As a WordPress developer for more than a decade, I’ve built numerous WordPress blocks, ranging from simple callouts and icon blocks to multi-block forms and slideshows. The process can be demanding and requires a solid grasp of how WordPress works under the hood, as well as familiarity with React, JavaScript, PHP, and other relevant technologies.

Scaffolding tools like WordPress’s create-block help. Modern AI code editors, such as Cursor, and assistants like Claude Code, also speed things up. With the right setup and context, you can abstract away much of the complexity. The catch is that you still need to provide the AI with WordPress-specific context and wire everything together. That’s fine for developers, but it keeps the barrier high for everyone else.

What if you could skip that complexity entirely? That’s where Telex comes in.

What is Telex?

Telex is an experimental tool from the Automattic AI team that turns natural-language prompts into working WordPress blocks. You simply describe what you want, and Telex generates the block. 

Everyone can use Telex, from:

• Site owners who want custom functionality tailored to their site or who want to experiment with a new idea.
• Agencies and freelancers who need quick prototypes or small utility blocks for client projects.
• Developers who want fast scaffolding in a real WordPress context and code they can refine.
• Aspiring developers who learn best by seeing a working example and reading the code behind it.

Under the hood, Telex packages your block as a single block plugin and previews the result in your browser, all powered by WordPress Playground. There’s no local setup. You can refine the block with short follow-up prompts or edit the code directly, then download the plugin and install it on a site when you’re ready. You can also share your work as a link.

Since Telex is an experiment, results will vary and you may run into bugs and issues along the way. That’s part of the process. We’re learning where AI can remove friction in block creation and where it can be genuinely useful. It is also not an AI website builder. Think of it as an AI that helps you make small functional tools as blocks. 

Telex is currently free to use and you can create as many blocks as you like. Give it a try now.

How to build blocks with Telex

Start by thinking about what you want to create. It could be a feature your site is missing or a playful idea to see what Telex can do. This is an experiment, so exploration is welcome. You can also check out one of the featured projects on the Telex homepage for inspiration.

For this post, I’m stepping into the shoes of a food blogger. I have a chocolate chip cookie recipe to share, and I’d like to display an ingredient list that readers can scale up to 4 times. Readers should be able to check off ingredients as they go. There should also be a copy button on the frontend that copies the ingredient list to the clipboard. In the editor, I want to add ingredients in a simple table with three columns: quantity, unit, and ingredient. I should also be able to remove and reorder ingredients up or down in the table using buttons.

I started by entering this prompt in Telex:

Please build an Ingredient List block. This will display a list of ingredients (think food blog) that readers can check off. Add a copy button on the front end that copies the ingredient list to the clipboard. Include a built-in recipe scaler so readers can 2x, 3x, and 4x the recipe, updating ingredient quantities accordingly. In the editor, I need to enter ingredients in a table with three columns: quantity, unit, and ingredient. I should also be able to remove and reorder ingredients up or down in the table using buttons.

I then clicked Build, and Telex got to work.

The more context you include in your initial prompt, the better. Still, don’t hesitate to try a quick prompt. You can spin up as many blocks as you want, even at the same time. Just open a new browser tab.

In about two minutes, I had a working WordPress block with all the functionality I requested. Here’s a look at the Editor view with the ingredients for my recipe entered into the table. Notice the action buttons like I requested.

The frontend delivered all the functionality immediately, though the styling needed some refinement. This is where additional prompts help to fine-tune things.

I generally prefer a block to inherit my theme’s styles. I also wanted checked ingredients to show a strikethrough, and I wanted ingredient quantities formatted as whole numbers or fractions where possible. Finally, to add a bit of excitement, when the reader checks off all items, perhaps there’s a confetti animation.

I handled each change with multiple short follow-up prompts:

Let’s simplify the styling so this ingredient list inherits the current theme styles.

On the front end, when a reader checks an ingredient, also apply a strikethrough.

Convert ingredient quantities to whole numbers or fractions on the frontend where possible. No decimals, please.

