Personal Website

Have you been thinking about having your own personal website? Maybe you've seen the personal web site of a friend or family member and been really impressed. Perhaps you're starting a business and want a good personal site to go along with your business site. Or maybe you're just dying to tell the whole world about your personal hobbies. In any case, starting a personal site has never been easier or cheaper. In fact, you can start up a free blog (web log - like a journal on the Web) or website for free at many destinations on the Web.

We've mentioned a few of the reasons you might want to start a personal site. There are many possible uses for personal websites, including the following:

• Making a little extra money off of advertising. If all you do is put a banner ad up on your site, you won't make any money off of it. If, however, you have an affiliate ID and work out a deal with another company to advertise for them on your personal site (it's not that hard to do), you can easily make back the money it may cost to maintain your site. If you want to make a lot more money, you need to study up on website marketing, but that's not too complicated either.
• Sharing a talent or hobby with the world.
• Making it easier for old friends or contacts to get in touch with you.

Be careful when setting up a personal site. Anything you put up on the web - name, address, phone, email, pets' names, etc. - is no longer private. Sooner or later a search engine is bound to pick up your site, and then anyone on earth can easily find it. Protect your privacy by restricting access to your personal information.

Yahoo, Lycos and other web hosting providers will let you set up a personal site for free. You'll get a lot more space for pictures, sounds and movies if you sign up for a fee-based plan, but you can always start free and then start paying if you need to.

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