How to Make an Amazing Writing Portfolio (+ Examples)

Having a writing portfolio is beneficial when demonstrating your writing skills. In fact, among many other freelance specialities, writing is one of the easiest to kickstart a freelance career. 

So, what is a writing portfolio? It is a portfolio that gathers examples of your previous writing projects. Many writing portfolios have a niche. There are many niches you can consider as a freelance writer. For example, copy editing, SEO writing, and content writing. 

These prospects are important for your writing portfolio because your clients and potential employers always want to see proof of your writing skills. 

What are the better ways to showcase your skills other than having a writing portfolio?   

In this article, we will walk you through the steps of creating a writing portfolio, with examples attached in the article.

Having a writing portfolio is not only about showcasing your writing skills but also about branding yourself. As mentioned in the introduction, each writer has a niche. But clients need to know how you are different from other competitors. After all, the copyediting industry is extremely competitive. 

What does a writing portfolio look like? Here are four essential components you can include in the portfolio: 

• Diversity – many writers struggle to demonstrate their niche because there are many content categories. Writing portfolio examples often include various styles, genres, and publication types. 
• Content and tone – Each sample on the writing portfolio needs to have a professional technique. A professional writing sample includes a good writing style, punctuation, and grammar.
• Tailored towards the audience – Your writing portfolio website needs to be tailored to the audience, but at the same time should also show off and correlate with your niche. 
• Focus on your brand – Your writing portfolio examples need to focus on other marketable attributes, such as content marketing, testimonials, and storytelling.   

Having a writing portfolio entails many different professional directions. Here are three professional routes that can benefit from having a good writing portfolio: 

• Become a self-employed/freelance writer
• Become a professional writer for an industry
• Become a contract writer for any companies

Step 1: Choose a suitable writing portfolio website. 

There are many popular writing portfolio websites other writers use. Each platform may have its advantages and disadvantages, so choose what you desire. 

Step 2: Create an authentic author biography.

Having an authentic author biography allows the clients to know you better. Having a biography also sets you apart from other writers. As mentioned earlier, the writing industry is competitive, so unique personal characteristics will help you stand out from the crowd.  

Step 3: Select your best works.

Select your best works to represent your skills in your writing portfolio. Of course, whether it is your best work or not depends on your experience. Remember to update your best work consistently.

Step 4: Categorize your writings into different categories.

Usually, a writer can write in various styles and categories. For instance, a content writer can write about travel, medicine, lifestyle, and many more. Categorizing your writings into different categories on your online writing portfolio helps the readers navigate their preferred content easily. Remember, think from a reader’s perspective. 

Step 5: Design the layout of your portfolio.

The layout of your writing portfolio depends on your personal preference. Typically, your portfolio shows links and images of your writing samples. You can also organize your portfolio layout by genres, content, and styles.

How to make a writing portfolio? If you still don’t understand how to make a portfolio, have a look at these seven writer website examples for different writing services:

✍🏻 Copywriting portfolio

Kelsey O’Halloran’s portfolio sets an excellent copywriter website example. She features her best writing project on her homepage. One of the best marketing strategies she uses is call-to-action. On her website, you can see that she already encourages the readers to explore her services.

✍🏻 Creative writing portfolio

Rebecca Hobson is a freelance journalist from Bristol, U.K., and she worked and lived in India in the past. Her creative writing portfolio has a professional gimmick with various categories. She writes about current affairs, and her writing has featured on the BBC, Vice, and The Times.

✍🏻 Content writer portfolio

Ann Friedman’s content writer portfolio website is direct. She uses email marketing strategy and FAQ section to attract readers. These two marketing strategies increase the engagement between her readers and herself. In addition, you can see her best work as soon as you enter her home page, which is appealing.

✍🏻 Technical writer portfolio

Craig Wright is a freelance technical writer. His technical writer portfolio is a good example of what you can do if you cannot demonstrate the projects due to data protection. Instead, he focused on showing you case studies and client testimonials. He also shares screenshots of his previous work.

