The enormously popular FreelanceSwitch is one of my favorite blogs/websites. I’ve always loved reading it as it continually offers the best advice for bloggers, writers, designers, developers, photographers, and more. The site is dedicated to helping freelancers (or really small businesses) become more efficient, attract more clients, and do better work. When I started my own business FSW and their self-published book helped me a lot. I continue to read the FSW blog daily and often follow advice and tips from the posts there.
My article on the FreelanceSwitch homepage
I also love helping other freelancers and startup companies and recently thought about writing a helpful article and trying to get it published on FSW. I spent some time crafting the post and submitted it. Lo and behold – FSW accepted the article and posted it soon thereafter. I was/am super-excited to be a part of the FSW team!
Here’s how the article begins:
Remember when you graduated from school or first decided to become a freelancer? You likely didn’t have much work to show and had to scramble to fill your portfolio. If you now have a few years under your belt, you’ve probably started to build up quite a collection of finished pieces.
The importance of having a professional portfolio website has been discussed on FreelanceSwitch – it is essential for the modern freelancer. But how do you decide what to include in your portfolio? If you fill your site with only your favorite work it could be focused in the wrong direction and not attract business. If you only display giant commercial projects it may feel like a sterile presentation with no heart. Somehow you need to show that as a freelancer you are both capable in your skills and able to produce high quality, creative results.
I suggest this 5-pronged approach for deciding what you want to include in your portfolio:
I’m looking forward to a continued 2-way relationship with FreelanceSwitch!