[KYA]

Anyone use their personal site to promote themselves, look for work, etc...? If so, what do you put on there? Perhaps expound a bit? I'm looking for pointers on what to put up. According to Chris's document I get +2 for a custom domain email

I'm planning on sticking to a template for the first iteration at least as my PHP, perl, ruby, etc... skills are limited.

Please don't move this web hosting, that forum is dead.

So, since this is the Corner Cube, let's keep the focus on business, employment bonuses, etc...

[firebolt]

Something like a profile report.

[rharriso]

I would only make a personal website to directly showcase what I could do. Using a template site only means that you don't know how to do web design. It might also say that you didn't take the time to learn how to do it yourself. Could reflect poorly, especially since web development is only going to get more popular.

[KYA]

My interest(s) really aren't in web design, so i imagine I'm safe for the time being

[dsherohman]

rharriso, on 9 May, 2009 - 05:03 AM, said:

I would only make a personal website to directly showcase what I could do. Using a template site only means that you don't know how to do web design. It might also say that you didn't take the time to learn how to do it yourself. Could reflect poorly, especially since web development is only going to get more popular.

Of course, that assumes that you're a web designer... Not all of us are.

Personally, I'm freelancing as a software developer. Sometimes the software I develop happens to be a web application. If you have a visual design for your application, I can make it happen, but, if you ask me to decide what it should look like, you're probably going to get something that looks like it just stepped out of 1993.

Getting back to the original question, I'm currently in the process of shifting my focus for this sort of thing from my company site to a personal site, since my personal name will always go with me, wherever I am, but my company is a bit less flexible.

I'm still too early in the process to say how well it will work out, but I'm planning for the new site to eventually include:
- Portfolio of past projects
- Client list
- Technical sites that I'm active on (such as, say, this one)
- Open source projects that I've created or contributed to
- Client testimonials
- Case studies
- Probably a resume/CV, although those seem prone to attracting spam from headhunters

First I need to figure out how I want to organize all that, though, before I can set it up...

[c0mrade]

Definitely register the domain name for 'yourname' if it's still available, even if you don't have it pointing to a site.

I have myname.com and myname.net registered, some day I will get round to making (or paying for) a personal site.

I use my domain for email -- which is very useful. It gives me an email address which will be permanently the same, no matter what provider I use (currently GMail).

I also have my domain pointing to applications on my vps. projects.myname.com goes to my project management application, and svn://myname.com lets me access my private subversion server.

I guess I didn't answer you question though... anyway, that's my advice -- go ahead and register you domain now.

[markhazlett9]

I'm building my website at the moment as well. I"m putting my blog, obviously, any tutorials i've created, and a list of current project with details. Also I will be putting ways to contact me, technical sites(DIC) etc.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[shezzy]

I think a personal website is very helpful for a resume. I offered all my friends coming out of college to make them a site for their job search ;D. Here is mine which is actually already over 6 months old and is due for a nice update. My Webpage. If any one needs a nice template I could be of some help.

cheers!

This post has been edited by shezzy: 10 May 2009 - 11:24 PM

[anish_shukla]

Just using template as web page is not going to help ur soul.U need to show
how talented u are , how broad your horizon is . And most importantly, it doesn't make impact on viewer .

I would recon u using visual studio express edition ( as it comes free) ASP.NET or adobe DREAMWEAVER kind of software which just generate the html tags for u and leave nothing to bother about as far as coding is concerned . U just need to drag and drop the contents with use of some of tools provided with the kit and manipulate the image .U will be having a very professional looking website.

I am a II yr engineering student and I have also made a website to be my
portfolio though i love web application development .One drawback of my site is "I am hosting it ".So it's not always online.I might be putting my website in any free hosting service next yr when need to get a job.

any way, this is my web page http://anish.bounceme.net

This post has been edited by anish_shukla: 11 May 2009 - 12:31 AM

[galorin]

I had a personal web page when I applied for my current job. It showed that I could do web design, which was one of my job requirements. It was done in standards-compliant xhtml strict and css 2.

I have since lost the site, unfortunately. I think that a personal web site is a double edged sword. Some employers will look for it, some won't. My current employer googled me, my email address, and my handle. So yes, a web site can help, but if what you say there is inconsistant with the rest of your online persona you may be in for a rough ride.

[gabehabe]

I never really took mine very far because I don't have much of a need for it. It was more of a case of experimentation when I first started PHP, and a dropbox for anything I wanted to host. (Plus stuff I make that needs to communicate with a web server)

Oops, started rambling. *delete*

Anyway...

Your own website will look great on a CV. Host your projects there, and add something "You can download my projects at www.knowles.com," always looks good. Shows you're more serious about what it is that you do, rather than send them a floppy disc with .lnk shortcuts to them on your computer. "LUKE HAO GUTE AI AM!"

That said, if it looks terrible, it could be a downfall. If your designs look anything like this, a recruiter might think twice, regardless of how good your projects are. (Seriously, that person is an actual web designer)

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 12 May 2009 - 04:55 AM

[NickDMax]

I have always wanted to do this. I started a design. It was kinda neat.

Actually what I wanted though was something like the copy preview app from Fedex.com (it lets you turn pages graphically... it pretty cool). That's me... Dream big, no follow though.

[Sleepwalker87]

Glad you brought this up, its something that has been on my mind for a while. Anyways, here is the dude I am using as an example for myself
dannychoo.com/profile

Former Amazon/Microsoft employee, his site has got something like 2million unique hits a month. Not bad for someones personal blog.

I even know someone personally who was hired because he had his own site, and posted some of his credentials online. So, busy working on my own site in my spare time

This post has been edited by Sleepwalker87: 18 May 2009 - 04:19 AM

[gothik12]

Why not use your personal website as a promotion tool?

This provides that you have an extra occupation, that you know something about what means having a website, building a website and growing it...It's a proof that you know something about web development.

And I think placing your complete CV on your personal website is a solution, everybody can read about you everything they should know and hopefully a employer is reading your CV and contacts you for being hired at his enterprise.

[PJLabowski]

okay, I know your own site is important nowadays. I'm unclear on what "CV" is though.