us.” Here is an example of dog blogs!

You can search for literally anything + write for us to get guest blog opportunities.

2. Read The Guest Blog’s Guidelines

Every place you guest blog for your writing portfolio will have a different set of guidelines to submit your post. Some may want a Google doc while others want you to send an attachment via email.

There may be strict rules on what types of links to include, who you can mention in your post and how to write your post and the length of the post. Here are The Abundant’s Artist’s guidelines .

Be careful of guidelines saying you have to PAY MONEY to THEM.

This is not necessary to create a freelance writing portfolio.

3. Create Your Guest Blog Pitch

Now comes the fun part – crafting your writing pitch based on the guidelines you just read!

Again, different blogs want different things. Some want 3-5 topic suggestions while others want an outline of one post idea.

Figure out what they want and come up with a great topic or list of topics.

Here is my pitch for A Nation of Moms:

I suggest you research how to craft a pitch for guest blogging. It’s important that your pitch comes off personal and sounds like you know the blogger’s content.

Simply using a template for your guest pitch, won’t work in landing any guest posts.

Instead, read the blog you want to guest post and learn about:

• How long their posts are
• The format for their posts
• Their popular high sharing topics
• Their headlines

This information can help you stand out in your pitch. The blog owner will know you did your research.

4. Write the Guest Post

When you get accepted, it’s time to write the guest post. One thing to note – don’t pitch the SAME topic and outline to multiple guest blogs.

If you pitch the steps to eat paleo to five health blogs and two of them accept your pitch, you can’t write that post. And you can’t swap another idea either.

Instead, think of similar blog topics to pitch.

So, for the health example, if you want to guest post on a health site, come up with several ideas that can be similar if you have a hard time coming up with blog topics :

• 5 Steps to Get Your Family Eating Paleo
• Why Paleo Eating Isn’t Just a Fad
• 25 Easy Paleo Snacks to Take on The Run
• 5 Easy Ways You Can Start Eating Paleo

For a step-by-step tutorial on writing a guest post to help you build your writing portfolio from the ground up, check out my Youtube video.

5. Craft Your Author Bio

One of the best reasons you want to build your writer portfolio using guest posts is you get an author bio.

Your author bio is the place to market your freelance writing business!

A good bio has these components: what you are offering, what type of content you provide, how to reach you and some kind of way to tell your personality.

My author bio has evolved over the years as I’ve grown as a freelance writer. Here is my most current author bio:

6. Submit Your Post And Wait

After you submit your post (via the way the blogger indicated in the guest post guidelines) it’s time to wait. You will probably get a response from the blog owner saying that they received it and give you a timeline of when your post will be published.

Other blogs may want you to edit and revise your content before they publish your post.

Once all of that is handled, you wait until your post is published.

During this time you can pitch for more guest spots, work on your writer website and start pitching to job boards .

As a new freelance writer, you gotta hustle every day. Figure out the tasks you need to do to get your business up and running !

7. Create Your Writing Portfolio (H ow to Format a Writing Portfolio)

You hear back! They published your guest post and you have a link now!

That’s great! Now you can create your writing portfolio.

Create a page in your WordPress site and name it Writing Portfolio or writing samples.

• Go to the backend of your WordPress site
• To go Pages > Add New
• Write the title and save for draft while you add your portfolio items

From there you can drop your link or stylize it with a page builder or with WordPress’ editor.

* I do have a detailed step-by-step lesson in Writer Website in a Weekend on creating all of your pages, including your portfolio page.

Here’s an example of using WordPress’s native builder Gutenberg, a page builder, to create a writing portfolio.

8. Fill Up Your Writing Portfolio

You just have one writing portfolio item.

You need more!

My suggestion is to have at least 3 writing samples for your freelance portfolio to start out with. I would choose writing topics that are somewhat similar, unless you state different writing niches.

While guest posting is the best way to create a writing portfolio, another way is to create a Medium profile and submit your writing to publications on Medium.

Medium has thousands of publications that have submission sections. For these places, you don’t need to pitch, just sign up or send your draft link of your Medium post.

For example, here’s my piece on Storius , a Medium publication.

9. Create Multiple Writing Portfolios

A trick I use to look like a highly credible writer is to be everywhere online! You can do that easily by having multiple writing portfolios online.

I have several from Contently to Clearvoice to LinkedIn to Medium and more!

Make sure to check out my video at the beginning of this post to check out all the places you can have a portfolio and go ahead and make some writing portfolios!

4 Writing Portfolio Tips

1. have a strong writing portfolio format.

Typically, your portfolio is a page online that shows multiple links or images for your writing samples.

There is no hard and fast rule for how your writing portfolio should look like, just that you have one or more than one to show your writing expertise.

2. Have a Good Writing Portfolio Mix

It’s up to you what type of writing samples you want in your writing portfolio. For me, I only have blog posts on my portfolio page. But for you, you might have mock up samples of a press release, white papers or emails.

List out your services on your writing portfolio and then share links or examples of those services.

3. Is a Writing Portfolio a Resume?

No it is not. Your writing portfolio demonstrates your writing skill while a resume summarizes your educational experience, accomplishments and skills.

You can, however, use your portfolio in place of a resume if a client asks for a writing resume and you don’t have one to share.

4. What to Included in a Writing Portfolio

I would not put any writing samples that aren’t in my niche, that are too short (since I write long-form content), or not the best type of writing I have online will not be shown on my portfolio.

It’s Time to Create a P rofessional Writing Portfolio

There you go!

A guide to building a writing portfolio from scratch. Don’t feel that since you are a beginner you can’t have a professional writing portfolio under your belt. It will take a bit of time, but you can definitely have one!

You’ve done your research and you know this is the creative outlet you need and help you quit your 9-5 job for good !

So before you start pitching or even starting a blog , you need to create a writing portfolio that sells yourself!

With anything new, there will be different ways to get to the same end goal.

For me, I had absolutely no experience writing for businesses or being online.

Sure, I went to Facebook or Pinterest, but I did that for personal reasons, not to market something.

I didn’t know what to do or how to do it once I realized I wanted to freelance write.

I made mistakes in the beginning too and had to learn the hard way what tools I needed to start freelance writing .

So, I’m excited that you found the way to get started successfully!

It’s your turn – have you started your freelance writing portfolio? Let me know in the comments!

Share this post with your friends!

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How to build an amazing writing portfolio.

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Apr 12, 2018 7:30:00 AM

Here are some online portfolio tools you’ll want to consider using when creating your online writing portfolio:

• Writerfolio
• Pressfolios

Whether you freelance, work for a single employer full-time, or take on contract writing work, these tools allow you to do things like upload your original work, use a customized URL, and select a theme. They also come with intuitive online and mobile navigation, so it’s easy for others to view your work, and they make it much easier for you to share your writing with others.

Here are some tips for building an amazing online writing portfolio, organized by writing industries.

Creative and Fiction

Strategy and Design

When building an online writing portfolio for creative work, ensure the theme and design you select match your genre. For instance, if you write romantic fiction, you’ll want softer colors and whimsical design elements. But if you write sci-fi, you’ll want darker or metallic colors with design elements that reflect space and sci-fi motifs. It’s also helpful to select a design and theme that reflect the overall tone and voice you display in your writing. For example, if you use a lot of humor in your writing, you may want to opt for brighter colors and a photo of yourself laughing in your bio. You want everything in your writing portfolio to reflect your writing style and voice.

Include in your portfolio links and some information about publishers you work with often as well as any agents or agencies you work with. And include photos of the covers of your published work (e.g., a cover to a novel or an e-book, or the cover of an edition of a journal in which your work was included) whenever possible so that they’re easy to recognize. Including cover photos or featured photos for each piece of work in your online writing portfolio is also more visually appealing for your reviewers as they scroll through your portfolio instead of through an endless stream of text. And if you include a photo, it’s more likely that others will click on your link. 

Samples to Include

Include a variety of samples, such as a chapter from a novel or e-book, short stories, or poems. If you write several types of fiction and creative work, make sure to include an adequate amount of each type of work whenever possible (e.g., two or three poems, two or three short stories, etc.). And always include samples and links to work that has received awards and accolades. It’s also important to realize that you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) include everything you’ve ever written in your writing portfolio. Include only 10 to 20 of your best pieces that have been published, featured, received awards, etc. Rotate your samples often so that your portfolio is always fresh and up to date and truly reflects who you are as a writer.

Nonfiction and Research

For writing portfolios that include nonfiction and research, you’ll want to have a sleek and basic theme that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles or advanced design elements. Don’t use more than three colors for your theme.

You should include photos and make your portfolio easy to scan. Don’t include long, dense paragraphs of text, but do include photos of compelling visualized data whenever possible (e.g., graphs, charts, heatmaps). Separate your writing samples by topic or subtopic and highlight awards and publications. You’ll also want to draw attention to new pieces of work and research you’ve published or written. And include links to guest blog posts or other online materials that you’ve written that are a part of your larger body of research and work.

