Should You Create a Portfolio Website for Your Journalism?

How to get your name out there on the internet

Illustration by Midjourney

What is a portfolio website? Why should you build a writing portfolio website? How important is a journalism portfolio website? Do I need a freelance portfolio website? How do I create a portfolio website? What are some journalist portfolio examples?

If you’re an aspiring journalist, take a moment to Google your own name. Odds are there’s not much there.

For most people, that’s not a problem. (It might even be a good thing, considering how most people make the news!) But if you’re applying for jobs in journalism, you can bet that the people making hiring decisions will do that. Your first job, then, is to start getting your name out there in the search results.

Bylines on news websites are the best, of course, especially if the top results are your favorite stories. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control over which ones zoom to the top of search results and which stories get erased by short-sighted news outlets.

You can set yourself up on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Instagram and other journalist-friendly social media sites which tend to do well in the rankings.

But you can also do something else: create a portfolio website.

What is a portfolio website?

A portfolio website is just a fancy version of your business card. At a minimum, it should include a brief biography, a handful of your best clips, a form for contacting you and links to your social media accounts.

The goal is to establish credibility by showing that you’re a published journalist, highlighting your beat or interests and funneling hiring managers or people looking to share a hot news tip in the right direction.

If you’re a freelancer, this can help persuade a new editor to take a chance on you. If you’re writing a story, it can help convince a source to talk with you. If you’re applying for jobs, it can get a few more of your clips in front of the hiring manager. Even if you’re more established, it can get your name on a recruiter’s list or allow you to give the background on complex projects that aren’t easily explained by a clip.

“If you do not have a portfolio or a professional page, the first thing I will find is your much more personal social profiles,” said journalism consultant P. Kim Bui. “That’s the first impression I will get of this person. If I'm hiring an investigative journalist and all I can find is a influencer-type Instagram, it doesn't read well.”

A portfolio website can also be a useful way of showing off any skills you have in graphics or web design, as it’s entirely under your control.

Finally, a portfolio website is a way to protect yourself against link rot, the tendency for internet content to disappear over time. Small news outlets that took a chance on you early in your career go under. Established news sites decide to put up a paywall on older articles. Publishers switch content management systems and archived articles get caught in the crossfire. In interviews, a number of journalists on Your First Byline have said their actual first byline no longer exists. (Although they aren’t always unhappy about that, either.) A portfolio website is a way to save your favorite work before it’s destroyed.

That said, it’s important to do it right.

“I find portfolio websites helpful when considering a job candidate, but I often see that they haven't been updated in years or don't give a clear picture of a person's broader expertise and experience,” says Emily Holden, founder of Floodlight. “So they're only worth it if they're good.”

What are some downsides of building a portfolio website?

A portfolio website is work, on top of all the other work you need to do. If you’re an aspiring journalist, you may be sending out resumes, looking up internship programs and meeting editors for coffee. Building a website is one more thing to worry about.

It’s also work to maintain. The worst thing you can do as a journalist is set up a social media account, portfolio website or LinkedIn and then not keep it updated or abandon it entirely. That means checking in once a month or every few months to add a link to a new story, make sure your job descriptions are up to date, or check for messages.

If you build the site yourself on WordPress, you may also need to log on to update plugins and ensure your site is up-to-date, or it might become vulnerable to hacks or parts of it may stop working, which would give a bad impression.

Diplomatica founder Molly McCluskey is a firm believer in journalists, bloggers and content creators having their own portfolio websites. She even bought the domains for both mollymccluskey.com and mollyemccluskey.com after realizing how many Molly McCluskeys are out there. But she acknowledges that it’s been a lot of work, as she’s kept her site updated and migrated it from Wordpress to Strikingly to Squarespace over the years.

“The website has been one of the greatest stressors of my career,” she said.

How do I build a portfolio website?