For fun, when a reader checks off all the items on the ingredients list, shower the screen with a confetti animation.

I recommend giving Telex one task at a time in your follow-up prompts. After four iterations, one for each of the tasks above, my Ingredient List block looked like this: 

You can also modify the code directly, which is handy if you prefer to make quick, targeted changes. It’s also a great way to learn how the block is assembled.

In my case, I wanted the scale buttons to look a bit different and to update the table in the Editor, so I switched to Code view and adjusted the style.scss and editor.scss files manually.

Here’s the final result. It took about 10 minutes to build in total:

Note: Telex is not deterministic. If you try the prompts outlined in this post, expect slightly different results. No two builds will be exactly the same. 

Of course I could have kept iterating. Perhaps add JSON-LD structured data to the ingredient list for search engine optimization, or the ability to convert the units to metric. The possibilities are endless.

Once satisfied with your block, you have two options: use the Download button to get the plugin zip file, or click the Share button. The latter copies a unique link to your clipboard. Anyone with this link can view your block in Telex without needing to log in.

Here’s the link to the block I built for this blog post: 

If you click the preview link above, you’ll also be able to download the Ingredient List block as a zip file, just as if you had created the block yourself. You can then install it on any WordPress site that supports plugin uploads, or test it locally using WordPress Studio.

Troubleshooting and known gaps

Telex is experimental, so you may hit the occasional hiccup. Sometimes the AI makes a wrong assumption or generates code that does not run. This is common with all AI tools. If you see a warning like the one below, keep iterating. Ask Telex to fix the specific error or copy the details to a new prompt. Then describe the outcome you expect. You can ask as many follow-up questions as you like. If things get tangled, start a fresh session and restate your block requirements.

There are also many ways to build a block in WordPress, and part of this experiment is to identify areas that need improvement in Telex. For example, blocks that require inner blocks are not currently supported. A slideshow with a parent “Slideshow” block and child “Slide” blocks is a common use case, and Telex will struggle to implement it.

If you run into a scenario where Telex repeatedly fails to complete your request, please let us know in the comments or share your feedback in the in-app feedback form. Sharing your prompt, the error message, and a brief description of what you were trying to build will help the team improve Telex.

Keep iterating

Telex is an early look at how AI can lower the barrier to block creation. We’ll keep improving it based on what you build and the feedback you share, so spin up a block, post your preview link, and tell us what worked and what didn’t.

Some ideas we’re considering for the future include version history, visual descriptors to make your project list more visual, uploading and customizing existing blocks, and other improvements, whether big or small.

Together, we can make WordPress block development faster, friendlier, and more accessible to everyone.

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The more time I spend on social media reading posts by AI influencers, the more I see web developers (like myself) worrying that they’ll be out of a job in less than a year.

It reminds me of something I read a few years ago, the golden rule of software development:

No matter what the question is, the answer can almost always start with ‘It depends…’

Whenever a developer asks me if I’m worried that AI will replace me, I find myself saying, “Well, it depends…”

We’re standing on the threshold of a web development revolution

I think about the recent progress of AI the same way I think about the first steam-powered road vehicles (or what we commonly refer to today as cars). 

Back in the mid-19th Century in the UK, people were concerned that compared to horse-drawn modes of transportation, these steam-powered vehicles would block up roadways, endanger public safety, and cause fatal accidents. 

This led to a series of parliamentary acts that heavily restricted the use of road-going steam-powered vehicles. The most restrictive law was the Locomotives Act of 1865, which required vehicles to travel at a maximum of 4 mph (6.4 km/h) in the country and 2 mph (3.2 km/h) in the city, as well as requiring a man carrying a red flag to walk in front of road vehicles hauling multiple wagons. These acts effectively halted automobile development in the United Kingdom for most of the 19th century. 

While fears regarding automobiles were justified — and eventually realized — cars were gradually accepted as they became more common and accessible. Simply put, automobiles made it easier for products to get from point A to point B. I think we can all agree that in some places, especially cities, too many cars on the road can be detrimental. We also can’t deny their impact on our society and how many aspects of our daily lives are made better by having a personal road-going vehicle. 