For ongoing research, you’ll want to consider including samples that show the timeline of your research and its evolution, highlighting the most pivotal information. For instance, if you’re documenting the development of a pharmaceutical device or innovation, you’ll want to share pieces of your writing that represent the five years you have been following the development of the device and what you’ve discovered along the way. Don’t include too many samples, just the samples that highlight the most interesting and imperative facts or discoveries.

Business and Communications

For a business-oriented portfolio, pick a theme and logo that best reflect the industries in which you work. For instance, if you work in construction, include images of building tools or your company’s logo. If you work in the technology industry, include digital-inspired images. You’ll also want to include reports you’ve written, as well as important memos and press releases. And your portfolio should have a variety of samples for each type of business communication you’ve written.

Because articles in business and communications tend to be shorter, it’s usually a good idea to include 20 to 30 samples, depending on their lengths. Separate your samples by client, industry (if you write for more than one industry), or type of writing (e.g., reports, briefs, proposals). 

Include at least two samples of each type of writing you regularly complete (if not more) depending on their lengths. While you would want to include 5 to 10 examples of shorter memos or press releases you’ve written, you may only want to include 2 or 3 samples of reports or longer proposals. And be sure to include pieces for each industry for which you write.

Copywriting and Content Marketing

As you’re creating this type of portfolio, include those articles that received real-life traction and positive responses. For instance, you’ll want to include direct mail copy that increased sales by a certain percentage and you’ll want to include content marketing copy (e.g., blog posts, emails, and so on) that received a lot of online engagements and led to more conversions.

While you don’t necessarily have to include the analytics and data (although that certainly wouldn’t hurt), you’ll want to include samples that reflect your best work. And in the world of copywriting and content marketing, the best written work is always the work that receives the most traction and has a high conversion rate.  

In your portfolio, include copy from different industries for which you write as well as a variety of samples, especially blog posts, email campaigns, and e-books. Also list links to any website landing pages for which you’ve written copy.

As a journalist, you’ll want to show writing samples that reflect your best work, were featured in publications, and that won accolades. You’ll also want to add information about or links to any columns you write on a regular basis and encourage your readers to subscribe. And you’ll want to organize your samples by different topics or categories you have covered such as local politics, technology, education, etc. Organize your portfolio by featured samples and category and be sure to always keep it updated with your most recent work.

The more diverse your samples, the more likely it is that you should keep a basic, sleek design. However, if your pieces are very niche-specific, then you’ll want a design or theme that reflects your niche. For instance, a journalist who covers environmental issues may want a theme with earth tones.

Because journalism is so fast-paced, it’s imperative that your work is constantly up to date. And you’ll also want to ensure your portfolio is easy to share with others and includes applicable photos of the stories you’ve covered.

Provide samples that went viral (received more than 1 million views or shares). But also be sure to include samples that showcase the different levels of your expertise. If you’ve written breaking news but have also sat down with a high-profile individual for an in-depth and revealing interview, showcase the gamut of your journalistic abilities.

What does your writing portfolio look like? Have you started one yet? Share with us in the comments below. Feel free to add a link to your own portfolio.

Topics: writing portfolio

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Table of contents

• Made with Copyfolio
• Portfolio Tips

29 Writing Portfolio Examples & Practical Tips to Create Yours

You can read thousands of guides on creating a writing portfolio –and you might still end up staring at your screen, not knowing where to start. Because sometimes what we need even more is to see real-life examples and get some inspiration. And that’s exactly what we’re going to show you today.

We collected 29 writing portfolio examples: real websites of real writers, to give you some idea about what usually goes into them and what they tend to look like. But keep on reading, because we’ve also added some brief and practical tips for creating your writing portfolio .

29 real-life writing portfolio examples

• Shanice Perriatt

Shanice's writing portfolio was created with Copyfolio, using the Letterpress template

2. Christian Boutwell

Christian made his portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Journal template

3. Rebecca Georgia

Rebecca built her portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Typewriter template

4. Emma Buckley

Emma's portfolio uses the Letterpress template of Copyfolio

5. Lara Ramirez

Lara created her writing portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Journal template

6. Halle Snavely

Halle used Copyfolio with the Letterpress template and Ink color palette to create her writing portfolio.

7. Felicia Ang

Felicia created her portfolio using Copyfolio, and the "Journal" template

8. Carly Zumar

Carly created her writing portfolio with Copyfolio, using the "Letterpress" template

9. Erica Sykora

Erica's copywriting portfolio was created with Copyfolio, using the Typewriter template

10. James Tweddle

James created his portfolio with Copyfolio, using the Billboard template

11. Kat Boogard

Kat's writing portfolio features thumbnails with a coral, navy, and white color palette.

12. The Literary Co.

The portfolio of The Literary Co. features thumbnails with laptop mockups.

13. Fika Bahroeny

Fika's writing portfolio website was created with Copyfolio

14. Robin Catalano

Robin organized their projects into categories on a separate portfolio page.

15. Eve L. Ewing

Eve L. Ewing's writing portfolio features vibrant thumbnails in a 3-column grid.

16. Ann Friedman

You can find the top pieces of her work on Ann's "Writing" page

17. Alejandro Castro

Alejandro's site is a great example for a writing portfolio with a dark background.

18. Brent Barnhart

Brent's B2B content writing portfolio starts out with a logo wall featuring top clients.

19. Malek Murison

Malek uses text styling to draw attention to the most important details in their portfolio.

20. Kristi Hines

Kristi features testimonials in her writing portfolio, to add to her credibility.

21. Jesca Austin

Jesca added brief summaries for project categories in her portfolio.

22. Tyler Womack

On his portfolio page, Tyler features his writing projects in a simple four-column grid.

23. Libby Hakim

Libby Hakim's content writing portfolio feels almost like a blog, with a sidebar to the right.

24. Tomi Adeyemi

A great example of featuring books in an author portfolio website, by bestselling author Tomi Adeyemi.

25. Micky Treutlein

Associate creative director and copywriter Micky Treutlein features projects in a 3-column grid.

26. Daniel Forte

With a crisp white background, the colorful thumbnails really pop in Daniel's portfolio.

27. Jim Vallet

Jim added his project thumbnails as a masonry grid with no white space in-between.

28. Simon Steinhardt

The simple but aesthetic writing portfolio of Simon Steinhardt

29. Leah Chamberg

Copywriter Leah Chamberg added her projects under a prominent logo for personal branding.

If you’d like to see more specific examples, check out our collection of copywriting portfolio examples –or our article about creative writing portfolios .

Here’s what you can learn from these writing portfolio examples

What is a writing portfolio and why do you need one.

Let’s start with the basics. A writing portfolio is essentially a website that houses your best pieces of writing. Those writing samples live on your site along with the most important information about you and your work that a potential client or employer needs to know. Based on that, they should be able to decide if they want to hire you as a writer or not.

How to get writing samples for your portfolio?

Having a website to host all of your work is one part of having a portfolio. But collecting the writing samples themselves is just as important. If you have years of writing experience, where you get them from is given. But what if you’re just starting out and need some credible pieces to add in there? Let’s see a few options you have:

• Spec ads or made-up projects. The term ‘spec ads’ will be most commonly known among copywriters –they refer to advertisements that a designer and a copywriter create just for practice. The same goes for other writers too: just make up a project and follow through with it. Even though it’s not real client work, these projects work wonderfully in portfolios, as they still clearly show your skills and writing style. You’ll find lots of these when browsing writing portfolio examples.
• Work for friends or family. The next step between making up projects and getting real client work is offering your writing services to those around you. If there’s anyone with a business that you could write for, ask them! Just make sure to tell them that you’d like to include it in your portfolio and do your best while completing the assignment.
• Guest posting. Another popular way, mostly for content writers, is guest posting. That means writing an article and applying to post it on someone else’s blog. There are different ways to approach it, but the end result is the same: a blog post with your name on it, on an (ideally) credible site, linking back to you. If you can get your name on a few well-known sites, it will look amazing in your portfolio, that’s for sure.
• Publishing on Medium. Guest posting takes a lot of pitching and sending lots of outreach emails. If you don’t want to do that, you can go ahead and start publishing your content on Medium instead. Without having to create your own blog, you can add your pieces and link to them from your portfolio website.
• Posting on your own accounts. Creating content and writing copy for social media is a popular area for writers –and what better way to show off your skills in it than using your own accounts? Nobody will restrict you or tell you what to do and you can also rest assured that it will stay online, just as you originally posted it.

7 tips for creating a website based on these writing portfolio examples

We’ve now gone through what a writing portfolio is , why you need one, and how to get writing samples to fill it up. We even checked a bunch of writing portfolio examples to get a little boost of inspiration. What’s next?

