My Site

As I have created a personal site (you're looking at it right now), I feel somewhat qualified to give advice to others on the best way of creating a personal site. Of course, if you are not impressed by my personal site, feel free not to take my advice.

Specifically, I think I will not give the standard or obvious advice, but rather I will give the advice that some people need to hear, but would rather not.

Fast and Functional

This might be a personal gripe of mine, but I would caution against using website creators such as Wix or Wordpress. They just create bloat on a site that really doesn't need it. When I go to such sites, it takes forever to load because of all the javascript bundles and trackers. Really, if you can be served by plain HTML, then use plain HTML. It will give your users better performance and the site will load almost instantaneously. And this same advice even goes for frameworks. Do you really need your technology stack turning into a 100 layer wedding cake just for a personal site? Many people use their personal website as an excuse to try out the latest technology. I know elm/svelte/tailwind/ whatever might be hot right now, but sometimes the safest option is best.

Prioritze Ease-of-Use over Flashy Animations

I see some portfolio websites that look like they were created as a challenge to use every single animation avaible in CSS. But really, all animations do is slow down the user. If I have to wait 300ms for this flashy animation to complete, then I feel like my flow has been interrupted on this site. I want the technology to get in my way as little as possible. Sure, some people take animations as an opportunity to show off, but if you must, put the animation in a place where it doesn't interrupt the flow of the site. Also, keep the animations small and less that 200ms. That way, your users will not be foaming at the mouth in rage at this mound of useless animations.

Create Lots of Content

This advice might seem obvious, but I think it merits repeating. Creating a wealth of content has a two-fold benefit

• As you write more, you will become better at writing

• By writing more, you will appear higher in search engines as more people click on your site.

Honestly, this is why I think starting a blog is a good idea for most personal sites. Of course the market is over-saturated (anyone is capable of starting a blog), yet you can always distinguish yourself by putting in extra efforts such as writing long articles

Takeaway

I hope I have given some unconventional advice on how to start a personal site. If you want to hear more about this topic, feel free to contact me.