How to Profitably Build a Portfolio?

[SicilianCynic]

Greetings everyone, I am a very new member to CC, and even newer freelance writer. I graduated college with a writing degree, but outside of the school newspaper and academic assignments - neither of which really count - I have no portfolio. It seems to me building that portfolio will help me greatly as a freelancer, but I have a few questions regarding rights.

If I sell an article for exclusive or unique rights, am I completely unable to list that article in any portfolio, even as a link? I understand selling usage rights are no problems with portfolios, but from what I've read, usage rights aren't the best for making money, and I have bills to pay.

Do any kindly writing sages have advice on how to best build a portfolio without damaging my potential income? Thank you for your help.

[cashwriter]

This is something I'm curious about too. Do we know where are articles are posted to so we can add them as a published clip to our portfolio? Can that portfolio be listed online (particularly if full-credit was purchased)? I would love to know how the guidelines apply to portfolios. Thanks!

[Amy W]

Hey there! Unfortunately, I do have bad news for you - you can't list any articles that sold for full rights in your portfolio. You are selling not only the articles themselves, but the exclusive rights to those articles, meaning you can't take credit for them. The customer has the right to put her own name on the article. Sometimes, though it is rare, a customer will keep your byline on a full rights article. You can do a quick search for your articles on Google - just enter a sentence from your article into the search box, with quotation marks. But don't forget, sometimes a customer purchases an article to publish in a print newsletter or a print magazine - in which case, you'll never know where it was published. If an article sells for unique rights, you can include that in your portfolio, since the customer has to keep your byline on it. Just be sure to include your byline in the document itself - right at the top, under the title.

If you want to build up your portfolio, offer your articles for usage rights. True, you won't make as much as you would selling for full rights, but you set the price of your articles. Sell them for what you want to make. It's not unreasonable to assume that an article will sell twice for usage rights. Whatever you would have charged for full rights, divide by two, and ask that amount for usage.

Hope this helps you out!

[cashwriter]

Thanks for the very thorough, incredibly helpful answer!

[Constant]

Make sure to check out http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... =4&t=14568

[BarryDavidson]

Decide what type of portfolio you want to build. Mine includes poetry, fiction, and articles I've had published (both free and paid in the case of the poetry and fiction). I need to get them separated and into categories, but I just haven't had the time lately.

Keep a text file handy on your desktop so that you can include your titles and the address they were published at. If it was in print, and you can find where it was published, then just list the publication name and date.

Also keep in mind that I'm probably not doing it right from a professional standpoint. That's why I just keep the text file so that I can tailor a "resume" to fist the occasion.