Getting to work and actually creating your writing portfolio website . Keep on reading for our best tips to make that process a hundred times easier and more productive for you.

Create an organized website for easier browsing

Clients and hiring managers don’t have all the time in the world: expect them to spend a maximum of 10 minutes going through your portfolio. And that’s why it’s incredibly important to have an organized website that they can navigate easily.

With the very first look, they should already know who you are and what you do. And they should also be able to navigate to your projects in under a minute. Once they’re done with checking your work, they have to be able to find your contact information easily.

Having a good experience on your website will also help you make a good (digital) first impression with them.

Limit the number of your projects to save time for the viewer

Following the same line of thought, limiting the number of projects you showcase will also help your viewers to actually finish reading through everything. We recommend adding around 4-6 projects, as you could see that in the writing portfolio examples above too.

With that many featured projects, you can showcase a good variety of samples, without overwhelming your visitors. Just remember, your motto for your writing projects in your portfolio should be quality over quantity.

Use eye-catching thumbnails for better conversion rates

Getting someone on your site and guiding them to your case studies is the first step. Making them actually click through is the next. How can you do that? With eye-catching thumbnails.

Humans are naturally drawn to images (and especially faces), so choosing ones that stand out can help to drastically improve the click-through rates on your site. Just make sure that the image you choose:

• visually fits in nicely with the site and the other images around it,
• will be visible even on smaller devices like tablets and smartphones,
• and that it actually has something to do with the project it represents.

Write case studies to show exactly what people want to know

Okay, let’s see the list so far: they are on your website. ✓ They know who you are and what you do. ✓ They found your projects and clicked on them to see more. ✓

Now is the time to convince them of your professionalism by taking them through your best projects. Here’s what you’ll have to include about each of them.

• A brief summary. Write a sentence or two to summarize the project. If someone only has time to read that, they should still find out the type, topic, and scale of the project.
• The project background. Write a little bit about the client you worked with and the task you were given. It will help the readers better understand and assess the final piece.
• The creative process. Sometimes seeing how you think and solve problems is even more important than the actual results. So talk a little bit about your creative process while working on the project before showing what you came up with in the end.
• The final results. This goes without saying, but in a portfolio, the actual writing pieces should also be featured in one way or another. We caution against just simply linking to it, as it can change or go unpublished. Including at least a screenshot (if not more), as you could see in our writing portfolio examples, about the project is always a good idea.

Add social proof to build trust with your audience

Anybody can say anything on the internet these days, so it’s no surprise that people are cautious about believing everything they read. One way to make your readers feel at ease about trusting you with their projects is by including social proof on your website, or in your case studies.

Whenever you finish working with a client, always ask them for testimonials. You can then feature them on your page, showing visitors that the people who have tried your services were more than happy with your work.

If you can, include a photo of them and a link to their business or profile, to add even more credibility to their testimonials.

Include your contact info to make it easy to get in touch

Once your visitor is convinced that you’re the one they want to work with, there’s one last thing left for them to do. They need to get in touch with you.

So do make sure they don’t drop off at this point, you need to make it super easy for them. The best way to do that is to have a “contact” item in your menu or navigation bar. That way your contact information is just one click away, no matter where they are on your website.

On the contact page, you can include your email address, phone number, and if you have a physical location they can visit, your address too.

As a bonus, you can write a few lines about what they can expect when they write to you. How much time does it usually take for you to reply? How is your process for getting started with new clients? Anything else they should know before reaching out? Write it all down to make them feel even more comfortable and confident about getting in touch.

Use a website builder for writers to create your portfolio quickly and easily

Our last and probably most useful tip is for actually getting started and creating your writing portfolio website.

In most cases, building a website either requires design and coding skills –or lots of time, waiting for the popular visual builders to finally load. Not to mention the time it takes to master using them, as they can be much more complex than they seem at first.

Instead of wasting time or getting frustrated, choose a website builder that was designed for writers, just like you. One that loads super fast and makes the website building process quick and easy for you. One that eliminates minor design decisions to make sure whatever you upload, your website is going to be stunning.

Try Copyfolio and create your own writing portfolio website today. You just have to follow a few simple steps:

• Sign in –it only takes two minutes. You can sign in with Google or Facebook, or ask for a link via email that will sign you right in. No password needed.
• Tell us your name and profession. This will be the title of your site at the beginning, and that’s all the info we’re asking for. No more filling out pages upon pages of unnecessary personal information.
• Choose a template. This will essentially decide the style of your website, as it comes with a color palette and font presets. But don’t worry, you can change it later anytime, without losing anything you’ve added already.
• Add copy to your pages. You’ll start out with the 3 most important pages: home, about, and contact. Go through them and type in all the information you need to display.
• Add your projects and write the case studies. As we discussed above, you should describe your projects as mini case studies. Follow our tips and write about your top projects, adding images to illustrate as you go.

And there you have it! You’ve just created a complete, professional website in the span of just a few hours. Send us a link when you are done, your site could be the newest addition to our writing portfolio examples!

Dorka Kardos-Latif

Digital marketer & portfolio expert, the face behind all content on Copyfolio 👋

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10 Writers with Portfolios that Stand Out

These freelance writers know an attention-grabbing portfolio is a key factor when it comes to landing gigs. Check out these tips to create a killer portfolio.

A well-made writer website is an important tool for networking online as a freelance writer or editor. Twitter can be useful for making connections and finding gigs or potential clients, but a professional online portfolio is necessary when pitching new article ideas or applying for jobs.

Your online portfolio website can be simple, such as a biography and list of published clips. Or, you can add more depth with a CV, personal projects, and a blog post or two to showcase your writing.

Our Pick of the Best Writing Portfolio Examples

A well-designed writing portfolio is essential for showcasing your work as a writer. Format has compiled a list of some of the best writer websites to help inspire you.

These writers cover a range of genres, from journalism to fiction to fashion, and their online writing portfolios reflect the quality of their work. Format’s website builder and these writing portfolio examples provide a winning combination for success in your writing career.

Our collection of online writing portfolios can provide inspiration and help you think about what to include in your own portfolio.

Find more website design ideas at our round-up of the best online portfolios built using Format .

Jennifer Fernandez

Brooklyn-based writer Jennifer Fernandez uses a grid-based theme to showcase a range of links to writing samples, including a thumbnail image and title for each one. Fernandez has been on staff at Travel + Leisure, Architectural Digest, and Martha Stewart Weddings, and has worked for business clients including Zappos and Brooklinen. She organizes her writing website into categories of Design, Travel, and Lifestyle content to make browsing easy and to showcase the type of writing she has experience in.

www.jennifermfernandez.com Format Theme: Hue

Akwaeke Emezi

Award-winning Igbo and Tamil writer and artist Akwaeke Emezi keeps things simple on their writing portfolio with a text-focused design and lots of information about their work. Their debut autobiographical novel FRESHWATER was critically acclaimed by publications like The New Yorker and NPR, and they also have two new books forthcoming from Knopf and Riverhead Books. Their website is a simple way to put the main focus on their work.

www.akwaeke.com Format Theme: Offset

Kristen V. Bateman

Fashion and culture writer and editor Kristen V. Bateman keeps her online portfolio visually interesting with a theme that introduces each of her published clips via an image and title. Bateman’s extensive portfolio can be browsed by publications (which include Vogue, New York Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and many more), as well as by category.

www.kristenbateman.com Format Theme: Coral

Elise R. Peterson

The work of New York artist and writer Elise R. Peterson has appeared in Paper Magazine, Lenny Letter, and Elle, among other publications. Her recent book with Feminist Press, How Mamas Love Their Babies, explores an inclusive idea of motherhood along with co-author Juniper Fitzgerald. Including a link to pre-order her book right on her sidebar menu ensures that visitors to Peterson’s site will be up to date on her latest work.

www.eliserpeterson.com Format Theme: Ora

Rebecca Hobson

Freelance journalist and writer Rebecca Hobson introduces her online portfolio with a professional photograph of herself and links to different sections of her writing website. Based in Bristol, Hobson has also lived and worked in India. She has written for publications including the BBC, Vice, and The Times . Organizing her writing portfolio into different sections such as Content Marketing and Current Affairs, her freelance writing portfolio allows viewers to explore all the different facets of her work.

