With most careers, when you want to find a new job, you prepare or update your resume to fire off to prospective employers. As a freelance writer, largely you only need to send off a portfolio of your work to prospective clients. Things that you may normally put on a resume, such as prior work experience and education or training, often do not come into play as much when it comes to freelance writing as with other types of jobs. This is a job where results matter, and potential clients simply want to see what kind of work you are capable of before they engage your services.

What A Portfolio Is

If you don’t have a portfolio yet, you will definitely want to take some time to put one together. This is what you will send to clients when they ask to see samples of your work. It can be as detailed and fancy as you want it to be, but it absolutely needs to showcase a variety of different writing styles, different tones you are most comfortable writing in, and even different topics, too. It should show off how diverse your talents are. The more varied your samples are, the greater the possibilities that potential clients will see something in your samples that they can identify with or that they are looking for in their own project.

Putting Your Samples Together

If you have been freelance writing for a few weeks at least, you no doubt have a multitude of possible options you can include in your portfolio. Locate some of your best work, and feel free to revise or tweak it as necessary. Sometimes clients ask for something unique in a finished project that may not work well in a portfolio. Of course, you also want to be sure that all of your work is absolutely professional and free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Customize Your Portfolio

Many freelance writers will actually put together about ten or fifteen pieces of their best work in a portfolio. Of course, most clients don’t want to sift through dozens of portfolios from various applicants each filled with tons of lengthy articles. So while your basic portfolio may be broad and contain many samples, you may find that you want to pick and choose the top three or four articles that best match what the client is looking for in his or her project description. While you may decrease the number of articles, you certainly don’t want to detract from showcasing that you are a writer with many talents. So be sure that the articles you choose provide you with the best opportunity for being selected for the job.

The fact is that not every client will ask to see samples of your work. However, even if they don’t, you may find that you increase your likelihood of being chosen for a specific job by providing a few samples with your request for the job. You will find that not only will you earn more business, but you will also often be able to fetch a higher rate when new clients can see what you can do before they hire you on.