A Freelance Writers Guide to creating an Online Portfolio.

A Freelance Writers Guide to creating an Online Portfolio. Including links to best sites and what to include.

Going on line.

I went on line for the first time twelve months ago. At the age of fifty-eight I knew how to switch a computer on and off, and play solitaire. I went online to venture into selling on line a product I was making at home.

I have been writing for myself; poetry, short stories, ideas for novels. I shared some of my poetry with only one other person. I stumbled across a writing site, four months later the first of June 2007. Since then I have joined several other writing sites. I have found none of the other sites hold the same appeal to me. The site is writing dot com. The sheer size of the site can be intimidating and daunting in the beginning. I posted first one poem, received good reviews, the term good review can be debatable here; If someone had given me a rating of one star, and a comment of OK I would have considered that good. How I have changed, maybe it is the higher ratings, the in depth reviews, the reviewing I have done in return. The greatest benefit to me has been the online portfolio with an url directly to the portfolio.

When applying for remote writing work online, from one of several sites; I find it easier to give the link. I also add links to my blogs, which are different styles of writing; I can also have a blog on writing dot com it is a feature which is available. I have another web site where I am writing articles that pertain to our business interests, the one isn't really a business more a community project, the other is a house on the coast, which we rent out. I cite those links because of the style of the articles, sometimes I give it sometimes I don't, it depends on the type of work I am applying for, web content, travel pieces.

Backing up to go forward.

In December 2007 I took a break from writing, I had been working on a novel, the first two chapters had been written long hand, then typed out in a word document, the next two chapters, rough notes where I wanted to go in those chapters in long hand, developing and adding body as I was typing; after that the rest of the chapters resembled mind maps, a circle or square in the middle, squiggles and arrows pointing to other circles or squares with a keyword. If there was twenty words on the page it was a lot; from those I wrote out the chapters. My intention was to leave it stand awhile and come back to it with fresh eyes in January. After spending ten days at the coast, returning mid-January a sudden power failure caused my computer to crash even with a UPS, which also needed to be serviced. I now double save everything. One I back up to disk, the second option of saving with writing dot com, with the facility of posting and a putting a restriction for my viewing only. The novel back to square one, with the draw back it has lost the freshness, and the time which I took away from blogging.

Website

The advantages opening a website, is that you can still post anything you want, even more so if you are paying the hosting fees, you can include what you do in the title, you can also have different sections for different genres and styles, even a blog, your domain name could even be the title of your blog. With a blog you can register it with the different blog directories, which will give you exposure for your domain name, the link back to you will improve your ranking, depending on the directory's ranking. However going private you wont have the review system which some writing sites have, which writing dot com has. Though by forming friendships different writing sites, and forums you could always ask for reviews. Writing sites also have resources where you can submit work to, I have found several at different writing sites.

Links

My port writing dot com

http://www.writing.com/authors/stanaxe

Web hosts providing templates for writers, free or paid

http://www.ekwa.com/

http://www.mywriterscircle.com/

http://www.writingworld.com/