AI usually gets it right

I’ve been fortunate enough to have used various forms of AI to support my work since early 2021. Back then, OpenAI had released GPT-3, and I was using it regularly as a Technical Writer for blog posts, tutorials, and documentation. Later that year, GitHub released CoPilot, and I was able to snag an open-source maintainers license, which I’ve used consistently for code generation. Since then, practically anything I’ve worked on has been AI-assisted. Generally, it’s been a  positive experience. 

I’ve successfully built everything from plugins to web-based games, and even a few personal utility desktop applications, all using AI. My most recent success was building the WordPress.com Content Calendar in approximately 2 hours, utilizing Perplexity for R&D and Cursor for the build. 

But when it gets it wrong…

Every now and then, though, AI loses the plot. 

I’ve read stories of people vibe coding SaaS apps, only to have their customer details leaked after the apps were hacked due to multiple security vulnerabilities. Recently, an AI agent deleted a company’s entire production database during a code freeze. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of AI chatbots and agents confidently saying the code is fixed or working when, in reality, it is still broken. 

Earlier this year, I used Cursor to build WP Debug, a small Electron desktop application that allows you to read and display the WordPress debug.log more cleanly. Someone opened a ticket to request adding the GitHub repository URL to the app’s About window. Because I had no Electron experience, it took me the better part of two full days just to implement this small request, something that an experienced Electron developer could probably have completed in an hour. Each time the Cursor agent confidently told me the About window had been implemented correctly, and each time I tested, it failed miserably.

Last week, I was using Perplexity to help me create a lesson on anonymizing production data. As I was reviewing the generated output, everything looked good until I got to the section on anonymization strategies. Perplexity had generated this:

WordPress provides several built-in sanitization functions that should be leveraged in custom anonymization scripts:

// Sanitize email addresses

$sanitized_email = sanitize_email( $raw_email );

// Sanitize text fields

$sanitized_text = sanitize_text_field( $raw_text );

// Sanitize file names

$sanitized_filename = sanitize_file_name( $raw_filename );

// Sanitize HTML content

$sanitized_html = wp_kses_post( $raw_html );

If you know anything about WordPress development API functions, you know that sanitization is not the same as anonymization. If you want to see how wrong a vibe-coded project can go, check out my first attempt at building a browser-based 3D shooter game. Fair warning, only attempt to open the game in your browser if you have a lot of free RAM.

AI isn’t going to replace developers who adapt

Some years ago, when I was still a freelance developer, I had a client who built food blogs. She maintained a couple of single-purpose plugins that managed specific functionality, such as adding a recipe custom post type and various other tasks she required. I would hear from her when she needed something new added to any of these plugins. She knew what she wanted, but lacked the coding experience to build it; however, she excelled at providing specific requirements and thoroughly testing each addition. I can almost guarantee that today, she’d be able to manage this all herself without needing to hire a developer. 

Just like those first steam-powered vehicles, AI-assisted web development is going to make what takes hours possible in minutes. Like any new technological advancement, there will be concerns about the use of AI to develop software, including its environmental impact, the security of the code it generates, and the impact it will have on the skills and abilities of human programmers. Its adoption is, however, inevitable, and to ensure that this AI-infused future remains a productive and positive environment, it relies on the developer community to evolve and adapt alongside it.  

What you should be doing now

Like any new technology, there are two key takeaways. First and foremost, take heed of the hype, but learn to distill it down to the facts. 

Social media is ablaze with folks who are trying to sell a future where the human element to AI is non-existent. It’s important to recognize these for what they are, the modern equivalent of those infomercial-driven late-night shopping channels from the early 2000s. Sometimes what’s advertised will end up being useful, but a lot of it will eventually end up on the digital trash heap. 

AI, just like any other software, relies on humans to iterate and improve. Just like any other software, it’s prone to bugs that need fixing, new features that need documenting, and requires some training and education to operate effectively.

