Building Online Portfolios – What Are the Pros and Cons?

What are the pros and cons of building online portfolios? Everyone who has anything to show for the world seems to be catching on to the newest trend in the internet – the online portfolios.

I could count maybe a million positive as well as negative things about having a portfolio online but to make things easier, I only listed a few.

CONS

• You can get scammed – That’s if you aren’t careful, though. A lot of portfolio-owners have lost hundreds even thousands of dollars because of trusting the wrong people. Here’s a tip: never give your full trust to people in the internet. Unless you get an assurance that they are totally worth trusting. It will save you a lot of money.

• Your works could be used by other without your permission – Photos and songs are just some of the many things people could “steal” from your portfolio. This becomes a very big problem for photographers and aspiring musicians because it’s very hard to track people in the internet. The best solution for this is to have your works copyrighted before publishing them online.

PROS

• You can gain a lot of admirers – It seems shallow, but having admirers of the works you are displaying in your portfolio is an advantage. This will make more people interested in you and the work you do and may earn the attention of the “big fishes” of the industry that you are pursuing.

• The opportunities will be endless – Your portfolio can be seen by anyone, anywhere. This means the opportunities for you or your business will increase, especially if you show real edge through your online portfolios.

Talent Online Portfolios – Can You Model Online?

As in all things on this planet, talent online portfolios have their pros and cons, their advantages and disadvantages. In this age of computers, internet, mobile phones and social networking, the world seems smaller than it is, therefore, much easier for talent scouts to find young, new and fresh actors, models and singers across the globe. Even internet giants jumped on the online-talent-search bandwagon such as Yahoo when they launched an online video talent hunt in 2006.

Finding talent online portfolios is very easy – trust Google to come up with a gazillion search results in just seconds! But while everyone is so hooked with posting their life, their works, their photos and their talents online, let’s take a closer look at some of the pluses and minuses of creating an online portfolio.

ADVANTAGES:

A thousand things could be mentioned under this category, but on top of the list is one thing:

EXPOSURE.

The internet is like a large hand connecting each and every individual to each other, no matter where they may be. And with the amount of time it takes for you to pass on online information (which is seconds!) to someone halfway around the world, it becomes a great opportunity for struggling artists to get a big break. Think Justin Bieber – this kid got discovered by Usher only through YouTube! Or even perhaps Charice (who comes from the Philippines), who got discovered by Ellen Degeneres (who lives in the States) and who is now Oprah Winfrey’s protégé.

The internet truly opens up a wider door of opportunity for talented people all around the globe.

DISADVANTAGES:

There are many disadvantages in creating an online talent portfolio as well. First and foremost, the online world does not discriminate – anyone can access it! Even dangerous people better known as:

SCAM ARTISTS, OPPORTUNISTS & SEXUAL PREDATORS.

We have heard it many times – models, actors and artists getting scammed through talent online portfolio sites. And we need not to further explain why this is bad.

In the end, it all comes down to whether or not you have done enough to protect yourself. It’s not a bad thing – trying to make your dream come true by showing the world what you’re made of. Just be careful. Find out more about the online portfolio sites you’re trying to sign up to. It’s either that, or risk getting humiliated, fooled or deceived.