Some Options for Putting Together an Online Portfolio

There’s no shortage of sites out there to help you put together an online portfolio, all with their inherent advantages.

WordPress: There’s nearly a decade of history and development behind WordPress, so you’ll have plenty of themes, plugins and support resources at your ÿngertips. The downside to all that versatility is complication. To set up and customize a self-hosted WordPress site you’ll need an FTP client along with working knowledge of HTML and PHP. Free, but you’ll have to pay for hosting and a domain.

Tumblr: The best unique feature of Tumblr is its user base—100 million blogs and counting. The social aspects of the site lend a hand in pushing your content to new audiences. Tumblr has also been a hotbed for theme development in recent months, with both free and premium options integrated into the site editor. Free, with the option to use a custom domain.

Behance: Adobe’s venture has made a significant effort to integrate with existing social networks. Focused primarily on photography, illustration, logos, web design and other graphical elements, so if you’re a writer, look elsewhere. Free.

Cargo Collective: Minimalistic and graphically-focused as well. Signups are available by invitation only, although Cargo will “occasionally award memberships to unafÿliated talents who share a sample of their work.” As a result, the quality of work shared on Cargo has a more curated feel. Free.

Squarespace: These guys take a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor and package it alongside 24/7 support and dozens of rich, drag-and-drop customizable themes. They’ll host your site for you, secure a custom domain, integrate layouts for mobile devices and even offer e-commerce solutions. Plans start at $8 per month.

Carbonmade: Very similar to Behance in that they’re focused primarily on graphics, but with the addition of limited customization and layout options. Photo galleries are well implemented and load quickly on desktop and mobile platforms. Free.

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