How to Create a Personal Website

What are the benefits of a PERSONAL website?

It’s not that much different from a company website.

An online presence is very important and generally forms part of a great marketing plan. Having a website is a great start!

A website goes a long way in establishing credibility, on a personal and professional level.

Marketing YOURSELF through a professionally created website is a GREAT idea! When you are job hunting, having a personal website makes it so much easier for recruiters and Human Resources Departments to find you online. A personal website is so much more DYNAMIC than a CV.

Maybe you are considering starting a side hustle!

Are you a content creator?
Do you dabble with writing slogans?
Is photography your passion?
Maybe you are a master baker!

These are all great REASONS for starting a PERSONAL WEBSITE

to showcase who you are and where your passion lies!

Whatever your reason for wanting to start a PERSONAL website, you will need to follow the same route as everyone else to GET ONLINE. In this article we look at some of things you will need to get your website up and running.

Register a Domain

Why do you need to register a domain? This is an extract from a previous article – Why You Need Domain Registration :

In order to have a website you FIRST need to register a DOMAIN. A domain is like an address (IP address), and this is how online visitors (who are your potential clients) find your website, blog site or online store when surfing the Internet. Domain names and websites are two different things, but the one is reliant on the other – they ‘work’ together.

So there you have it! Your website will need an ‘address’ on the Internet. There are many companies offering domain registration and it is very affordable! The next thing you will need to think about is the domain name. In a previous article we discussed this at length – How Do You Choose Your Unique Domain Name? Read this article, do your research, share your ideas and ask for opinions.

Find a Web Host

Next stop is … web hosting. Here is a very important fact: Choose a company who can register your domain AND host your website. It just makes it so much easier! Let’s back track a bit. What is Web Hosting? And What Your Web Hosting Company Should Offer You are great articles to give you insights.

You need to consider the options – shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting. Ultimately the reason for your website and the content there of, will help guide you when choosing the type of hosting that will work for you. There are many other things you will need to think about as well – security, storage, back-up, support …

We know … there is a lot to keep in mind, and that is why a reputable company is a always a good choice!

Choose a Website Builder

If you Google ‘website builder’ and check out Wikipedia’s definition, this is the answer: “Website builders are tools that allow the construction of websites without manual code editing.”

A great example is WordPress, specifically, WordPress.org. The design choices are endless! It is super easy to use and comes with amazing extras such as thousands of plugins. Choose a web host that supports WordPress as this will make the whole process so much easier. From installation to publishing your website, your web host should offer support and advice.

Compare Themes

What are Themes? In a previous article – What are Themes? – we discussed this in-depth.

In summary:

A theme is the aesthetics of your web or blog site that will improve the visitor’s experience. This is made up of many different elements such as font types, colour palettes, layout, pictures, backgrounds, navigation and more. All of these elements work together to create your web or blog sites ‘look and feel’ – the theme.

WordPress.org offers thousands of themes to suit just about every idea you may have about what your website should like! Maybe create a mood board with all the ideas you have and then have a look at all the themes available before you start creating your website. Also ask your web host for advice if you are not sure which to choose and bounce some ideas of friends and family!

Create Content

There are many components that make up a website, for example:

Different pages – Home, About, Contact
Colour schemes
Font styles
Images / Videos

Also, very important is the text content – telling your story. To get started, think about this:

Who you are
What you have to offer
Why you want a website

There is no shortage of ideas when surfing the Internet! Doing research has never been easier! You can, however, get lost because of information overload. So stay true to your original ideas and reasons for wanting to start a website and keep going back to that!