If you’re a writer or creator in 2023, you know what a cut-throat and attention-strapped world we have to deal with. Clients expect excellence at all times because their audiences no longer have time to spare on lackluster content.
In fact, forget about talking to first-time clients. It’s a challenge to even get them to engage with you in the first place.
As a writer myself, I’m starting to feel that the hardest part isn’t actually the writing but devising tactics that get clients’ attention within minutes. Turns out, I am not alone. Everyone is struggling to grab eyeballs, keep them, and actually get paid for delighting said eyeballs with their work.
There are numerous strategies to get clients to notice you. In this piece, I’ll focus on a single one — adding your work samples to your Wix website in order to showcase your skills instantly.
• Why your Wix website should have ALL (or most) of your published work as “work samples”
• How to add work samples to your Wix website with minimal time & effort by integrating with Authory
• Advantages of using the Authory portfolio embed on your Wix website
Why your website should showcase your work samples
Most professionals know the importance of displaying proof of their skills & productivity, but uploading five articles to a business website does not appeal to serious clients.
If you’re running your own business or even dabbling in freelance hustle to supplement your full-time job, you probably have your own website. This website details your professional life, services, contact information, and, most importantly, your past work.
But don’t take my word for it, other industry experts will back up this opinion of mine.
“Samples give prospective employees the ability to demonstrate they can perform tasks that are critical to their future position. They allow candidates to display practical skills and prove that they can be a valuable member of a team. By approaching a request for a sample with diligence and creativity, you can set yourself apart from other candidates and show your skills.”
“Work sample tests are one of the most reliable ways to gather measurable data about candidates’ competencies and working styles and validate what they say about themselves. They also uncover valuable insights about candidates who may present less confidently in interviews but would be highly competent and successful in the role.”
“In today’s competitive job market, applicants—even those applying to positions not related directly to writing—may be required to submit writing samples. These are primarily used to determine writing ability, show literary and grammar skills, and reflect one’s overall writing style.”
“A job ad might indicate a gazillion number of requirements — from the number of years of experience to educational qualifications. But in the end, what matters is your ability to do the job satisfactorily.
And that`s where your work sample comes in — to demonstrate your skills and experience — to provide that hard evidence that yes, you can do the job.”
- Patience Nduta
Your past work is what clients look at when deciding if you’re worth a shot. But you can no longer get away with uploading a few samples and expecting clients to infer the overall quality of your craft.
How and Why Authory and Wix work great together
Modern employers expect to see ALL (or most) of your previously published work
Modern clients don’t just look for quality work but also the quantity of quality work you have created so far. Volume is important, as is content quality. Therefore, potential employers are looking for creators who can provide consistently good work. By uploading all (or most) of your previous work, you show that you produce work of consistent quality, are versatile in your content creation, and can be depended on for long-term employment.
Of course, if you do want such a self-updating database that backs up automatically, you’ll have to choose a portfolio maker that provides these features.
The best way to upload all your work
You could upload all your work manually to your Wix website, but there’s a more expedient way.
Manual uploads: If you have a Wix website, you already know that every work sample needs to be uploaded separately & manually. The most common way to do this is to create a “Blog” or “My/Our work” section. This is easy enough to do, but every single article, video, podcast… any content you’ve created needs to be copy-pasted/uploaded one file at a time.
This might not sound too bad if all clients wanted to see were your last five projects. But they want to see the last 20, and that means you have to upload 20 files/articles by hand.
Constant updation: As you create more content, you have to upload new pieces to your Wix website. Once again, prospective clients want to see recent work, not pieces from 6 months ago.
Of course, since you have to manually update these pieces, you end up being stuck in a perpetual cycle of spending time and effort to do something that can be automated quite easily. With automation, you don’t spend time (that should ideally be spent on paid work/rest) on what is basically grunt work.
With these options in mind, many people use a combination of Authory and Wix to complete their websites. Wix creates your website, and Authory makes the process of showcasing your work samples automated and easy.
Wix is built for small business owners, and Authory is built for showcasing your work samples
Wix is a wonderful tool for building a website. They’re great for helping you “build and scale with confidence.”
Authory is fundamentally designed to display work samples in a clean and aesthetic format within a portfolio. It comes with in-built features that let you showcase your work perfectly… and you have to do very little to get this industry-best display within your Wix site.
How to add work samples to your Wix website
Since it’s a long-ish article, I’ll start by showing you the final product: what your Authory portfolio would look like once you integrated it with your Wix website.
The final result: What your Authory portfolio embed looks like on your Wix site
I am doing this because I cannot insert my portfolio into my colleague’s business website. The final result is exactly the same. If/when you sign up for Authory and follow the steps detailed above, you will get the exact result I’m showcasing in the image below.
