Getting your portfolio online
One of the most important things about beginning a career in concert photography (or any type of photography) is to have an online portfolio to show clients. I decided to review a portfolio site that I've recently stumbled upon and am enjoying quite a bit.
Mintfolio came to my attention in late December of 2009. I was looking for a website on which to host my portfolio. I have a pretty short attention span and not much free time to design my own site, so I was looking for a simple, easy to use solution. Of course it was Twitter who introduced me to the answer I was looking for. A friend had tweeted that he had just signed up with the service and invited friends to check it out. So, I friended Mintfolio's Twitter and decided to see what the service had to offer.
What it is
Mintfolio describes itself as 'a new way to create fresh, stylish, and unique online portfolios with just a few easy clicks,' and it's definitely the truth. The refreshingly simple design and account set-up drew me in. I signed up and within minutes I had chosen a template, uploaded my images, typed in my bio information, and chosen the option to display the latest posts from my blog, Symphonic Lens. And I did this all for free.
Other benefits
I'd hate to sound like infomercial by adding,"But wait, there's more!" but there is. As soon as I had saved my profile, a tweet promoting my portfolio popped up in my Twitter feed. Free advertising? Not too shabby! It certainly gives the site a more personal feel and the website's blog is easy to maneuver. One thing I particularly enjoyed was the blog's ability to present a laid-back yet professional attitude. Mintfolio is also familiar with other popular networking and media websites. It offers a service to Pro Users that allows you to import your photos from Flickr.
Memberships
There are two types of memberships:
A free membership allows you to upload a maximum of two projects with ten images each. For a person who just needs to display a basic portfolio, that isn't too bad. The biggest catch is that advertisements are placed on your profile. Usually they're the easy to ignore side or bottom of the page ads, but once in awhile, a full page ad that you must click to get past pops up. Even that isn't a huge inconvenience considering you're getting your portfolio displayed for free.
For $6 (USD) per month, a 'Pro' account gets you an unlimited amount of projects and images. It also gives you the option of displaying videos. Instead of having 'username.mintfolio.com,' you can use your own personalized domain name. The upgraded account also gets rid of those pesky web ads and allows you to add up to three custom pages to your portfolio.
Bottomline
Frankly, I'm a fan of Mintfolio and I urge anyone who's searching for a simple host for their portfolio to check it out. The free account gives you more than what most other sites would charge you for and they aren't exactly charging an arm and a leg for the 'Pro' account either. It also introduces you to a community of other artists and who knows what you can learn from them!
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