I Have a Website. Do You Need a Website?
Throughout the years, many people have attempted to make predictions of what the future will be like. Hovering cars, high-tech homes, everything outlined in neon lights. Just a few decades ago, when my own parents were in secondary school, they were in class and told to predict what they thought the future would look like.
I say we’re living it! Every day, we live the future of yesterday’s present. Not only that, we have already achieved high-tech homes; neon lights are just not in fashion yet and experiments are still being carried out on possible objects that could hover. Another thing we have achieved, that even a decade ago seemed very futuristic, is a society dominated by the World Wide Web. In a society dominated by the World Wide Web, you can either sink or swim, and the only way to swim is to join the online world and create a presence for yourself. The one sure way to do that is by creating a website.
It sounds scary if it’s something you’ve never even attempted before.
Before I started university, I attempted to create a website where I could showcase my abilities as a fictional writer. I gave up, abandoned the website that’s still up and running, after creating the first few pages and adding a few posts to them. That was down to two things: boredom and pure perfectionism. No matter how much I edited the website, I just wasn’t happy with its appearance or layout. And I certainly wasn’t going to pay out extra money just to have someone create it for me. A recent Sixth Form leaver with no job, paying for a website designer? You must be joking! So, I shut down the tab with Wordpress open on it and turned to my fanfiction, deep down feeling a bit like a failure.
Then, I went to the open day at Canterbury Christ Church University. The woman I met who would be one of my possible lecturers told me that every writer must have a Twitter account and a website. She also suggested I have a look at Wattpad, though I’d already had an active account on there. When I got home, I created a Twitter account within five minutes. The website proved the biggest challenge. Once again, I gave up and decided to wait until I had at least one book published then have someone else do it for me.
That leads me to now. I’ve successfully created a website and I can’t describe the amount of accomplishment and pride I now feel with the knowledge that I did so all by myself. It’s to showcase my commercial and non-fiction writing but now I know I can do it, someday soon I’ll be able to create one for my fictional writing with ease — for free!.
So, why should you create a website when there are so many social media sites where you can create an online presence? Well, a website isn’t just for the purpose of granting you an online presence. According to Mill for Business, though the numbers are ever-changing, there are over one billion websites currently in existence, so it would be impossible to rely solely on your website to create an online presence (Mill for Business). However, according to an independent study commissioned by Workfolio, 56% of the 300 hiring managers surveyed are more impressed by a candidate’s personal website than any other personal branding tool, yet only 7% of the candidates have a personal website (Right Management).
According to these statistics, a personal website might not be helpful to you if you’re just looking to boost your influence online, but it can boost your employability. Additionally, Top Resume listed a number of other reasons to have a personal website, and one was that it helps you acquire more skills. Skills completely relevant to today’s society and ones that can be applicable to almost any job since most companies now have a website (Tadic).
Do you need a website? Are you tired of companies you’ve applied for not getting back to you? Are you sick of flicking between websites to edit your content? Do you want to share your talent with others around the globe? Or are you simply stuck indoors and have no idea what to do with your time? If the answer to any of those questions is ‘yes’, then yes you do. It’s hard work at first, but once you’ve got your website up and running, you’ll feel like it was all worth it in the end.
Website References
‘How Many Websites Are There Around the World?’ Mill for Business, 2nd February 2019, https://www.millforbusiness.com/how-many-websites-are-there/#targetText=How%20many%20websites%20are%20there%20in%20the%20World%3F,to%201%2C805%2C260%2C010%20in%20January%202018).
‘Right Management’s Career Transition Solutions Bolstered by Workfolio’s Innovative Personal Website Technology Platform’. Right Management, 5th February 2014, https://rightmanagement.dk/wps/wcm/connect/right-dk-dk/home/thoughtwire/categories/media-center/Right+Management+to+Offer+Personal+Websites+to+Transitioning+Candidates+through+Partnership+with+Workfolio
Tadic, Aleksandra. ‘Why You Should Create a Personal Website ASAP’. Top Resume, https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/why-you-need-a-personal-website-asap
