Planning to set up your very own online portfolio? Very well, then you have to know first what’s an online portfolio and its uses. Of course, you also have to know how to take lay out you portfolio online in order to take advantage of it more.

Online portfolios are collections of pictures and information about individuals or companies which are posted in the web. These portfolios are a showcase of your skills, services and talents for prospects. By viewing your online portfolio, the right kind of users may happen upon it and acquire the services you’re offering.

In lay outing your online portfolio, you must consider your prospects. Herein we give you several examples and each example has their share of pros and cons.

1. The all-in-one – is throwing all your projects onto one page. It is probably the easiest way to set up your portfolio. It’s easy to do and people will get to see all your work in one viewing. However, this kind of lay out may be information overload for viewers. Your work may not stand out too well due to so many graphics. People and target prospects may lose interest by scrolling forever to view all your work especially if they have only one particular interest. Having too many graphics may take your page a long time to load.

2. The Traditional - this kind of lay out has one item per page with little next and back buttons at the bottom of each page. There are alternative with small thumbnails of all the graphics, linked to the larger graphic. This kind of lay-out makes each one of your graphics stand out. It may also bring familiarity to prospects used to a ‘real’ portfolio. But, your prospect may find it difficult to go directly to the type of project he’s interested in.

3. The Pop – up - your graphics are on one page, as thumbnails linked to a larger version of the graphic. With this, your page won’t take forever to load and your prospects can view only what they're interested in. However, some viewers with older browsers may not be able to take advantage of these thumbnails and some users do not like extra windows that pop open without adequate warning.

4. The Pop – up by category - each type of work (identity, brochures, logos, etc.) is in its own section. Each type has a link that may have a larger version and some explanatory text and even some sketches. This makes it easy for prospects to get straight to what they're interested in. But, it's a lot more work for you. The same disadvantage as ‘The pop-up’ lay out may also be experienced.