How to Build a Portfolio Web Site

This step-by-step guide was published as a weekly series. So, go from the top if you’re starting from scratch, and if you’re midway though building your site, pick and choose which posts look helpful.

The Series

Week 1: Buy a domain and install WordPress

Week 2: Find a theme, install it and customize it

Week 3: Write first blog post and About page

Week 4: Put up your resume in HTML and PDF formats

Week 5: Add portfolio materials and install plugins

Week 6 and on: Coming soon

(I’m always interested to hear what topics you’d like to see covered in the series. Shoot me a line at ingram.emily [at] gmail.com if you have a suggestion.)

F.A.Q.

‘Why write a blog series?’

EmilyIngram.com was a product of many hours of tinkering and fiddling during my summer as an intern at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I broke my site more times that I could count and managed to piece it back together each time.

Trial by error is a great teacher. … It can also be a frustrating one.

I wanted to share what I’d learned during all those hours of staring at code with my fellow student journalists. Too often I heard classmates say, “Oh, build a Web site? I could never do that.” Wrong. You can. And I’ll help you out as best I can.

‘How much Web know-how do I need?’

Little to none. If you have some, that’s great, but it’s not essential. I can’t promise I won’t use Web jargon – in fact I’ll make a point to use some – but I’ll explain those terms when I do. Bottom line: Lots of these terms are used in newsrooms every day. It’s better to learn them now rather than later.

To help you out, I post lots of screen caps so you can easily follow along with the written directions, which also tend to be fairly detailed. I’ll also link to blog posts and instructions that might come in handy as you build your site.

‘What will I need?’

A little cash: A domain and server space will run you about $60/year based on the rates from GoDaddy, the host that I’ll be talking about in my blog posts and the host I use for my site. (You can use another host if you want, too. No big deal.)

A little time: I built my site in my free time one summer, so this is absolutely something you can accomplish on your own. No need to hire a Web designer or quit your day job.

‘Why isn’t [insert topic here] covered in the series?’

I probably either hadn’t thought of it or haven’t gotten around to it. Drop me a line via e-mail or comment below, and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks!