I’m a bit behind in updating my online portfolio. Because my professional site is not dynamic, I need to harass my husband every time I want a link to a new clip put up (conveniently, I’m married to my web designer). We plan on making the site dynamic at some point but, for the moment, I’m wondering if I should take advantage of some of the freelancer-friendly, portfolio-specific sites out there.
After the jump, a brief look at 7 different portfolio sites that you should check out.
1. Behance Network:
Behance Network is a platform for designers. You can set up a profile and portfolio, network with other designers and professionals, and even look for work.
2. big folio:
big folio provides portfolio websites for photographers. Creatives can choose from a number of pre-made pretty-pretty designs, which tend to cost $450 for setup and have a $20 monthly hosting fee. More standard designs cost only $150 for setup, with a $15 monthly hosting fee.
3. carbonmade:
carbonmade is a cute-as-heck portfolio site for designers and artists.
4. Coroflot:
Coroflot is another design-oriented portfolio site, where freelancers can also look for jobs.
5. Designers Toolbox:
Designers Tool box is a resource site for designers, with an option for setting up portfolios. The site offers a free, 14-day trial, but if you decide to go permanent, costs are $29.99 per month, $299.90 per year.
6. Flickr:
I assume that we’re all familiar with Flickr, the free photo-hosting/sharing website. It’s also an excellent forum for setting up a photo portfolio, or for selling your pics for stock photography purposes.
7. PhotoShelter:
PhotoShelter is a portfolio and storefront site for photographers.
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Aside from these sites, many social networking sites — such as LinkedIn and Facebook — allow you to upload project samples to your portfolio, or stream your blogging. Then there’s always the option of setting up a blog as your portfolio — which may be a good option for writers as well — or just building your own site (or having a savvy web designer/developer help you).
Some of my favorite writer sites: Marci Alboher, Ariel Levy, Shalom Auslander
What have you guys done to put your portfolio out there?
My website/portfolio is hosted by VistaPrint and I’ve been pretty happy with the service so I prepaid $200 for a full year of web hosting. They also have a very user-friendly webtool that I can use to update the site whenever I want without doing any coding. Admittedly, it’s not the fanciest or most web 2.0 savvy site, but it achieves of my goal of having a place to host my clips and establish an online presence. Some writers use Media Bistro’s freelance marketplace for the same purpose, but you can do a lot more customization by having your own site.
have used Behance.net – price is right (free), and I’m amazed by how much traffic my work gets.
have also done my own portfolio on my website – but static to the point of being sad…
@Susan: I hadn’t even realized that VistaPrint offered that particular service! My god they’re a great resource for freelancers.
@Tim: Post us a link to your website! I always love seeing how everyone else does it.
Hi Steph, I just found your website through Susan’s blog. I notice the portfolios are geared towards visual artists rather than writers and thought you might be interested to know about Writer’s Residence (http://writersresidence.com), a portfolio service with a feature set designed specifically for writers. I co-run the website and use it for my writing portfolio (http://monicashaw.com). Hope you don’t mind the plug, but seeing as you’re a writer yourself I thought you might like to know about it!
Thanks!
Thanks for the tip Monica! I was actually feeling frustrated that so many of the portfolio sites I knew about were geared toward visual arts, rather than the written word.
Hey Steph – I was feeling the same frustration, that’s why we built it! Please feel free to give it a try. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. =)