While a bespoke website with your own personalized domain and various features is the gold standard, it’s not entirely necessary for an aspiring journalist. If you’re on a budget and hoping to avoid hosting costs and domain-name registration fees, you can quickly build a portfolio site using cheap or even free platforms. Here’s a quick list of a few of the basic services:

• Wix
• Weebly
• Strikingly
• Squarespace
• GitHub Pages
• GoDaddy
• WordPress

Some of these platforms will add their logo to your site or give you a URL that ends with their name. No one is going to judge a person applying for an entry-level position if they don’t have a personalized domain name. While WordPress is a little more complicated, a lot of smaller news sites use it as the basis for their content-management systems, so it might even be a little bit of a plus to show that you have some familiarity with it.

You can see if your domain name is available by doing a simple WHOIS search on the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

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Should I buy a personalized domain for my portfolio website?

A personalized domain is just a website that is your byline — literally yourfullname.com or something else specific to you — that generally costs a little more than a free domain.

While many journalists are content to have a free URL on web hosting services like Weebly or Wix, having your own domain feels a lot fancier and it will instantly get a higher ranking on Google searches for your name, which give points for having the search keywords in the URL. It will cost you more, perhaps a few hundred dollars a year, so whether or not to take the plunge and build your portfolio website on your own domain name may not be something you can afford to do if you’re still in college or on a tight budget.

Still, you can buy the name and just hang onto it for future use for closer to $10 or $20 a year, which may be a good compromise for an aspiring journalist without a lot of money.

There’s an additional benefit that you may get from that. A few years ago, the controversial pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli bought the domain names of at least eight journalists who had written critical stories about him in order to post messages mocking them. There have been other cases where stalkers have bought someone’s name as a domain and used it to harass them as well.

Better Report Commerce Editor Medea Giordano set up a personalized website on the advice of a college professor and has kept it updated ever since. She started with a free WordPress site and recently moved to a paid account using Weebly, which costs about $153 a year, plus an additional $20 a year for her own domain name.

“I don't think having a website hurts, though, especially if it's easy to find all your bylines and contact info,” she said. “A free version seems more than enough. As an editor now, if I'm looking for freelancers or if I need to hire a staff writer, I wouldn't be put off by a .wordpress.com or something (and hope others wouldn't either) so new journalists shouldn't worry about covering an additional cost.”

Even established journalists can find a personalized domain helpful.

Miami Herald reporter Brittany Wallman said she first created her website at an old employer during another round of layoffs so that she would be ready if she found herself suddenly unemployed.

“I thought it would be wise to be prepared with a nice looking website that has my updated resume, links to my best clips, good contact information and whatever personal flair I might want to add to it,” she said. “I also thought it would be wise to have the domain in order to build my name as a brand. In addition, I bought the email package so I can create email addresses that end in @brittanywallman.com.”

That proved useful when Wallman left her job at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel to go to the Herald, as her cell phone and email addresses changed. People were able to find her website on Google or her Twitter bio and get back in touch.

What are alternatives to building a journalism portfolio website?

You can still get much of the benefit from a journalism portfolio site with some free or cheap alternatives.

• Muck Rack
• Authory
• Bento.me
• Medium
• LinkedIn

Muck Rack and Authory both allow you to pretty easily set up a journalist profile, while Bento does pretty much the same thing but wasn’t designed around journalists. You could also use Medium to post copies of a handful of stories, or post links to your stories on LinkedIn, although both those options will require a little more regular maintenance.

Alternately, you could create a Substack just to promote your work (or use competitors such as Ghost or Beehiiv).

“I also use my Substack as my calling card, in a sense,” said food writer Jamie Schler. “It's where editors can see how I write and what I primarily write about. Writing on Substack costs me nothing and brings me a small income. Win-win.”

What makes a journalism portfolio website successful?

A good journalism portfolio website will look professional, convey a little of your personality and highlight your expertise in certain forms of journalism or subject areas. It will be reasonably up-to-date on your current job and contact information and have some recent-ish clips, but doesn’t necessarily need to have every story you’ve ever written. The author page will have a professional-looking photograph and if you use a contact form or write the email address on the site, you’ll get a response within a day. (You might not want to put your regular email address on the site, but if you use a throwaway account, make sure it’s forwarded to your regular email so you’ll see if someone is trying to get in touch with you.)

