If you're a photographer, designer, illustrator, writer, makeup artist, developer or any kind of freelancer, your portfolio is your best sales tool. But most budget options make good work look ordinary: heavy templates, slow galleries, someone else's branding in the footer and a monthly subscription that never ends.
I'm Aldrian, an independent developer. My $99 a year package gives you a custom, hand-coded portfolio website of up to 4 pages on your own domain.
What's included
- Up to 4 hand-coded pages, such as Home, Work, About and Contact
- Your own .com or .net domain for the first year
- Hosting for the first year on fast static hosting with a global CDN
- Responsive galleries that look sharp on phones and big screens
- A contact or inquiry form that sends to your email
- Basic SEO setup with titles, descriptions and image alt text
- 3 revision rounds during the build
- Delivery in 5 to 7 business days after I receive your content
Extra pages, such as a separate page for each project category, are $25 each.
A portfolio structure that works
Home
Your best work, front and center, with a one-line description of what you do and who you do it for.
Work
A curated gallery of your strongest projects. Quality beats quantity. A tight selection shows your eye better than everything you've ever made.
About
Who you are, how you work and a real photo of you. Clients hire people.
Contact
An inquiry form that asks the questions you need answered, plus links to your email and social profiles.
Fast galleries, done properly
Photography and design portfolios are image-heavy, which is why most of them are slow. I resize and compress every image, create multiple sizes so phones don't download desktop files and load images below the fold only when needed. Your work looks sharp and loads fast.
Why not just use Instagram or Behance?
Keep them. They're great for discovery. But:
- You don't control how your work is shown or what appears next to it
- You can't tell the story behind a project the way you want
- Clients searching Google for your services may never find you there
- An account can be restricted or lost
A website on your own domain is the one place you control completely. Link to it from every profile.
Who it's perfect for
Photographers, videographers, graphic and brand designers, illustrators, makeup artists, stylists, writers, developers, architects and students building a professional presence. If you need advanced features like client proofing galleries, online booking or a shop for prints, see my full portfolio website page for a custom quote.
Choosing what to show
Curating is the hardest part of building a portfolio, and the most important. A few guidelines that help:
- Show the work you want more of. If you want wedding clients, lead with weddings, even if you also shoot events.
- Pick 8 to 15 strong pieces per category, not 50. Visitors remember your best and worst work, so leave out anything you wouldn't proudly send a client.
- Add a line of context. For design and development work, one sentence on the brief and the result shows how you think.
- Keep it recent. Older work is fine if it's strong, but recent work shows you're active.
I'll help you shape the selection when you send your files.
Getting found by clients
Many clients search Google for things like "wedding photographer in Cebu" or "freelance brand designer." The basic SEO setup gives each page a clear title and description, adds alt text to your images and tells search engines your name, services and location. Linking your website from your social profiles and directories also helps it get discovered.
Your name as your domain
For most freelancers, a domain like yourname.com is worth having. It looks professional in emails and proposals, it's easy to remember and it stays with you even if you change platforms or niches. The package includes a .com or .net domain for the first year.
Fast on every connection
Clients often check a portfolio from a phone, between meetings or on the way to an event. If your gallery takes ages to load, they move on before seeing your best work. Every image I add is sized and compressed for the screen it is shown on, so your work appears quickly and still looks crisp.
Common portfolio mistakes
Showing everything. Curate. Your weakest piece sets the bar.
No contact path. Every page should make reaching you easy.
Huge uncompressed images. They kill loading time on phones.
Music or autoplay video. Visitors leave.
Outdated work. Send me new projects and I'll add them for $10 per update.
How it works
- Send the request form on the $99 package page.
- I reply with a checklist and a start date.
- You send your best work, bio and contact details.
- I build the site and share a preview.
- You review, with three revision rounds.
- We launch on your domain.
Keeping it current
The package doesn't include self-editing, which keeps your site fast and stable. When you have new work, send it to me and updates are $10 per request. Many freelancers prefer this to wrestling with a builder.
Ready to show your work properly?
Send a few details on the package page. I'll reply with a checklist and a start date.
