Pressfolios - Perfect Resumes for Writers

Pressfolios is an amazing service aimed specifically at writers, and I cannot even begin to describe how happy I was when I found out about it. In essence it provides the same functionality that Zerply has, but it is tailored for bloggers, journalists and everyone who produces text for a living.

As the name clearly implies, Pressfolios is an online portfolio for professionals in the publishing industry, although you can make very good use of it if you're a translator or a blogger who's just starting out. The work you add can be a selection of your best posts or even some texts that you've written but never published if you feel they demonstrate your abilities in a convincing way.

You'll start by creating a profile and choosing a URL, which will preferably be in the form of yourname.pressfolios.com; you've probably learned by now that this is good for your personal brand. After this you can edit the layout of your profile page, upload images and provide some information about yourself. The profile page will have a huge header image (in the same vein of articles on Medium and Google+ profiles) with your picture and byline superimposed. Now you're ready to add your stories.

The stories can be manually uploaded in several formats or downloaded directly from their current location; that is, from the site on which they were published. This way Pressfolios becomes more than just an online resume. It can also serve as a repository of your work and a kind of backup, which can be useful, or to exaggerate a bit, life-saving in some situations.

The amount of stories you can add as a free user is, of course, limited, but don't worry – you can increase this number by inviting your friends to use Pressfolios. For each friend that registers via your invite, you will both get 5 extra spaces for stories, so it's a win-win situation. Awesome move, Pressfolios.

When you've uploaded the stories that you find relevant for your personal brand and representative of your expertise, you can organize them using the Sections feature. This basically functions as tags which you can add to every story to categorise it and make it easier to find. You can also set some stories as Featured, which increases their prominence on your profile page.

Just like Zerply, Pressfolios offers a Chrome addon to make the profile maintenance easier. And just like with Zerply, I can't help but wonder why only one browser gets supported.

If you're a writer, blogger or a journalist, I suggest you get a Pressfolio page as soon as possible. Visual artists, designers and programmers have had specialized online resume services for quite some time, and finally someone made a decent alternative for the oft-neglected writing business. It would be a shame to miss the opportunity to boost your professional online presence by creating a profile at Pressfolio.

Of course, strengthening your online presence doesn't entail registering for every service on the planet and then some. As in many other aspects of life, quality trumps quantity in this case, too. Carefully weigh your options against your needs, and if a site fits into your personal branding plan, go for it.

If you decide to follow the "less is more" maxim when it comes to registering for new accounts, About.me is probably your best bet. On the other hand, if "the more, the merrier" is your motto and you want to dominate the search results for your name, by all means get a profile at all these services. Just make sure to update them regularly – they're useless if they don't have any meaningful content about your brand.

To recap what we talked about in this series:

• First, you need a personal branding strategy.
• Decide what kind of content you want to post, under which name and where.
• Devise your own visual identity – take profile photos, come up with color schemes and find background images to match.
• Create profiles on social networks and relevant services.
• Be consistent in customizing them.
• Be professional, positive and honest.
• Don't reveal more personal information than necessary and don't compromise your privacy.
• Monitor your profiles' statistics and people's impressions about your brand.
• Build your credibility and increase your visibility by creating and promoting quality content.

These articles might seem long, but personal branding is such a wide topic that you could write books about it; indeed, many have already been written. If you would like to learn and read more, let me know in the comments or contact me on Twitter – I'll be happy to recommend some interesting sources. :)

Ivana Isadora Devcic is a freelance writer, copyeditor and translator fluent in English, Swedish, Croatian and Norwegian. She's a Linux user and KDE fan interested in web design, productivity and personal branding. Ivana tweets about the world around her as @skadinna.