What are some portfolio websites I can look at for inspiration?

A number of Your First Byline contributors have made portfolio websites that may be useful to check out as you think about making your own:

New York Times opinion writer Adrienne Shih. Freelance reporter Dave Levinthal. Rolling Stone reporter Ej Dickson. Diplomatica founder Molly McCluskey. Freelance reporter Danielle Sepulveres. MLex Market Insight reporter Kait Bolongaro. Teen Vogue reporter Fortesa Latifi. Miami Herald reporter Brittany Wallman. Mother Jones reporter Julia Métraux. Elle staff writer Lauren Puckett-Pope. Freelance writer Julie Bogen. TechCrunch reporter Amanda Silberling. Vox editor Nisha Chittal. Freelance reporter Rebecca Fishbein. New York reporter Kerry Howley. Aftermath co-founder Luke Plunkett. Freelance reporter Krista Langlois. Food writer Jamie Schler. Discourse Blog co-founder Jack Crosbie. New York Amsterdam News editor Damaso Reyes. Freelance writer Eve Peyser. Digiday reporter Kimeko McCoy.

Anything else?

Here are some words of wisdom from Your First Byline contributors about their experiences with journalism portfolio websites.

Joni Sweet, freelance writer

Yes, every journalist should have their own website. With the industry being so volatile—likely leaving you bouncing from job to job or client to client—it's important to have a consistent space that you own for your portfolio, personal branding, and service offerings. It also makes you look more professional. I use my website to display my clips, client testimonials, and services that go beyond writing, such as coaching for freelance writers and media training. I also use it to accept credit cards from clients who prefer to pay that way. The domain name and web hosting cost me about $300 a year and is well worth it. I use Squarespace, but you can find less expensive web hosting services elsewhere, which might be better for someone just starting out.

Medea Giordano, Better Report editor

A college professor had us all set up our own websites so I've had one ever since, I just moved from a free WordPress to a paid account. I currently use Weebly, so I pay $153 a year (it used to be much cheaper though so I might abandon this next year/move it somewhere else) and I own the domain medeagiordano.com for $20 a year.

I don't love the way LinkedIn is arranged, but I do think it's probably more important that your LinkedIn is up to date and accurate than having a website. I don't think having a website hurts, though, especially if it's easy to find all your bylines and contact info. A free version seems more than enough. As an editor now, if I'm looking for freelancers or if I need to hire a staff writer, I wouldn't be put off by a .wordpress.com or something (and hope others wouldn't either) so new journalists shouldn't worry about covering an additional cost.

I'm not sure it's led to anything or if it helped in any of my job searches, but it has helped when I reach out to companies asking them to send me products to test. They have an additional place to see who I am/ if I'm legit.

Leigh Munsil, San Antonio Report

I get SO many compliments on my website (and possibly jobs because of it?)

It took maybe two days, with a basic understanding of WordPress and a solid understanding of how to Google stuff. I used the theme "Nitteo" and played around with it until I got something I liked.

Cost to build/host it wasn't huge, and it's very much worth having. Plus owning yourname.com is worth it, generally. And it's nice to knock random social media sites out of the top SEO for your name, so people find what you want them to vs. some dumb recent tweet (which will happen anyway but hopefully after you've already impressed them with your impressive website).

Jack Crosbie, Discourse Blog

I've had a website for about a decade — www.jackcrosbie.com. It costs me I think $120 a year for the Squarespace and domain fees. I pretty much don't think about it. I update it maybe once a year or once every two years, but I do think it's important to have some kind of nice landing page for people who google you. The biggest drawback, though, is that for a while I had my email listed on there and PR people would put me on all sorts of lists, which sucks. I do not use LinkedIn, and in fact recently deleted my account on there. I have never once gotten anything of worth out of LinkedIn and looking at it makes me want to revert to a hunter-gatherer society.