Lili-Ann Kriegler, education consultant and author, has taught at all levels from toddlers to adults. Her expertise is in early childhood education for children 3-9 years of age; educational leadership and enhancing thinking skills for people of all ages. She has a master’s in education and leadership.
Again, feel free to look at the portfolio embedded directly on Lili-Ann's Wix website here: www.kriegler-education.com/lili-ann
You can also look directly at her Authory portfolio here: authory.com/kriegler-education
If you click on the embed on Lili-Ann’s Wix site, you’ll be taken directly to his Authory portfolio.
Now, let’s get to the actual process of giving your Wix website direct, automated, and updated access to all your publications.
Create your portfolio on Authory
To start, you have to create a portfolio on Authory. Only then can it be integrated with your Wix website. Just follow the steps below to get your own Authory portfolio:
The main perk of using Authory is its content importing feature — the tool automatically finds and imports ALL your published, bylined work from the internet. All you have to do is enter the URL of every website where your work exists (with a byline), and Authory will extract a copy of every single piece (text, audio, video, social media posts) authored/created by you.
To start up, sign up for an Authory account (for FREE) using this link. After that, simply follow the few steps in the video below to get your own account:
Once you’re done, follow the steps in this next video to set up your very own Authory portfolio (with minimal effort on your side).
The entire process will not take you more than 5-7 minutes.
Wix integration with your Authory Portfolio
Now that you have your Authory portfolio, you can embed it as a widget within your Wix website. Just go through the following steps:
- Go to your Authory portfolio under the “Portfolio” section on your dashboard. Select the “Embed widget” option on the menu to your left.
- On clicking “Embed widget,” you’ll see another button for “Create embed.” Click it, and you’ll find a modal screen that shows a preview of your widget. It also lets you customize it to your liking.
- Once you’ve made the necessary changes, click "Copy". The code for your portfolio widget will be copied and ready to be added to any other website (Wix, in this case).
Adding your Authory portfolio widget to your Wix website
- Log in to your Wix account.
- Go to “Settings” in your dashboard.
- Click on “Custom Code” under the “Advanced” section.
- Click “Add Custom Code” at the top right.
- Add the code snippet you previously copied from Authory. Additionally, choose which specific website page your Authory portfolio embed should appear in by looking at the drop-down menu under “Choose specific pages.”
- Click “Apply,” and you’re good to go.
What the customer says
Authory customers who use Wix to create and operate their own business websites are particularly big fans of our Wix integration capabilities. Here’s what author & education consultant Lili-Ann Kriegler (B. A Hons, H. Dip. Ed, M.Ed.) had to say:
“After spotting Authory’s ad and exploring its professional website, I decided to give it a try. Authory swiftly became an indispensable tool. Previously, maintaining my Goodreads blog was cumbersome; relying on Google Drive lacked the aesthetic of a proper feed and resulted in manual uploads, causing delays.
Authory transformed this process. It effortlessly aggregates articles, blogs, and podcasts from various sources – my WIX website, LinkedIn, and media outlets. Podcasts via my Buzzfeed URL were also seamlessly collected. Integrating Authory’s RSS feed now ensures automatic blog updates, saving time and enhancing presentation.
Authory’s widget embed feature added value to my website: https://www.kriegler-education.com/. It offers a user-friendly display, enabling visitors to explore content without leaving my site.”
Advantages of using Authory’s portfolio embed on your Wix website
Yes, I hear you. The process above looks simple, but is it worth paying for an Authory account?
As an Authory user myself, I would say yes. But I won’t deny my bias, either. After all, I do write for Authory too.
So, let me just take you through the advantages that this feature offers our current clients who use it on Wix (as well as other) websites:
- Automatic content updation: As I mentioned before, Authory will automatically import a copy of every bylined piece from every site into its own database. These sites are called "sources." You add as many sources as you want, and every single bylined piece from every single source will be imported automatically.
Additionally, once you enter a source, Authory won't just import your existing publications. Anything you publish on the same site (after you've fed its URL into Authory) in the future will also be imported automatically. In other words, Authory will import your past and future content.
Essentially, your portfolio embed will automatically update itself with your latest publications. Your Wix website will, consequently, always be updated with fresh content without you having to put in any manual effort.
- An eternal backup of all your content: All the content that Authory imports from different sources is saved permanently. You'll never have to worry about losing any of your published work. Even if the original website where it's published goes defunct for any reason, you'll always have a copy safely stored on Authory's server.
So, your Wix website will always have links to all your work, even if the source publication dies. You’ll never lose a great piece (that would probably have given you a great paying client) from your Wix website.
Now that you know how to easily integrate a state-of-the-art portfolio that updates itself and saves all your work forever, why not give it a try? Sign up FREE for an Authory account, and take the 14-day free trial. Set up your portfolio in minutes and integrate it with your Wix website.
The tool speaks for itself.