Second, learn how AI works, what it does well, and what it does poorly. Learn about prompting, context, tools, and all the things that make AI coding possible. That allows you to make valid decisions about when to use AI to streamline your processes, and when it makes sense to roll up your sleeves and do some manual work.

AI software experts recommend following good software development practices like clearly defining project scope, planning each step of the development process, writing tests as early as possible, constantly reviewing and validating AI-generated code, using robust security audits, and ensuring ongoing developer education to offset potential skill erosion. 

At the end of the day, AI development tools are at their best when they are used as productivity aids — never as replacements for human expertise or oversight. The future of web development will be shaped by those who embrace these tools with a healthy dose of skepticism, understanding, and a willingness to learn. 

This post was written by a human, assisted by Grammarly for grammar and spelling, inline wordsmithing using Google Gemini for clarity, and research via Perplexity.  

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Creating a portfolio website is one of the easiest ways to showcase your work as a creative — whether you’re a designer, writer, photographer, or developer. Initially, in my career as a freelance writer, I thought a static PDF or Google Doc collating my best work would suffice.

Having a professional portfolio website, however, makes quite a difference. For starters, it raises your stature because it signals a certain level of credibility and commitment to your craft that isn’t evident in other formats (like PDFs or online portfolio makers).

Beyond first impressions, creating a portfolio website has tons of functional benefits — it’s interactive, easier to keep up-to-date, and more accessible. I can also see which pages on my website get the most views and engagement to optimize my portfolio better.

Best of all, building a professional-looking website is easier than you think. It might appear overwhelming at first, but this guide will make the process straightforward. 

How to build a portfolio website in three simple steps

Building a portfolio website seems daunting at first — especially if you haven’t created a website before. It seems easier to rely on mock portfolio builders than to make a site from scratch, but I promise the process is easier than you think. Here are all the steps you need to follow:

Step 1: Select your best pieces of work

It’s tempting to dump all the work you’ve ever done in your portfolio, but take it from someone who used to have writing samples from college internships (yikes) on her site: You must only show your best work on your portfolio website.

Why? Your prospective clients are busy people. They don’t have the time to scour through a ton of samples to evaluate your work and determine whether you’re a right fit for their needs. Displaying too many pieces of work also doesn’t leave a lasting impression. You want a potential client to land on your portfolio website, find your best work easily, and remember you.

So, pick only the best of the best work you’ve done so far to display on your portfolio website. If you work in multiple industries or have different categories within your work, you can pick a few samples from each segment.

For example, I write for various sectors — such as the creator economy, software, and productivity. On my portfolio site, each niche is a different page containing a few of the best samples from each category.

Now, when a prospective client lands on my website and they’re in the software industry, they can easily find the best samples in that domain instead of sifting through irrelevant pieces of work.

Organizing my portfolio this way also saves me time when I’m communicating with a lead and need to send relevant samples.

If you want to show work you’ve done for fun, you can classify it separately as your passion project(s).

Takeaway: Select the best pieces of work you’ve done to showcase on your portfolio website. There’s not a singular ideal number of samples — it depends on your work experience, industry, and more. It always helps to think from a client’s perspective.

If they land on your portfolio website, which samples would impress them? How many samples would look too cluttered and make a client bounce? Which samples would best show your range of work? Start putting yourself in your client’s shoes and pick the best pieces of work accordingly.

Step 2: Choose your web host and domain name (if you aren’t already using WordPress.com)

If you’re already using WordPress.com to set up your site, you’re ahead of the game. If you’ve landed on this article without a WordPress.com account, no worries. Stick with me here — we’ll cover the foundation you need before you can bring your portfolio site to life.

You need two things to begin creating your portfolio website: a web host and a domain name.

• A web host is a service provider that stores your website’s files and makes them accessible on the internet. We recommend WordPress.com.
• A domain name is your website’s address on the internet.

Tip: If you’re confused between domain and hosting, this article highlights their differences and explains why you need both services for your website.