I share my pieces on Twitter, usually, but I don't post otherwise. I've found that increasingly it's important for me to get my work in front of the maybe two or three dozen magazine or book editors who will decide the rest of my career, and otherwise any distribution of said work is not my problem. I've considered setting up an email list for every editor in my contacts that I just blast my latest feature out to so they remember me even if they don't see a tweet or read it organically, because I feel like that would be the most helpful way of distributing. I also have a personal Substack that I've posted a few things on before, but have sort of fallen off doing that lately, as, again — doesn't really matter, the audience there isn't who I'm writing for.

Ambreen Ali, Central Desi

I did have one but stopped updating a few years ago: ambreenali.wordpress.com. It was cheap — just paying for the domain and a basic Wordpress plan. It definitely helped a lot in establishing credibility as a freelancer, and I had a hidden page where I logged and kept every article I ever published: ambreenali.wordpress.com/writing-clips. This was super useful because I could pull it up and grab relevant clips at a moment's notice, whether it was for a freelance gig or applying for jobs.

The site didn't feel as necessary once Muck Rack improved its capabilities, since I could just point folks there. Now, I'm not actively pursuing freelance work, so I don't keep it up to date.

Francine McKenna, The Dig

The website francinemckenna.com is my old Wordpress, reTheAuditors.com, updated and redesigned recently but same infrastructure since 2006. I host my own work so no dependency on Wordpress and I also routinely run backups.

My model for the update was Diana Henriques’ site which is a great combo for a book author journalist. Very classy!

It costs me about 150 bucks to keep the domain and site live each year. I also pay someone to do updates and deal with emergencies but that does not happen very often and it is not that hard to do yourself once the basic site is built. I was recommended someone by Michelle Leder of Footnoted.org who had also has maintained a site for years. It was a great and cost effective recommendation.

One thing I do and have done is PDF everything I have ever done that is on a digital site and have hard copies of magazines and any print stuff. So if something disappears or is hard to find as things get to be after a few years, I always have a PDF.

That is critical for applications, including for teaching and speaking, and also for awards and fellowships. Even if you work for another outlet, this is a task for your professional life you have to do.

Katie MacBride, freelance writer

I do have a site with my clips (www.katiemacbride.com). It's through Wordpress, and I started it very early in my freelancing career. It doesn't get much traction—at this point, it's just a personal archive of stuff I've written over the years. (Not that I go back to it much, because most of the early writing is painfully embarrassing). But I do post new links there, and maybe one day it will come in handy. I think it's been the most useful with sources; many sources have told me they checked me out after I cold emailed them, and they usually mention the website where they saw my collection of clips. If I had money, I would probably pay someone to cull and update it, but I am lazy and poor and think it probably doesn't matter. I think the cost was mostly getting the actual domain, which is like $10/year or something.

Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch

I do have amandasilberling.com, but I have some technical knowledge around web hosting and web design and what not, so I only pay like $10 a year for it (I use the free version of WordPress for design and share web hosting costs with some friends and family). For early career journalists, I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a free portfolio website. I don’t think it delegitimizes your work, and paying like $20 a month for something like Squarespace feels excessive if there’s not a ton of money coming in!

Eve Peyser, freelance writer

I have a website (evepeyser.com) and I find it to be very useful. I can't quantify how much work it's gotten me (though many people have contacted me through it) but it's useful for a lot of things, including job applications. Moreover, it's a good way for me to work out where I am in my career, think about how I want to sell my professional services, understand who I am as a writer, and as someone who has written thousands of articles, figure out what my strongest work is. My mother happens to be a web designer, so I only have to pay GoDaddy fees, but I theoretically would pay for web design services.

Kimeko McCoy, Digiday

As a writer and reporter, I do have a vanity URL website, kimekomccoy.com, where readers and editors can find my contact information, links to my clips, media appearances and more. It’s mostly a reflection of my LinkedIn but with added context geared toward editors who may want to work with me or hiring managers. It’s cheap, less than $50 for both the Squarespace account and vanity URL.

