Setting Up Your Portfolio Site as a Freelance Graphic Designer

You are spoiled for choice when it comes to setting up your portfolio site as a freelance graphic designer. With so many services to choose from, it comes down to your budget, the time and effort you are willing to invest, and how professional you want to portray your brand. Let’s take a look at some of the more popular choices.

Ways for Setting Up Your Portfolio Site

YOU HAVE NO BUDGET

IMGUR

Sadly Imgur is pretty bare-bones in terms of features. You can’t customize albums beyond rearranging your posts. Also, there is no way to change the album layout, so you are stuck with a single scrolling page.

Because Imgur gets so much traffic, there are times when the service is down briefly due to overcapacity. While the disruptions aren’t frequent, they might turn away some prospective clients. Overall, using Imgur isn’t professional but it gets the job done.

BLOGGER AND WORDPRESS
Create a free website or build a blog with ease on WordPress

Instead of an image host, you might want to consider something closer to a conventional site. For that, Blogger and WordPress are great choices. They are popular publishing platforms, with many customization options (even unofficial ones) available.

If you are new to WordPress, you might get confused between WordPress.com and WordPress.org — two platforms that are similar, yet different. WordPress.org is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to organize and facilitate content creation. You will learn more about using WordPress.org later on. Conversely, WordPress.com, as mentioned earlier, is a platform where you can host your website for free, but with some limitations.

TUMBLR
Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love

In addition, as a social networking service you can readily share your projects among other users. In fact, many graphic designers use Tumblr as part of their marketing efforts, so it’s worth checking out.

WIX
Create a free website with Wix

For graphic designers, Wix has image galleries that enhances the visual presentation for your projects, with features that are easy to edit and customize.

INVEST IN YOUR OWN SITE

WHY IT’S WORTH IT

As you have seen, it’s possible to set up your portfolio site for free. However, most graphic designers choose to pay for hosting and domains — and you should do the same.

Consider the client’s perspective, specifically how they will see you as a freelance graphic designer. Will they respect you as a professional who’s serious about freelancing and willing to invest for success? Or will they dismiss you as an amateur looking to do things for cheap?

Having your own domain establishes you as a professional who is looking to work with serious clients. Not only that, with access to high-end features you will have better control over the look and feel of your site. In fact, paid services don’t cost as much as you think. Hosting and domain registration usually comes up to around 100 USD a year. That’s about 10 USD per month, which is quite affordable. You might have to save up, but the rewards are worth it.

Even among paid services there are many choices available. Deciding on one depends on how well you know web design.

You Want Something Intuitive
Carbonmade helps you show off your work and get discovered

Squarespace is popular among graphic designers. Not only do you have many templates to choose from, you can also customize nearly every aspect of your site using the style editor.

Carbonmade is dedicated to providing a service that’s lightweight and easy to use. If you are looking for quality rather than quantity, then this online portfolio builder should be perfect for you.

You Prefer More Control

For a challenge, why not try setting up your portfolio site from the ground up as a freelance graphic designer? It’s not as difficult as it sounds, though you have to do some research and get your hands dirty.

SiteGround, web hosting services crafted with care

After paying for domain and web hosting, you have to get your portfolio up and running. You can go about it in two ways — using a Content Management System or writing your own code.

USING CMS
Envato, the world's leading marketplace and community for creative assets and creative people
WRITING YOUR OWN CODE

For the more adventurous, you can write your own code. Be warned though — coding your site from scratch can be an exhausting process, though you will learn a lot about web design and development in the process.

IN CONCLUSION

You have many ways for setting up your portfolio site as a freelance graphic designer. Even though there are free alternatives such as Imgur and WordPress, remember that to attract clients you need to show that you are a professional. As such, you should always go with a custom domain and pay for web hosting whenever possible.

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