Wordpress is a good choice if you are a freelance writer wanting a professional-looking website, or a blog, on which to set up a freelance writing portfolio. You can select a suitable WordPress theme for a portfolio, and you will find it simple to add text, images or videos using WordPress. You will want your writing portfolio to get good search engine page results, and you can achieve this with WordPress. In May 2009 the head of the Web Spam team at Google, Matt Cutts, speaking at the WordCamp conference in San Francisco, recommended WordPress as the best blogging platform for SEO (search engine optimization).
♦ SEO tips for a WordPress blog
A WordPress blog can have any number of categories for different types of blog posts. Category headings should also be keywords. "Blogging Tips" and "Writing sites" would both be good keyword categories for blog posts linked to articles on successful blogging and reviews of online writing communities.
With a WordPress blog it is possible to create a custom link for each blog post. This means that keywords can become part of the URL. You could create a link for a post about making money from blogs, and it would look something like this: myportfolio.com/how-to-make-money-blogging/. The keywords "how to make money" and "make money blogging" would help that post to get better ranking in search results. The heading of a post can use different keywords, and that particular post could be given a title suggesting "5 top ways to make money with a blog" or something similar.
♦ Tips for creating WordPress web pages
WordPress is not just for blogging. Any number of individual pages can be set up using WordPress, and you should at least create an "About Me" page.
A WordPress blog can feature separate pages listing complete works published in print and online, or e-books available for download, with links to a secure payment processor or to e-commerce store where these can be purchased. Another page could provide a price list for content writing, ghostwriting or editorial services.
♦ Tips on contact information
Your freelance writing portfolio should provide clear contact details. These can appear on a separate contact page, on your profile page or on the homepage.
Social network buttons and profile links should be placed on the homepage, so visitors can follow you or view your feeds.
♦ Tips for maximum exposure
The domain name you choose to register can be your own name, or pen name, or your chosen title. For example you could have a domain name that identifies you as business-writer.com or finance-writer.net. You do not need to use the same name as the title of your website or blog. Your header can give your full name and profession, for example; Jane Doe - Freelance Writer or Jack Spratt - Food Writer.
With WordPress you can link related articles at the end of each blog post, to encourages your visitors to view more of your portfolio. This will also help to increase page views for your online articles.
WordPress widgets and tools can be used to add interactive content to your sidebars, plus any banners, buttons and boxes you wish to include. A WordPress sidebar can feature a tag cloud, and show an RSS button for visitors to subscribe to your feed.
How you use your freelance writing portfolio is up to you, but you can promote your wordPress pages and posts very easily online, using social networking applications to share the link to each post or new content as soon as it is added. You can feature a "share" button or box on each post.
Using WordPress for your freelance writing portfolio gives you plenty of options for marketing yourself as a writer, for promoting your e-books and any titles available from online book retailers. You can also use it to increase page views by linking all your online articles and content published on other websites.