I’ve had a handful of editors reach out to work with me in the years that I’ve had it, but its usefulness pales in comparison to my social media network (LinkedIn or Twitter/X) and good old fashioned word of mouth referrals.

I created this account years ago when every budding journalist and reporter was creating their digital personas. It was built out along with my professional Twitter account.

If I were just now starting out in my journalism career, I would still recommend having a website. It’s a one-stop shop to house all your work, which is becoming increasingly important as so many digital sites as either discontinued or an update to the backend of the site creates a graveyard of stories. Maybe update it once every six months and spend your branding efforts on places like social media, Substack, Medium or other sites.

C.J. Sinner, Minnesota Star Tribune

I think it’s smart to buy the domain of your name, even if you don’t end up making a website.

You can always use it to redirect to your LinkedIn or Substack or Medium or to a Github Page even if you don’t want to build your own site. Just owning the domain isn’t terribly expensive generally, and you’ve at least got it now before someone else scoops it up.

I do keep a simple Squarespace site with links and contact info, and I think I pay about $10-15 a year for the domain, and something like $300 a year for Squarespace. Probably wouldn’t need to go the Squarespace route, and there are other freeish hosting options (if I had to pick, I probably would do Github Pages).

John Patrick Pullen, Long Lead

As an assigning editor, I look for individual websites. It implies a degree of seriousness… it’s the shingle you’re hanging as a business. If you want people to take you and your work seriously, you need to take your website seriously.

But as a working journalist, I also forgive journalists for not keeping their website up to date, which is why I recommend outlinking to Muckrack and/or LinkedIn. To me, LinkedIn is the best place for journalists to not only put their best face forward right now, but also to promote themselves and their works. And I say this as someone who really didn’t like LinkedIn 5-7 years ago. I didn’t see the point of it. But they’ve done a wonderful job stepping into the vacuum that Twitter has left behind for people looking to have serious conversations about their professions online.

All that having been said, there are so many things that journalists — especially editors — do in their work that fall behind a byline. I find myself in that space right now. I can describe that work really well on LinkedIn, but I don’t think I’d go into that detail on my own website. A personal website is about branding yourself as a business(person). LinkedIn is the new resume.

I haven’t updated my own website since 2017, when I was a tech journalist and columnist. And I just started thinking about doing it again last week. At this point in my career, I’m a very different journalist than I was, yet that is the shingle I’ve left hanging out to the world all these years since. It’s a bit embarrassing. But at the same time, I’ve been very busy since then. Who has time to maintain a website beyond the one you’re maintaining professionally!

Ruth Serven Smith, AL.com

Everyone should have a professional-facing, Google-able page where I can find your resume and clips. If you invest in building a Substack or LinkedIn post that's fine, but I should be able to quickly find representations of your work, and I should never have to pay to read it. I still recommend simple portfolio websites — or even a public-facing Google Doc — to anyone starting out.

The main pro of hosting your own website is that if you have a memorable name (like I do), you control the domain and searchability, to some extent, and you're not at the mercy of Medium or Substack becoming unusable. I haven't updated my portfolio website in years, but it's there if I need it. If you have coding skills, you can make that obvious too.

Pro of using a social platform: You show that you're conversant in navigating a professional platform and medium and can present interesting and relevant ideas. Con: You have to actually regularly produce interesting and relevant ideas.

Matt K. Lewis, The Daily Beast

Once upon a time, a website was mandatory. These days, clips can be distributed via social media, Substack, etc. Still, I think it's valuable for a journalist to maintain a personal website (mine is www.mattklewis.com, and was made via Squarespace) for your bio and contact info. This is especially true during a volatile time in the journalism industry, when your work email could disappear suddenly. Another reason is for Google optimization. Like it or not, you are a brand. And if you want to improve the odds that good photos/articles about you show up toward the top of someone's search, this is one way to help improve the odds.