Format Theme: Peak

Alice Driver

Award-winning and widely-published journalist Alice Driver includes a detailed yet concise biography introducing who she is and what she does, a great way of allowing visitors to her site to quickly understand the focus of her work. An additional page of recent clips, organized with titles and thumbnail images, makes further reading of her published projects instantly accessible. Based in Mexico City, Driver’s work focuses on migration, human rights, and gender equality.

www.alicedriver.com Format Theme: Mica

Tara Pixley

Los-Angeles based photojournalist and scholar Tara Pixley was a recent Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, and has published her photography and writing on media in a range of publications such as Newsweek, New York Times, and ProPublica. Pixley’s online portfolio features a selection of her photojournalism as well as a section showcasing some of her published writing.

www.tarapixley.com Format Theme: Horizon Left

A Chinese writer and reporter based in Beijing, Qin Chen writes about Chinese society for English-speaking readers. With experiences as a senior video producer for The New Yorker and a documentary producer at CNBC , Qin’s online portfolio showcases her published writing and videography.

www.qinvisual.com Format Theme: Order

Elaine Bleakney

Writer Elaine Bleakney introduces her works on her website with images of the book covers and recommendations from peers and critics. Her simple layout keeps the focus on her work, easily allowing visitors to follow links to her published work or consider purchasing one of her publications.

www.elainebleakney.com Format Theme: Mica

Scott Broker

Scott Broker’s writing website features a headshot and brief biography right on the homepage, instantly giving visitors a feel for who he is. Based in Ohio, Broker is currently an MFA candidate at Ohio State University, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His writing portfolio includes a selection of publications with a brief description of each one.

www.scottjbroker.com Format Theme: Mica

Tips for Building Your Own Killer Writer Portfolio Website

After reviewing the writer portfolio examples for inspiration, you can build your own portfolio. To effectively showcase your work as a writer, you must also have an eye for design.

Brainstorm Creative Portfolio Titles

A writer’s portfolio isn’t complete without a creative and catchy title. Writing portfolio titles can be difficult to come up with, but they are an important first step in creating a great portfolio site. The title is the first thing a prospective client reads, so you must grab their attention if you want them to continue.

A well-conceived creative portfolio title should be big, bold, and targeted to your audience. Consider the tone you are setting and how it relates to the message you want to convey with your work. Consider including your name in the title so the reader will remember who you are. Also, consider how the title will look before selecting a font for your writing portfolio site.

Portfolio Essentials:

A portfolio typically includes examples of your work, an about me section, and contact information for clients. Using the right writing portfolio format to showcase your work is a great way to attract engaged clients. The best writer portfolio sites, such as Format, offer a range of templates and a drag and drop builder to help you create a professional portfolio.

Creative Writing Portfolios

To create a strong writer portfolio, choose a website builder with customizable features and an easy editing process. Format offers a feature-rich portfolio site builder specifically designed for creative writers. Their range of templates and examples can also help provide inspiration. This allows writers to focus on creating content for their clients, rather than web design.

Creative Writing Portfolio Examples

We’ve compiled some of the most striking creative writing portfolio examples on the web, so you can get your creative juices flowing. Our recommendations above highlight Rebecca Hobson and Elise R. Peterson as creative portfolio writing samples that hit the right level of charm, sophistication, and individuality. Like what you see? Use Format’s website-building platform to set up a beautiful creative writing portfolio that exhibits the best of your work, just how you wanted it to look.

Freelance Writer Websites

The best writer websites express the writers’ flexibility and competency across a broad range of writing contexts. Bringing together examples of work produced for various sectors and requirements is crucial to conveying your writing abilities. However, It is also important to consider your personal skills and tailor your portfolio to highlight your strengths and industry-specific experience. Our pick of great writer website examples, such as Elaine Bleakney and Akwaeke Emezi , find the right balance of personal writing skills and subject-focus.

Journalism Portfolio

An online journalism portfolio should showcase your career highlights and best work as a journalist. Format’s template builder can help you effectively present your skills and experience to news agencies. This is crucial for advancing your career in journalism, whether you specialize in print, broadcast, or online journalism. A high-quality portfolio website is key to standing out and attracting new opportunities.

Journalism Portfolio Examples

Looking for examples of some of the best journalist websites to spark your creative mind? We’ve identified Tara Pixley , a Los-Angeles-based photojournalist, and scholar, as a case in point of a journalist site that uses photography as a method to engage clients with her journalistic competencies.

Similarly, award-winning journalist, Alice Driver , uses her online journalism portfolio to help clients understand more about her career and her areas of focus as a journalist. Both of these journalists, among many others, rely on Format as the best website for journalism portfolios.

An appealing online portfolio for journalists should feature your best and most recent work, as well as a list of the news agencies you have written for. If you haven’t got any published articles yet in your repertoire, that’s no problem at all. You can write several articles right on your new site. Just ensure that they are formatted like a real news article and have no grammar or spelling mistakes.

How to Make a Writing Portfolio for College

A well-formatted writer portfolio can give you that added boost for your college applications and help you stand out from the rest of the competition. Moving your existing portfolio online can make it easy for college admission departments to see the depth and breadth of your work. The best way to do this is to use a dedicated writers portfolio website such as Format, which is built to help writers network put their talents on full display. We have writers portfolios examples and intuitive templates to help you get started.

How to Share Your Online Writing Portfolio and Gain Traction

Once you have built your writer portfolio website and feel happy with the aesthetic, it is time to get the word out. The best websites online writing portfolio examples are also highly integrated with social media and are SEO-friendly. Format benefits from all of the latest SEO tools as well as social sharing features. This ensures that your personal brand stays at the top of the search results, making it easy for potential clients to find you.

Which Writing Portfolio Website Should I Use?

Format offers a comprehensive and user-friendly website builder for content writers. The platform’s customizable templates and digital marketing tools make it easy to create a professional online portfolio.

This allows writers to showcase their work and communicate with clients, while also focusing on writing and advancing their careers. Format is voted among the best portfolio sites for writers, and our customer support team is available to assist with any questions or issues.

Consider using Format to create your online writing portfolio and elevate your writing career.

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5 Great Writing Portfolio Examples and How to Build Your Own

Jessica Michael

Every writer needs a great portfolio to showcase their work, land clients, and build a following.

But knowing what to include and how to best represent your work can be challenging .

After all, you want a writing website that wows potential clients and convinces them that you're the best writer for the job.

Whether you're a beginning freelancer who wants to know how to build a writing portfolio with no experience or a seasoned pro looking to upgrade your writing portfolio website, we've got you covered.

In this article, we'll break down what makes an excellent writing portfolio by showing you some of the best online writing portfolio examples and why they work so well.

But first, let's walk through some of the basics so you really understand how to create a writing portfolio that will get you the gigs you want.

What is a writing portfolio?

An online writing portfolio is a collection of your best writing samples in an easy-to-navigate format. It's a tool you can share with potential clients and employers that shows what kind of writing you do, and it goes a long way to proving your credibility as a freelance writer .

Writing portfolios also provide a way for you to build followers and create ongoing referrals (more about that later). Online portfolios are not only a great way to land clients by showcasing your work and experience, they can also create opportunities as well.

How to make a writing portfolio

Creating a writing portfolio doesn't need to be scary or overwhelming. In fact, it can even be a fun and interesting experience that helps you define your work and the type of clients you'd like to collaborate with.

Below, we'll go through what you'll need to do to create a writing portfolio so that it's an easy and manageable experience.

Collect your writing samples

Sounds easy, right? You're a writer after all, so gathering together your writing samples should be no big deal.

However, since we're talking about your online portfolio here, which is going to be one of your primary marketing tools moving forward, you'll need to be pretty specific about what you include .

Here's a few tips to help you decide:

Choose only your best writing examples. This should go without saying, but we all know how attached we freelance writers can become to our work, and it can be hard to narrow down what we really want to highlight. Only include your most convincing and most recent work. Bring out that inner editor and do the tough work of deciding what should make it into your portfolio. Remember, less is more when it comes to portfolio writing samples.

Pick what's relevant to the jobs you want. Especially early in our careers, we may be generalists and write a lot of content for different companies. However, freelance writing portfolios that are focused on specific types and areas of writing are more convincing. Showcase those samples that fall within the type of writing you do or the industries you work in.

Separate out your work so it's easy to navigate. If you write for more than one industry (travel writing, health writing, SaaS content writing, etc.), put your writing samples into separate sections or on different pages. The same applies to different types of writing, such as social media content writing, copywriting, or technical writing. This allows different clients to find what they're looking for quickly and easily.

Keep your portfolio updated. Portfolio website hosting platforms like Journo Portfolio make this simple by automatically uploading new articles when you publish for the same outlets. You'll always want your writer's website to display the latest and best of your work, so check in and replace older work with newer and more relevant writing samples as you go.

Create your About Me

Your bio is another important element of your writing portfolio because it gives you a chance to talk about your background and experience.

This is a great place to include your educational and work experience, as well as your freelance writing history and how you like to work.

And don't worry if you don't have a ton of background specific to writing. Interesting life experiences and work in relevant industries can still be a convincing part of your story as a writer and help a potential client get to know you.

We also recommend including a professional About Me bio pic, as this helps humanize you and put a face to your name.

Contact info is more than just an email

Including email information and a contact page is a must for an online writing portfolio. However, if you are looking to build referral sources and future business, your portfolio can be leveraged for so much more than a single contact from an interested client.

