A lot of people have their own personal websites. Of course, a good amount of these people either own a business, write books, or are famous. However, there’s nothing wrong with the average person creating and maintaining their own site. Websites can be created to show off a particular talent, share with friends and family, keep in touch with others, and plenty of other things. It isn’t too difficult to make a personal website with the tools available today, so anyone that wants to do it will be able to in minutes. So then, let’s get to the basics of creating your own personal website!
Do you want to pay?
Obviously, you can make a free website through various sources, including Google Sites. There are plenty of free options out there. You will have all of the necessary tools to get the job done, but you won’t be able to have a custom URL. For some people, this can be the deal breaker and they will choose to pay for their own domain. Either way, your first decision when it comes to your own website is whether or not you want to pay for your own domain or not. Free domains have the obvious benefit of being free but lack the custom URL and the ability to completely customize the site. Paid domains allow a person to customize just about everything and have a few extra perks but registration and hosting must be paid for. So then, you just need to sit down for a minute and make your choice.
What do you want your site to be?
This is a tough question that everyone must ask themselves when they go to create their personal website. In reality, choosing what your website is all about can be one of the hardest steps in the process. A person with clear goals will have a much more successful website though. On top of this, knowing where you want things will help you organize the site before it’s even created. Nobody wants to start a project with jumbled thoughts and a lack of a plan. You’ll need to decide what kind of content the site will provide and how the overall look and feel will work. So then, how do you make these decisions?
First of all, you’ll need to consider why you’re creating a person website. Do you write a lot? Do you take photographs? Obviously, you’ll need some kind of content that you’ve created to get your site off the ground. Without a doubt, it is much easier to fill the content of your site when you have a hobby, such as photography or writing. A person will have a much harder time creating their site if they’re just creating a website for the sake of having one attached to their name. So then, you’ve got to decide what you want the main focus of your site to be and then you need to fill in the other pieces to create a cohesive domain.
How do you want to design your site?
Obviously, free sites come with basic design templates with the option of changing the colors around. Nobody should have too much trouble designing a free site with all of the tools they hand out. On the other hand, sites that you own and operate are a bit more tricky. Sure, there are a good amount of design templates and whatnot, but you’ll probably want to have your own unique site design and layout. You either need to know web design techniques or pay someone to do the job for you.
Finding a person that can design the site’s pages is pretty simple. However, you’ll probably want to deal with someone that you can meet in person. The great thing about web design is that plenty of people know how to get the job done, and many of these people could be friends or acquaintances. Therefore, you should work with someone who you actually know – if you can find someone that knows web design. These people are doing an important service for you, so you’ll want to pay them for their work. Luckily, going through a friend or acquaintance can result in a pretty cheap price for the work, so don’t be surprised if you only have to pay a couple to a few hundred dollars.
Obviously, you shouldn’t design the site yourself if you don’t know how to, so don’t even attempt to do this. It won’t work, and you’ll find yourself with a mess of a website that nobody will want to take a look at. Leave the designing to the professionals or the well-educated because they will know how to get the job done without making a ton of errors. Anyways, we’re moving on to some other personal website aspects.
Who is your target audience?
Like any other site, yours should be geared toward a particular audience. You need to figure out that target audience and make the site appeal to it. Obviously, only you can know what your target audience is since it’s your website we’re talking about. Photography and writing can be geared toward any audience, but you’ll need to know what groups your writing or photos appeal to. Luckily, audience isn’t too tricky of a thing to figure out, but you had better appeal to that audience in the proper ways with your website. Don’t just throw in some random things that you think the audience wants; you need to give the audience what they expect from your website. In the end, it isn’t too difficult – just figure out who your audience is first.
Fill your site with content.
Eventually, you’ll get your site designed and nearly ready to go live. You can’t do anything, however, without adding in content to the site. Opening a site to the public without completing it is a pretty bad idea because the unfinished product may look horrible in comparison to the finished one. Anyways, you should already know what types of content you want to place in your site. You should add in a good amount of content each day until the job gets done. Your photos or stories or whatever will look great on your new website, and the new website will in turn start to look great too. Obviously, the first step to getting your content in the site is to create an awesome homepage. Just start there to get the job rolling and move onto whatever other areas you desire. You should be able to get this job done within a week or two, depending upon how big your website is.
Get the site live.
After you get the site designed and filled with content, you need to make your site open to all Internet users. This is the easiest part, so just open that site to the rest of the world! Usually, this only requires pressing a buttons on a menu. Over the course of the next few weeks, you should see your traffic continue to rise, especially if you market your site to your friends, family members, and even strangers. Get your site into Google’s results, and you should see a good amount of traffic. You can earn some money off of your website through ad and affiliate programs, but you could even sell photographs or hard copies of your writings (if your site has that type of content). Undoubtedly, you should enjoy maintaining your personal website. Creating one is a pretty simple but time-consuming process, but it pays off in the end.