If you want to avoid the headache of finding and integrating a web host, a domain name, and a website builder, you can choose a managed WordPress hosting provider like WordPress.com — where everything is in one place. You also don’t lose the flexibility and control to customize your website however you wish.

Anyone can get a website up and running with WordPress.com. Start with one of these resources:

• Getting Started on WordPress.com (your intro to all things WordPress.com).
• Five-step website setup (a quick and easy guide to spinning up your site).
• Create Your Website on WordPress.com (our free and beginner-friendly video course that walks through the basics of building a website.

Once you go through the sign up flow, you’re ready to start building your website.

Tip: When you sign up with WordPress.com, you’ll be asked to choose a domain name. This can be something related to your business name, personal brand, or simply your full name.

You can also search available domain names with our domain finder tool or transfer an existing domain name to WordPress.com if you have one with another domain provider.

Step 3: Design your portfolio

The final step is actually designing your portfolio. If you’ve chosen WordPress.com as your host, you’ll have access to thousands of free and premium themes. There are also various themes specifically for portfolios so you don’t have to start building your website from scratch.

Once you decide on a theme, customize the website to your brand’s colors and fonts. If you have a logo for your creative business, you can add it to your website, too.

Then, start adding pages to your website. Here are the pages you should have on your portfolio site:

• Homepage: This is the first place someone lands on when they type your domain or discover your portfolio site. Your home page should briefly introduce who you are and explain what you do. It should also have call-to-actions — like “see my work” or “contact me” — to help potential clients navigate your website. Learn how to set your homepage.
• About page: This is where someone can go to learn more about you. Use this place to share your professional experience and sprinkle in some personality. The goal is to make someone connect with the person behind the website.
• Contact page: You can have a dedicated contact page or embed a contact form on your site on various pages. Make it easy for people to reach you — include your email address, social media links, and a contact form. If you’re comfortable, you can also include your phone number.
• Resume page (if applicable): If you need it, you can also include a resume page where people can view and download your resume. Learn how to upload documents and use the File block to make your resume downloadable.
• Portfolio page: This is the core of your site, where you show the work you selected in step one. WordPress.com has a dedicated portfolio function to showcase your work. Learn how to use it on your site. There are also portfolio plugins to help you organize your work in different ways.

The above are the essential pages you should have on your portfolio website, but don’t be afraid to get creative and add more pages if you need them. For example, if you’re planning to add blog posts that show your expertise, you can add a separate page for them on your site.

Tip: Don’t select your best work once and then let it collect dust. You need to regularly update your website with new samples to showcase your current skill level. I set aside an hour at the end of each month to add recent work to my portfolio. Set up a similar ritual that works for you to ensure your portfolio site always matches your existing skillset.

A look inside my portfolio website

Here’s how I’ve designed my portfolio site using the steps outlined in the previous section. Hopefully, it helps you get some ideas about elements you can use in your own portfolio.

1. Home page

The home page has a clear hero image and a headline about what I do. I start by introducing myself and giving a brief summary about the clients I work with and the services I provide. I debated about adding my photo, but I realized it instantly humanizes my website.

The call-to-action in the first section is to either visit the portfolio or scroll down to learn more about my work process. If you are a service provider, some details about how you work together can help clients feel more confident about your professionalism and get a rough idea about how you work.

The goal isn’t just to give potential clients a snippet of what working together feels like, but also to filter out clients who might not be a good fit.

In the middle of the home page, I’ve also added testimonials and logos of some of the brands I’ve worked with. This instantly builds trust and makes a potential client curious to learn more.

I’ve also added a contact form and an FAQ section at the end, so it’s easy for clients to contact me without leaving the website and have their common queries answered.

2. Portfolio

The portfolio page on my website begins with a reiteration of who I am, what I do, and logos of some notable brands I’ve worked with. I find this repetition is often helpful because potential clients often land on my portfolio page before they land on my home page.

The next section contains an image of me with the “Why should I hire you?” question answered. I’ve found adding this bit often helps soothe doubts of potential clients and helps me showcase how I stand out compared to the competition.

