Gaining clients through your portfolio website

[jthomas]

Hello All SVS"ers! Ha

I am building my first art portfolio online. I have a background in website and graphic design but I am used to more corporate/business style sites and I want to make a great art portfolio that feels more personal, professional and fun.

I am looking for do's and don'ts and whats the best ways to gain clients through that channel. Should it be more of a service-oriented site like (hire me because I do this-this or that) or more of a display gallery with a minimal push?

Or do I make it feel like my services are like products? I guess it all depends on my goals right?

[smceccarelli]

It´s exciting to be building your own portfolio site!
I can only share my approach - there are many different ones. I use the online portfolio purely as a showcase of selected work and a place where you find my contact information. I don’t sell myself or my work there - it´s only a place to direct people to see a sample of my best work and my style.
I use social media to do self-marketing, as well as conferences and e-mail - not my website.
I work part-time as art director and I can see the other side. I review a couple of dozen portfolios when I have a project that requires illustration. Portfolios have to be straightforward, simple, load fast and give me an overview of the artist in the shortest possible time. The only thing I read is the list of previous clients, if available.
Once I´ve decided for an illustrator, I will dig a bit deeper in who the person is.
So, I´ve modelled my own portfolio on the same criteria during the years, taking down the WIP section, the blog section, the about me section and everything else that was not a straight gallery. Now I have just the portfolio and contact information, which also contains some very short info on myself.
Of course, this depends on what your intent is and what type of client you wish to attract! There are many approaches and you can browse around and find the ones you like best.