Ever imagined of having a web presence wherein you can share your thoughts, your ideas without any restrictions, where no one moderates the content you post, the images you add, the comments you post? If yes then what better could it be than having your personal website?
Instead of relying on the social networking websites for showcasing your thoughts, a website of your own hosted on a self owned web hosting platform can be an option worth considering.
Thinking about the tools that’d be necessary? then consider a good hosting plan as it is pre-equipped with everything that can help you in establishing a good web presence. The web hosting companies provide enough utility so that for a personal or a business website to function efficiently.
Personal websites ideally comprises of blogs or small websites. Let’s take a look at the important aspects that you must be aware of for setting up a personal website.
Templates
Many people who intend to create their own websites, are not aware of the process of website creation from scratch and most of the web hosting companies are aware of this fact. The web hosting company might provide you with some inbuilt templates along with the template editor as a part of the web hosting package. At your end, customization is simplified as it is only about adding text and keeping the format intact.
You can change the layout, colors and add custom graphics according to your preferences, however this differs in accordance with the terms and conditions imposed out by the web hosting company. Some of the exclusive templates might be offered as addons.
Even if a limited choice is provided by the web hosting company, these templates are easier to publish for anyone who is a newbie as well. The process of modifying and uploading the templates is also simplified. With some shared hosting packages, you can also expect some tutorials that offer a detailed walk-through about the process involved.
If you are upload custom designs and themes that are stored on your local machine, you can always do that using secure FTP connection; something that comes default with the hosting packages now-a-days.
Setup and Support
The web hosting companies that host personal websites are usually aware about the possibility of their customers not being technically sound. So, in order to help such customers deal with any issues with setting-up and managing the websites, hosts provide strong post-sales technical support.
In some cases, you might be charged a nominal fee for that purpose, ofcourse one must check the Terms and conditions laden by the company. Unlike a business website, for a personal website as well technical support is an important factor.
At times uptime might not be the most crucial aspect for a personal website; however it is important to get a quick response for the questions. In case any of the installed applications like calendar or email server stops functioning, the user will need assistance for solving the problem and getting on with the tasks.
It is important to locate a web hosting company that provides with excellent customer support. Web hosting is more of an investment than an expense, therefore it is important to sign up for a good managed hosting package.
Hosting the Applications
There are some common applications that would be preferred by anyone wanting to host a website, check if the basic applications are offered with the web hosting package. A common instance is the use of various CMS platforms alike Joomla, Magento, Drupal, WordPress which is free and widely preferred blogging platform.
WordPress being one of the highly embraces CMS’s, gives the ability to the users with setting up dynamic web pages. WordPress in particular is simple and easy to use, something that provides with all the necessary resources for setting up a website or a blog. It’s the same with the mail servers, however they vary in terms of flexibility, therefore it is important to find a web hosting company that provides with top notch mail server technology.
There are other applications as well like storefront applications, dynamic calendars that you might not want to use right away, however they might be convenient option for future use.
A person who establishes a blogging website today might end up selling some other products on it as the blog becomes popular. With the best of web hosting technology, you will be able to setup an impressive and efficient personal website and thereby a great online presence.
Why shared hosting is the best platform for a personal website?
It’s simple, shared hosting is an affordable web hosting platform that also enables the users to get maximum utility and efficiency out of the website. The personal websites might range from free websites with no income or the websites that have been generating revenue through advertising or affiliate marketing programs.
Most of the personal websites are informative websites or personal blogs. The people, who are unaware about website development and maintenance process, are able to host their personal websites perfectly over a shared hosting platform.
A shared server offering is also perfect for the websites that have no server side programming. It goes on to say that these types of websites are more likely to be up and running most of the time because they require fewer resources on the server in comparison to any other websites.
If we consider Linux Shared hosting offering, then cPanel and Softaculous that comes bundled with the packages makes website management an easy task. In-addition, if you are to analyze the traffic reaching your website, cPanel offers a built-in tool named ‘AwStats’ with which you can come to know about the incoming traffic and this will help you in taking timely and better decisions about the promotions of your website.
With cPanel as a hosting control panel managing complex hosting management tasks like redirects, backups and sub-domain administration, becomes very simple; while Softaculous provides with 1 click installation of the software applications including WordPress.
If you are still in two minds about having a personal website, have a look at this:
Reaching Out To People
A personal website is the perfect platform to reach a wide range of people, express yourself to the world and get feedback from them. A shared hosting platform enables you can be creative with your personal website and get the best out of it.
Think of all the possibilities that you may have after hosting your personal website. If you are an artist, you can record your performances and add it to the website for the people to comment on; or you can write a poem or a story or anything else.
Influencing People’s Opinions And Lives
Your personal website is your soapbox. Showcase the things that you are passionate about. You might be able to get people to think on any issue in a different way. People might open up while adding the opinions and you can strike a conversation with them.
This is also a great way of getting more incoming traffic. The information you portray might be anything; it might be a cause that is important to you, it might be about contributing money to charity or it might just be keeping pace with your favorite TV show.
Make Social Contacts
When you provide information about yourself and tell things that you care about, the people who have the same preferences might easily find you. If you have featured audio clips from your favorite band on your website, other fans might immediately come to know that there is something in common.
If you are passionate about music and if you share a lot of information about music, there are possibilities that you connect with the people sharing the same passion.
Making Money from Your Website
If you have some goods and services to sell, you might establish a business website to make money. However it is also possible to make money through a personal website. You can place ads on your personal website and people who visit your web page can click on it if they find it useful.
In this way, people will appreciate your work and you will be benefitted by an increased incoming traffic at the same time. Many individuals that run such websites also preferring making money by promoting someone else’s services commonly termed as affiliate.
Your Personal Web Page Might Feature Someone Else
You can have an autobiographical content on the website. If you are not looking forward to talk about yourself to the online world, you can feature the information about someone else or some topic that you prefer writing about. You might talk about someone else as an honor to that person. You can also create a website based on information about your family, nothing wrong with it!
There can be various reasons to have a personal website. As it is rightly stated that the glory comes from daring to begin; think of all the possibilities that can make your website lucrative and go for it.
