Portfolio Link in Bio for Creatives: What to Show, How Much and in What Order

Your Instagram grid or TikTok profile shows everything you have ever posted: the experiments, the memes, the work you no longer like. A potential client tapping through from a post wants something else entirely. They want to know, in under a minute, whether you can do the job they have in mind. That is the job of a portfolio link in bio.

This guide is for artists, illustrators, photographers, designers, makeup artists, videographers and musicians who get discovered on social media and want that one link to turn interest into enquiries. It covers what to show, how many pieces, the order that works, embeds for moving work, enquiry forms, pricing signals and a simple routine for keeping it fresh. If you are still working on your positioning itself, start with our guide to personal branding for freelancers and coaches, then come back here to build the page.

What a portfolio link in bio is (and is not)

A portfolio link in bio is a short, mobile-first page that sits behind the single link your social profiles allow. Instagram lets you add links in your profile's edit screen, as described in its help page on adding links to your profile, and TikTok explains its profile options in setting up your profile. Whatever you put there is the door from your content to your work.

It is not a full archive. Think of it as the opening spread of a printed book, not the whole book. It should:

• Show only the work you want to be hired for
• Explain in one line what you do and who it is for
• Make it obvious how to enquire, book or buy
• Load fast and look right on a phone

A full archive can still live elsewhere and be linked from the page.

Decide what you want to be hired for

Before you pick a single image, answer one question: what work do you want more of? Your portfolio attracts what it shows. A photographer who shows weddings, food, cars and newborns gets enquiries for all four, often at the lowest price point of each. A photographer who shows only food gets known as the food photographer.

Write it down as one line you can reuse in your bio and at the top of your page:

• "Wedding and engagement photographer in Penang"
• "Brand illustrator for cafés and small food brands"
• "Logo and packaging design for home businesses"
• "Singer-songwriter. Acoustic sets for weddings and events"

Then sort your existing work into three piles: want more of this, proud of it but not my focus, and no longer represents me. Only the first pile goes near the top of your page. The second can live in a small section further down or in the full archive. The third is retired.

How many pieces to show

There is no magic number, but there is a practical range. Visitors from social media are often in the middle of scrolling. Most will look at the first few things on your page and decide. Too few pieces and the page looks thin; too many and they never reach your enquiry form.

Treat these as starting points: every piece should earn its place. If you hesitate about one, cut it.

Order your work by intent, not by date

Social feeds are chronological. Portfolios should not be. Order your page by what you want the visitor to do, top to bottom:

1. Who you are and what you do: photo, name, one line, social icons
2. Your strongest piece or newest release: the one thing you would show if you could show only one
3. Sections of work that match the services you sell, best first
4. Proof: a press mention, a client logo list you have permission to show, or a short "Selected clients" note
5. Pricing signal and how to book: starting prices, a deposit link or a rate card
6. Enquiry form or contact buttons
7. Full portfolio link for people who want to see everything

Group work into two or three sections

Use section titles that describe the job, not the medium: "Weddings", "Food and product", "Portraits" work better than "Photos 2025". A visitor looking for product photography jumps straight to the right section. On biolink.my, a Header block starts each section, and some templates style sections in their own way: Fresh Teal centres a marker title, Golden Hour alternates sections on warm orange bands, and Bold Transit alternates poster-style boards between checker strips.

Put the newest work where it belongs

New work goes first only if it is also among your best and matches what you want to sell. Otherwise it slots into its section.

Building the page on biolink.my

Here is how those principles map onto biolink.my's building blocks. If you have never set up a page, the step-by-step setup guide walks through signing in, claiming your @username and publishing.

The hero: your cover is your first exhibit

The hero is the header of your page: a wide cover image (cropped to roughly 3:1), your photo or initials, your name, a bio of up to 160 characters and icon-only social links. For visual creatives, the cover is free exhibition space, so use one of your best wide pieces.

Pick a hero layout that suits the work:

• Banner prints your photo and name over the cover, a strong look for photographers and videographers
• Card floats your whole profile in one card over the cover's lower edge
• Split gives your photo more room and puts your bio and socials in their own panel
• Minimal has no cover, for musicians or writers whose work is not a picture

Image blocks for stills

Each Image block shows one picture with an optional caption of up to 120 characters and alt text. Images are compressed in your browser before upload, so you can add them straight from your phone. At the time of writing there is no gallery grid block, so a section of stills is a series of Image blocks under a Header. That is a natural limit on quantity, which is no bad thing.

Write the caption as context a client cares about: "Menu shoot for a Penang café, natural light" says more than "Food 03". Fill in the alt text too. Google's guidance on image SEO best practices explains why descriptive alt text matters for accessibility and search.

Embeds and music links for moving work

Video and sound work does not belong in a still image. biolink.my has two blocks for it:

• Video / embed shows a YouTube, TikTok or Spotify embed. To protect visitors' privacy and keep the page fast, embeds load when the visitor taps them. YouTube's help page on embedding videos explains how embedding works on its side.
• Music link gives one release a single card with buttons for each streaming app you add (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, JOOX and SoundCloud), so fans choose their own app.

