Reasons Why You Should Have A Personal Website And Guide
This guide was first released in March of 2012. Hundreds of students (and even non-students!) have used it since then to establish their own personal webpages. I keep this guide up-to-date because it’s one of the most popular posts on College Info Geek, and it’s current as of January 2022. (website builder)
As a student, what is the most important networking tool you can have? This isn’t your résumé, I’ll tell you straight now.
Resumes are tedious to read. Make your resume a one-page, size 11 Time New Roman paper written in black ink with no photographs, according to career gurus. Seriously? What are you expected to do with that to represent — and differentiate — yourself?
Furthermore, the instant you hand your resume to someone, it becomes rigid and outdated. You can’t make changes to resumes that have already been distributed; you’ll have to make new copies.
That is why you should develop your own unique website. (website builder)
A resume and a website are diametrically opposed. Everything that is wrong with resumes may be remedied by simply having a website. I’d even go so far as to say that not having a website is like shooting oneself in the foot because it is so beneficial.
4 Reasons You Should Create Your Own Personal Website (website builder)
1) A website is dynamic, not static.
It’s always changing. You can upload something to your website as soon as you finish it. When you finish a project, you may add it to your portfolio and share it with the world. You don’t have to keep printing new copies and sending them out to your contacts; all you have to do is update it. People can check in on you at any time to see what you’re up to.
2) Having a website increases your visibility.
If you only have a résumé, you’ll need to go out and hand it out to individuals in order to get your name out there. If you don’t have a website and someone wants to look you up on the internet, they might only find your Facebook or Twitter page.
If you have a website, though, you can reach a considerably larger audience and choose what they see first. This is critical for developing your personal brand and showcasing your achievements.
Because I have a website, I’ve been given jobs, met clients for my web design work, and landed interviews. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have been discovered if I hadn’t taken the time to make one.
Make sure you’re visible!
3) There aren’t many people who have one.
Personal websites may be more widespread in 2022 than they were ten years ago, but resumes and job search websites are still used by the vast majority of students and job seekers.
Today’s success necessitates standing out, and having a website can assist you in doing so. It demonstrates that you’ve taken the effort to learn how to accomplish something fairly technical and that you possess abilities that others lack.
4) You learn new talents that will come in handy in the future.
Learning how to design a website requires a variety of skills, especially when it comes to personalizing and optimizing it. Even if you aren’t seeking for a job in the tech industry, having these talents can help you get ahead.
Assume you’re applying for an advertising position. If you can convince the interviewer that you’re not only a fantastic marketer, but also know your way around the internet, you’ll be a far more appealing prospect.
Okay, enough with the introductory material. Let’s get started on your website.
Step 1: Purchase a domain and web hosting.(website builder)
The first step in creating your personal website is to decide how it will be hosted. A website can be created in a variety of ways. You might, for example, start a free blog on Weebly, WordPress.com, or even Tumblr.
However, I believe that having a self-hosted site with a genuine domain name is far more amazing (not a subdomain). This will appear more authentic and will demonstrate that you’ve taken the effort to learn how to design a website, which will set you apart from the competition.
Step 2: Install WordPress and Get Your Site Up and Running
It’s time to get down to business and start developing your website.
To set up your site, you’ll need a tool called WordPress (self-hosted, not WordPress.com), as I indicated earlier. You may have heard that WordPress is primarily used for blogging, which is correct.
However, WordPress has become so popular and well-supported in recent years that it is also an excellent platform for creating non-blog websites.
WordPress is known for requiring only 5 minutes to install; I believe this is far too long. Let’s break it down into two halves, shall we?
Step 3: Use a theme to personalize the look of your website.
One of the best aspects of WordPress is the ridiculously vast number of themes available. You may change the look of your site using a theme without knowing CSS or having any graphic design expertise.
A theme is essentially a skin or template for your website. It alters the appearance while preserving all of the content you’ve created.
Finding a theme that you like is the first step in customizing the design of your site. Due of the vast number of themes available, this may be easier said than done. I’ll do my best to assist you in selecting one.
Source: website builder