Include a newsletter sign-up. Make it easy for visitors to your writing website to sign up for a newsletter about ongoing updates, newly published articles and blog posts.

Put your social media front and center. Have social media buttons throughout your site in footers, headers, or nav menus so people can follow you. And be sure to include a link to your writing portfolio in your social media accounts. That way, you can turn visitors into followers.

Include a Free Consultation button. Link to Calendly or other scheduling app so clients can make an appointment with you on the spot.

Optional add-ons for your online portfolio

While writing samples, an About Me, and contact information are all that's required for a freelance writing portfolio, there's a few more additions you might like to think about.

Testimonials

If you have clients that are willing to write you a glowing review, including these in your writing portfolio website can be very convincing for prospective clients.

If you have a lot of experience as a writer or working in the industry you write for, including a more extensive CV may be a good idea. This is especially true if you are using your portfolio when you apply for jobs

One skill you already know you have is writing, so why not put that to use on your writing portfolio website? If you utilize SEO best practices, your blog can become an effective marketing tool as well as another way to showcase your writing.

How to build a writing portfolio with no experience

But what if you are just starting out, and you don't have a ton of writing samples or experience to highlight?

Luckily, there are several ways to build out your writing. Portfolio samples don't have to be previously published work. They just have to be good.

Guest blog for blogs in the areas you have expertise in. If you have a unique perspective and some cred to back it up, look for blogs in those areas that allow for guest posting h.

Include writing samples from school or coursework. Creative Writing major? Finished a copywriting course? You can use this content to help build your writing portfolio samples.

Mock-ups and case studies count. If you want to break into a specific area, you can create a writing sample that displays your skills as long as you label it as a sample.

What does a writer's portfolio look like?

Now that you've got everything you need for your portfolio, and you have an idea of what you'd like to include, you need to think about the layout and aesthetic for your site.

Much of this will depend on which platform you choose to host your portfolio, as each will have its own features and writing portfolio templates for you to choose from.

You can work with website building sites, choose a hosting site that's specific to portfolios, or put your portfolio up on a third party writing site. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, so be sure to do your research to find out what works best for you.

Once you've chosen a site and picked out a template, you'll want to think about how to create a professional look. Color schemes, fonts, and even layouts will impact how a visitor experiences your writing portfolio. Keep the tone professional, and keep the focus on your writing to achieve the best results.

Let's take a look at some great writing portfolio examples to give you a better idea of what a writing portfolio looks like.

5 excellent writing portfolio examples to inspire you

1. jolene cheok.

Visit Jolene's Portfolio here: jolenecheok.journoportfolio.com

Jolene Cheok is a B2B and B2C copywriter located in Singapore. Her soft color palette and minimalist design are inviting and work well with the friendly tone of her web copy.

Jolene establishes credibility by including a logo montage of brands she's worked with at the bottom of her portfolio Home page. She deepens this credibility on her About me page, where she includes a section listing each of her certifications. Her portfolio About Me page also includes a button to sign up for a 15-minute consultation, which makes it simple for visitors to be converted to clients.

She divides her writing samples by type, giving each type its own page that can be found in the nav menu or by clicking on large buttons on her home page. Her writing samples are thorough case studies that she keeps visually appealing with creative layouts and great use of images.

2. Poppy Atkinson Gibson

Visit Poppy's portfolio here: poppygibson577.journoportfolio.com

Poppy Atkinson Gibson is an MA Journalism student at Cardiff University, and her portfolio is an excellent example of a student writing portfolio.

She features high-quality writing samples that emphasize her journalism skills on her portfolio Home page, as well as on a separate Recent Work page. This is a great example of choosing to include the work that's most reflective of what you'd like to do.

She also makes use of a blog page to showcase a more creative style of writing.

3. Chelsea Reid

Visit Chelsea's portfolio here: itschelseareid.journoportfolio.com

Chelsea Reid is a writer and graphic designer in the education sector. Her Home page starts with her About Me, highlighting her professional experience. She also includes a pdf upload of her CV, establishing her credentials.

Her one-page layout featuring 3 sections of her writing and graphics samples on a white background keeps everything simple and the focus on her work. Each section of samples uses a different layout, which keeps her page visually interesting.

Chelsea's use of a scrolling banner for her graphics examples really makes them stand out. She's also included an embedded slideshow of her writing samples to create a writer's portfolio that's interesting and interactive.

Visit Lubna's portfolio here: lubnarahmanpa.journoportfolio.com

Lubna is a health writer who lets her experience shine with a beautiful black and forest green color scheme. Her thorough portfolio About Me page hones in on her professional experience as a physician's assistant and science writer.

She Includes testimonials on her portfolio Home page in addition to impressive work samples on her Portfolio page, impressing potential clients. Her Services & Rates page establishes her as a professional, and she includes links to her contact info throughout, so potential clients are encouraged to commit further.

5. Josh Schultz

Visit Josh's portfolio here: joshschultz.journoportfolio.com

Josh Shultz is an entertainment writer and radio presenter from Australia. His modern black and gray grid layout puts emphasis on his impressive samples and allows the accompanying images to pop.

While Josh maintains a fun and upbeat tone in his portfolio About Me, he's still sure to bring attention to his depth of experience in his industry.

Josh chooses to divide the writing samples for his writing portfolio by outlet. This allows each type of writing to shine on its own. For the samples that feature his radio work, he includes embedded audio samples, which give a multisensory experience for his writer's website portfolio visitors.

Create a writing portfolio that's truly your own

From sleek and modern to soft and minimalist, you can create a writing portfolio that reflects your style and personality. By utilizing different layouts, you can emphasize your writing samples, your experience, and your professionalism. And with features like resumé uploading, automatic article imports, and newsletter sign-up prompts, you can build a portfolio that will help you build your business for years into the future.

Are you ready?

Top 25 Copywriting Portfolio Examples to Help You Land Clients

Jamie Mendes

Writing strategies: how to get those creative juices flowing.

How to Build an Awesome Technical Writing Portfolio and 5 Excellent Examples

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5 Creative Writing Portfolio Examples To Get You Started

As a creative writer, you’re versatile. You’re skilled at weaving narratives that are compelling and inventive. When you’re in the zone, it feels like the words just flow from your fingers and onto the page… well, except when writing your own portfolio. Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

Sometimes, the hardest writing to do is the kind promoting yourself and your own skills. Yet, it’s an essential task if you want to make a living as a creative writer. To help clear up the writer’s block that can happen when creating your portfolio, take a look at these five creative writing portfolio examples. They showcase a range of different types of writers and will give you fresh inspiration to draw from. 

Sarah Jayne Kipling

UK-based creative writer and literary editor Sarah Jayne Kipling has been published by the likes of The Evening Chronicle and The Sunday Sun. She also works as an editor and proofreads literary manuscripts and academic journal submissions. Kipling does a great job using her portfolio to highlight the breadth and diversity of her work, with sections for news stories, features, blogs and even poetry.

With such a heavy background in journalism, it makes sense that Kipling’s portfolio takes a formal tone, with a bio that’s centered around her literary achievements and accreditations. The tone you use in your bio should be reflective of the work you’re looking to land. For example, if you’re a humor columnist, your bio might be lighthearted and use playful language. If you’re a PR professional, you might take a more conservative approach, and so on.

Laventry Repin

Laventry Repin is a creative writer who has published more than 400 bylines across three countries. He uses his bio to outline his interests, which cover everything from ancient history to adventure travel. Here’s the key–the interests he mentions in his bio are directly tied to the samples in his portfolio, like a clip on hiking the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. Your bio should function not as a standalone item, but as an introduction and segue to the samples you’ve chosen to showcase. 

Though conventionally, the clips in your writing portfolio are meant to link to examples of your work, Repin gets creative and uses one of his clips to link to a PDF of his resume. This is a nice way to give viewers access to more extensive information and professional background than what’s listed in the writer bio. Finally, he invites the viewer to connect with him on other platforms, linking to his website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles along with sharing his email address.  

Cale Anthony Boudreau

The work of creative writer Cale Anthony Boudreau encompasses many different mediums, from blogs and short stories to video games and comics. His creative writing portfolio is not only a great example in and of itself, but an important reminder of the many different ways there are to make a living as a writer. 

In one clip, Boudreau showcases the work he’s done creating character profiles and back story for an upcoming illustrated comic. This is noteworthy because we tend to assume that everything in a writing portfolio needs to be a piece of published work. In fact, that’s far from the truth. Your creative writing portfolio can be used to feature work that is still in progress, pieces that you’re working on getting published and even writing you did just for fun. It’s also a useful way to give readers a sneak peek of a project before the full version of a piece is widely available. 

