Build Your Writing Portfolio

Zibusiso Ngulube
4 min readApr 18, 2022

You need a writing portfolio to make it as a writer. It is key to attracting your target audience, increasing your readership, and building your customer base. It makes it easy for you to provide social proof. Which is key to convincing clients to work with you and trust you’ll deliver as expected.

Most writers underestimate the power of building a writing portfolio in attracting sales and ensuring success. However, successful writers prioritize it because they know it is the key to advancing in your writing career. That’s why many accomplished writers have portfolios.

Your portfolio will help you connect with your target audience and form meaningful relations with them. You can use it to share quality content, build trust, and add value to your readers’ lives. That’s how you convince them to engage in business with you once you start marketing your services.

Let’s say you want to join freelance writing sites and get paid for your services. The best way to attract sales is to show prospects you’re worth their time and money. You achieve that by directing them to your writing portfolio and showcasing your work.

You won’t have to do too much convincing to get them to agree to work with you because there’s proof you have experience in your niche.

5 Things You Need to Consider When Building Your Writing Portfolio

1. Your niche

One of your main goals as a writer is to increase your readership. You want to make sure you write content that people read and engage with. You want to ensure people value your content or find it useful.

So, pick a niche and cater to a specific audience. Don’t target everyone because it will be difficult to get the attention you seek.

If you focus on a specific audience, it will be easy for you to attract attention and you’ll increase your chances of success.

You’ll become the ultimate source for certain information and specific people will trust you for specific advice or content. It will be easy for them to keep coming to your blog because they know you’ll provide the information they need.

Decide what you want to focus on and stick to it.

2. The reader

Next, consider the reader. Who are you writing for? What are their interests? What are their common goals, challenges, or problems? How can you cater to those needs and help them mitigate certain challenges? How can you offer solutions to common problems with your content?

Put yourself in their shoes and ask the following questions: “Would I be interested in reading this if I were the reader?”, “What sort of value would I get from this?”, “How do I benefit?”, and “Would I use this blog for answers to specific questions?”

3. Your publishing platform

The publishing platform you choose is important. It can determine your success or failure. So, decide which platform you want to use for your portfolio. Choose one that helps you position yourself right and get the attention you need.

Consider your target audience and pick a platform they prefer or one that will make it easy for you to reach them. Answer key questions: “Where does my audience spend most of their time?”, “What type of content do they prefer?”, and “Which platform makes it easy for me to create and publish my content?”

Go with a publishing platform that your target audience loves and one that gives you the flexibility you need.

4. Your writing schedules

Consistency is the key to attracting and retaining your audience. So, determine how often you’ll publish your content to ensure you keep your readers.

Will you post daily or weekly? Create a schedule and be true to it.

Having a writing schedule helps you get views and makes it easy for you to build an engaged audience. Every writer’s worst nightmare is curating content no one reads.

Publishing consistently and having a schedule may not build your follower base overnight but it is the key to building a large following with time.

5. Your marketing strategy

Think about your marketing strategy when building your portfolio. How are you going to promote your content and ensure your readers find it?

Create an effective marketing strategy and get your content in front of your target audience to get a return on investment.

Some of your marketing methods can include social media marketing.

Promote your free content to your existing network. Feature snippets of your articles and talk about the information you’re sharing. For example, state what the reader will get from following your link and reading your content.

If your post offers a solution to a certain problem, for example, mention it to make it easy for your audience to determine whether or not they’ll benefit from it. This is a great way to grab attention, get more clicks, and increase traffic to your blog.

Conclusion

Building your work portfolio and imparting value with your content helps you build an audience, position yourself as an industry expert, and keep advancing in your writing career. So, don’t overlook or underestimate it.

Use your portfolio to market your services, connect with your target audience, build trust, and get more conversions.

Happy writing!

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