Damaso Reyes, New York Amsterdam News

I do have my own website www.damaso.com. I got it when I was in college and have maintained it ever since. It costs around $100-200 a year, though it could be cheaper. From my perspective it is a sign of seriousness and professionalism and while other sites like Medium or Muck Rack are fine, they limit how much you can express yourself AND as they are private companies can go out of business at any moment.

Rachel Brodsky, freelance

around 10 years ago, I started a free personal page to sort of combine my work experience (like a CV) AND post my writing clips.

That said, it's a bit of a drag to constantly update. This past year, I started an Authory page, which I did pay for -- I think about $100 for a year. It updates my work for me, and I can split up the KINDS of work I do -- one section is for content marketing and the other for traditional journalism. I can just sort of set it and forget it. The only downside: I have to go in and delete or reshuffle certain pieces to a different section, which I'm not super consistent about doing.

I don't think I'll ever not have a personal website, even if I'm bad about maintaining it. I just like having a centralized location where anyone interested in hiring me can find a clump of my work in one place.

Zanny Merullo Steffgen, freelance

I've had a portfolio website since my second year of full-time freelance writing and would definitely recommend it. I think it lends some credibility, plus makes it easier to share my portfolio. Mine costs around $400 a year through Wix, including a business email and the domain name. I manage the site's design myself and have had a great experience. One of my best clients of all time found me through my site!

Tricia Romano, freelance

Journalists absolutely should archive their own work on their website with their full name because, as we know, these sites disappear, get unfunded, or just the backend gets broken. Some people take the easy route and just link to the site, but I think that’s only good if it’s a brand-new, one- to two-year-old piece that will still be up. But you also have the paywall problem with doing it that way. So, ripping it up and putting it on your own website in some form (even a PDF screenshot) is preferable.

Luke Plunkett, Aftermath

I do, it's here! It's a little blog/website I setup on Ghost earlier this year. It costs me relative spare change, just the cost for the domain and annual Ghost payments, but it's worth it for two reasons:

1) 17 years of my previous work exists on a website whose owners care little for its content or its history, so I've been using my personal site as a lifeboat for my favourite work if/when it disappears from my previous job.

2) I do a little consulting and freelance work on the side, so that was a good place to just round everything up together and put it on the one website so I can just redirect everybody and everybody who ever needs me or is interested in me to the one place.

Oh, and a bonus perk has been BlueSky verification! Because the platform uses websites as ad hoc verification, having lukeplunkett.com makes my BlueSky presence feel a little more professional as well!

Molly McCluskey, Diplomatica

Absolutely. I always tell journalists, bloggers, content creators at all levels that they should have a website with their name. For two reasons. First, it's so important to own your digital real estate. I own mollymccluskey.com and mollyemccluskey.com (and yes, there are other Molly McCluskeys who are writers, believe it or not! I interviewed a bunch of them for a project at Georgetown.) Second, having a branded website with a custom URL marks the difference between amateurs and professionals, particularly when sharing clips with editors and potential clients. See my work on my professional website is very different than, here's a link to my blog.

That being said, the website has been one of the greatest stressors of my career. Over the years, I've had them all — a Wordpress blog, Strikingly, Squarespace — and have researched literally every option out there when I was launching Diplomatica before finally going with Squarespace. My portfolio was on Strikingly for many, many years, and it did the job well. It has easy templates, and all of the essentials without being too overwhelming if you're not into web design. I only recently switched my portfolio from Strikingly to Squarespace because I wanted more advanced features and more overall polish but I still highly recommend Strikingly for folks just starting to build their brand.

Strikingly on a pro plan (which allows a custom url - mollymccluskey.com vs mollymccluskey.strikingly.com) is slightly less than $200 a year. Squarespace on a basic plan costs about the same. Both Strikingly and Squarespace allow you to purchase the domain directly through them, and new plans often offer the first year free. Depending on the name, expect to spend between $30-50 a year for your URL.

I put together a page of resources on my websites for folks who might want/need some guidance re: tools — https://www.mollymccluskey.com/resources