This isn't the first personal website I've ever made. Time and time again, I've started a website only to spend more time fretting over what I should put on it than actually writing!
It's easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of indecision about how to use one's little piece of "real estate" on the web.
- "Should I only write about topics related to work, or should I write about hobbies? Can I do both, or is that just confusing?"
- "Should I write within a specific niche, or should I let my writing reflect how I like to learn & do many different things? Does hopping between topics weaken my writing? Do I have to have an authoritative voice in order to share my thoughts?"
On top of that, decisions about online privacy can complicate the issue even further.
- "Should I write under my real name, or are the risks too great to sacrifice my anonymity?"
- "If I write under my name, does that limit what topics I can safely write about?"
- "If I write anonymously, do I lose some benefits of my hard work? When I already don't use social media, isn't it bad if someone Googles for me and nothing comes up? Isn't it weird for a web developer to not have at least a website?"
One solution is to have multiple websites. Write one under your name for work, start an anonymous blog (or two, or three..) for various hobbies. But not only is that expensive, it also feels so... fragmented for something that's about a person.
To me, identity and self-expression are some of the biggest reasons to have a personal (or even professional) website. A blog is a way to connect with the world in a totally unique way, especially compared to social media platforms (where everyone is limited to the same info structure, and where everyone's desire for connection & expression gets exploited for the sake of someone else's profit).
When you have your own website, there are no rules. But despite that freedom, I end up writing rules for myself anyway, boxing myself in so far that I stop writing altogether. Every possibility seems too risky in some way or another. Hopefully I'll break out of my self-built box this time.
Life got busy, and several months after starting this site, I haven't written anything new. So I'm writing this to see if maybe this is what gets the snowball rolling. In absence of answers or perfect solutions, maybe the urge to share and be creative has to be the guiding light. Maybe on a personal website, instead of having a failproof plan and the most polished writing, simply thinking out loud and sharing small moments can be good enough.
