Talking Shop - Episode 12
Like it or not, the age old bit of Kevin Costner wisdom, “if you build it, they will come”, couldn’t be more untrue for the designers portfolio site. Hoping that a potential client finds your needle in a haystack portfolio site out of the clear blue is idiotic at best. Obviously, some good SEO and online advertising can help, but that’s still far from a good start.
So, how can you resurrect your dying portfolio website?
You don’t.
That’s right, you don’t.
Rather than trying to give life to a dying breed, why not create your own superhuman soldiers to find clients for you? And by superhuman soldiers I totally mean join design oriented social networks.
Why Join Design Networks
The better question here is why wouldn’t you join these design oriented social networks? By not joining social sites like Behance, Flickr, and DeviantArt you are cutting back the number of potential clients that could see your work by over 50% or more. OK, so I made that number up, but I’m sure its more than accurate.
By showcasing your work on all of these other social sites, you are increasing your chances for clients to see your work and in turn, contact you for paying work. Even posting your work on stock sites is a way for clients to to find you. I have hired several designers and illustrators over the years that I have found through stock sites. This is not an uncommon way for clients to find designers. It happens all the time.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think about all this? Im sure many of you would like to share your two cents and I encourage you to do so. I also encourage you to share the social sites that you are a part of. Feel free to add links!
12 Comments
I love the advice. I just joined Flickr yesterday, and my reasoning was exactly the same as yours. I haven't joined Behance or DeviantArt yet, but I definitely will!
Always good to hear such great advice from a well known designer. Thanks!
Say what you will about Deviant Art, but I hate that site. It just makes me feel dirty every time I go there. And if I get there by way of a link from twitter or wherever, I usually just close out my window. Call me weird, call me stupid, but I think there are better (more legit) places to go online for finding good images and what have you.
My favorite social site out there for self-promotion/interaction is flickr. I think Yahoo has really done an incredible job of nailing down the way you can search the site and interact with other users. I know that's how I was able to get picked to audition for that Cranium commercial. And now with the ability to tweet your flickr photos straight from the site, create your own personal galleries of images you like and tag people in photos, Flickr is a one-stop shop for awesomeness.
Of course Flickr has its flaws, like everything else, but those are a few of my reasons I love it. Other places I love to hang out online is Facebook (duh), LinkedIn, Last.fm and more recently YouVersion.com.
I think you are absolutely right. The whole idea of the world beating a path to your door (your portfolio site) is one which makes sense if you are the only one with a website. So in this day and age not being a part of the design community websites, Behance, Design Float, Design Bump etc. by not being there you are truly doing yourself a disservice. Join them the worst that could happen is someone finds you and hires you for a job.
Very good points there Danny. I have always thought that showcasing your work through mediums such as Behance, DeviantArt, etc would only do good. In no way can it harm your cliental at all. Good post!
Couldnt agree with you more!
I'm everywhere!
Very nice post Danny…
Such a good point. Typical portfolio sites that hold your work in some static place can be a waste of time… I’ve put myself eerywhere, but have found Behance to be the most professional / effective platform so far.
Thx again for good post
I don't agree that you should phase out your own portfolio site, though you're absolutely right that it's worth maximising the impact of the various sites like DeviantArt and Behance.
Certainly your own site is unlikely to pick up the kind of casual traffic that might find your work on a large portfolio site, but that's not the intention. A personal portfolio on your own website is intended to showcase your work to potential clients who've gone there deliberately - as a result of your own marketing efforts, recommendations, etc. They're going to want to see a showcase of your work and they'll be less keen on visiting another external site to do so (assuming you link to the likes of your Behance portfolio).
If you *merely* build it, then they definitely won't come. If you build it and market it and promote it then they will, and they'll want to see your work showcased as you intended. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use every avenue of self promotion possible, and maximise the benefits of portfolio sites as well, but the two approaches aren't exclusive.
I have to agree with Kyle. Deviant Art sucks to me for the same reason MySpace does. There are some good people, or in Deviant's case, artists, but there are heaps of total crap clogging the community. While there are some awesome professionals on there, there are TONS of people dumping their trash in with the legitimate art making it no better than MySpace with all of it's sparkly text, rotating gifs, background and text colors with no contrast, etc.
Great post with some awesome points. Really, same points apply to any site you launch: It's like building a mall in the middle of the desert. No one knows it's even out there. You have to build roads to your mall and signs to let them know why they would want to visit it in the first place.
Ah, I mistakenly took the implication from the article that it wasn't worth concentrating on your own portfolio site as well as maximising your opportunities elsewhere. With that cleared up then we're definitely on the same page.
Very well written, thanks for the advice! After reading this, I'm going to have to join Behance and try it out. Everyone says it's been great. Tons of great artwork from all different medium are on there too.
I absolutely love Deviantart as well and I use it every day to check for inspiration and to post new work. I do agree, however with Kyle. There is some junk to seed through to find the really good stuff. Thank goodness for the Daily Deviation section and the browse by popularity feature.
Thanks for the good post!
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[...] week I talked a little bit about the importance of joining social media design sites like Behance and such. This got me thinking abut how to decide what work to put up on these sites. [...]