You need a website! Don’t even question this, you need it. Here are some options for you. [Note: if you want to build websites for a living, do not use any of these suggestions — build your website “from scratch.”]
Here are some tips and links to help you build a simple, non-creative, portfolio website.
1) SAVE ALL YOUR CLASSWORK
The first step to building a good portfolio site is having something to show on that site. So, save your homework assignments in the cloud!
- Scribd.com — This is a nice option for creating an document that can be embedded into your site, like this.
- SlideShare.net — This is owned by LinkedIn, so there may be some LI integration some day. (See an example of an embedded SlideShare document.)
- Google Drive — Store all kinds of different documents here: Word files, Excel files, slideshows, images, etc. But they have to be publicly viewable! (See an example of a Google Doc in a website.)
- Flickr.com — Store photos here and/or your design work (in jpg format).
- Use YouTube or Vimeo to host your video projects.
- Use SoundCloud for audio projects.
- Keep screenshots of your social media data reports, like this.
2) THE ABSOLUTE EASIEST WAYS TO HAVE A PORTFOLIO SITE:
- LinkedIn.com: You should have a LinkedIn account anyway, so why not just upload documents to it and use this as your one-stop web site?
- Trent Spinner (sports media)
- Kia Jones (UX)
- Matt Meier (photography and analytics)
- Kelsey Johnson (PR, see “Featured”)
- Calvin Silvers, (sports media, see “Featured”)
- Bree Walter (UX)
- Hannah Brod (SEO)
- Annastasia Tuttle (broadcast)
- Mark Ludwig (broadcast production)
- Brandon Painter (content)
- Avery Broner (media planning)
- Juwan Bush (sports broadcasting)
- Molly Gardner (journalism, broadcasting)
- Allie Wolf (UX)
- Jocelyn Contreras (social media)
- Tim Gillissen (UX)
- Jake Mlnarik (social media)
- Thomas Dressler (multimedia journalism)
- Kayla Thomas (digital media, digital ad sales)
- Here’s mine.
- LinkedIn Pro Tip: If your name is hard to pronounce, display a pronunciation icon linked to a recording of you pronouncing your own name.
- Scribd.com: This option is best for storing document examples, and then embedding those examples onto your site. You can also use Scribd as a stand-alone source for your portfolio. See my example at: Scribd.com/jplamer.
- SlideShare.net: You can upload your work (and you should) but just use this as your one-stop website. (You need to use a site like this, anyway, to host your documents, so you can just have this be your first/starter portfolio site!) Kayla Yehle Here’s mine.
- SoundCloud.com: If you’re a broadcast major, particularly audio emphasis, you’re already familiar with SoundCloud. But have you thought about just using this as your “portfolio” site to showcase your audio work? Here’s a good example: SoundCloud.com/BenNuelle
- YouTube.com: Of course, if you’re a broadcast major, you’ve got a YouTube account with all your work. You can just use your YouTube account as your “portfolio” site, like this, and Brandon Painter, Tim Hannah,
- Vimeo: Host all of your video projects on your personal Vimeo page, like this: Mark Ludwig
- Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/153456898@N08/Annastasia Tuttle’s photo stream
- Adobe Portfolios: For as low as $10/month, you can use an Adobe portfolio, which is a good choice for graphic designers. See Emma Wiseman‘s and Brady Netzel‘s.
- Issuu: Show pages of the Missourian you designed or worked on. See how Jake Mlnarik has done this on LinkedIn.
3) FREE AND EASY: CMS [CONTENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE]
• WordPress.com
This is your best bet, but be prepared for a learning curve. The benefits start with a simple integration of a branded URL for only $17 per year (sign up for this from the beginning, as you are starting your “blog” — it’s more difficult to add this after your site is already built.) WordPress also automatically creates a mobile version of your site, and even an iPad version, if you’d like. You’ll have dozens of templates to choose from, and options to add a custom header, if you’d like. Be advised: If you are looking for a design job, do not choose a template that already is heavily designed — choose a plain template (like 2010) and add your own custom header that showcases your design. If you spend several hours playing around in WordPress, you’ll get the gist of things — it’s well worth your time! (Hint: you probably want to start out with a playground site and experiment with “pages” and “posts” until you understand the difference!)
WordPress Examples:
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- HireMadisonBenda.com — general
- TaylorLJohnson.com — UX, design
- Megan Frerking — event planning, social media, PR
- BenNuelle.com — A good example for broadcast students.
- MaddiePospisil.com — Creative and strategy documents.
- Elicia Reuscher — UX design student at NW.
- ErinFunk.com — Erin has continued to build out her site after graduation. See her SlideShare plug-in resume.
- AdInk.org — See this page to see how SlideShare.net content can be embeded.
- TimGillissen.com — Another branded URL; this site has a nice large photo, so if you’re a photographer, you can check out Tim’s approach to showcasing photos. Note: Tim uses the advanced version of WordPress, WordPress.org, so you may see features here that aren’t available on the free version.
- JacquieLamer.com — And then there’s my WordPress site.
- Adding audio to WordPress: See Soundcheck-specific WordPress themes like these and this WordPress help page.
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- CatieDrummond.weebly.com — Broadcast heavy.
- Erica Brade — general UX and design.
- BethanyMuller.com — media planning, advertising campaign design
- MichaelaFernen.weebly.com — web and general design
• Wix.com
Wix has some similar tools as Weebly and WordPress.
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- Savana Wiederholt — IDM new media, social media
- Avery Broner — media planning
- Jenna Kauzlarich — ag comm, UX/UI
- Madi Nolte — multimedia journalism
- Madeline Mapes — multimedia journalism
- Tierra Hogan — social media, content creation (great custom site!)
- Madi Glass — see her Web Pub assignments page
- DesiKerr.com — general advertising and sales
- Nelson Butler — broadcast
- Kaci Guerra — copywriting
- Ivory Lacina — HeyIvory.com — design
- Whitney Hall — https://whitneynikolehall.wixsite.com/mysite
- AngelaNBode.com — design
- www.CaitlynBurkemper.com — design, UX, coding
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- First: start by going through the guided portfolio builder at SquareSpace.
- SpacesSquared.co.uk — This site hosts several good examples of portfolio sites build with SquareSpace.
- JakeEdmisten.com
- AlecRHenn.com
• Other
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- Nolan Harless — (Digital Media, CS) — custom website
- Cameron West — GoDaddy website builder — Mass Media
- Adobe Portfolios: For as low as $10/month, you can use an Adobe portfolio, which is a good choice for graphic designers.
- See Emma Wiseman‘s
- See Brady Netzel‘s.
• About.me
This is a quick and easy way to bring together all of your social sites, so it’s possible to use this as your one-stop web site.
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- Shelby Simpson’s site.
- Here’s my site. This site recently added a widget for WordPress, so you can show a summary of your About.me items on a WordPress site.
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- See Kia Jones’ HireKia.com site
- Shelby Simpson’s Hire Me site
- See Tierra Hogan’s social media and content creation site
CargoCollective and BehanceNetwork are places where designers can showcase their work. They aren’t really portfolio-building software-based sites like the ones above, they are more like designer communities. But, they’re worth mentioning here because you may find these useful if you are a designer. Some of these services also are plug-in options at Flavors.me and About.me. For broadcast majors, post your credentials at StaffMeUp.com.
4) GET A NICE PORTRAIT PHOTO TAKEN
Upload a nice photo. Don’t use a photo where you crop out other people, that looks weird. Have a photo taken that’s well lit, very basic background, and pose professionally. Put the photo on an “About” page, and not too big. If you put a huge photo of yourself on your homepage, that might send a message that you think the way you look is your most important feature. Put your skills front and center — you want to be hired for your skills!
5) ADD SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Add at least one social media link to your portfolio site — at minimum, this should be LinkedIn. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, get one. If you use Twitter for professional posts, then add a Twitter link to your site. (If you only use Twitter for personal posts, don’t link to Twitter!) Ditto for Pintrest. Don’t link to your Facebook account — but expect the HR manager to find you on there.
6) BRAND YOURSELF
Buy “your name dot com” so that the address of your online portfolio is easily found. The simplest way to do this is through WordPress (see above). But, you also can buy relatively cheap domains at GoDaddy.com (secure your domain for at least two years — five is better!). Once you own the domain, simply forward it to your Blogger, Wix, Google Sites, or other template-built page. For some tips on branding yourself across your site, your resume, and business cards, see what some AdInk’ers put together for a recent “Brand Yourself” information session: AdInk.org/BrandYourself.
7) CONSIDER A GOOGLE VOICE NUMBER
Consider establishing a Google Voice number that will only be used for your job search. It’s free, and messages can be transcribed and emailed to you or send via text. This means your personal phone number doesn’t have to be published online, but you’ll get messages pronto!
8) RESEARCH PORTFOLIO SITES
Do some research for more ideas on building simple, web-based portfolios. This eHow page is just one example that will help you come up with ideas for building a simple site! See this site for a list of blog-portfolio examples. Here’s a slideshow on the same topic.
9) MAKE A COMPELLING “ABOUT ME” PAGE
Here are some examples of good “About Me” pages.
10) MAKE AN ELEVATOR PITCH
An elevator pitch is a short (60-second) summary of who you are and why you should be hired. Here’s an example on YouTube. You can embed YouTube videos into your LinkedIn profile, like this.
Check out this elevator pitch that the student hosted on her LinkedIn profile.
And now for some website inspiration…
Check out what these two students did to apply at Droga5.
And now for some QR inspiration… (THIS is how to use a QR code!)
QR CODE – Content-rich Resume from Victor petit on Vimeo.
Don’t use a QR code on a resume unless you’re doing something clever with it, like the video above. Why not? Well consider this: why would you want someone to see your work on a tiny screen when they’re likely sitting at their desk when they see your resume? Wouldn’t your work look better on a big monitor? So, just put your URL on your resume! Leave the QR code for situations when the person you want to visit your site might not be at a computer — for example, on a business card.
To help you get started with your resume, go to my Resume help section!