If you’re not interested in making your own website from scratch, there are many website-creating platforms and tools available to you. But beware! These programs are not created equal, each has its pros and cons.
My portfolio has been through a few iterations on several different platforms as I struggled to find the one that best fit my needs; as a media analytics student, I cared less about the option to add lots of pictures and more about including reports and links to other sites I had built or published.
After having tried coding a website from scratch, Weebly, Wix, WordPress, Adobe Spark, and Google Sites, I finally settled on Google Sites (for now) but let me tell you a bit about what I liked and disliked about all of these options.
DIY
I tried to create my ePortfolio myself with my newly acquired HTML and CSS skills a few years ago. Building a website yourself is an excellent way to show off your skills — that was the problem for me. My “skills” were fundamental. The resulting site was lackluster in both appearances and usability. So, the moral of this story? If you want to build your own website, go for it! If you want it to be your professional ePortfolio that you share with potential employers, make sure your skills are up to the task.
Wix and Weebly
Weebly and Wix fall on the opposite end of the user-friendly spectrum with their ready-to-go templates. These hosts are popular for a reason — many people appreciate that they make it easy to create beautiful sites quickly. For free, both sites will allow you to drag and drop your content into some very attractive designs. The downside? Not everything is free. Removing obtrusive ads and each site’s branding from your pages will cost you, as will adding your own custom domain. I also felt like the ready-made templates weren’t friendly to large amounts of text — they’re designed to include lots of visuals instead — and there wasn’t an easy way to embed downloadable documents; both of these issues prompted me to abandon these sites because although pretty, they weren’t functional.
Adobe Spark
I have the least experience with Adobe Spark, but some people really like it, so I thought it was worth mentioning. It is a program in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications, but you can purchase a license for this single program for $9.99/month. For that price, they will also remove the Adobe Spark watermark from your designs and give you access to a library of templates and Adobe Fonts. In many ways, this program is like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, only instead of graphics or magazine layouts, it builds webpages. Unfortunately, also like InDesign or Illustrator, it requires some know-how to use well. I and my little bit of know-how used Adobe Spark to create a mock portfolio in a class last year, but I wasn’t inspired to stick with it after it was announced that Adobe will no longer be releasing updates.
WordPress
WordPress is a classic, to the point that some people might call it “old school,” but I’m a big fan. It has survived as long as it has because it works so very well; it’s a good choice for people who have never built a website before and for seasoned veterans. It’s easy to create a nice site looking for free, or you can upgrade to unlock new layouts, designs, and plugins if you’d like. (If you do run into trouble, the platform’s longevity means there are dozens of helpful tutorials online.) I have been using WordPress in some capacity for 3 years, however, and not once have I lamented not having the paid features. Unlike other platforms (looking at you, Weebly) that obnoxiously brand free user’s sites, WordPress doesn’t — you can put a little logo at the bottom of the page or just a teeny line of text.
Google Sites
That brings us to Google Sites — the home of my current ePortfolio. I’ve been using Google Sites for less than 6 months, but in those 6 months, I’ve already recommended it to just about every media analytics major I know. It’s 100% free and as easy to start as a Google Doc; it’s built into your Google Drive suite. The only thing that will cost you is adding a custom domain name, but, of course, that’s totally optional. Because it’s in your Google Drive, embedding documents, photos, presentations, forms, and other files also in your Google Drive is incredibly easy. In fact, most things are pretty straightforward when it comes to building these sites. For people looking for a lot of customization options, that’s not great news — as of now, there are just a handful of themes to choose from, but they are attractive. I’m willing to sacrifice some customization for the sake of functionality because did I mention how easy it is to pair a Google Site with Google Analytics? For free! There are a few things I’m not fond of — adding a favicon has caused some hiccups, and I cannot figure out how to add meta tags — but overall, I have to recommend Google Sites for media analytics majors.
Meg Malone 