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Recently, I received an email from a writer looking for advice on building a freelance writing portfolio without any published pieces online. This is a question I’ve been asked a lot, and that I also asked myself a few years ago when I first set out to become a content writer.
I know the feeling of frustration when you need a portfolio to get work, but need work to make a portfolio. It’s a paradox that seems unending. But don’t give up hope! It is absolutely possible to build a freelance writing portfolio from scratch. I did it, and so can you.
In this guide, I’m sharing in detail how to start a writing portfolio as a total beginner, including how to gather portfolio pieces and what tools to use to actually create an online portfolio.
- Step 1: Choose a Niche
- Step 2: Build Portfolio Pieces
- Step 3: Find a Platform
- You Have a Freelance Writing Portfolio, Now What?
Step 1: Choose a Niche
I’ll be honest, I’m not someone who thinks you need to choose a super-specific writing niche from the outset. If anything, I think that’s more likely to limit and slow down your growth than anything else…plus you probably don’t even know what you enjoy writing about yet.
However, what I do think you need to do is choose a writing style niche, e.g., blog writing, copywriting, or ghostwriting. This is because to market yourself as a freelance writer, you have to show you are experienced in one particular type of freelance writing. Potential clients are going to be looking for specific writing skills, which is exactly what you need to demonstrate in your portfolio.
Step 2: Build Portfolio Pieces
This is a guide designed for total beginners with zero experience…and that probably means zero portfolio pieces. Don’t worry! Everyone starts somewhere, and it is absolutely possible to start creating a great portfolio without any previously published work.
Here’s how to start building your portfolio as a total beginner:
Faux Briefs
It is nearly impossible to convince someone to pay you to write without showing them your writing first. So write something. I’m serious. Create three to five fake briefs for yourself in your dream niches, and get writing. Your potential clients don’t need to know that the writing samples were based on your own brief, especially as good writing speaks for itself.
If you want to take this to the next level, you can also publish these pieces to a personal blog. That’s how this blog even started in the first place!
Medium
When it comes to freelance writing platforms, I have mixed feelings about Medium. That being said, there’s no denying it can really come in handy when building out your first portfolio. For those who don’t know, Medium is an online publishing platform where writers share articles, essays, and stories on pretty much every topic imaginable. You can post both your own independent pieces or publish them to one of the many formal publications accepting submissions.
What this means is that you can share links to technically “published” pieces with your name in the byline. Now, most people in the world of online content understand that being published on Medium isn’t the same as being commissioned for a piece, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that you can link to examples of your writing in an online publication.
As a caveat, Medium will try to sell you on their paid tiers with promises of “getting paid for your writing”. Essentially, this works as if you’re a paid member; you can put your articles behind pay walls and start getting paid per click. The catch? Unless you get thousands of clicks a month, you won’t break even on the subscription cost. In my opinion, just stick to the free tier.
Fiverr
Another freelance writing platform that I have a very love-hate relationship with. In the long run, Fiverr sucks for freelancers due to their 20% commission on all sales, including tips, and the irritating seller rankings, which change constantly without any transparency.
But Fiverr does have a valuable role when it comes to new freelancers. It is an incredible place to gain your first-ever paid freelancing job. I’ve broken down exactly how to get your first Fiverr order before, but the condensed version is to fake the first order/review, then undercharge and overdeliver.
Once you have around five completed orders, you should have at least a couple of pieces that can go straight into your portfolio.
Use Your Network
This doesn’t just have to mean your professional, highly connected network. Ask around, speak to your friends, and think about anyone in your life who could benefit from free writing services in exchange for a testimonial.
If you know someone with a blog or website, a small business owner struggling with social media, or a nonprofit that needs help spreading their message, offer your skills. There are actually even sites dedicated to connecting charities in need of particular skillsets with professionals, such as Catchafire.
Pitching
This might be the scariest way to build a writing portfolio from scratch, but it’s also probably the best one. Almost every online publication will have information somewhere on its website on how to submit pitches for new articles. Spend some time researching publications that you’d love to write for, and then start pitching.
You’re likely to have more luck with smaller, unpaid publications, which is where I recommend you begin. My first few published blog posts were completely unpaid, but they allowed me to show off my work in a portfolio and land amazing (and paid) clients within a few months.
You can read more about my personal and proven pitching strategy below:
Step 3: Find a Platform
Here’s the great news: you don’t need hundreds of published pieces to start a portfolio. Really, you only need three really good writing samples to get started. Once you have these gathered, you need to decide what type of portfolio you want to create. These days, there are a ton of options, with most freelance writing portfolios being fully online compared to offline PDFs.
Here are the methods I recommend for creating your writing portfolio from scratch:
Online Portfolio Platforms
There are many dedicated online portfolio builders that are specifically designed to display your published work. Two that I really like are Writer’s Residence and JournoPortfolio. These types of sites allow you to manually upload or link to portfolio pieces, which are then professionally displayed on your personal portfolio website.
All you have to do is share the URL with potential clients.
Personal Websites
I already mentioned this above, but creating your own website and blog is a great way to demonstrate your professional skills online. It’s literally how this entire site started and is something I’d recommend to any first-time freelance writer.
I recommend WordPress if you want to publish blog posts, or for simpler options, you can check out Wix or Squarespace.
Cloud Docs
To keep things super simple, you can also use something like Google Docs or Notion to display or link directly to your portfolio pieces. Google Docs is usually the simplest for this (it’s exactly like Word but free and online), but if you can deal with the learning curve, Notion is ideal.
This is because you can publish Notion pages to look like websites and share your portfolio with a simple URL.
You Have a Freelance Writing Portfolio, Now What?
Great question. You start looking for clients! Link to your portfolio in every pitch submission, add it to your LinkedIn/website, and use it to demonstrate your writing skills and land paid work.
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