Introduction

As I learn more about building websites I occasionally run across ideas I think are really unique.  Freelancers or aspiring web developers who are just starting out need to build portfolios of their work.  Portfolios are key to gaining new clients or graphically displaying your skills in both design and coding.  But it’s a ‘catch 22’ situation in that because you’re just starting out you don’t have many web properties to display in your portfolio.

Some of the obvious solutions include personal webpages and ones you’ve designed for friends and family members.  But let’s face it, the websites you’ve created for your family’s entrepreneurial brainstorms generally lack the professional polish you need to impress in the business world.

So that’s why I’m writing this post.  I’ve run across some interesting concepts to address this problem and will add to it overtime as I encounter others.

Single-Serving Sites

I ran across a blog post today on Hover, which is a domain company I really like.  The article is on creating SSS or single serving sites.  It’s a very cool concept, that I can foresee a lot of utility in.  An SSS is a one page website which, while simple in appearance, can be quite complex in design and function.

Creating A Custom URL Shortener

Almost everyone uses URL shorteners today.  I never realized how easy it was to create your own URL Shortener. That’s why I really like this article telling you how to create your own URL shortening website.   This idea reminded me of an ongoing argument amongst my family members…see the excerpt at the bottom of the page for more.

Creating A Website For Curation

These’s so much interesting content on the Internet today that it’s really impossible for anyone to keep up.  I ran across this Skillfeed course about creating a curated website that automatically updates to own content, while I was trying to figure out WordPress.  Skillfeed is a paid subscription-based video tutorial site that my husband subscribes to.  So this link is to a course that’s only available to paying members.  But I’m including it anyway because Skillfeed itself is pretty great, and you can read a little about the concept without actually joining. They also have a 7 day free trial membership available, which you could get if you wanted to watch this video course and many more for free…for 7 days!

Online Business Ideas in 2015

This link isn’t only about portfolio building but also about building Internet businesses as income stream sources in 2015.  I included it because it has ideas within related to websites you could include in a portfolio:  13 Online Business Ideas

Help Me Quash A Family Argument About URL’s

Including the above link on a custom URL Shortener reminded me that I wanted to solve an ongoing debate within my family.  It involves the moniker of  ‘URL’.  It recently came to my attention that the proper pronounciation of URL, when spoken out loud, is to say each of the individual letters “U  R  L“.  So when talking about URLs you need to speak each of the 3 syllables separately.  My 89 year old Dad happened upon a better pronounciation which is only 1 syllable when spoken.

Using Dad’s method you pronounce URL as “Earl“.  Granted Earl is actually a name, but I think the context it’s used in would dispel any confusion.  I picked up this convention too, because I always need to save time…but we both have been vehemently corrected by family members who were annoyed by this poor grammar.  So I’m asking my readers for their input.  Has anyone heard URL spoken as “Earl”?  Doesn’t it’s use make sense to save time?  If there’s even a modicum of familiarity I think a campaign should be waged to permanently change the pronounciation.  What do you think?   You can add your comments at the bottom.