Content
Another important aspect of a personal website is content. Because this is a personal website, much of the content will be about yourself but if you want your visitors to return, it’s important to provide content for them as well as to keep your site updated.
Must Have Information About You
Your personal website should have information about yourself. Consider havng any of these pages:
- Quick Stats
- A brief rundown of who you are (A/S/L), nicknames, likes and dislikes, immediate family, pets
- Biography
- A more in depth look at what you’re doing in life, how you got there and where you’re going but remember not to give out too much information
- Pictures
- We want to see you, your family, your pets, your hobbies
Optional Information About You
If you’d like to add more content about yourself there are several options:
- Zodiac/Horroscope
- What your zodiac says about you
- Name Analysis
- What your name says about you
- Random facts
- Quirky and unique things about yourself
- Opinions
- Insight into your thoughts
Blogs
A blog – short for weblog – is an online diary or journal. There are many websites and scripts which provide blogs or journals, which allows a user to have many options when it comes to blogging. Keeping a frequently updated blog attracts visitors you are interested in your life and want to see new content. A blog is also a good place to note site updates. Blogs often allows visitors to comments which helps to bring them back to your site.
Site Information and Links
However, personal websites are not just about you. Provide your visitor with information about your website and other desinations on the internet such as:
- Website information
- Your current layout, host, registrar
- Resources/Credits
- What you used to make your site
- Links
- Your favourite sites, your friends, etc
- Previous Layouts
- How has your website improved?
- Website Inspiration
- Why you have a website
- Guestbook/Tagboard
- Allow your visitors to contact you or comment on your site
“Splash” Content
You may also want to include a splash page at the beginning of your site, include joined links in a sidebar or make pages to link to these sites and services:
- Listings
- Directories
- Webrings
- Cliques
- TopSite Lists
- Button/Banner Rotations
Other Content Ideas
As you branch out, you may want more content to keep your visitor interested or to provide further insight into yourself. A great way to do that is to showcase your artwork, whether it’s traditional medium, digital artwork, photgraphy, written work such a poetry, prose or stories, artwork makes great content.
Another popular type of visitor content is known as “reads” and is content which your visitor can read. This often includes jokes, quotes, stories, tutorials et cetera. Much of this is akin to what you might find in e-mail forwards and, unless it’s original, can be found in many places.
Resources for other web designers can be helpful. Downloads such as fonts, images, backgrounds, textures and patterns, brushes, tubes et cetera are all popular and you can easily make for original website content. This is especially important because offering content which you did not create may be illegal.
Interactive content is especially popular because the visitor becomes involved. It’s common to see polls, contests and surveys on personal websites.
