The benefits of having your own website are surprisingly diverse. For one, a personal website a powerful tool in your professional life, often providing you with new job opportunities and a better way to introduce yourself. But it’s also very much an outlet for you to share a little more about yourself and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Here are twelve benefits of having your own website.
1. You Can Showcase Your Work
The most obvious professional use of a website is as a portfolio for your body of work, whether that be in the form of art, writing samples or something more or less eclectic. This is particularly advantageous for someone in a creative field, but a portfolio can be useful in a number of industries.
2. You Can Show Your Experience
Because you’re not limited by the constraints of a Word document, the web is a much more exciting way to demonstrate your experience than a simple resume. Benefits of your own website include uploading videos to give people an idea of your skills and posting commendations you’ve received from grateful clients/customers.
3. You Can Show Your Expertise
With a blog on your website you can prove yourself to potential employers that you’re a valuable source of information about a whole host of topics. Write about things you know well that fit into the same career niche until you build up enough credibility that employers will be dying to get you on their team.
4. You Can Share MORE
Resumes are supposed to be no more than two pages, and lately the trend has been to trim it to one. With a website your space is virtually unlimited. Don’t fill any one web page with too much content, but link to other pages on your website in case readers want more detail about an aspect about you or your experience.
5. You Can Control The Google Search
If you spend enough time developing your website, you may be able to get it to the top of search engine results for your full name, and a website is a much more interesting and unique introduction than, say, a Facebook or LinkedIn profile.
6. You Can Demonstrate Your Transparency
If you put links to your social media accounts on the website, you’ll prove to recruiters that you have absolutely nothing to hide!
7. You Can Show That You’re Tech Savvy
This is especially useful for workers close to or past standard retirement age. Show anyone looking into you that you know a thing or two about how to use new technology.
8. You Can Make A Better First Impression
Not super social? Less of a problem with a website. Design (or hire someone to design) a snazzy site that lays out who you are and what you can do for an employer so that you’ll be a desirable hire even if you aren’t particularly socially adept when you eventually meet face to face.
9. You Can Be Found
Put simply, a website is another opportunity for an employer to find you during their search. If you’re looking to cover all angles, well, a website is one of those angles.
10. You Can Find Yourself
You don’t necessarily have to limit your website’s blog to the industry you’re working in. You can branch off into new subjects that interest you and experience some real personal growth from sharing your passions with the world.
11. You Can (Possibly) Carve A Career Out Of It
It’s a bit of a long shot, sure, but a number of people have successfully turned a personal website into a full-time career. Popular blogs generate some ad revenue, you can sell e-books and other products to your readers or you can utilize crowdfunding tools like Patreon or Kickstarter to turn your readers’ support into revenue.
12. You Can Have A Voice
With a website/blog you can raise awareness about subjects and causes that are matter to you. A personal website can be a powerful platform to help the world understand things about you they might not even be able to discover if they shared a meal with you. Sometimes it’s just nice to be heard, and if you put enough effort into creating something special with your website, you can be heard loud and clear.
Featured photo credit: Steve Bridger via flickr.com
