Managing Editor Tip of the Month: Put Your Best Foot Forward With Your Contently Portfolio

When sending potential clients writing samples, a golden rule is to make sure you’re not overwhelming them with content—aim to send three samples max, unless they’ve specifically requested more.

While you should have many more projects listed in your portfolio, the same logic stands true when it comes to organizing this body of work—it’s important to make your best work the most visible.

Contently’s portfolio feature lets potential clients see your best freelance work. But if you’re uploading new projects constantly without organizing them, you may not be attracting the best-fit clients. That’s why every quarter, I take some time to reevaluate my portfolio and make sure that my best and most relevant samples are highlighted. Most importantly, I make sure that the top six articles apply to the type of freelance work I want to write.

Here are my tips for ensuring you’re making the most out of Contently’s portfolio tools.

Pick your top six best articles

I write dozens of pieces of content each year. While putting all those articles in Contently is a great way to keep track of what I’ve written (especially by using tags—more on that in a minute), having all of that on display is a lot for potential clients to sort through. They want to see work that’s relevant to their content needs—and they want to see it front and center.

So to be sure I’m putting my best foot forward, I keep a running list of the work I’ve done throughout the year. Each quarter, I evaluate this list to see if any projects stand out as better examples of my voice and style than the stories currently at the top of my page. I make sure that the six that represent my absolute best work are properly formatted and situated at the top of my portfolio. Doing this helps potential clients see my A-game right away.

Consider your niche or niches

Another thing to keep in mind when organizing your portfolio is your niche (or niches). I write a lot about personal finance and investing, but I also dabble in travel and tax writing. A potential client focusing on banking solutions doesn’t care much about my travel stories.

So how do I make myself stand out when I’m writing for different niches? I use relevant topic keywords. On Contently, a few examples might be “finance,” “financial planning and management,” “business finance,” or “travel.” By tagging each piece correctly, when clients want to see relevant samples, they can filter by topic.

You can make your Contently portfolio shine by thinking about your best articles and highlighting the pieces that show off your niche. By staying organized, you can ensure potential clients see your most relevant clips—and send you assignments you’re actually excited about.