Starting a new personal site
Why I started a personal website, what I discovered in making it and how you can do the same (for free).
This post is partly to introduce my new website, but also to share a surprising discovery I had in the process, and why I now recommend making your own site. I’ll also share how to do this yourself, even if you have no website knowledge at all.
Why I built my website
I’ve been writing work-related content on the internet for around 10 years, but it was only recently that I realised I couldn’t actually point anyone to ‘it’ as a whole. Years of creating news, blogs, copywriting and social media for different colleagues meant that there were many links I could send people to, and so that’s what I did - send lots of links. Links ranging from personal blogs to institute pages. Links to content in completely different styles where sometimes I was named and other times I wasn’t.
Even if it looked great, it was inconsistent and annoying for someone to go through all these different windows, opening each one with no idea what would be in it like some sort of research advent calendar. It seemed ironic that I am hired to help teams with their online communication, while my own was so poor.
So I started making my own website as a way of curating the content I publish online in a way that I could easily share with others - say, in a CV. That all sounds logical (and slightly dry) but actually I al
But I also have a confession.
What I discovered in the process
How to set up your personal website
The internet is full of great guides about how to make websites. I’m not going to try and replace these but just to add some quick pointers for what I would recommend or avoid.
To be blunt, the internet is full of charlatans selling websites. It saddens me how much some people unknowingly pay for a site that could be free or a fraction of the price.