After that, I put a spotlight on my best two testimonials from notable (present or former) clients in my industry to build some credibility. In future updates, I also plan on highlighting a few core phrases in these reviews to make the website more skimmable and memorable.

Then come the samples. I categorize my samples into various folders to cater to the different kinds of clients I work with. I highly recommend doing this if you work in multiple industries, no matter how niche the difference is between them. It helps clients easily find exactly what they’re looking for to make the decision to hire you. It’s also handy when you want to send only one category’s sample to a potential client.

The portfolio page ends with the contact form and two more testimonials to seal the deal.

3. Work Samples

The work sample pages are simple: Each contains six samples and a relevant testimonial. These are the pages I update the most because I want these samples to reflect my latest and best work. Focus on being accessible instead of fancy here. Don’t make a client jump through hoops to find your best work.

What do I mean by relevant testimonials? Let me explain with an example: In the above productivity samples, I have added a majority of the work from my client, Todoist. So the testimonial is from the content manager in the same company.

This adds more weight and credibility in the eyes of a future client browsing this page. They can not only see the latest samples, but also read a review from a client in the same industry. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but do your best to pair each testimonial with relevant work samples. If you can’t grab a testimonial, a case study can also work wonders.

I also plan to add contact forms in these pages that are more personalized to the category. This will not only help clients contact me easily, but also help me precisely track where the majority of my leads are coming from.

Tip: Depending on how much time you have available, expect to spend about a week to build a small portfolio site with four or five pages. You can also consider using our custom website design service or expediting the process with our AI website builder.

How to use and promote your portfolio

To make the best use of your portfolio website, it’s important to get the word out and make it accessible. Ideally, it’d be the first thing a prospective client finds when they want to learn more about you and your work.

Here are five easy ways to make the most of your portfolio website:

1. Add your portfolio site to your email signature: This way, everyone you communicate with can see and access the link. Over time, your email signature will make it easy for people to remember who you are and where they can learn more about you.
2. Optimize your site for user experience: Make your website visually clean, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly. Think from a client’s perspective and add relevant call-to-action buttons to make it easy for people to find what they need.
3. Use SEO best practices: It’s ideal to rank in search terms that relate to your field and expertise. Write meta descriptions with relevant keywords, add alt text to images, and compress images for faster loading times. Learn more about WordPress SEO to make your portfolio site rank in search results.
4. Share your portfolio website wherever relevant: The best way to make your portfolio more visible is to market it wherever appropriate. If you practice email marketing, add it to your newsletters. If you use a marketplace to find clients, add your portfolio site to your profile. If you have an about section on your client’s website, ask them to add your website there. Share it when you’re networking professionally or asking for referrals, too.
5. Monitor website visits: Use Jetpack Stats to track site visitors (which is included with every WordPress.com website). For deeper website analysis, you can also set up Google Analytics. Use data to refine your website and identify areas for improvement.

Now that you’ve learned how to create, use, and promote your portfolio site, let’s understand how to transform it from good to great.

Six tips for putting together an effective portfolio

Over my half a decade of self-employment, I’ve seen a fair share of portfolios from creatives across a variety of fields. Here are six things the best portfolio sites have in common:

1. Tell a (short) story with every project

We’ve already covered why it’s essential to include only your very best work in your portfolio. The goal is to curate, not accumulate.

However, when you’re handpicking your best samples, it’s also important to add context to your projects. For example, if you’re a designer, you can add the goal and results of each sample alongside the work. If a project was more unique than usual, you can add that with the work sample and highlight how you solved any unexpected challenges.

Adding a brief context with your projects can help clients understand your work beyond the finished product — they’ll also see how you solve problems and the range of work you’ve done.

2. Be specific about the kind of work/clients you want to attract

The goal of your portfolio website isn’t just to attract clients, it’s to attract the right kind of clients. If you specifically work with B2B companies, for instance, you don’t want to be fielding contact forms from DTC businesses.

