One of the best ways to share your pictures and videos with your loved ones is to create personal website. In addition to uploading these pictures and videos on the website, you can use it as a tool to stay in touch with family and friends by sharing a lot of other information like weddings, birthdays, parties, etc. Accordingly, here are some of the most important things you need to know about creating and maintaining personal websites.
Building a website from scratch
Of course it helps if you know HTML and other web building software. However, those without any of this knowledge can opt for appropriate website builder software to create their personal websites. These tools are easy to learn as long as you are willing to give some time and effort to play around with them and get used to the basics before attempting to create your website with them.
Getting a Host
After creating a website, you would need to search for a host aka a company that would store the files used to create your website in their database. While some companies offer you hosting services for free, others would charge you a nominal fee. Make sure you opt for a reputed company in order to ensure that your files are kept safe.
Getting a Domain Name
In most cases, the host you would team up with will provide you with either a domain or a sub-domain name. But make sure the domain name you get for your website is small and easy to remember. For instance, www.wikihowexample.com would be easier to remember than www.wikihowexample.com/user/creator/index/pg255/creatorhmpg.html. So choose your website domain name accordingly.
Readying the Content
The content of your personal website plays a crucial role in inviting visitors. Simply placing random text, images and videos on the site would not be enough. You need to offer visitors a reason to keep visiting your website repeatedly in addition to referring your site to their friends and family. So play around with ideas like guest books, photo galleries, forums, news, calendars and email lists to attract more customers. Opt for quality images and videos, and get the help of a copywriter to write the content if you cannot do it yourself.
Creating the Logo
You may not consider it necessary, but a logo plays an important role in unifying your website and making it more comfortable for visitors. You can use graphic tools like Corel Paint Shop or Adobe Photoshop to create a unique logo that complements the central theme of your website. Anything from a picture or pattern to a name or even a letter would do as long as you manage to tweak it in such a way that it would become your website’s identity going forward. Open source software like inkscape and gimp can also help you design a website logo free of cost.
Updating the Website
Creating the website is only half the job done. You would need to update it regularly with new content periodically in order to ensure visitors keep coming back. So make it a point to give them something new every once in a while.
Summary
A personal website would be a great way to get in touch with family and friends on a common platform. So follow the tips mentioned above when you start building your own website from scratch.