Yesterday, Felicity Loughrey explained why having an online presence was an important factor in the job-hunting process. Today, she offers the best platforms for building an online portfiolio.
Online portfolios allow you to show off your best work and achievements. Here are five platforms to help you become a professional show off, in the best possible way.
Well Crafted
What I love about this portfolio platform is that it’s made by a one-woman coder in Seattle and her graphic designer husband. Jana Harper wanted to give designers an easy way to build an online portfolio without having to write any code. The portfolios are suitable for everyone and can be viewed on just about every device imaginable (iPad, iPhone, Nook, Kindle, Blackberry). Starts at $6/month.
Vogue contributor Xiaohan Shen uses Viewbook to promote her wedding photography business Polachinka. “It’s just really simple and easy. We didn’t have the time or budget to design and build a site from scratch. We wanted something that had nice clean layouts, something customisble. The focus is our work, our photography, we don’t want all the rif raf that come with most website templates.” Viewbook starts at $48/year.
Tumblr is best known as a micro-blogging platform but you can use it to create a portfolio. There’s a choice of free and paid templates. The free templates can be a little sticky but the code is open so you can change colours, introduce social sharing buttons and remove dates from posts (so it appears more like a static website). One of its best features is that you can password protect Tumblr sites, perfect for work that is commercially sensitive.
You have to request membership to Cargo. Mine arrived overnight and it was a fairly simple process. This online portfolio system is aimed at photographers and creatives, although anyone can use it. A simple Cargo site is free, but you can upgrade for extras like password protection and custom URL. Just as Cargo makes beautiful looking portfolios, it also nicely transitions to blogs. One of my favourite blogs, Closet Visit is powered by Cargo.
Pathbrite takes a holistic view of users and their interests, almost like inviting someone into your home to view all your digital archives in one place. The product is aimed at university graduates to showcase their credentials but suits everyone (for inspiration check out Pathbrite founder Heather Hiles page). The service is free.