Creating an online portfolio

For one of my modules this semester at university, I had to create an online portfolio website. Definitely not one of the assignments I enjoyed the most, in fact it was quite the challenge for me.

Obviously there are a number of different ways of going about this. Personally, I went down the easy WordPress blog route and purchased a domain (which I’m still not sure I understand all of the ins and outs of).

But aside from the questions of the technical aspects of creating an online portfolio, there’s the questions of what actually needs to be on there?

Obviously you want to show off your work – that’s kind of the point of this. But I’d say take a selection of what you think is your best work and put that on there. You don’t want to overload it with lots of articles because no-one beside your mum will bother to look at it all. Keep it concise, a few select articles that show your ability to work in a number of different ways will work a lot better than showing a hundred stories that are very similar.

And make sure you link to your work if it’s online. It’s all well and good having it on your website and saying it was published but much better to actually link out to it. But I’d recommend making links so they open in a new tab or window so that you don’t lose people from your own site.

This is all well and good, but what’s the point in it? Does a wannabe hack even need a website?

Well, I’d argue yes actually. It’s a great way to showcase your work to potential employers. And not only written work or work that’s in your portfolio, but it also showcases your online skills. If you can create a personal website that comes within the first few results when someone googles you then you’ve probably used good SEO techniques, which are essential for any journalist these days. Well, either that or you have a very unique name.

If you’re concerned about trying to create a website from scratch, 10,000 words have some great advice about various sites to help journalists create an online portfolio.

kimberleytew

Great post Natalie, but I just wanted to comment that it is really bad practice to set links to open in a new tab or window both from a usability and an accessibility point of view. If people go off to a new website there is just as much chance of them becoming absorbed in the new site whether it is in the same window or a new one. However if people want to get back to your site, they will use the back button and so if they keep clicking back and can't get to your site, they will just get frustrated and go elsewhere. Yes, they will rediscover your website when they close down the other tab, but by that point they have probably lost interest. And as many people use tabbed browsing rather than opening lots of windows now, when they get bored on the other site and can't get back to yours, they will close the browser window and therefore all of the tabs rather than just that one tab.

Hope you don't mind me commenting, but I'd hate to see people losing readers from their nice new portfolio sites because of one detail!

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