On your website’s home page and portfolio, make it clear exactly who you work with and the kind of work you do. For example, include a table about the kind of services you offer and the ones you don’t. I’ve also seen many people add their rates to their portfolio site. This helps leads determine quickly if their budget is a fit. I got a lot of inquiries about ghostwriting and how I approach it, so I added it as an FAQ on my website.

If you’re getting many irrelevant requests via your portfolio site, it might be a signal that you need to be more specific about your services and clients. Remember this isn’t an irreversible decision — if you’re offering a new service or working with clients from a new industry, you can simply update your website to reflect that.

3. Keep your portfolio refreshed and updated

It’s really easy to make your portfolio site once and let it gather cobwebs (been there, done that). You never know how many opportunities you’re missing simply because your portfolio doesn’t reflect your current skillset and services.

I set aside one day each month to refresh my portfolio. This doesn’t just mean updating the samples with my latest work, but also adding more testimonials, showing the impact of my work (like social shares), and editing my service offerings if I’m making any procedural changes.

Make it a part of your weekly or monthly routine to update your portfolio website. The longer you put it off, the harder it becomes to pick up the task, and if you refresh your site regularly, it’s much less time-consuming, too.

4. Integrate your site with your social media accounts

A client might discover you via your social media account. When they do, they should land on your portfolio with minimal effort, making it easy to contact, communicate, and hire you. Luckily, almost all social media platforms make it easy to add a link in your bio where you can add your portfolio. I’ve added mine across LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.

Integrating your portfolio website seems like a small thing, but it goes a long way. It funnels your client exactly where you want them (on your portfolio website) rather than letting them open another tab, search your name, and then find your website.

5. Include testimonials from past clients

Testimonials from previous clients build trust and credibility for your work on a whole other level. Your samples just show the finished product, but testimonials show your communication skills, how pleasant you are to work with, and any standout qualities you have compared to the competition.

Ask your existing or past clients to write a testimonial that you can add to your website. To make it easier for them, provide a list of questions they can answer to write it.

Once you get a few testimonials, add them across your website. You can highlight key quotes to make them more impactful, too.

6. Consider adding a blog that showcases your expertise

This tip is optional, but it can be beneficial to add a blog on your portfolio website that relates to your service. For example, if you’re an email marketer, you can write posts about best practices to follow in an onboarding sequence, common mistakes you see people make, etc. These kinds of posts can build even more trust and show off your expertise in the service you provide.

You don’t need to publish a blog on your site every week, but even a couple every quarter can help you stand out from the crowd. Think about what would impress your clients and write blogs about that. If you already post on social media, you can easily repurpose content in both formats.

Your portfolio needs its own home

Building your portfolio website using a web host like WordPress.com means you have complete control over how you present your work, who sees it, and how you want to scale your presence. Closed or proprietary platforms can change their rules, restrict customizability, or even disappear overnight. That’s a big risk — especially for a site that’s your bread and butter.

The best investment you can make for your creative career is owning your online presence. Build your site using WordPress.com today.

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Typepad, the veteran blogging platform that has served creators for years, recently announced it will be shutting down permanently on September 30, 2025. According to their official announcement, all user accounts will be terminated on that date. This means you’ll need to export your content before the deadline — or risk losing it forever.

If you’re a Typepad user, time is running out to find a new home for your blog. The good news? We’re here to help make your transition as smooth as possible.

Why WordPress.com is your best choice

We’re built to last. WordPress powers over 40% of the web and has been the backbone of online publishing for two decades. Unlike platforms that come and go, WordPress is committed to supporting creators and keeping the open web thriving for years to come. Plus, content on WordPress.com sites is never deleted. Even if your plan or domain name expires.

Your content stays yours. With WordPress.com, you maintain complete ownership of your content and can export it anytime with our one-click export tool. You have the freedom to move your content anywhere you choose. No platform lock-in, no sudden shutdown announcements, and no “move-it-or-lose-it” ultimatums.

Make it truly yours. WordPress.com offers unmatched customization options with thousands of professional themes, powerful plugins, and deep design features. Our flexible block editor makes it easy to create beautiful layouts, whether you want to recreate your current Typepad design or try something completely new.