Giaco Furino

Giaco Furino is a screenwriter, entertainment journalist and branded content creator. His work has been featured by outlets like VICE and Popular Mechanics. Furino is a great example of how you can use your creative writing portfolio as a tool to generate interest and show off buzz about your latest and greatest project. In his bio, he begins by announcing the premiere date and location for his new screenwriting project. Then, he uses the topmost section of his clips to link to news coverage and reviews of the film itself. Genius!

Not everything in your creative writing portfolio has to be written by you. If there are third-party publications where you’ve been interviewed as an expert or your work is covered, don’t neglect the opportunity to promote them in your portfolio. 

Furino uses additional portfolio sections to organize his work both by category (news, branded content, reviews, etc.) and by date range. This is a useful way to help visitors easily skim through all of your work or find a specific piece they’re looking for. 

Carolyn Jung

There’s a saying in the business world: “the riches are in the niches.” Sometimes, it pays to go deep on a single topic. Food writer Caroyln Jung is a shining example of this. She writes about one thing–food–and uses her online writing portfolio to demonstrate that she’s an expert at it. 

Though Jung writes about a narrow subject matter, the samples in her portfolio show us that it doesn’t limit her versatility. She’s covered food for all kinds of media, from newspapers and magazines to public radio and podcasts. Further, she doesn’t just write about recipes or restaurants. Her portfolio showcases creative food-based topics like profiles of noteworthy chefs and food-centric travel pieces. 

If you’re an expert in your niche, be it football or fashion, use your portfolio to prove it. As we mentioned earlier, not every writing sample has to be a byline in a publication like the New York Times . Works in progress, articles for niche online publications and posts on your personal blog are all viable ways to demonstrate your writing skills and subject matter expertise. 

Clippings.me

Now that you have some inspiration on the content for your creative writing portfolio, where should you host it? For a free and easy solution to create your online writing portfolio, check out Clippings.me . 

Clippings.me is an online service that helps writers, journalists and bloggers showcase their best work and share it with the world. With Clippings.me, you can build your bio, add writing samples and customize your page without writing a single line of code or handling any complicated tech setup. 

First, begin by registering for a free Clippings.me account here . Follow a few simple prompts to fill out the content of your writer bio and choose from a variety of design templates. Then, add your writing samples by linking to clips on the web or uploading them from your hard drive. Categorize them so they’re easy to browse. Finally, share your portfolio link far and wide to invite others to check out your work. 

Clippings.me is the highest-ranked writing portfolio website, which ensures your portfolio shows up prominently in search results. Its superb support team answers support inquiries within 24 hours, while upgraded options like custom domains and unlimited clips are available for a low monthly fee with no contract. The free tier of Clippings.me has no strings attached and no credit card is required to sign up. 

Join more than 80,000 writers who use Clippings.me to host their portfolios by signing up here . For more useful information to build your online writing portfolio and jumpstart your writing career , check out the Clippings.me blog . 

Musings and updates from the content management team at Clippings.me.

• Creative Writing (BA) Portfolio Process
• The Undergraduate Experience
• Undergraduate Advising

About Creative Writing at ASU

The Creative Writing Program encourages all interested students, regardless of their field of study, to join our community of writers through

• beginning and intermediate workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction,
• diverse special topics courses, 
• internships with Hayden’s Ferry Review, ASU’s national literary journal, 
• and by participating in the many exciting writing events held on campus. 

About the Creative Writing Concentration

Interested students who have already taken the beginning and intermediate workshops in their genre of specialty, and who are committed to continuing their study of Creative Writing, have an opportunity to develop their skills in supportive, highly focused workshops through the Creative Writing Concentration. 

Please note that acceptance into the Creative Writing Concentration is restricted. Students must submit a portfolio for review and be offered a seat in the advanced workshops.

Students interested in pursuing more than one genre at the 400-level must check with their academic advisor to ensure that the necessary courses will fit their degree plan. Dual-genre students must submit two portfolios—one in each genre—to be considered for admittance into advanced coursework in both areas. 

Students pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration must either have selected as their major the bachelor's in English with a concentration in creative writing upon being admitted to ASU or, after entering the university, meet with an English advisor to change to this major and concentration. Non English-majors will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

• To complete the concentration, English majors completing the concentration in creative writing must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher in their major.
• Concentration students must complete the two advanced courses in their genre. N ote that enrollment into these courses is restricted. Spaces are limited. Students must have submitted a portfolio and been selected to move forward. Completion of the concentration in creative writing is open only to those who pass through Portfolio Review. 
• Transfer students must seek advisement as to whether they will be able to successfully fulfill the creative writing concentration requirements.
• PLEASE NOTE:  Students admitted to begin 400-level coursework through Portfolio Review will start their coursework in the following semester. Workshop classes cannot be taken simultaneously.  
• Students are only allowed to apply for the creative writing concentration twice during their time at ASU.

Portfolio Submission: How to Apply

Your portfolio should include:

• COVER SHEET
• Poetry Sample: 5 poems
• Fiction Sample: 1 piece of fiction of at least 5 double-spaced pages and not longer than 10 double-spaced pages
• Creative Nonfiction Sample: 1 piece of creative nonfiction of at least 5 double-spaced pages and not longer than 10 double-spaced pages 
• Discuss your interest in the relevant genre
• What do you hope to gain from the creative writing concentration
• Submit an essay on a single poem, short story, or short creative nonfiction work, focusing on an element of craft you identify in the piece, how that craft element works within the piece, and how this aspect of craft is pertinent to your own writing.
• Please provide textual examples (quotations) from the creative piece in your essay and make sure to closely read/explain their relevance. 
• A link will be provided each semester to students enrolled in the major and/or registered for the prerequisite creative writing workshops each term to submit for Portfolio Review. Specific submission dates will be included. 
• Fall: October-November
• Spring: March-April  

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How to Make an Acting Portfolio Website in 5 Simple Steps

Looking to create a stellar acting portfolio website? Discover easy-to-follow steps, website templates, acting portfolio examples, and valuable tips to create your own and land auditions.

In the world of acting, your portfolio serves as your digital calling card. It's a showcase of your talents, skills, and experiences that can attract the attention of casting directors, agents, and other industry professionals. A well-crafted portfolio can open doors to exciting opportunities and help you advance your career.

Whether you're a seasoned actor or just starting out, creating a strong online portfolio is essential. It's a chance to present your best work front and center and demonstrate why you're the ideal candidate for a role. Showcasing your headshots, resume, and reel can give potential employers a comprehensive overview of your abilities.

An impressive portfolio can also help you stand out from the competition. It's a way to make a lasting impression and leave a positive mark on those who view it. Remember, your portfolio is your personal branding tool. It's your opportunity to showcase your unique qualities and make a compelling case for your talents.

What Is an Acting Portfolio?

An acting portfolio is a comprehensive showcase of your acting abilities and experiences. It serves as a marketing tool that helps you attract the attention of casting directors, agents, and other industry professionals. A well-crafted portfolio can open doors to auditions and booking roles.

Think of your portfolio as a digital resume with visual elements. It should highlight your appearance, skills, training, and acting versatility. You can provide casting directors with a clear and informative overview of your potential by showcasing your headshots, resume, and reel.

A strong portfolio can be a game-changer in your career. It's your chance to demonstrate your talent and make a lasting impression. Remember, your portfolio is a reflection of you as an actor. It should represent your best work and showcase your unique qualities.

Key components of an acting portfolio:

• Professional Headshot: A high-quality portrait that captures your personality and professional image.
• Acting Resume: A concise document detailing your education, training, skills, and previous roles.
• Reel: A short video showcasing your acting abilities and versatility.

Steps to Create an Acting Portfolio

Finding it difficult to create an acting portfolio? Here's a step-by-step process you can follow to create an acting portfolio website that is both stunning and functional: 

• Choose a Website Builder
• Manage Website Domain and Hosting
• Choose a Website Template
• What to Include in an Acting Portfolio: Essentials
• Take Feedback and Publish Your Website

1. Choose a Website Builder

Selecting the right website builder is crucial for creating a professional and effective acting portfolio. A good platform will provide the tools and features to showcase your work in the best possible light.

By carefully considering the following factors, you can find a website builder that meets your needs and helps you create a stunning and professional acting portfolio.

• User-Friendliness: Look for a platform with a simple and intuitive interface, especially if you're not tech-savvy. A drag-and-drop builder can make creating your website a breeze.
• Design Flexibility: While pre-designed templates can be a helpful starting point, you'll want the ability to customize the layout, colors, and fonts to reflect your unique style.
• Portfolio-Specific Features: Many website builders offer features specifically designed for actors, such as high-quality image galleries, project descriptions, and the ability to categorize your work.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your website looks great and functions flawlessly on all devices.
• Marketing and SEO Tools: Look for a platform that offers integrated marketing capabilities and SEO tools to help you reach a wider audience.
• Blogging Capabilities: A blog can be valuable for sharing your acting journey and connecting with potential clients.
• Third-Party App Integrations: Consider whether the website builder allows you to integrate with other apps for payment, social media, and marketing.
• Customer Support: Choose a platform that offers reliable and responsive customer support.

