You found a writing opportunity that seems perfect for you. The prospective client is looking for a mid-level writer (that’s you) who’s skilled at writing long-form content (hey, you do that) and has experience writing about small business finance (yep, got it).
You’re told to send over some quick information about your experience and background, along with three relevant writing samples.
That’s where things get a little sticky. Have you written about bookkeeping and accounting before? Absolutely—you know you have. Several times. But finding those specific writing samples? Well, that’s a separate challenge.
You find yourself racking your brain, searching old email threads, and combing through your author page on different publication sites to find the samples you know you have (but still can’t easily find).
You don’t need me to tell you that it’s not an effective or efficient way of doing things. Fortunately, you can build a system that makes it easy to find and share your most relevant and impressive writing samples—without all of the stressing, searching, and scrolling.
Wait…why can’t you send your whole portfolio?
This is an important question to answer first. You put effort into curating and maintaining your writing portfolio. So, why wouldn’t you just share that when a potential client wants to see samples of your work?
Your portfolio is a valuable resource as a writer. However, it’s meant to provide a more holistic view of the work you've done—meaning it’s not personalized for a particular client’s needs.
Here’s another way to think about it: Imagine you wanted to work with a contractor on renovating your kitchen. Before signing on the dotted line, you asked to see some examples of that contractor’s prior renovation work to confirm they’re the right fit for what you’re looking for. They point you to a generic website where you see everything from bathrooms to closets to back decks, with only the occasional kitchen.
It doesn’t feel like a particularly helpful or targeted experience, right? You’re planning to renovate your kitchen, so you want to see what they’ve done with other kitchens specifically.
It’s the same thing with prospective writing clients. Simply sending a generic portfolio link makes the person on the receiving end do all of the legwork. They need to scroll through your portfolio and venture a guess at which samples will be most helpful to them.
Hear me when I say this part: That’s your job. Curating and sharing specific samples that are most relevant to that client allows you to:
- Demonstrate professionalism and respect for the other person’s time
- Provide a smoother and more tailored client experience
- Control your professional brand and image
- Increase your chances of standing out and landing that opportunity
Needless to say, it’s well worth the little bit of time and elbow grease it takes to pull targeted writing samples. That’s not to say you can’t also send your portfolio. However, it should be a supplement for your curated samples—not a stand-in for them. Here’s what that might look like in an email:
I’ve pulled together three writing samples focused on small business finances for you here: [link(s) to your specific samples]
If you’re interested in seeing more of my work, you can do so in my full writing portfolio: [link to your full portfolio]
How to easily find (and share) your most relevant writing samples
Alright, so you know it’s important to send client-specific samples. But, when it comes time for you to actually do so, you’ll likely run into two separate challenges: finding the samples that are the best fit and then sharing them in an easy, accessible way.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these bumps in the road—and how you can successfully swerve around them.
Challenge #1: Finding your most relevant writing samples
Particularly if you’re writing a lot, you don’t want to rely on only your memory to keep track of all of the work you’re publishing.
Of course, there are things you can do to document your work samples without depending solely on your brain—like creating a spreadsheet where you log links and other information like the publication, topic, and date.
But that approach relies on a lot of time-consuming, manual updates that are sure to slip to the backburner, leaving you with an inaccurate and completely outdated record of your work.
This is where Authory is so helpful. Authory pulls together all of your content—articles, podcasts, and videos—into a beautiful portfolio page. That’s the gist, but here’s what makes Authory so powerful for this particular use case:
- It automatically updates: You don’t need to worry about dropping your latest link into a clunky spreadsheet. Once you add a single piece of content to your portfolio, Authory will automatically find and import all of your bylined content from that publication on an ongoing basis. That means your existing pieces (and all of the ones you continue to publish) are added to your portfolio—without you needing to do anything.
- It’s searchable: Want to find pieces you wrote about performance management or tax laws? It’s easy to search your Authory Content Archive. Your archive is only accessible to you as the user and it contains all of the work samples you have in your Authory account—even if you don’t have them on your public portfolio (like any ghostwritten articles, for example). Use the search bar to type in a topic or keyword and surface all of your related samples. You’ll also find extensive search and filter options and a layout that looks like an email inbox, making it easy to browse your results. The best part? While your Content Archive is only available to you, your public portfolio page is also searchable, making it easy for prospective clients or other people to find what they want to see.
It’s sortable: Authory gives you one beautiful, auto-updating portfolio, but you can also use Authory Collections to curate your content. For example, you might create collections based on a specific topic (e.g. technology) or for a specific industry or type of client (e.g. startups). Or, you could create collections to share your relevant work with one specific client—which we’ll cover in detail in the next section.
Put simply, with Authory, you don’t have to waste time and energy struggling to recall what you’ve written and finding those samples. Your Authory portfolio is automatically updated and easy to search, so you have an accurate, up-to-date, resource that makes it easy to find exactly what you need.
Challenge #2: Sharing your writing samples
Finding your perfect samples is only half the battle—now you need to share them. Many people opt to attach PDFs to emails or include a list of links. Both of those get the job done, but there’s a way you can make the client experience even smoother (and look more professional at the same time): creating an Authory Collection.
Think of a collection like a customized “mini portfolio.” As mentioned above, you could create collections based on topic, industry, or anything else that makes sense.
But, for the sake of an example, let’s say we want to create a collection specifically to share with a prospective client. This particular client is in the finance space and wants to see five relevant writing samples. Here’s how this works:
1. Navigate to your collections in the sidebar and press the “Create collection” button. Alternatively, you can start in your Content Archive, select the pieces you’re looking for, and turn them into a collection from there.
2. Name your collection. In this case, we’ll call it “Writing samples for ClientXYZ.” You can also add a short description and customize your branding by editing or adding your own cover image.
3. Add work samples to my collection by clicking the button. You can choose whether to import or upload new content or to choose existing content from my archive. In this case, we’ll select samples from my archive.
4. Now check the boxes on the samples you want to add to your collection. There are plenty of search options here too—like filters and a search bar—to quickly and easily find the samples you need. I’ll type “business finance” into the search bar and use the checkboxes to indicate which samples I want to use.
5. Once you’re happy with the samples you’ve selected, click the button to add those items to your collection.
6. Your collections are private by default (meaning they’re only visible to you). However, you can click the toggle at the top to create a share link. Doing so gives you a link that you can share with your prospective client. When they click it, they’re brought to a simple, beautiful, and branded page that contains only the writing samples you chose for them.
This is way more streamlined than sending five different links in an email, and also allows you to deliver a professional, personalized, and branded experience that’s extra impressive to your potential clients.
Curating your samples: Smooth experience and a strong first impression
When you want to stand out for any sort of writing opportunity, it’s your responsibility to curate a strong first impression—and pulling relevant samples is a key piece of that. But your own brain isn’t exactly your most reliable resource when it comes to remembering and finding all of the work you’ve done.
Fortunately, sharing your most impressive samples doesn’t have to be a painful or time-consuming process. Authory makes it easy to pinpoint your most relevant work and share it in a streamlined and beautiful way.
Ready to ditch the clunky spreadsheet or mental gymnastics? Get started with Authory today.