Ready to make the move?

Don’t wait until the last minute. Use our dedicated Typepad importer to transfer your content safely and efficiently (free for sites with up to 1GB of media files and storage). For larger storage needs including media and video files, you can purchase a paid hosting plan with 6GB, 13GB, or 50GB of space, with optional add-on upgrades available for even greater capacity. Our detailed support documentation will guide you through every step of the process and help you get your new WordPress.com site up and running on the plan that best fits your needs.

We can’t wait to welcome you to the WordPress community!

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Just a few months ago, students at CIFP Santa Catalina in Aranda de Duero (Spain) knew little to nothing about WordPress. Yet, this vocational school became the stage for the very first WordPress Campus Connect held in Spain, a pioneering project designed to transform the way students and teachers engage with the web, open source, and digital entrepreneurship. 

Last August, Javier and Andrés — two of those students — traveled on scholarships to WordCamp US in Portland, where they took the stage as speakers in a panel discussion, sharing their journey with the world. 

What exactly is WordPress Campus Connect?

WordPress Campus Connect is an international program for students that brings web development, open-source software, and digital entrepreneurship into the classroom. Through hands-on mentorship and professional resources, participants learn how to build and manage websites with WordPress, developing key skills that will shape their professional future. 

But WPCC goes beyond teaching a tool. Its mission is to shape a new generation of digital creators who understand the importance of freedom on the internet, digital privacy, the value of open source, and the right of every individual to own their own content.

The First Campus in Spain, in Ribera del Duero

The WordPress.com team fell in love with this initiative and decided to support the very first edition of WordPress Campus Connect in Aranda de Duero.

Over the course of four weeks, 30 students took part in both in-person and virtual workshops, developed their own web projects, and worked in a collaborative environment where they shared ideas, solved challenges, and supported one another throughout the process.

This edition happened thanks to a partnership between the Centro Integrado de Formación Profesional Santa Catalina, whose faculty trusted the project from the very beginning, and the rural coworking space Ribering, which generously hosted the workshops.

Beyond technical training, WordPress.com provided free hosting for the students, along with close mentorship throughout the program. Watching their progress was truly rewarding — many started with no prior knowledge and finished by publishing functional, creative websites full of personality.

From Aranda to Portland

To recognize that effort, WordPress.com awarded the two most outstanding projects with a trip to WordCamp US 2025 in Portland, Oregon, where their creators took the stage as guest speakers and shared their experience in a panel discussion with the international community.

The selected projects were:

• ritmoribera.com: a music events calendar showcasing the cultural life of Ribera del Duero, created by Andrés Parra. A site with a public service spirit and a genuine connection to its community.
• Rocstudio.blog: a video game development portfolio designed by Javier Montes de Blas, with a technical focus, a polished aesthetic, and a clear entrepreneurial ambition.

WordPress.com in Education

At WordPress.com, we believe in an Internet that is open, accessible, and in the hands of the people who create it — and we work to bring that vision to everyone, including students, teachers, and educational institutions.

With this goal in mind, we created the WordPress.com Education program in Spain, designed to build connections with schools and universities that want to bring their students closer to the tools of the real digital world. What started in Spain and India is only the beginning — we’re now preparing to expand WordPress.com Education to more countries around the world. 

We want students to work with world-class technology — the same they will encounter in their future careers — and we want teachers to have access to support, resources, and ongoing training. In this way, we turn our values as a tech company into concrete actions in the classroom, connecting the global with the local, and the technical with the human.

We witnessed the birth of the internet and have been part of building it as an open, collaborative project. Now we want to help shape students who understand that this is not only about technology — it’s about values.

What’s Next? Now It’s Your Turn

This first WPCC was only the beginning. New editions are already underway in Cartago and San José (Costa Rica), as well as in Pontevedra (Spain). And we’re excited to bring it to even more places.

If you work at an educational institution, are a teacher, or simply feel inspired by this vision, don’t hesitate to get in touch — we’d love to hear from you.

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