Copywriter portfolio. Why is it needed? How can it be made effective?

I guess, there is no need to explain, why does copywriter need a portfolio. But for those who still hesitate if online-portfolio is expedient I’ll state following reasons:

1. Make life harder for competitors and plagiaries. By placing authorship on your website it will be easier to prove rights for intellectual property.
2. Online-portfolio – It’s your face, reputation, brand and style. Using these unique components combination you’ll be evaluated by clients.
3. You’ll be found directly without intermediaries by customers.

How to make copywriter’s portfolio efficient?

Texts choice. It will be right to sort your works by topics, creation time and also by kinds (rewriting, copywriting, SEO-copywriting, newsmaking and other)

Quality and quantity.

Try to show your best works:

• You may place links leading to them (if this is online text), for example, Articles about Internet;
• Or you can create a short review of your own text (if this is offline mass media), Interior design articles;
• Or you may make an example with photo (if this is a booklet and you worked in cooperation with designer), for example, Psychology articles;
• In case order information can not be disclosed or texts are not that good as they seem to you try to persuade client to place company’s logo in your portfolio. For example it may be “My Clients”.

Contacts and personal information. It’s considered to be a sign of a good taste if one places main contact information in the website header. Notwithstanding what page potential client may access he can always have your email and phone number before his eyes. It’s also desirable to make additional pages “Contacts” (extended information to contact you: Skype, ICQ, social networks profiles) and “about myself” where you may place information about professional achievements, education and so on. Think about feedback form, that one can fill directly on the website.

Social networks. By placing links to your social networks accounts you show:

• openness
• individuality (for example from one of my profiles one may find out that I like stretching, skydiving, rope-jumping, swimming, paintball)
• trustworthiness, i.e. you may track professional news.

Commercial side. It is obvious one should have a page with services cost and price list.

How to create copywriter’s portfolio?

Copywriter’s portfolio should include a number of texts that have different topics and genre that really reflect author’s professionalism. This is the most important thing.

It’s not necessary to have a lot of texts but each of them should be done on the highest level.

Optimal way is to make 20 different texts. It’s better if you show your specialization in the small number of topics and genres rather than writing “about everything and about nothing”.  Doing this you’ll also show your author’s style, that is passed from one text to another.

Alternative way is to choose and publish 20-30 best works you have. Where can copywriter  that haven’t already created anything special find texts?

To create copywriter’s portfolio you need to:

• Write texts!
• Write texts for somebody you acquainted with for free with condition that you’ll include those texts into your portfolio.
• Write texts using barter trade model. You make a text for the website and opposite side places link to your portfolio or information how to contact you.
• Work with a professional. It means you have to write texts under experienced copywriter’s guidance.
• It often happens so that highly demanded copywriters have a lot of orders and they are just unable to take them all. They can pass easiest tasks to “apprentices”. Quality of your work will be controlled for sure. By the way you have to find out beforehand if you’ll be able to use those texts in your portfolio.
• Visit copywriters course where you’ll have practical training. Texts written due to task given can be included into portfolio.
• Find clients and write appropriate texts for them.
• Choose best works. What texts may present you as a good specialist (professional)? What texts distinguish you from others? What of them were most efficient? How much profit did they bring for clients?
• Place texts on your website.
• You may create alternative portfolios. For example animated graphics with steps for texts creation may be done. There you may include such data as number of clients, number of created texts, symbols, money earned and so on.

It is desirable for your portfolio to have proper layout with pictures.