How Much Should You Reveal on Your Portfolio Site?

by Rico on May 10th, 2008

Livejournal may be emo-haven, but sometimes there are post worth paying attention to for “serious” readers. How much work/personal info on freelance site? by Skellington1 is one of them.

Personally, I think it’s important to maintain a clear division between the personal- and business-related aspects of your online profile. Such division could be two different websites, or simply two different web pages on the same domain.

Are They Looking at Your Personal Life or Work?

That’s not to say that your personal or business should be completely separate from each other. There’s nothing wrong with say, adding a personal touch to how you present your work, or talking about your work as part of your personal life. The point is that it should be clear what your online visitors are looking at. It should be obvious that their reading about your life or your work.

Not Everyone Wants to Know About Your Personal Life

Why? I believe that no matter how interesting your personal life, there will always be people who want to “get down to business”, so to speak. With little time to spare, they need to browse through your work, determine if you’re capable of fulfilling their requirements, and inquire about your services as soon as possible. If it’s not immediately clear where they can find out more about your freelance accomplishments, these potential prospects may decide to just skip your site completely—and bring their business somewhere else.

Minimize Confusion

Like I said before, the key to persuading potential clients that you’re worth their time and money is to do it quickly. Making the division between the personal and business aspects of your life obvious is part of this. By removing a potential barrier to persuasion—confusion—your portfolio site will do a better job of attracting projects.

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