If you do not already have an online portfolio it is about time for you to create one. The traditional portfolio is increasingly becoming a thing of the past as geographical situation do not mean that much anymore. Potential clients will be able to find you online at all times so make sure that you do not miss any important part of your online portfolio.
- The Basics – What do the clients need to know? Begin with asking yourself the question: What do my potential clients need to know? Try to put yourself in their situation. What you will display obviously depends much on what kind of assignments you wish to get in the future.
- Keep it simple! It should be easy to find and use your online portfolio. Be open with what it is that you want. Are you looking for assignments? Put a sign with the text: “For Hire” and a link to how to actually hire you. Make sure that your best material is the first thing that visitors get see. Describe yourself and your work in just a couple of words.
- Let people know about you Your work should always be in focus but do not forget to include a good “About Me” page. Let people know who you are and what your background is. Have you been mentioned in the media? Link! Can you get your clients to write a few lines about how it was to work with you? Excellent!
- Contact Information on how to get in contact with you is of the essence. The link to your contact information must be easy to find. It is not a bad idea to have the most basic information on several places, such as at the bottom of each page.
- Let people know what you are doing Your clients might not see the value of your previous work through a screenshot of a website or a free-standing illustration. Let people know what the assignment was. Where is it published? What problems did you solve for your client? What was the result of your work?
- Build traffic Share your experiences. You can for example record a video when doing a photo shoot. Start a blog, the more text on the site, the easier to get snatched up by search engines. Link to others that are creating amazing things – it will pay off in the end.
- Be search friendly Google and other search engines are responsible for most traffic to websites. Through optimizing your site you will have a much greater chance of getting found by new clients.
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2012-05-16
A new tactic is being used by fashion companies trying to stop the online sale of counterfeit versions of their trademark luxury products. Up until about ten years, ago, companies like Chanel and Louis Vuitton w...
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2012-05-10
A recent double release of patches by the PHP Group to remedy a vulnerability in Web servers is symptomatic of a problem that those who are responsible for Web servers know all too well. When a vulnerability is ...
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2012-05-08
Last month, government takedowns of criminal websites revealed a disturbing trend: the use of e-commerce to sell illegal data. We've all used online shopping carts and clicked the checkout button on many commerc...
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2012-05-03
The Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that was passed by the US House of Representatives last week by a vote of 248 to 168 appears to be the next piece of computer-related legislation that wil...
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2012-04-26
A recent report on the source and types of application hacking attacks upon Web servers highlights the linked growth of two characteristics, sophistication and automation, for the first few months of 2012. Web a...
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2012-04-24
The war over copyright infringement between Big Media and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is not confined solely (of course) to the United States and Europe. Recently, a court battle was won by iiNet Limited, ...
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2012-04-20
Federal authorities, attempting to trace back three threatening emails that were sent over the last few months to Pennsylvania reporters about bombs supposedly planted at the University of Pittsburgh, found a we...
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2012-04-17
Anyone who played the game of Hot Potato as a child will instantly understand the current situation of the fees for servers involved in the Megaupload case. Last January, the popular file-sharing web site was se...
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2012-04-12
Attacks on web servers by hackers is one of those events most feared by web hosting providers. Besides being categorized by the damage done, these events can also be classified by the type of technique used in t...
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2012-04-03
Several trends have started to coalesce recently into a pattern that augurs well for the growth of cloud computing as a service that can be sold to customers who are already purchasing web hosting services. Clou...
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Commented by: web design maker, 1 June, 2009
1. Plan in advance and be consistent in keeping archives of your good work. This will help you tremendously when you need to collect your work quickly.
2. Don't put any cliches in your book, such as condom or wonderbra ads. Creative Directors, not to mention clients hate those.
3. Don't put more than 7-12 good ideas or designs in your book. CD's and clients don't have time and they don't want to look at your work history. They want to be sure you can do good stuff and a few good ideas are enough to prove that.
4. Have at least a 3-4 of those works made for FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods, such as toothpaste, detergent or soft drinks) products. Important agencies and design studios have these clients and they want to make sure you can do such work as well.
5. Show a range of different jobs. Have a 360 degree campaign, but also have a logo design. Include ambient, online and other unconventional media ideas as well. Variety is important, unless you specialize in a narrow field.
6. You may want to include at the end stuff that's not directly work, but shows your skills that are related to the job. Poetry, drawings, product ideas, etc.
7. Make your book as simple as possible. It's all about the content. Not about the cover.