10 Tips for Creating Portfolio with WordPress | Professional Branding

Are you a creative individual? Are you a model, artist, web designer, photographer, etc.? Are you looking for ways to promote yourself? The best way to do this is by creating an online portfolio.
Creating Portfolio with WordPress —
Online publishers used to search for; how do I create a portfolio in WordPress? Is WordPress good for portfolios? How do I make a portfolio my homepage in WordPress? How do I make a good WordPress website? And so on...

New digital portfolios appear on the web every day. Did you know that portfolios are one of the most popular types of websites? Creating a successful portfolio site is not too complicated. However, due to this variety, it is difficult to stand out with your design.

Table of Contents:

1. Intro
2. Why Do You Need a Portfolio
3. Main Features of WordPress Portfolio Themes
4. 10 Tips To Creating Portfolio with WordPress
5. To Conclude

What do you need a portfolio for? It will help you showcase your best works by different categories and demonstrate your ability to take pictures (if you are a photographer) in different styles like black and white or landscapes.

Portfolios can differ by types and styles. You can use WordPress portfolio themes to simplify the process of its creation and make sure that your website resonates with your target audience tastes and attracts new customers.



WordPress themes allow you to spread the word about yourself on the web in the most creative manner.

In this article, we are going to give you working tips to improve your site portfolio, increase your traffic and help you become popular faster.

Why Do You Need a Portfolio?

A portfolio can give you a whole lot of advantages. It is useful both for individuals and agencies. In simple words, a portfolio is a set of works and projects examples nicely presented in the form of a grid gallery.

What are the main objectives and advantages of a portfolio website:

• A gorgeous visual presentation featuring successfully accomplished projects;
• Featuring happy customers;
• The possibility to quickly search and filter projects and works;
• An unconventional way to demonstrate a personal or corporate CV.

The takeaway is that online portfolio helps you tell the potential customers about your personality and your activity with style. Please note that unlike social networks, online portfolio lets you post whatever you see fit and the way you wish to do it. What do you think should be present on a professional portfolio and what should not?

This list of features will help you choose an ideal portfolio website:

• Current responsive design;
• Simple menu structure and easy navigation;
• Minimalist design;
• Contact forms support, record forms, maps, and other useful business functions;
• Attractive and usable portfolio;
• Blog availability.

As you understand, these features may vary depending on the field you are working at, but the main idea stays the same.

No matter what you are doing. It may be web design, photography, art, writing, whatever, there are lots of options for you on WordPress.

Supposing your knowledge of programming is next to nothing. It’s ok, you should not complicate your life with learning the code or hiring a web developer. Sometimes both efforts fail. But having a WordPress theme at hand, you can create the portfolio according to your taste and requirements controlling all stages of its development.

Main Features of WordPress Portfolio Themes

WordPress is valued for its ease of development and versatility. You are able not only create a portfolio on the basis of this CMS but combine the functionality of different sites in one web resource.

For instance, creating portfolio powered by WordPress and using plugins and add-ons, you will get good-looking galleries with a filter, the opportunity to take payment for work through your site, a blog, a forum, or social network in one place.

Portfolio WordPress themes are fully responsive and SEO-optimized. Most of them include premium plugins like slideshow and page builder. So, if you are using a premium theme, your website is likely to look modern and quality. It will also be mobile optimized, which is a must in our time.

It’s a well-known fact that the number of mobile device users is growing bigger day-by-day. Moreover, sometimes the share of mobile traffic can make more than 50% of your total traffic, which means that your site must be adaptive. Created on WordPress, your portfolio will meet this requirement.

So where to start to create a portfolio powered by WordPress? First of all, you need to buy domain and hosting, then install WordPress CMS and WordPress theme on the hosting of your choice. Then, you will have to pass a simple setup procedure. After that, your site will be ready to go.

Next, I am going to give you a number of essential tips which will help you create your amazing portfolio.

10 Tips To Creating Portfolio with WordPress

1. Why do you need a portfolio and what’s your audience

First of all, you need to understand what do you need a portfolio for.

• If you are searching for a job, the portfolio may become your CV, which is impressive and interesting;
• A portfolio may help you to sell goods or services you offer;
• A portfolio may become mean to strengthen your image/brand;
• A portfolio is also good for online networking and building connections.

Do you clearly understand what do you need your portfolio for? Is it one of the reasons listed above or is it something else? You must find your goal.

