Journalists know they should have online portfolios of their work.
But what should they pack into them? I put the question to Wasim Ahmad, an assistant professor at the Stony Brook University School of Journalism. I asked him because he has done a lot of thinking on the subject, to the point where he has taught students how to build portfolios from scratch with tools like CSS, PhotoShop and DreamWeaver. We talked earlier this month at the Asian American Journalists Association conference in Los Angeles.
Ahmad no longer insists that portfolios be built from the ground up, but he is still passionate about what should be in a good portfolio, however you build it.
Ahmad says that “for most people, WordPress and Blogger are good enough. In the past year, they have made it so that you can make blogs that look like websites, walk like websites and talk like websites.”
He recommends incorporating the following elements into your portfolio — an exercise that can become an individualized training program in and of itself:
- First, if your name is available as a domain name, get it now. It only costs about $10 a year with domain registries such as GoDaddy. Get the domain now before someone else does.
- Have a good landing page or front door that shows what you do and who you are. “Remember your mission. If you’re a writer, have a landing page that looks like a writing site, and a blog-style home page does that,” Ahmad said. “At its heart, it’s a portfolio.”
- Your online portfolio should link out to your best work or news about you in other places on the Web. This shows you know how digital media work, and it will help search engines find your portfolio. Sites with no outgoing links move down on search results pages, burying your portfolio.
- Also link to your social media accounts.
- Ahmad, a photographer at his roots, said, your portfolio should not just be text on a page. Include photo galleries, slide shows and videos.
- For broadcasters — and who isn’t at least thinking about video these days? — use an Internet-style reel that presents your work in an eye-catching way. A couple minutes is plenty, Ahmad said. “Nobody wants to see 10 minutes of you doing standup.”
- Keep your online portfolio fresh. One way to do this is to incorporate your blog into your portfolio or to use an option that lets you plug in your Twitter account. That way, your freshest announcements will make the site look timely.
- Ahmad said it is very important to show your resume in two formats: One that is viewed on screen and another that can be printed and passed along or photocopied. The printable copy should be a PDF document or done in Word. Use Scribd.com to host your resume in a format that is easily downloaded.
And one thing to exclude: Ahmad said you shouldn’t put your references’ e-mail addresses on your portfolio site because they can be picked up by robots that crawl the Web. As a result, your references can get spammed because of you.
Coming Monday: Learn what they are planning in the journalism and technology master’s degree program at Columbia University.
Career questions? E-mail Joe for an answer.
