Here’s a look at the pros/cons and usability of creating portfolios on CreativeHotlist.com, FigDig.com and CarbonMade.com. Personally, I use all three, but for different reasons. Click past the jump to read why.

Creative Hotlist

Creative Hotlist (CHL) is the granddaddy of ‘em all. It’s also the only of the three being reviewed in this post that costs you some dough—$70 a year, in fact ($35 billed every 6 months).

Based on the quality and length of the URL, the site’s capabilities and the overall usability, that may seem like a rip-off. After all, for just a bit more than that, you could pay for a portfolio site with much broader capabilities, like high-res images, video streaming, etc.

At $70, you still benefit from CHL. Here’s why:

• It’s run my Communication Arts. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s kind of a big industry publication (note the dripping sarcasm). This means that your portfolio could show up on the Comm Arts website.
• Based on its relationship with CA, people trust it. There are roughly a shit-ton of portfolios on it. And that’s a good thing. The more portfolios, the more credibility that site has. It’s your concern to make yours stand out from the others.
• You can include a extensive personal information (like a resume) and links to sites, which is pretty rare.
• CHL is also a job bank site, so instead of just pointing people to your CHL profile, you can also apply for jobs directly on the site using the information you’ve posted to your profile and portfolio. Handy. (Incidentally, another great job site for creatives is TalentZoo.com. To the best of my knowledge, Talent Zoo only uses resumes. No portfolios.)
• And here’s the most important reason to write-off $70/year on your taxes: Creative recruiters and even recruiters outside of agencies LOVE CHL. It makes sense to them, so they use it. Seriously. My CHL portfolio has earned me a fair amount freelance work and several interviews for full-time positions.

CHL allows you to upload up to 27 images.

My CHL profile. Note that it’s actually two pages: a text-driven profile/resume page and a pop-up portfolio.

A closer look at the portfolio. Click on a thumbnail, see a larger image.

A look at the Creative Hotlist “Portfolio Builder.”

Links

My CHL portfolio: www.creativehotlist.com/dmorrissey
CHL home: www.creativehotlist.com

FigDig

Overall, I can’t say I’m impressed with FigDig’s free portfolio service. Here’s why:

• You only get eight (8!) images to post.
• There’s textual advertising EVERYWHERE, from the backend to your actual portfolio page. As is generally the case with textual advertising, you have no control of what’s posted on your portfolio site. Based on textual relevance alone, I suspect you’ll probably see an ad for a competitor or two.
• It’s really difficult to upload images. In spite of the fact that I only had 8 images to upload, it took me longer to create my FigDig portfolio than it did my CarbonMade portfolio (see below).
• Specifically, none of the backend is visually based, making it slow and awkward to upload content. And it seems that there are all kinds of unwritten rules for uploading, like you can’t name two files the same way, certain fields can’t be left blank, slashes can’t be used (slashes? Seriously?). The punishment for breaking a FigDig rule: you have to start all over again.
• Only landscape images look decent in your FigDig portfolio. Portrait-oriented images, like the Dell ad below, end up looking squashed and strange. This is strange to me, since nearly every print ad (except for spreads) is portrait, not landscape.
• The URL is not short and sweet. Sure, www.figdig.com is concise, but pointing people to www.figdig.com/portfolio/dmorrissey is not. Did you really have to add the interstitial content folder of /portfolio/ FigDig?

Now, you’re forewarned of the pitfalls of FigDig, but here’s the one huge benefit that outweighs all of them: it’s a free place to post some work, your contact information, and a link to your site.

My FigDig portfolio. Note the text ads above my work. A nice touch, really.

A sample image on FigDig.

Unfortunately, FigDig doesn’t handle portrait-oriented images too well.

The FigDig backend. If this doesn’t make your head hurt, I’ve got a spread sheet for you to look at.

Links

My FigDig portfolio www.figdig.com/portfolio/dmorrissey
Figdig home www.figdig.com

CarbonMade

I recently joined CarbonMade and I love it. For a free service (there’s an upgrade available via monthly subscription, too), it’s incredibly intuitive to use, offers a fair amount of control over your individual page, and enables you to upload a lot of content (especially compared to FigDig.com).

• One really cool feature is being able to upload your work by “projects”—super handy if you want to display a full campaign’s worth of work or multiple pages from a website.
• CarbonMade gives you 5 projects and 35 total images to work with for free.
• For look and feel, you choose between a white or black page and can mess with the orientation of how your projects and images are displayed. Just a couple of simple controls, but it really allows you to make your page yours.
• The backend is super simple to use and very visually oriented. To change the sequence of images within a project, or the sequence of the projects overall, just drag and drop.
• You can easily link from images to websites, or include short descriptions about your work.
• Each portfolio includes an About page, which is pretty much carte blanc, as well as control of the footer.

My CarbonMade portfolio. Well, hey, that one looks alright!

A look at a project. You can easily scan through images in a project based on your preferences.

The CarbonMade backend. Besides being colorful, it’s also super intuitive and easy to upload and edit content.

Links

My CarbonMade porfolio www.dmorrissey.carbonmade.com
CarbonMade home www.carbonmade.com

So what did I miss? Which do you use?