How to Build Your Writing Portfolio When You Have No Writing Experience
Everyone can build a portfolio if they know these tricks.
One obstacle for freelance writers who are new or who want to change niches, is similar to what many college graduates face when they are looking for their first job. They can’t get a job without experience and can’t get experience without a job.
It’s a typical what comes first, the chicken or the egg question.
How can I build a writing portfolio when clients won’t hire me because I have no writing experience?
If you’re a new freelance writer or even a new fiction writer, take heart. There is a way out of this quandary and I’m going to show it to you right now.
Uncover writing experience in your past
The good news is you likely have more writing and writing related experience than you know. The first step is to unearth the writing experience you do have. The way you to do it is to thoroughly analyze your past experiences. Make a list of every job you’ve ever had. Include volunteer experiences and major projects you’ve worked on in the past. For each of those roles, write down and circle anything writing related you may have done.
- Did you coordinate a regular bulletin for church each week?
- Were you the person who gathered all the week’s news for a newsletter that went out to all staff in your department at work?
- Have you ever written a summary of activities?
- Did you write staff bios for the company website?
- Were you in charge of creating flyers or brochures for a school, workplace, or community event?
- Did you put together a newsletter to send out to members of the PTA?
- Was it you your boss came to when they needed a summary of those new sales procedures?
- Did you write lesson plans, design curriculum, or write annual reports?
- Are you that mom that made up new bedtime stories for your kids, grandchildren, or nieces and nephews when they grew bored with their old books?
- Did you write procedure or policy manuals?
- Maybe you were the one who wrote or edited the instruction manual for the phone system at work
No matter what kind of jobs you’ve had in the past, there were probably writing related activities you did. Write them all down, even if they don’t seem related to what you want to write about now. Once you’ve identified these from your past, you can figure out which ones relate to the type of writing you want to do now.
Find your writing sweet spot
Once you’ve got a good picture of the types of writing you’ve done in the past, follow the advice of the original Ninja Writer, Shaunta Grimes. Make a list of these four things:
- What are you good at? What’s the thing that comes easy to you?
- What are your interests? Are you a Star Wars superfan or do you dream of being the next Master Chef?
- What would you like to be good at? The things you’d like to learn or develop.
- What’s interesting about you? Think about your family life, places you’ve lived, or any other experiences you’ve had, positive or negative.
Once you’ve made the list above, circle three to five topics you’d like to write about. Check those topics for viability through a tool like UberSuggest to see just how popular they are. This will give an indication of profitability for that topic.
Learn all you can
Get familiar with the types of freelance writing that you can choose to do. Decide which one or two areas you’re going to try and learn as much as you can about the expectations for content length, structure, and any nuances of that type of writing.
Decide whether you will have a personal brand, using your name or a business brand. This is the time to find some contract templates you like, set up your invoicing and customer management system (CMS), and get your social media accounts branded and uniform.
Create your portfolio
(This post contains affiliate links for products I’ve used and recommend. I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase)
The ideal portfolio for a freelance writer is to have a business website with a customized domain. When your website is properly optimized, it will attract potential clients for you and all you have to do is respond and close the deal. You can have a portfolio or work with me page on your website, but your entire website should be geared toward putting your best business foot forward.
If it’s not feasible for you to have a full-fledged website, use a portfolio service such as authory, clippings.me or journoportfolio.com. There is a lot you can do by just buying the domain name (less than $20 annually) and setting up a professional email address tied to that domain. You will need to expend more effort to market your writing services using this method but it’s definitely doable.
I used a portfolio with a custom domain on clippings.me for over ten years and it worked just fine. You can also try to do several paid guest posts for a website or blog, use a blogging platform to post your sample blog posts, or submit pieces to other online markets or publications that will pay you.
Once you have a professional email address and three to four high-quality pieces that are perfectly polished, you’re ready to start looking for clients. There are many different ways to go about this. Work on getting that professional website up gradually, as you start earning more money and building up more published clips. Here’s how to find write for us opportunities for your niche.
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Meg Stewart has been freelancing for nearly two decades. She’s a multi-passionate skill hoarder and the intersection of freelance writing, technology, and teaching is her sweet spot. Freelance Filter was founded to help writers get paid and help solopreneurs do business better. Meg and her family, (along with two dogs, two cats, and two leopard geckos), live in Northeast Ohio.