Why Choose Pixpa for Creating Your Acting Portfolio?

Create an acting portfolio website in seconds. Intuitive tools and design flexibility make Pixpa the best website builder for actors and models. Drag and drop tools, gorgeous website templates, and powerful features help make an acting portfolio that sells.

2. Manage Website Domain and Hosting

A domain name is your website's unique address on the internet. You'll need to register it through a domain registrar. Once registered, you'll connect your custom domain name to your website .

Many website builders offer managed website hosting , simplifying the process of keeping your website online and secure. This means you won't need to worry about setting up and managing your hosting infrastructure.

When choosing a domain name, consider selecting one that is easy to remember, relevant to your acting career, and available. Additionally, using a managed hosting service provided by your website builder can offer convenience and security. 

By managing your domain name and hosting, you can ensure that your acting portfolio website is accessible to visitors and runs smoothly.

Pixpa also provides free one-year domain registration with Hover with any annual and 2-year subscription plan (except the Basic plan).

3. Choose a Website Template

Once you've selected a website builder and completed the initial setup, it's time to choose a template. Most website builders offer a library of templates specifically designed for acting portfolios.

When selecting a template, consider the following:

• Variety: Look for a platform offering diverse templates to suit different design preferences and layout styles.
• Simplicity: Remember, your exceptional acting work should take center stage. Choose a template that complements your design style without overpowering it. The template should serve as a canvas for showcasing your creative brilliance.

Following are some of the examples of acting portfolio templates offered by Pixpa:

This has a minimalistic feel, with a simple navbar and bold fonts on the hero section to immediately signify who you are. The inclusion of a CTA in the hero and navbar helps the visitor reach out to you for casting and audition discussions. You can also write about your acting experience and include a photo gallery on the homepage.

You can create a one-page website to showcase your portfolio neatly on a single page. This template has a large font and image banner on the hero section to immediately attract attention. It has provision for including a brief bio, animated CTA, demo reels, photo gallery, award details, contact form, and Instagram feed.

Male actors would prefer this template for its simplicity and formal appearance. This single-page site can consist of a large image banner for the hero section, an About Me section with a CTA, a photo gallery, and a contact form.

Explore more modeling and acting portfolio templates available on Pixpa.

4. What to Include in an Acting Portfolio: Essentials

Your acting portfolio website showcases your talents to casting directors, agents, and industry professionals. Here's a breakdown of the key elements you should include:

A Compelling Bio

Grab attention with a unique yet professional "About Me" section. Briefly highlight your expertise, past experiences, awards, and achievements. Injecting a touch of humor can be a bonus, but keep it tasteful. Some websites dedicate a separate "About" page, while others integrate the bio directly into the homepage.

Professional Photos

Images are crucial. Invest in a photographer who is experienced in working with actors. Here are some key photo types:

• Headshots: These are close-up portraits that focus on your facial features and expressions.
• Mid-Shots: Capture you from the waist up, showcasing body language.
• Full-Body Shots: Demonstrate your entire build and physique, potentially crucial for specific roles.
• Behind-the-Scenes Photos: While professionalism is essential, behind-the-scenes shots offer a glimpse into your personality and style, creating a more authentic feel.

Acting Resume

Include a concise, one-page acting resume with the following details:

• Basic Information: Your name, address, and email.
• Physical Details : Height, weight, ethnicity, hair/eye color, and age range you can portray.
• Education: Acting schools, training programs, and coaching experiences.
• Skills: Singing, dancing, martial arts, languages, and accents.
• Experience: Overview of your acting work in films, commercials, and/or theater (highlighting recent and relevant roles if you have extensive experience).
• Union Status: Membership in SAG-AFTRA or Actors' Equity Association (if applicable).
• IMDb Profile: Link to your IMDb page if you have acting credits.
• Other Social Media: Include links to social media platforms that showcase your following and possibly special skills (like Tom Holland using Parkour clips on Instagram to land Spider-Man).
• Awards and Recognitions: List any accolades you've received.

A demo reel, also known as a sizzle reel, is the heart of your portfolio. This video compilation showcases your best on-camera work, allowing casting directors and producers to witness your acting abilities. Carefully select scenes that demonstrate your range and versatility.

Key points for demo reels:

• Conciseness is Key: Keep it under 3 minutes.
• Highlight Your Strengths: Showcase your most impactful work.
• High-Quality Videos: Ensure the video quality is top-notch.
• Easy Accessibility: Make it easy to find on your website.

Pixpa allows you to embed videos easily through YouTube and Vimeo. You can arrange a stylish layout and even feature a full-width video on your website.

Reviews and References

Positive reviews, testimonials, and references from previous work can significantly strengthen your portfolio. Integrate them strategically throughout your website.

Social Media Links

While your website is your professional platform, social media allows you to connect with fans. Include a social bar on your website, allowing visitors to explore these additional channels.

5. Take Feedback and Publish Your Website

Before hitting the publish button, gather feedback from trusted friends, colleagues, or acting mentors. Ask them to review your portfolio for typos, grammatical errors, blurry screenshots, or any elements that might negatively impact your acting career. Incorporate their feedback to create a polished and professional portfolio.

Once confident in your acting portfolio website, publish it with pride! Your acting portfolio is now a valuable tool for showcasing your talent and attracting potential agents, casting directors, and industry professionals.

Acting Portfolio Examples for Your Inspiration

Check out these acting portfolio websites, created using Pixpa, for inspiration and ideas for your own.

Max Montesi

Max is based in Canada and works as a filmmaker, writer, and actor in the film industry. His portfolio website, which is typically one page, is simplistic, with a brief bio on the hero section and neatly placed menu options for easy navigation. The homepage also features demo reels and contact forms for the visitors to get a taste of his work and reach out. Including an IMDB profile icon on the navbar shows professionalism and helps you explore more.

Jean-Luc Seide

Jean is an athlete and a creator with experience in modeling, acting, broadcasting, and coaching, amongst others. The navbar is easy to follow and has a simple structure. The homepage features a quick bio on the hero section and a gallery of images in a grid format with subtle animation on hover.

Ruxandra Chitescu

Ruxandra is a model, actor, singer, and songwriter based in London, UK. The portfolio's homepage has a dark mode-ish outlook with some spectacularly captured pictures spread throughout. These pictures showcase different emotions and tell stories by themselves, proving her mettle in acting.

Best Practices and Tips

Do you want your acting portfolio to stand out? Here are a few best practices and tips you need to follow when creating an action portfolio:

Gain Experience Through Local Theater

Participating in local theater productions can provide valuable acting experience and expand your network if you're a beginner.

Craft a Strong Bio

Your bio should be concise and coherent and express yourself effectively. It's your introduction to casting directors, so make it memorable.

Create a Targeted Reel

Your demo reel should highlight the skills required for the specific project you're applying for. Your cover letter and resume specify the role you're submitting for and the roles you're most comfortable with.

Build Your Online Presence

Utilize your acting portfolio page and social media profiles to showcase your personality, skills, and brand. Share relevant posts and images that represent you authentically.

Highlight Awards and Honors

Awards and recognitions can set you apart from the competition. Consider prominently displaying them in your portfolio to capture attention.

Double-Check for Errors

Thoroughly review your portfolio for typos, grammatical mistakes, and technical issues before publishing.

Include Relevant Photos

In addition to listing your roles, include photos related to those productions. This can include snapshots of your performance or pictures with other actors and crew.

For Voice Actors

Include a high-quality voice-over demo reel or samples of your work. Place it prominently at the top of your portfolio instead of sharing a link or attachment.

How to Make an Acting Portfolio With No Experience?

Even if you're starting out, you can build a solid acting portfolio by focusing on the following areas:

Invest in Quality Headshots

Your headshots are your first impression. Don't skimp on this crucial element of your portfolio.

Prioritize Education and Training

Continuously invest in your acting skills by taking classes and seminars. This demonstrates your dedication to the craft.

Develop Additional Skills

Learn new skills that make you more versatile and appealing to casting directors.

Create Your Own Footage

Collaborate with other actors, directors, and cinematographers to create short scenes for your demo reel.

Utilize Past Auditions

If you have audition footage, include it in your demo reel. This can showcase your skills and potential.

Explore Student Films

Participating in student films can provide valuable experience and access to high-quality equipment.

Gather Letters of Recommendation

Obtain letters of recommendation from professors, acting coaches, or industry professionals to strengthen your portfolio.

Creating a solid acting portfolio is essential for attracting the attention of casting directors and industry professionals. Following the steps outlined in this guide, you can showcase your talents, skills, and experiences compellingly and professionally.