For video creatives, two or three embeds of your best work, newest first, usually beat a long list of links.

Links for case studies and the full archive

Use Link blocks for longer case studies and your full archive on Behance, a cloud gallery or your own site. Tick Highlight this link on the one that matters most, such as "See the full wedding portfolio". Each template shows a highlighted link in its own way, for example as a full-width button in Geo Sketch or a "Top link" card in Golden Hour.

The enquiry form: make hiring you easy

A beautiful portfolio that ends without a clear next step wastes most of its visitors. Give people one obvious way to get in touch, and make it match how you prefer to work.

The Lead form block collects up to four fields: your name, email, phone or WhatsApp, and a message. You set the form title, a short description and the button label. Submissions land in Leads in your dashboard, and you can switch on email alerts for new leads in Settings.

Use the description to tell people exactly what to send. For example:

• Photographer: "Tell me your date, location and type of shoot."
• Illustrator: "Describe the piece, size, deadline and where it will be used."
• Designer: "What is the business, what do you need, and when?"
• Musician: "Event date, venue, set length and budget."

Quick contact with the action bar

If clients prefer WhatsApp or email, switch on the action bar: two to four buttons that stay at the bottom of the phone screen once visitors scroll past your profile. Useful combinations for creatives are WhatsApp plus Email plus Share, or a Your own link action pointing to a booking page. Mark the one you prefer as Main so it gets your button colour. The bar hides itself on wide desktop screens, where everything is already in view.

Pricing signals that filter enquiries

Many creatives avoid prices because every job is different. But a complete absence of price information has a cost: you spend time quoting people whose budget was never close. A pricing signal does not have to be a full price list. It just has to help the right people self-select.

On biolink.my, a Payment link block points to your own payment page (for example a payment link from your bank or a gateway you already use) and can show a short amount label of up to 20 characters, such as "Deposit RM100". biolink.my never handles the money; payment goes straight through your own provider. A Text block can hold a short rate note, and a Tip jar shows a QR image (such as DuitNow) for fans who want to support you.

Choosing a template that fits your work

Your page template should frame your work, not compete with it. biolink.my has four, all free, and you can switch any time without losing content:

• Geo Sketch (the default): sunny yellow, cream panels, bold outlines. Playful and friendly, good for illustrators and makers.
• Fresh Teal: light grey with pastel shapes and thin outlines. Calm and clean, good for photographers and designers who want the work to lead.
• Golden Hour: warm cream with a sunset header. Good for food photographers, crafts and anything warm and handmade.
• Bold Transit: streetwear poster style with big capitals and checker strips. Good for musicians, DJs, fashion and events.

In Appearance you can adjust the button colour, page background, heading font and avatar shape. biolink.my only applies colours that keep text readable. Compare all four with sample pages on the templates page.

Keep your portfolio updated

A portfolio that still shows last year's work quietly tells visitors you are not busy, or not current. Set a monthly 20-minute routine:

1. Add one or two new pieces that are among your best.
2. Remove the weakest piece in each section, so the total stays steady.
3. Check that your cover image still represents your best work.
4. Update prices, dates and availability text.
5. Look at your analytics (below) and move the most-tapped block higher.

Use scheduling for time-limited work

Any block on biolink.my can be hidden or given a schedule with Show from and Hide after times. That is handy for:

• "Commission slots open" sections that close on a date
• Exhibition or gig announcements that disappear once the event is over
• A release countdown that switches to the music link on launch day

A Countdown block with an optional button ("Book your slot") adds a clear deadline.

Measure what visitors look at

Once your page is live, Analytics shows views, clicks, click rate, traffic sources, countries and devices, with clicks broken down by block. Stats are cookieless, updated every hour, and your own visits are not counted.

For a portfolio, three questions matter most:

• Which pieces or links get tapped? Move them higher, and think about why the others do not.
• Where do visitors come from? If most come from TikTok, lead with video work.
• Do visitors reach the enquiry form? If clicks are healthy but leads are few, shorten the page or move the form up.

To see which posts drive visits, our guide to tracking link-in-bio clicks with UTM tags explains how to tag links and read the results.

Portfolio mistakes to avoid

• Showing everything. Curate hard. Your weakest piece sets the bar for your skill in a client's eyes.
• No context. A great photo with no caption leaves people guessing what you were hired to do.
• Hiding how to hire you. The enquiry form should never be the last thing after 30 links.
• Different names everywhere. Use the same name, photo and handle on your page and every profile. Our Instagram bio ideas show how to make your bio point to the page.
• Never updating. Put the monthly refresh in your calendar.

Conclusion

A strong portfolio link in bio is edited, ordered and easy to act on: a clear line about what you do, your best 6 to 12 pieces grouped by the work you want, moving work as embeds, a pricing signal, and one obvious way to enquire. Build it once, refresh it monthly and let your analytics tell you what to move. More ideas for building a name people remember are in the Personal Branding category.