Personal Web Page

I setup my first personal web page when I was in high school, partially to see if I could do it and partially because of the novelty of the thing.  I used it to keep people up to date on what was going on in my life as a sort of public diary.  It was a blog (or weB LOG), and though few people knew what a blog was back then, now just about everyone knows what a blog is and what it can do.  For those who don’t, a blog is a website with usually consists of posts entered at successive dates; these posts are usually ordered in chronological or reverse chronological order, and can literally be about any topic you can imagine.  Many blog hosting sites also support photographs, and all support hyperlinks.

If you’re looking to set up a personal web page for the first time, a blog is probably the easiest way to do it since all of the tough work is already done for you.  You don’t need to know HTML programming, the most common internet programming language, or ever need to learn it for that matter.  Simply navigate to any one of the numerous blog hosting sites (Blogger and Livejournal are both very popular), and setup your account with a valid email address.  Almost all blog hosting sites will allow you to setup your personal web page for free and choose one of a number of different templates, or formats, for your web page.  If you do take the time to learn HTML you can alter these templates even more to suit your individual style by changing colors, moving columns and banners around, and adding photographs and links to other web pages.  Once you have everything setup you can start making posts whenever you’d like.

Personal web pages take on a lot of different forms, from diary-style entries for friends and family to lists of book and movie reviews and recommendations to political manifestos.  My personal blog is even more important to me now that I’ve moved away from my childhood friends and family since it allows them to keep in touch with me and keep tabs on what I’m up to without requiring me to send them periodical emails or letters.  It also serves as a convenient place for me to vent problems and concerns or to make announcements about parties or important events in my life.  You can do whatever you want with your personal web page, since it’s yours and yours alone.