Remember, your portfolio is an ongoing project. As you grow as an actor, update your materials to reflect your latest achievements and experiences.

Ready to start building your acting portfolio? Pixpa offers a no-code website-building platform with all the tools you need to create a stunning and professional portfolio website. Sign up for a free trial today and start showcasing your talent to the world.

1. What is an actor's website?

An actor website is an online platform that serves as your digital portfolio. It showcases your headshots, resume, demo reel, and other relevant materials to potential employers.

2. How to design an acting portfolio?

Designing an acting portfolio involves carefully selecting a website builder, choosing a template, and organizing your content effectively. Ensure your portfolio is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and highlights your key skills and experiences.

3. How can I create an acting portfolio?

You can create an acting portfolio using a website builder like Pixpa. These platforms provide user-friendly tools and templates to help you design a professional acting portfolio website. Explore pricing .

4. How to build an acting profile?

Building an acting profile involves creating a strong online presence, networking with industry professionals, and actively seeking opportunities. To gain experience and expand your network, participate in workshops, auditions, and local theater productions.

5. How to create a theater portfolio?

A theater portfolio is similar to an acting portfolio. It showcases your experience in theater productions, including roles, credits, and any awards or recognitions.

6. What to include in a drama portfolio?

A drama portfolio should include your headshots, resume, demo reel, and any relevant materials related to your theater work. Highlight your roles, character analysis, and any specific skills or techniques you've developed.

7. How can I get paid for acting?

To get paid for acting, you must build a strong portfolio, network with industry professionals, and actively seek out auditions. As you gain experience and establish yourself, you'll have better opportunities for paid roles.

8. How do actors get jobs?

Actors typically get jobs through agents, casting directors, and direct submissions to productions. Networking, attending industry events, and staying updated on casting calls are crucial for finding opportunities.

9. How do you get acting auditions?

You can submit to casting calls, attend open auditions, network with industry professionals, and join acting agencies to get acting auditions. Building a solid online presence and actively seeking opportunities can increase your chances of landing auditions.

Try Pixpa - the easy, all-in-one portfolio website builder loved by photographers & creators.

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12 Top Writing Portfolio Examples to Inspire You (2024)

A collection of 12 best writing portfolio examples — draw inspiration from these to create your writing portfolio to solicit more work.

Protim Bhaumik

Director, Content Marketing

Written by Protim Bhaumik , edited by Shreya Bose , reviewed by Eric Hauch .

6. Oct 2022 , updated 8. Feb 2024

Creating a writing portfolio is challenging. You have to appeal to potential clients within a few seconds and get them to start scrolling through your work.  To that end, I've written an extensive guide on how to create the perfect writing portfolio.

For now, let's get you inspired by a collection of writing portfolio examples that I've carefully curated. These contain examples from writers, authors, copywriters, and content marketers built on a variety of portfolio builders or websites .

For each example, I have highlighted my favorite aspects — factors you can incorporate into your own portfolio. When used in your writer's portfolio, it'll help your work stand out, especially if you're a freelance writer.

With that in mind, let's look at the top writing portfolios.

The top twelve writing portfolio examples

1. gari cruze.

Gari Cruze is an associate creative director and copywriter . His online portfolio website —which uses a grid layout with all his work — is filled with humor, and I love it! He's divided his professional online portfolio into sections called "About" (fairly normal), "17 Random Things", and "Oh Yes, They're Talking" instead of the usual "Get to know me" or "Testimonials."

Moreover, even in the About section, he uses copy that brings out his creative writing — words such as "the full blah blah" and "pink squiggly stuff in people's skulls" strike a chord. He also has a "testimonial" from his dad that finishes with "... Gari's like one of the slower primates."

So, all in all, it's an excellent representation of his work and who he is!

Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Displaying Your Web Copy on Your Portfolio (for more gigs)

2. Kayla Lewkowicz

Kayla Lewkowicz is a writer, content marketer, and teacher . Her writer website landing page is about who she is and what she does — like "turning great ideas into compelling stories" and, more importantly, "arguing about the finer points of the Oxford comma." Hear, hear!

When you scroll down on her landing page, you see various photos of her travels accompanied by client testimonials and service offerings. The portfolio section has been categorized by topic and what's great to see is that each topic has three posts highlighted for the reader to look at first.

3. Jennifer Fernandez

Jennifer Fernandez is a writer and editor on staff at Architectural Digest , Travel + Leisure , and Martha Stewart Weddings ; her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal , Elle Decor , House Beautiful , Afar , Departures , and more.

Her beautiful writing portfolio site follows a super minimalist style, and her writing samples are divided into three sections so that it's easy to navigate.

4. Qin Chen

Qin Chen is a Beijing-based writer , journalist, and news editor at TechNode and has spent the past two years helping English readers make sense of the top news from the world's second-largest economy.

Her portfolio opens with a quaint picture of a riverboat that's both calming and intriguing. From the off, her work is collected into two sections: writing and video . And her writing samples are arranged into an easily parsable format divided by year.

5. Ann Friedman

Ann Friedman is a journalist, essayist, and author and currently a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman, having written for places like The Cut , The Los Angeles Times , The New York Times , ELLE , and The Guardian , and has co-written the best-selling book Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close and co-hosts the pioneering podcast Call Your Girlfriend .

Her portfolio is a favorite of many lists like these because of its minimalist, friendly vibe. Her writing samples are collected under headings such as books, essays, interviews, and more, making it super easy to go through.

6. Tyler Koenig

Tyler Koenig is a copywriter and content strategist living in the Bay area after having traveled the world copywriting for various brands. He's currently the content lead at CapitalG , Alphabet's independent growth fund.

His portfolio is clean and straightforward,  and among the best writer portfolio examples I've recently seen. His main landing page says who he is and what he does through both the visuals and the copy, while his work is tucked under the "Content" section.

7. Alice Lemée

Alice Lemée is a creator , freelance content writer, and copywriter who writes on freelancing, the creator economy, and personal development.

Her portfolio page is an excellent example of how a single landing page can accomplish a lot — intelligent copy coupled with beautiful imagery and call-to-action buttons interspersed in just the right areas.

8. Muriel Vega

Muriel Vega is a writer and editor living in Atlanta , writing about tech, culture, and food with bylines at Delta Sky Magazine , The Guardian , Apartment Therapy , Eater , VICE , Splinter News , The Washington Post , Atlanta Magazine , The Bitter Southerner , Outside Magazine , and more.

Muriel's clever use of colorful icons in a simple white background for her portfolio evokes a sense of friendliness, approachability, and creativity. Also, her creative writing has been astutely collected under relevant topic headings for easy perusal.

9. Hank Herman

Hank Herman is an award-winning author, humorist, and writing instructor whose memoir, Accept My Kid, Please! A Dad's Descent Into College Application Hell has led to speaking engagements throughout the Northeast, and his 15-book series of basketball novels, Super Hoops , is read by grade-schoolers everywhere.

His is one of the few portfolio sites to use a comic (of him and a beagle zooming around on a car!), which certainly lends an air of whimsy to an excellently organized website.

10. Shayna Condé

Shayna Condé is a writer, model, and actor who looks to create spaces that build community, share valuable information, and foster discussions behind brands.

Her beautiful portfolio website is a collection of photos of her, as well as sections for her writing, modeling, and acting.

11. Colleen Fisher Tully

Colleen Fisher Tully is a content writer & editor working in the health, food, cannabis, nutrition, finance, and family spaces.

Her minimalist freelance writing portfolio has been separated into easy-to-read collections on the numerous topics she writes on.

12. Pamela Rosen

Pamela Rosen specializes in creating long- and short-form content for B2B and B2C audiences .

Her portfolio is divided into the various types of content that she writes.

How to create an online writing portfolio that gets you clients

Now that you're adequately inspired by the aforementioned writer portfolio examples,  let's learn how to create one of these portfolios easily. We highly recommend reading our guide on creating a writing portfolio from scratch .

What we've seen above has been created on an eclectic mix of builders for portfolios, website builders, and more. A lot of these solutions are time-consuming and quite complex to set up.

Authory for all your content needs

And that's why a portfolio builder like Authory makes so much sense. It's super simple to set up, is good-looking, and gives you a portfolio out of the box.

Not only that, Authory is self-updating, which means that you don't have to keep track of all your work actively — Authory does that for you!

Authory also backs up all your content forever — there's no need to fret about losing access to your work if a site goes down — Authory has it all locked down.

Read More : Get an automated backup of everything you have ever created

You can even use Authory to prove definitely that you do not use AI to write, at all, ever.

Whether you're creating a freelance writing business or collating all everything you've done at your full-time job, an Authory portfolio will see you through for years to come.

Get Authory for free now!

Protim is a startup founder & marketer with over a decade of experience in content marketing, content writing, SEO, and more. He loves dogs, D&D, and music!

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