So I tried it for this page (partially because I couldn’t see the image and view source is disabled at work):
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Ffreelanceswitch.com%2Ffinding%2F5-tips-for-a-better-online-portfolio%2F%23more-958&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0&ss=1

Result: 161 Errors, 56 warning(s)

And yes, I did test some pages from my own sites and they all passed…but I don’t have any adds on them, so that makes things a lot easier

With kind regards,

Fred

Op de weblog van Freelance Switch wordt uitgelegd waar je op moet letten bij het maken van een goed online portfolio…

Another thing I like to point out is that accessibility compliance is almost never _great_ accessibility. It takes knowing your users to hit the mark everytime, I’m also starting to blur the line between usability so I’ll stop here.

I agree with the Microsoft example with 7±2 and 3 clicks. In general, I think it a good practice to chunk sets of information as close to this as possible: 5-9 sections each with 5-9 subsections, etc. There are edge cases in _everything_, and you’ve always got to adapt for your specific scenario, and based on my legacy website, I’m not practicing what I’ve been preaching!
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@Chris Monaccio - I do agree about and want to emphasize no putting anything weak in the portfolio.
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@Michael I respectfully disagree with this from my freelance experience. Here a few reasons to explain my point of view:

1. As many of the posts here and white papers on the Internet note, specialization is key. If you’re worried someone will think you won’t be able to design a brochure, you could easily ensure your _best_ brochure(s) are part of the portfolio. Keeping your portfolio limited to a finite number will help you ensure you’re putting the best of the best up there.

2. You want to entice your potential clients to contact you, hence the inclusion of a call-to-action on all pages with your preferred contact method. I have heard a lot of spew over the years about landing pages, search marketing, etc. to get customers to take a desired action. IMHO who cares if they convert via landing page or via the phone number in the footer of the site, as long as they become a customer? For me, the goal is to bait potential clients so that I can get the initial interest, then I can expand on showing them something with more context, once I’ve determined what their needs are.

3. (A little less common:) Many of my designer colleagues have suffered concept/design theft at the hands of potential clients. Put everything you’ve done online, and a client could “borrow” your concept for themselves.

Hopefully that gives more perspective into where I was going.
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@all: I do want to apologize for the old portfolio on my own site, _eek_. I’m working to get it updated, fix a few things, etc. but have been too busy to get it finished, a good and bad thing!