7 Free Ways To Promote Your Online Writing Portfolio

So you’ve finally got your Contently profile and/or your professional website up and looking good. Now what? While it’s entirely possible a client or an editor may find you and offer you work, you’re more likely to land gigs if you also let the world know where to look for you. LinkedIn Profile – It’s worth spending some time with your profile LinkedIn, making sure you include live links to your credits. Facebook – The same thing is true on Facebook; tweak your profile there so your friends can find your writing resume and links to your work. Twitter – Again, your list of credits must be included in your twitter profile. Google+ – Yes, you need your writing profile or professional site, or both, listed on this profile too – and that may actually help bring traffic to your site. Email signature – Every email you send should display your contact information, including links to your social network profiles and clips. Forum signatures – If the forums and online groups you enjoy allow a signature, be sure you include the web address of your writing profile. Letterhead – put together a simple letterhead in a Microsoft Word file and make sure you include a live link to your portfolio. Use this to respond to ads, send invoices, write proposals etc. Most of these will be sent as attachments; once and awhile you may actually have reason to use snail mail to send a hard copy. Do you see what’s happening here? You’re spreading the word that you’re a freelance writer. While it’s unlikely that any one of these techniques will bring you a ton of work, a little promotion can’t hurt. Over time this kind of promotion pays off. Editors and clients tend to look for portfolios of your work and ways to contact you – making it easy for them means you’re more likely to be hired. Another nice thing about these methods is you only have to do them once and they keep promoting you without any additional work on your part. There’s simply no reason not to do it. Anne Wayman has been a successful ghostwriter and freelance writer for over 30 years.

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Anne Wayman is a freelance contributor to The Freelance Strategist. She blogs about writing at AboutFreelanceWriting.com and is cofounder of the 5 Buck Forum for writers.