✍🏻 Screenwriting portfolio

Amy Suto is a writer, coach, and founder. She is a successful writer based in Los Angeles. Amy is a good example of showing a person can have a portfolio career by doing many things. You don't have to be a writer, you can also be a consultant, entrepreneur, and many more. 

✍🏻 Script writer portfolio

Screenwriting and script writing are often put together because these skills fundamentally are not too different, especially in the film industry already. Phil’s portfolio not only shows script samples, but he also showcases his work using film, TV, and radio.

✍🏻 Writing portfolio for students/university

As a student writer, you may not be experienced enough to compete with others in the market. But you can utilize different writing classes and turn them into a nice writing portfolio for students. One example is making a process writing portfolio. A process writing portfolio allows you to showcase the process of writing, including brainstorming, sketching, clustering, outlining, free-writing, and drafting.

Ocean Vuong’s writing portfolio is close to a student writing portfolio. You can creatively write about anything but always show your work. 

Here are the five best portfolio sites for writers. You can consider these five websites when building your online writing portfolio:  

1. Cake

Cake is a platform that offers resume and portfolio building tools. Cake’s portfolio-building tool is easy to use and customizable. You can freely choose your style, color, format, and layout for your writing portfolio.

2. Wix

Wix is a popular platform for freelancers and self-employed individuals. Wix offers many sample writing portfolios on its platform, and it also has integrated SEO, marketing, and email marketing tools. But some functions are limited for paid users.

3. WordPress

WordPress is the most ancient content management platform, and many decade-old bloggers often mention WordPress as their starting platform. WordPress is known for its excellent SEO tool, and they offer a dedicated portfolio splash page. However, WordPress is known to be the most challenging platform to navigate for beginner freelancers. It takes time to learn and even code with CSS.

4. Clippings.me

Clippings.me is a designated platform for freelance journalists. You can add links, embed multiple media sources, podcasts, and PDFs. If you want to gain more client attraction, they also offer using a journalism directory. You can easily make your writing brand using Clippings.me. If you are a regular writer, you will need to upgrade to a premium membership to write more than ten articles.

5. Pressfolios

If you are looking for an easy to start online writing portfolio, Pressfolios is your choice. Unlike WordPress, Pressfolios don’t require you to code. Anyone who wants to write can start their writing career on Pressfolios. Pressfolios only offers free access for 14 days, and you have upgraded to the Pro version to integrate custom domain names.

💡 Add social proofs to increase credibility.

If you are a freelancer, you should understand the importance of social proof. Any business owner would understand the importance of social proof and credibility. In short, social proofs are validations from your previous and current customers.

An easy way to demonstrate social proof on an online writing portfolio is to gather testimonials. Testimonials are statements from previous and current customers on your service. Testimonials also increase your credibility and trustworthiness.

💡 Keep the writing portfolio design clean and simple.

The truth is your writing portfolio does not have to be fancy or stylish. Many digital writing portfolios have a strong focus on design, but it is often costly (because you might need to hire a designer or spend a long time working on the design yourself). Instead, focus on having a simplistic design. After all, readers visit your website for the content, not the design.

💡 Showcase your achievements in your biography or include a resume.

Although your writing portfolio is not a resume, many recruiters and potential employers may still be interested in your achievements outside of writing. 

The recommended section to include your achievements and resume is in the about me section. In this section, you can introduce yourself as a writer and showcase your achievements at the same time. 

💡 Check for grammar or spelling errors.

Having articles without grammatical mistakes is a self-serving requirement to fulfil. As a writer, you understand the importance of having high-quality work in the writing portfolio. High-quality articles often have good content, style, and punctuation.

Check your sentences and read them out loud. If you need facilitation in grammar and spelling, you can also check out grammar tools. For example, Grammarly is a tool known to help with improving grammar and punctuation.

💡 Continually update your portfolio.

As a writer, you are likely to be writing every day. With such a high writing frequency, what you have written in the past year is likely considered outdated. Update your writing portfolio website regularly to keep the audience engaged and satisfied.