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Should You Create a Personal Website?

Express your thoughts and showcase what you value

 Bjorn Rune Lie/Getty Images

By Linda Roeder

We're all familiar with professional websites and e-commerce portals, but a website doesn't have to be all business. It's easy to create a personal website where you can explore your interests, share your feelings, or update loved ones on your family life. Here's a look at getting started with a personal website along with some topic ideas.

The terms "blog," "personal website," and even "online diary" are sometimes used interchangeably. How you refer to your platform is largely about the subject matter, whether you want an audience, and how it's hosted.

Personal Website Topic Ideas

Your personal website can be about anything you want, including hobbies, pets, or other interests. It can be a family website that shares your adventures with loved ones along with an area for comments and discussion. If you're an author, your personal website can be a platform to get feedback on story ideas or book rough drafts.

Dedicate a personal website to sharing how you're getting through a difficult experience in life, or add an e-commerce element to showcase handmade jewelry or other creative ventures.

There's no wrong topic idea for your personal website. Once you decide what you'd like to dedicate your site to, find an appropriate host. For example, a blogging platform would be perfect for a simple online journal-style website, while attaching e-commerce functionality would require a more full-featured web host.

How to Get Started With Your Personal Website

There are many excellent free website platforms with varying features. Here are a few favorites.

About.me

About.me is a personal web-hosting service that lets you showcase who you are and what you like to do, allowing people to have a more personal and direct way to connect with you. About.me is also a great platform for small business owners or entrepreneurs.

LiveJournal

If you're imagining more of an online-journal-type website, LiveJournal is all about self-expression, with the added benefit of an involved and active community. Create an account and start a blog in minutes, and enjoy sharing your thoughts and being yourself.

WordPress

WordPress is another great option for a blog-style personal website or a more complicated setup. Create a professional, sophisticated website in minutes with a variety of themes and functions. WordPress is easy to use with more advanced web design features if you want to dig deeper into how your site looks. WordPress has a free service option as well as a number of Premium service subscription options.

Squarespace

If you may venture into e-commerce with your personal website, Squarespace is a great option, although it's not free. Beautiful pre-built templates and drag-and-drop functionality make web design an intuitive, if not easy, process.

Blogger

Blogger is one of the easiest and fastest blog-creation tools around. It's free to use, the content creation interface is easy, and all you need is a free Google account to set up your blog.

Tumblr

Tumblr blogs are a great choice if you're visualizing a website with online communities and content curation. You'll be showing off your passions and projects with multimedia posts in no time.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a fantastic, easy website-creation tool. If you have a Google account, you have access to Google Sites' straightforward drag-and-drop site builder. Create pages and easily add text, graphics, or video. It's easy to integrate content from other Google services, notably documents, spreadsheets, or other items fro