How to Lay Out an Online News Writing Portfolio
When posting your writing portfolio online, the goal is to take some of the concepts from your paper portfolio--the neat appearance and organization; the high-quality, error-free work--and incorporate them into your online version. The benefits of moving to an online portfolio are obvious--with a few keystrokes a would-be employer can see everything you have to offer. No need for bulky attachments or bulky leather-bound portfolios. It's all there in a centralized location.
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Instructions
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Track everything you want to include. Do inventory on your best work and save it in a PDF file. Narrow it down to your top 20 articles, organized into different categories (hard news, business, entertainment, for example). The fewer the categories, the fewer the total articles you'll want to include in your onlie portfolio. Select only your best work and get a second opinion if you can.
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Decide what categories you'd like to highlight. This depends on your career objectives and the amount of work you have accrued in various genres. For example, if you have substantial city beat, feature and financial reporting work, and you're interested in pursuing more assignments in those areas, divide your site into three primary categories: city politics, finance and features.
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Label the categories with bold, simple, easy-to-understand titles. The preferred method is to have the prospective employee click on the title and be directed to a page with links to each body of work. Alternately, you can lay out the title of the story under each bold category line. The guest can click on each body of work from there.
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Don't make the person viewing your work download each story. That's time-consuming and annoying. Instead, have the story liked directly to the site where it appeared or enable the prospective employer to click on a the title/headline of the article and instantly see the story as an easy-to-read, scanned image or in its PDF format.
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Create a biograpy. On your main page you'll want to either have a link to a brief biography or a short summary about you centered at the top of the page under your name. Go for compelling and succinct. You may include a graphic and professional-looking photo of yourself. Keep all graphics clean and minimal, so it doesn't appear too busy.
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Include your resume. There should be a special section set aside for your resume. Ideally, the viewer should be able to quickly find a title such as "John's resume" or "Kate's resume," and easily access your work history, awards and whatever else you include. Make sure it's as error-free as all the other works you have included on your site. Also ensure the formatting hasn't been thrown off during the process of publishing your resume to the site.
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Mind the details. Even the name or URL of your portfolio site is crucial. You want something that is memorable and preferably incorporates your name. That way the editor or hiring manager can quickly remember the name when he or she wants to review it again.
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Review. Before your portfolio goes live, have someone who is particularly web and writing savvy look at your portfolio. Make sure there are no grammar errors, typos or formatting problems. Also make sure that it is clean and test out each link so you know the employer can get to your work.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are not tech-savvy, a good place to start (that's also free) would be Gmail or Wordpress. If you have the money (and it may well be worth it) and want a site that's specially made for you, seek the help of a professional Web designer. You may be trading the freedom to add new work or make changes to the site whenever you want, but the ease of having an expert lay out the portfolio for you in a sharp, compelling, easy-to-access way, may be a good tradeoff.
Don't make it look too much like a blog. Also, if you have any creative work that is maybe a bit more edgy than what you would like a managing editor to see, or if you do have a personal blog, don't include a link to it and eliminate that edgier work from this site. You can actually have a separate site for your more creative or experimental work. Use your judgment and keep your desired audience in mind. That material may actually backfire on you in the eyes of the employer.