When you know exactly what projects you are going to work on, it’s much more likely that your portfolio will attract the “right” audience. Are you aimed at drawing corporate customers? Show them intelligible and professionally crafted works. In other words, give them what they want to see. The content of your portfolio should meet the needs of the target audience. Communicate with the target audience. This will help you make necessary adjustments in the service package you offer, make it unique, stand out among the competitors, and create your own niche.

2. Where to start

This is simple. Start with the basics.

• You need to write who you are;
• To show what you do;
• And don’t forget to tell how to contact you.

Make sure that it’s super easy to find this information on your website. For instance, you can add an About section or even a page with your photo. Please take a look at John Mccoist WP portfolio template. It is a great example of About section available on the portfolio site.

You don’t need to write too much about yourself. A rare person is interested in your biography. Focus on the important things. This section should persuade the prospective customer to contact you. Tell the visitors what inspires you, about the process of work you like/got used to.

It’s up to you to specify your pricing. Sometimes it helps customers to take a decision and sometimes only your skills matter.

3. The home page is the best place to feature your best works

Try to showcase the best and most important things on the home page because site visitors may not go farther than that. Thoroughly picked out materials attract the new visitors. Photographer portfolio WordPress theme below is a good example demonstrating how the most awesome works can fresh up the site.

4. Don’t forget about the call to action

Call to action is your secret weapon/trigger. You need to place it right and make the button alluring. Step out of the common. Don’t use common phrases like “Contact us”. Try something like “Order a project” or “Order a web design”, etc. instead. Offer people to do things. This will increase the probability that customers will choose you. To encourage a visitor click the button you can offer a 10% discount on orders made before a certain date, for example.

Look down below, the owner of Jeromo theme says customers: "Hire me". Don’t you think that it’s much better than a standard phrase?

5. Make your portfolio responsive

The trend is well-known. If you are creating a portfolio, it becomes even more important as demonstrates your personal skills of solving such problems. Please take a look at the Videographer WordPress theme. It has an excellent responsive website portfolio. Site content and menu also adjust to the screen size. The theme is simple and looks perfect on any monitor.

6. Dynamic animation effects

Animation effects are able to add special charm and dynamics to your portfolio. They will attract visitors’ attention. However, you need to use animation wisely in order not to make it obtrusive and annoying for the users. You need to keep the balance. You can add various effects to images and page content. Zoomin can be a great example of those visual effects. One of them is turning black and white photo into a colorful one when hovering over it.

7. Save the space - hide the navigation menu

You can save a lot of space on the screen by hiding the menu, which is especially important for mobile devices. Would you like an example of the tip? View Richard Gore WordPress theme. It vividly demonstrates it.

8. Stick to minimalism

Minimalism is a simple and popular way of creating a cool portfolio. The background shouldn’t necessarily be white. Define main aspects of your page, create a frame, and then add some additional elements. Contact info, About page, several pages featuring your services, portfolio section, and the main page - these are enough to convey your information. Black Ninja [www(.)black(.)ninja] website makes good use of this technique. Here you will see beautiful colors, photos, and enough free space. But what’s essential, all important information clearly legible.

9. Creativity won’t stay unnoticed

We are sure you are a creative person. But please ask yourself the following questions before adding any cool (from your viewpoint) element to your portfolio. What goal will it sere? or "How will it help to convey my idea to the target audience?" If the answer is “No”, then don't follow your creative impulse. Please take a look at ToyFight [toyfight(.)co] website, where the creativity is really opportune.

10. Run Your Blog

The importance of blogging is hard to overestimate in today’s digital world. It’s difficult to believe how many people still neglect it when running a site. You can’t afford to be one of them. Running a blog will help you in branding, increasing traffic, and improving marketing, so take this tip serious. Add a blog page to your portfolio site, make it as beautiful as in Humaan [humaan(.)com] site and be active.

To Conclude

These days, the availability of a site tells about company/artist prestige and professionalism. If you dream to get to a higher level, provide top-quality services, you should definitely take care of your online presence. Social networks and SMM promotion work well, but if you want to present your brand clearly and concisely, your brand, you need something more serious than just social media accounts, you need a portfolio. If you consider yourself an expert but still don’t have a site, consider fixing it asap. We hope this article will help you start moving in the right direction.

Still, have questions as to creating a portfolio with WordPress? Please feel free to ask them in the comments section. Any thoughts and suggestions are also welcome there. And don’t forget to share the blog post with your friends on social media.

We wish you the best of luck in creating an outstanding portfolio for your works!