3 Tips for Building a Freelancing Portfolio That Will Get You Clients
As a freelancer, being able to show off our greatest work is essential for landing high-quality clients. Whether you are a writer, graphic designer, painter, or virtual assistant, you need to have a collection of the best examples of your work to show when a job opportunity presents itself.
As a freelance writer who has been working with clients for over a year now, here are my three tips for crafting a portfolio of work that truly encapsulates what services and products you are able to create for your future clients:
3 Tips for Creating an Impactful Freelancing Portfolio:
1. Make sample content, even if you don’t have any clients
If you are just starting out, this is one of the best ways to get a great selection of samples to show potential clients. It can feel very daunting to create “fake” samples, especially if you have no experience working as a freelancer. But, in the process of creating your samples, it is a great opportunity to fine-tune your personal brand, tone of voice, art style, and other identifiable traits that clients will connect with.
When I first started out, I had never written content that was not intended for a school assignment. But, over the course of a few weekends at a coffee shop, I wrote some sample blog posts about various topics I was passionate about in the medical space (the niche I was intending on working in as a freelancer). With these blogs written, not only did I learn a lot about what my personal writing style is, I also created a small catalogue of samples that eventually resulted in me getting hired for my first freelance writing job.
So get out there, create samples for nobody, and begin to build a portfolio of work that you can proudly show to future clients!
2. Explore different topics within your niche (and target your approach to your clients when possible)
Once you have gotten some great quality samples of your work in your back pocket, expanding upon the styles, types, and topics of your work is a great way to open yourself up to a wider pool of clients. Having a larger selection of quality work to pick from allows for you to better curate the experience your client will have when looking through your work.
For example, I was once invited to apply for a job writing medical blog posts, specifically in the women’s health niche. The majority of my blog samples were about other medical topics, but I had recently written a sample article about polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) after seeing that there were a lot of women’s health jobs posts on Upwork. Submitting a blog sample about the ultra-specific niche this client wanted was basically my one-way ticket to getting hired.
3. Create, recreate, and create again
Just like all other skills in life, the work, service, or product you create for your freelancing career will not be perfect in its first iteration. When I look back at my writing samples, I am genuinely quite blown away at how far my writing style has come in less than a year. And that’s on progress!
Fine-tuning and adjusting your work will happen naturally as you become busier as a freelancer. Be sure to check in with your portfolio of work at least every few months to swap in some of your new and better examples. You want your portfolio to show off the work that you are most proud of — so be sure to add in your most recent projects whenever possible.
Connect with me
Are you interested in learning more about how to start a successful and lucrative freelancing career? I am here to help! Feel free to connect with me to ask questions — I would love to share more of my best tips and tricks with you.
Until next time!